“Don’t hold your breath.” She hikes up on her tiptoes and presses her lips to mine as if she were hungry for everything I could give her. She pulls back with her lids seductively low. “I know we went through hell tonight, but I very much plan on cashing in on my birthday gift when we get home. I need you, Logan—more than ever. I love you, Logan Oliver.”
A soft moan emits from me. “Not more than I love you.” I pull her in tight and hold her like that as long as I can. “I love you, Skyla. More than the heavens love the sun and the moon.”
She pulls back. “My all-time favorite words. See you in a minute.” She lunges in for another kiss before taking off for Laken’s car.
I hop into my truck and head for Whitehorse, unsure whether to laugh or cry at the outcome of the insanity that played out tonight.
Gage and all of the memories we shared growing up flood me all at once—wrestling as kids, t-ball, football, warring over Skyla, fighting for what was right—on the right side of the celestial law. He was my brother. He still very much is. The entire world might have given up on him, but I can’t seem to do it. A very stubborn,loyalpart of me refuses to even try.
The bowling alley comes up at the end of the road, and a dull smile rides on my lips before dissipating. I turn into the driveway across the street, at the house I built for Skyla, and kill the engine. I’m about to open the garage when something catches my eye. The door to the front of the house is wide open, the peach glow of lights emanating from inside.
My first thought is Lex and Michelle swung by. Maybe they were picking something up and forgot to shut the door, but I do a quick sweep of the vicinity and there’s no sign of anyone’s car. Nev and Ezrina have a private garage off the back. They left the party hours ago, so I’m assuming they’re already asleep.
I hop out of the truck and run up the porch.
“Hello?” I shout, caustic and mean in the event I’m about to run into trouble, but my voice comes back to me in an echo. The house looks empty.
Something is off. Something is very, very wrong.
A viral panic strikes me, and I run through the kitchen, down the stairwell through the pantry into the Wonderground.
“Ezrina?” I bellow and run like hell to the lab. “Nevermore?” My voice echoes, desolate and hopeless, and then I see it. Tables are overturned, Gage’s head lies on its side, the glass box that once contained it broken in shards. I step carefully from room to room, the station where Ezrina was working with the serum utterly decimated, and my heart lodges in my throat because I know what this means. The serum, the afterbirth, the stem cells we relied on so very much all up and gone. I stagger to the left, only to find each of those glass receptacles that Ezrina used to house the Viden youth has been shattered to pieces, the room flooded with blue keeping solution.
“Ezrina?” I run down to their living quarters, the lights are on, their beds unmade as if they were taken by force.
Ezrina, Nev, baby Alice.
They were much too dangerous to the enemy.
And now they are gone.
The sound of footsteps rustling in this direction grows from behind. I turn just in time to see a bat come crashing over my face and the world goes black.
33
Skyla
The rain pours down from the sky like a mother’s tears grieving a lost child. I cried those tears once for Gage, and every last ounce of me felt that anguish all over again this night.
Gage Oliver loves me in his own warped and twisted way. Evil or not, there is something in there that wanted to protect what we had. He didn’t sleep with Chloe—not because he was repulsed from her, not entirely. And now I have a new truth to nurture—a new truth to torment me in the night.
Laken made a makeshift bed for Charlie on Coop’s couch. We butted the coffee table to it so she wouldn’t roll off. And she took little Wes Coop to bed with her. I guess I can call him little Wesley now that she’s firmly back with Cooper where she belongs. I know her heart is broken over Wesley’s actions, but thankfully, Coop is there to comfort her. His devotion to her never wavered.
I texted Logan and told him to park the truck in the garage for the night. The storm hit so hard and fast I’d hate for Laken’s things to get ruined. Poor thing has enough ruined already no thanks to Wes—and to Gage. The finger can be equally pointed his way.
I hitched a ride back to the party with Bree and asked Logan to take the Mustang and meet me here. No rush. I’m sure Logan could use a moment to catch his breath. Get all the mental vomit this night offered up out of his head.
The music pulses through the walls of the Harrison estate like a heartbeat, the walls pulsating in rhythm to the horrifically loud music. Bodies thrash as the room continues to fill with Paragon youth. Nothing but a bunch of high school kids. They all look so young. That alone spells out that I’m too old for this.
Bree dances out into the crowd, thrashing her fist in the air, bouncing to the music with Michelle, Lex, and Nat. They seem to be having the time of their lives, and they should. Heck, I should.
If anyone should be fist pumping with glee, bouncing on the balls of their feet, it’s me.
Celestra is right there at the finish line. With Ezrina, Logan, Chloe, and Wes, we are unstoppable. And, in the end, all we needed were Logan and me, our DNA, our leadership, our relentless fight to keep our people safe—okay, so Ezrina was definitely an important part of the equation. After we get over tomorrow’s birthday hump, Logan and I will come up with a way to repay Ezrina and Nev. I’m dying to do just that. A small token of our appreciation. They deserve it all.
The music ratchets up a notch, and instead of heading toward the dance floor, toward my friends, I go left to the quiet hall Rory lured us into right before she landed us on the back of a hurricane.
My God, she gave ’em hell tonight. She spent a year screwing Gage, though. I don’t know if I should hug her or deck her. Nevertheless, her plan worked out beautifully. My mother was wrong. I could trust Rory—sort of.
