All eyes shift to Chloe.
“That bastard.” The words hiss from her lips in a broken whisper. Tears slick her cheeks, but the anger brewing in her eyes is as deadly as a fire.
Chloe bolts out of her seat and I follow. I can feel the rest of the girls in flight right behind us.
“Skyla.” Laken’s voice trembles with rage.
But I don’t answer her. I do my best to beat Chloe to the punch as we weave through the crowd at lightning speeds looking for him, anxious to let him know exactly how we feel.
There they are close to the kitchen—Wes, Coop, Ellis, Logan, Brody, Liam, Marshall, and Gage. A celestial lineup of the testosterone who’s who.
Chloe spots them at the very same time, but I implement every ounce of Celestra speed in me and practically float over, quick as a poltergeist.
I grab onto Gage, and his eyes widen a notch.
“How dare you lie,” I riot in his face. “How dare you sleep with my sister pretending it was me. You killed me for nothing. It hurts no less knowing the truth.”
His mouth falls open as he tries to assess the damage.
“That’s right, Gage,” I pant violently. “You never slept with Chloe. Not even on your wedding night. You don’t have any children with her, and you never will. Everything for nothing. Tell me why you did it, Gage? Why did you throw us away so easily?”
Chloe knocks me to the side as she takes him by the shirt.
“My turn.”
30
Gage
Shit.
Chloe pulls me in, her jowls quivering as she growls right at me.
“You unholy piece of celestial shit,” she seethes the words from clenched teeth. “How dare you try to pull one over on me. How dare you make me believe you loved me. That youchoseme. You asked for time, and I gave it. You tried my patience, wore me thin, but I loved you right through it. And now the world knows exactly how you’ve humiliated me.”
Her nails dig into my flesh, and she pulls me down and screams into my face at the top of her lungs.
All of her fury, her white-hot rage blows over my skin like a nuclear fallout. And I deserve it. Hell, I deserve all of it. Yes, even from Chloe.
She releases me with a thrust, landing my back against the hard granite counter.
“That day you chose me over Skyla in the throne room? I thought it was a joke—that is, until you took me to that glass room and made love to me thoroughly, incomprehensibly, convincingly, but once we hit the island, you were stone-cold. A man without needs. An open wound, with no suture and no cure. And even then, I loved you. On the day we exchanged vows at Demetri’s, I was the happiest I had ever been. A dream wedding with Gage Oliver, the boy I pined for. The one I let mold me into a monster. I became whatever was necessary to be with you. I all but sewed my vagina shut for you. And here I thought you had planted a child in me. Those days were magical. A dream within a dream. I walked this island with a pride I nurtured from the inside out. I was so very pleased to show the world, to show Skyla a tangible piece of our love. It was my way of saying to her,See?You were the mistake. It was me he was destined for all along.” She slaps her hands over my chest three times hard, and it feels as if she’s about to blow a hole in it. I wish she would. I wish to God there was a way to end all this misery.
She tips her head back with a marked aggression. “And I suppose in a twisted way that was true. I was your destiny”—her eyes meet with mine, glowing with wrath—“so you could use me and make a spectacle of me the way you did.” She turns and glares at Skyla, tears congealing over her eyes, too afraid to fall. “I’m sure you’ve extracted a sick sense of satisfaction from this.” Skyla opens her mouth, and Chloe holds a hand up silencing her. “I will seek vengeance.” Her eyes meet with mine once again—her voice is even, yet tight, her breathing measured. “I will destroy you, Gage Oliver, and everything you stand for. And do not grow cocky in the fact you think you are indestructible. I know where your heart is buried, in those boys, in that woman you tormented for the entire last year. I know how to carve out your beating heart and kill your immortal soul. I will weigh my options as needed. But, for now, my chief concern is taking you out. You can kiss your crown goodbye. I’m siding with Celestra.” Her voice is threadbare when she says those last few words as if it pained her that she ever left. “Whatever it is you’re afraid of—and you are running scared, I have seen it in your eyes all these months—I will make sure that your worst fears come true. It will be my pleasure.” Chloe’s chest rises and falls with her every breath. “Wesley”—her eyes never leave mine—“take that river rat you spawned the night you raped me and drown it, bury it alive, do with it whatever you wish. I don’t give a damn. But do not under any circumstance so much as mention it to me.”
“Chloe,” Brody barks.
“Oh, shut the hell up,” she roars right back. “Help me get my things from that godforsaken house. I’m going to your place.”
“All right.” Brody slaps the back of his neck. “If that’s what you want.”
“It is.” Her eyes harden over mine. “I am not done with you, Gage. Nobody creates a mockery of me and lives to tell about it. And since you are impervious to death, I will be exceptionally creative with your punishment.”
A familiar giggle emits from the right, a ghostly cackle that I’m guessing is for my ears only.
“Remember, Gage, what we spoke about.” Rory’s voice sounds as if it’s coming from another dimension entirely.
I glance over and see the witch that turned my world inside out.
