An enormous clap of thunder erupts behind me, and I pause and turn to find that cavernous structure that has held just about every Faction meeting I can remember as far back as when I was a kid, falling hard, flattening on itself in a fiery heap as if it never even mattered.
Holy hell.
I glance around and spot those monsters with their glowing eyes screaming into the night as their bodies float into the sky before disappearing into a plume of black smoke. That’s all they’ve ever been, balls of rotten air.
The rain slices down, quick and sharp as falling sickles.
The gunmen are nowhere to be seen, cowards, whoever they were. But I’m glad they’ve done a disappearing act, too.
“Skyla!” I bolt over and she runs to meet me, our bodies colliding as we wrap our arms around one another. The rain pours over us as if it were blessing us, letting its allegiance be known right here out in the open.
“It’s starting,” she shouts.
“I know. It’s just the beginning.”
She nods as her eyes flash like lightning. “The beginning of the end for the Barricade.”
It is exactly that.
This is still a victory. Celestra not only survives and thrives—we get every Nephilim on the planet back where they belong. With us. With Celestra.
Celestra will rule again.
And tonight, we’ve proven just that.
29
Immortal Beauty
Skyla
“Happy birthday.”
Logan presses a kiss to my lips after showering my entire body with the sentiment, and I pull him close to me one last time. We’ve showered and dressed and are now standing in my bedroom—our bedroom at the Landon house, ready to head on down and get this day started.
It’s November twenty-second, my birthday and Nathan’s. A day that will inevitably be spent at Demetri’s house—to celebrate the boys’ third birthday in grand style, I’m assuming. And the only reason I agreed to have anything at all for the boys at Demetri’s monolithic haunted mansion was because I knew that after having the baby, I wouldn’t want to play hostess, let alone plan a party. We’ll give Demetri this bone. But next year we’re celebrating at Whitehorse, God willing.
Then in the evening we’re off to Ellis’ house. He’s graciously offered—demanded to throw me a birthday party. Logan wanted to do it at Whitehorse, but Ellis convinced him to have a good old-fashioned thrasher at his parents’ estate. I think he had Logan atthrasher.
With our wedding coming up in less than a month, the last thing we want to do is thrash and trash Whitehorse.
Logan pulls back, those root beer-colored eyes pressed to mine with so much love buried in each one I can hardly stand it.
“Are you ready for this?”
“I thought I would be.” I shake my head up at him. “But I can’t help but think I made a mistake allowing Demetri to play host.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve thought about it, and I think it’s for the better. Now that we have more than half the Barricade siding with us, we’re well on our way to getting Celestra restored. And tonight we show them we’re not afraid of setting foot in their territory. Gage is running scared—he’s panicking. Their little shoot ’em up scheme didn’t work as well as they wanted.”
“That’s because they didn’t kill anyone—yet. It was a warning. And there were injuries. Their terroristic threat worked with about half the Barricade.”
“Not for long. Rumor has it, the government testing centers are going wide next month—just in time for Ezrina to get the permanent serum together—the answer.” Yes, that’s what we’re calling it for now. The answer. He dots a kiss to my lips. “I think spending the day at Demetri’s will only demonstrate how secure we are in our position. Celestra owns the Barricade, Skyla. For them to think anything else is foolish.”
I take a deep breath. “And for us to think that Gage, in an all-out panic, isn’t going to find a way to retaliate is foolish.”
He hitches his head to the door. “Let’s head downstairs. The kids are waiting.”
“Go ahead without me. I’ll be right down.”
