“Their own.” The fog swirls between us thick as a tribe of ghosts. “Take Wesley’s plan and turn it on its ear. You’ll have to turn the entire Steel Barricade over to the government. Only then will you be victorious.”
It’s as if Paragon suddenly spins like a top, the sky and the ground trade places, and the earth drinks me down as if I’m standing on quick sand. Every last part of me knows she is right.
“You’ll defect from the Barricade?” I ask as she sheds the slightest impression of a smile.
“If I think you can pull it off.”
“I will drown every last soul in the Barricade like a rat for the sake of my people and this weary world that has no idea what hell has hit it. Now, get out of my way, Emily, and until you’ve sealed your alliance, don’t speak to me.”
I collect the boys and head inside.
I don’t need friends. I don’t need a husband.
The only thing I need is justice, and I will bring it about by my own hands.
Christmas Eve on Paragon is devoid of snow. Instead, it brings its slutty younger cousin, sleet. Of course, the day is still young yet. It’s not even ten in the morning.
The boys scoot down the stairs on their bottoms just the way I’ve taught them and run like mad once they reach the foyer. No sooner do I get downstairs than Mia accosts me. Her hair sits in a messy bun on top of her head, yesterday’s mascara runs down her cheeks like rain, and she looks worn, bitter, weary of all that life has to offer.Join the club, sister, I want to tell her.
She digs her fingers into my shoulders and pins me to the accordion door that leads to the washing machine. “I made a mistake, Skyla. I don’t want to be married to Gabriel Armistead. He’s an asshole!” she hisses just above a whisper.
A burst of laughter comes from the family room, and that egregiously large TV Drake has decorated it with shows a lime green forest filled with animated versions of Gabriel, Drake, and Ethan running with guns. It’s been one long video sesh ever since he moved into his new wife’s bedroom. I don’t know why I expected anything different. Mia is simply following my horrific lead.
Melissa leans over the banister. “Gabe is an asshole!” she thunders down the stairs and is in our faces in no time. My stepsiblings, Melissa, Drake, and Ethan, all share the same dark hair, same sickle-like widow’s peak, same glimmer for mischief in their Landon-colored eyes. “I think we should plot to kill him.”
“I am on a murderous spree,” I say mostly to myself as I look to the family room where Gabe lifts a leg and lets one rip, and the under-five crowd’s laughter singes the ceiling. “I could hone my methods on him.”
Melissa gives a wild nod. “I suggest poison. Dominique sells this toxic shit down at the apothecary that could kill a man in fifteen minutes. Painful death. It’s called wolfsbane. I could pick up the capsules and we’ll bust ’em open and sprinkle them over his Captain Crunch.”
Gabriel Armistead eats his weight in carbohydrates every single day, and believe me, that nutritional malfeasance has not gone unnoticed by my oft frugal and ornery stepfather, Tad Landon. Technically, Lizbeth is my stepmother, too, but I’ve never regarded her that way. My father married her after my birthmother, Candace, died in a fire, but Lizbeth is just as much my mother, if not more.
“That’s too easy,” I say as another round of laughter emits from the family room and the sound is like acid poured over my open wounds. I hate that anyone should be happy. I hate that this entire holiday season rotates around joy and laughter. I’d rather the world suffocate in Gabe’s bodily emissions than curve their lips to the sky another second. “We need to make him pay. We need to show him that he’s made a huge error. That whatever has driven him into insanity’s arms wasn’t worth it. We need to make him beg for mercy that will never come.”
“Cool.” Mia staggers back in awe just as Melissa smacks her on the arm.
“She’s talking about the prick who left her. Don’t you see? She’s in a trance. God help Gabe if she treats him like she wants to treatGage. Hey! Those two assholes are just one letter apart—and one sister apart!”
Mia scoffs. “Good riddance to them both. Help me give him the boot, Skyla. Just the way you gave Gage the boot. You switch out boys in your life like a crop rotation. The only reason you stayed with Gage so long is because he knocked you up. And once you got bored, you kicked him to the curb.”
If only.
“Damn right,” I say tongue-in-cheek, but they don’t know that. “And don’t you forget it. Feel free to kick the boys in your life to the curb once you’re bored with them.”
Before they do it to you.
A breath hitches in my throat. I haven’t exactly been forthcoming with the details that have transpired in the last few weeks. Yes, they are both aware that Gage started another Faction war, usurped my standing in the heavenlies, and soaked the earth with Noster blood, but there is one devilish detail I’ve been withholding.
I take a deep breath. “I have to tell you both something. The night of the boys’ birthday party Demetri said Gage would marry me if I showed up to his place. Chloe was there. He chose her. End of story.”
Mia and Melissa lose the color in their faces, their eyes set wide like granite stones.
“Damn, Skyla,” Melissa croaks. “And here I looked up to the two of you. If you guys couldn’t make it work, then true love really doesn’t exist. I give up.”
“Damn right.” Bree inserts herself into our holy huddle without warning. “Now stop all this talk about breakups and makeups. Broken hearts do not a Christmas Eve make.” She wrinkles her nose. “Skyla, I totally forgive you for that outburst the other day. This day is about getting high and presents! Oh hell, I don’t mind spoiling your gifts one bit. I got each of you a vibrator for Christmas!” She claps and does an odd little dance as if she had one trapped in her jeans right this moment.
“Bree!” I squawk. “They’re in high school. I forbid you from distributing electronic sexual devices to minors this Christmas—especially if said minors belong to this family.”
“Skyla!” both Mia and Melissa whine in synch. But I don’t listen. I start to take off with Bree by my side. “Make sure mine is an extra-large. I have a deficit to make up for.”
