Bree grabs me by the shoulders. “Yes, well, I need to get this prego something to eat. Skyla likes to have a steady stream of donuts and Mexican food this go-round.”
Chloe purrs as if the thought of a donut could bring her to ecstasy, and judging by the fact she’s thin as a twig, it might have the power to do just that.
“Don’t forget Logan.” She winks. “Bree tells me the two of you are rattling the walls morning, noon, and night.” She shrugs. “I get it, though. All those hormones raging through your body. Five minutes ago, that was me. You should have seen this guy trying to satiate me. Mission impossible, but he tried—again and again and again and again. And lucky for us, we have a night nurse now—Emma.” She leans in close and whispers, “Enema. So, Gage and I have resumed our regular nightly lovemaking schedule.”
Gage tries to pull her away, but Chloe clamps her hand over mine and begins leading me along with them deeper into Marshall’s backyard.
“We bumped into Em and she insisted we drag your whale ass over to the prognosticating pit she’s settled in. She was really freaking out, like some human piñata who was about to explode. Wouldn’t that be fun, Messenger? Watching Emily bite the big one by way of detonating? I bet her bits and pieces would form one last picture spelling out your demise. Have you ever noticed she hasn’t drawn one good thing for you in all the years she’s known you?”
I’d let go of Chloe’s hand just so I wouldn’t have to listen to her rambling on, but the truth is, she’s moving so fast through the thicket of bodies, she’s like a sled dog getting me to the other side of the house at record speeds. And that’s exactly where I want to be. I want to find a nice, quiet, dark alcove and suffer in peace. And I don’t even care if Chloe heard me telepathically. I’m in so much damn pain I’m about to explode like a piñata myself. Hopefully not literally.
Another contraction hits and I squeeze the ever-living shit out of Chloe’s hand, crushing her bones as effectively as if a semi had run over them.
Skyla? You’re in labor, aren’t you?Her dark eyes grow in size as she attempts to give me a meager squeeze right back.
“No,” I grunt it out just as Gage leads us into a clearing. Honestly, I’m not even sure if he’s aware that Chloe and I are following him. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was walking at that heated clip just to escape his bride. But in typical Chloe fashion, she’s charging after him, relentless in her pursuit to wear him down. I wonder if that’s what’s finally happened? She wore him down. Like a stone that caves at the ceaseless dripping of water, eroding at the point of contact.
Chloe drops my hand like a hot mic. “Funny, Mess. You really are a riot.” She waves over at a small crowd gathered against the edge of the house. Emily sits at a round table with a throng of people awaiting her artistic diagnosis of their lives.
The south side of Marshall’s home is dark, save for the butterflies that float over to bless the darkness with their subtle illumination. And normally I would have whipped out my phone and taken a million pictures to show the boys, but I couldn’t care less if there were swarms of gnats clotting up the air to the point we were choking on them. I just need to find a ditch in the ground and lie in it.
Bree takes off to get Em. Chloe takes up Gage’s hand once again as she points out the cobalt spectacle in the sky, and I stagger off in the darkness looking for a good place to die—or hide out until midnight when I start to officially eviscerate Gage Oliver’s world.
“Skyla!” Bree shouts, and I turn my head as much as my neck will allow. “It’s starting! She says you can stand there, you’ll still see it.”
I turn and sigh as I watch a couple of girls hoisting what looks to be those large buckets my mother has strewn about filled with fake blood and apples. It would figure that bobbing for bloody apples would appeal to my mother’s good decorating senses. It’s clever, I’ll give her that.
A couple of birds spin overhead, Holden Kragger and Serena. They must sense something is afoot. After Ezrina banished them as her lab rats, they’ve been happily living at Marshall’s in his eaves. And just when I think I’ve met my limit of Kraggers, Emerson trots over.
“Hey,” she grunts it out. “I was helping Em out and she said I should watch you in the event you decided to bolt.”
I glance back to the girls moving more buckets of blood to the base of the house and note it’s Mia and Melissa.
Hey? If Melissa is here, who’s watching the kids?
Em heads to the base of the house with a mop and Ellis props up a ladder against the side of it.
“Oh God,” I moan. “I can see where this is headed.”
The south side of the house is predominantly a white wall with sparse windows. No balconies on this end or anything else that might obstruct Emily’s artistic expression.
The haunted music pumping from the speakers echoes over the area as Emily lets out a horrific howl and then gets right to work. Her body jerks and writhes and she dips the mop into the bloody bucket and quickly begins to desecrate the side of Marshall’s pristine home.
Emily grunts and groans, taking a break every now and again to let out a much-needed scream, much to Emerson’s stoned delight—and don’t think for a minute I can’t smell the reefer on her.
A couple of people come up from around the corner of the house with a large, dark instrument.
“Check that out.” Emerson swats my stomach and gets another contraction cooking at the ready. “That’s Ellis and Coop hauling out a freaking floodlight. This is going to be epic. As long as it’s not about me, I don’t give a shit what she conjures on that wall. And hey, before I forget, I’ve decided when the time comes, I don’t want to be a bird anymore. I want to head to paradise and be with my brother and mom.”
My heart wrenches at the thought. “Consider it noted. I’m hoping to see my mother soon. I’ll bring it up.” I groan hard as my body solidifies in a fit of terror. I take in a sharp breath through my nose and push it out quickly through my mouth. “In fact, I need you to go right now and get her.”
“I can’t get your mother, Skyla. No one can. She’s on her own timeline. You of all people should know that.”
“I’m familiar with her timeline.” And I don’t like it one freaking bit.
“So, what do you want me to do?” She asks just as that enormous floodlight ignites the night and blinds us. The growing crowd protests until Coop and Ellis turn it toward the wall, lighting up Em on that ladder as pale as a ghost.
“I think you should be the one to kill Chloe.” I glance around for the wicked witch, but I seem to have lost sight of both her and the dolt she’s leashed to. The contraction hits its zenith and I let out a mind-numbing howl before panting my way through it as it slowly subsides.
