Chloe comes over, swift like a demon in flight. “I’m glad I was here to witness the spectacle. So how many goats did you have to sacrifice to pull off another financial win for your family? You’re not fooling anyone, Skyla. Nobody is that lucky. And using your powers for financial gain is No-No 101. I’ll be reporting you to the Justice Alliance in the event you’re wondering who pulled the ripcord.” She glances down at my belly. “Wow, Logan, are you feeding her burgers, or cutting out the middle man and just letting her inhale cows at will? I’d go easy on the donut deliveries lest she crushes you one day. But then, knowing how much Messenger has always turned you on in whatever psychotic state she was in, I suppose you’ll enjoy it.” She glances to her phone. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to get home and make love to my husband. I’m being summoned for my rockin’ body.” She gives a sly wink my way—most likely because she saw me ogling her perky boobs. “I’ll see you at Dudley’s in a couple days. You’ll just love my costume this year, Skyla.”
“Is it different from last year when you pretended to be a devoted follower of mine and threatened to help your people? Or are you being more honest this year and dressing up like the traitor you are?”
Her jaw clenches as her eyes harden over mine. “I’m no traitor, Skyla. I still have a heart for my people. But, since their fate lies in your ridiculous hands, I’ve given up hope for them—as have they.” She takes off sans her DNA deposit still clinging to my mother’s chest.
My blood boils as I take it all in. Every cell in my body wants to weep over the fact that she’s off to make love to my husband. As much as I consider Logan as my husband, the memory of who Gage once was—he was my husband, too.
We go to leave and Emily charges for us, baby Ella bouncing happily in her arms as a tiny Emily doppelgänger.
“I have a message for you.” Em’s dead eyes hook to mine.
“No thanks. Why don’t you give it to Chloe? She needs a good fright to set her straight.”
“No can do, this is for you, Skyla.” She nods to Logan. “You, too.”
“Fine,” I say. “But save it for a rainy day. We have to get the boys ready for preschool and then head to Ezrina’s.”
Logan and I get the boys ready and head out into a downpour as we race to the minivan.
I told Emily to save her petrifying prophecy for a rainy day. I should have realized it’s always a rainy day on Paragon.
The lab at Whitehorse is far too bright and my eyes need to adjust from the nocturnal world Paragon routinely thrusts them in. We didn’t see Gage at the preschool drop-off this morning, but we see him now—staining the foreground of Ezrina’s primary work station, shooting the breeze with Marshall and Nevermore while holding a cup of coffee.
He offers an amicable hello, and I grunt in response as I waddle my way to the fresh donuts sitting next to them on the counter. I pull out a glazed cruller. I can always appreciate their soft airy middle, and I take a bite and savor the feel of it in my mouth for a moment.
“Chloe is waiting in your bed,” I say through a mouthful. When someone breaks your heart so violently, you don’t feel the need to be so prim and proper around them anymore. In fact, you long to show them the very worst part of yourself as a defense mechanism to keep them permanently at an arm’s length. But for the sake of Logan and Nev, I swallow before piping up again. “She was just at our house giving away your daughter to my mother like a door prize. Please collect your kid on your way home. You have your own mother. Mine is off-limits.”
His cheek flickers and I can’t tell if it’s because he wants to scowl or smile.
He glances to Logan. “Ezrina called me down. Said she wanted to show me something.”
I suck in a quick breath as I waddle out of the room and deeper into the area that houses those overgrown glass caskets. I stop in my tracks when I see how large those pink slimy pods inside of the tubes have grown. The outlines of grown men wiggling and squirming startle me even through the blue keeping solution they’re soaking in. There’s a lengthy rope-like membrane that runs from a tube inserted at the top of the pod that hangs like an umbilical cord, rife with veins that pulse with life.
“Skyla”—Ezrina pops out from behind while examining her glowing clipboard—“it’s time.”
“Why is he here?”
“I ask permission to share this moment with the enemy.”
A dull laugh bounces through my chest, my eyes still locked on the hundreds of Spectators incubating like fetuses. Of course, this is just a handful of the Spectators from Tenebrous, the first batch if you will. But what progress. I can’t stop marveling at the progress.
“Yes. Why not? It’s a harbinger of things to come.”
She steps beside me, her gaze feasted upon the squirming masses as well.
Ezrina disappears momentarily, only to return with the men.
Logan takes his place beside me and Marshall ensconces me on the other side.
Ezrina and Nev head for the control panels that are built into the walls to our left and Gage lingers alone. Every ounce of his obnoxious ego is taken down a notch as his expression grows fiercely sober.
“That’s right, Gage,” I say. “This is what we’re capable of. And if my people can accomplish this, there is no stopping us.”
A pair of footfalls quicken from behind as Wes comes into the room, panting.
“Shit.” He strides boldly forward, his disbelief is so genuine I can taste it. “I was running late,” he says as he staggers back toward his brother. “Why, Ezrina?” He shakes his head. “No good can come from this.”
A tingle of pleasure pulses through me. “Not for your people, Wes. Never for yours.”
