Wesley
The fog stretches out in billows as I step out onto the porch. I’m about to head across the street when I see Gage striding up my driveway at a quickened clip—Chloe naked in the middle of the street shouting obscenities at him.
“What in the hell did you do now?” I pull him in by the sleeve and yank him into the house. “Don’t answer that. Follow me.” I take us down to the basement. My territory, my expansive office where I replicated that haunted mansion my father gave me in the Transfer. A little piece of home, you might say. But you would be wrong. My home is Laken. Wherever she is, there my home lies.
“Did you see this?” I flip on the television. “Any channel, any time. It’s the same shit on repeat. The talking heads are in the middle of a heated discussion aboutaliensof all things. That wasmystrategy!” I belt it out like a reprimand as I look to my brother. “And now they’re using it against us. And who the hell knows how deep this runs.”
“What is this?” He winces at the screen as if it hurt to look at it, and I have a feeling it will.
“That’s right. This is going to hurt Gage. Once you realize the implications, the lasting effects of this little stunt your ex-wife pulled, you might finally yank your head out of your ass and wake up!” I riot the words in his face.
His features harden, and for a brief moment, I gird myself for a fist to the eye.
“Look, I just took a hell of a lot of crap from Chloe. I don’t need it from you, too. Give it to me straight. I don’t have the time or energy to plant myself in front of the television today.”
“What do you think Skyla was doing last night?”
“Giving birth. She and Logan have a brand new baby boy to show for it, Jaxson.”
“Yes, well, it turns out, your ex, like most women, has the ability to pull double duty. You know those Spectators they rounded up last year? Ezrina’s found a way to restore them all.”
You can practically see his stomach bottoming out. Gage looks sickened.
“So we’ve lost the Viden youth, so what?” His eyes expand a notch as if he’s not willing to absorb the impact. I refuse to believe he’s too dense to see it.
An instant rage builds up in me as I pull him in hard by the shirt.
“Don’t you get it? Skyla and Ezrina have taken a weapon right out of our arsenal.”
“The Viden youth was useless to us while they were locked up in Tenebrous.” He pushes me off him, hard.
“Yes, well, it’s worse than that.”
“Where are they now?”
“They’re headed home. Skyla had them dropped off in Sedona—at a place known as the Red Rock Vortex. It’s been long believed that it’s been a celestial portal polluted with alien activity.”
His face bleaches white. Gage staggers to the middle of the room as if trying to get his bearings.
“That’s right, brother. She’s not merely freeing the Videns, she’s using them to kick this war into gear. You wanted a fight, and now you’ve got a war on your hands you may never win. I told you not to incite her. Do not underestimate her. And yet you insisted on doing both. Congratulations, Gage. Grab your handbasket. Skyla is about to send us both to hell in grand style.”
“Shit.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “She did this to tip off the government. That must mean—”
“Yes, Gage, it does. Skyla isn’t showing off the fact they’re able to restore a bunch of teenagers we hoped would give us the advantage. She’s shouting from the mountaintop that they’re able to hide the markers.”
His eyes flit to mine. “Where do we stand with the endeavor?”
“We haven’t progressed. I’m not even close to getting the markers to disappear for twenty-four hours. By a week’s end the effects have fully faded.”
He glances to the ground. “Skyla must have a permanent solution then.”
“Or one that lasts long enough to require a revaccination every now and again. I have never believed I could find a way that would hide them forever. We have a real problem on our hands, Gage. A problem we wouldn’t have had if you didn’t insist on making her so damn desperate. You could have come at this another way. You could have stayed with Skyla. That baby boy? He could have been yours. She wanted it. You wanted it. But because of your allegiance to her people—and don’t sugarcoat it for me, sweetheart—you don’t have the heart to have Skyla give up hope on all her Faction dreams. Skyla would have caved. She would have been one of us. You could have made her believe you were fighting for the good of all the people. You could have brought unification to the Factions.”
“It would have been a lie.”
“Well, now you have the truth, don’t you? And if you don’t understand it now, don’t worry, brother. You will have an eternity in hell to mull it over. Your undying affection for her has cost me everything. Get out of my house,” I seethe. “We’ll come together when and if I ever cool the hell off.”
Gage speeds past me, past Laken who’s striding into the room.
