I can feel him stiffen against me. “Yes. I think everyone here knows how much I love Skyla—including Skyla. But it’s not happening tonight. Skyla is right. We’re not there yet.”
“She’s not there.” My mother glowers at me as if this were the ultimate disappointment. My God, she didn’t act nearly this way when she discovered that I lost my position, inadvertently started a war, and landed a majority of Noster in the heavenlies. She really does have one serious boner for Logan.
“Skyla!” she reprimands because obviously she heard my private musing. She’s been prying into my mind all along.
Marshall steps up from behind me. He was so quiet I had forgotten he was with us. “I do believe I should tend to my guests. Please feel free to linger and mingle.”
My father offers a warm smile and it lights up his entire face. “We will be lingering. Candace has offered an extended stay.”
Marshall lifts a hand. “Then I bid you to haunt my halls. My home is yours in every single way.” He tries to leave, but I leash my hand to his. Marshall isn’t leaving this good time until I do.
“That’s right.” A malevolent smile graces my mother’s lips, never a good thing. “I had warned them ahead of time regarding your stubborn heart.” Her affect flattens and she’s right back to glowering. “I might allow them to remain until your wedding day. Mind you, earth is not a pleasant stay for those who have partaken in paradise. As much as it will be a joy to witness your union, this will be a burden on their proverbial shoulders. Do be considerate of the fact.”
My mouth falls open at the audacity. “Are you kidding me? You take these poor souls back to paradise with you tonight. I don’t know when or if Logan and I are ever getting married. Not only are we emotionally not there, but he hasn’t even asked!” I hold a finger out at him. “Don’t you dare.” I turn my ill-affection back to my mother. “You’re impossible, you know that? You give me life, you mold my future—I’m nothing more than an inanimate object you hurled onto the planet with your name plastered over my DNA because you believe you own me. What you fail to realize is that I am my own. My thoughts, my dreams, and my heart belong to me exclusively. I decide who I love, when and if I wed again. I decide who I sleep with. I will sleep with Marshall or with Logan or with some unknown who strikes my fancy becauseIdecide who I will spend my time with!”
The poor Olivers shudder as they huddle together. My father looks unsteady on his ghostly feet. But my mother glows red with rage.
“Skyla,” she seethes. “I forbid you to partake in carnal union with anyone until you have accepted a proper covenant. Let us do this now and the two of you—”
“No!” I’m so outraged I can’t see straight. “Daddy, I apologize. I can’t do this anymore.” I look to Judy and Jack. “I’m sorry. Don’t wait around for my wedding.”
I detangle myself from both Logan and Marshall, but they’re both at my side before I get back to the boisterous crowd blooming from every orifice this mega mansion has to offer.
“Skyla, wait.” Logan pulls me in, his eyes lit with both regret and a touch of pride. “You know I love you. But I would never pressure you into something so serious. Your mother is—well, she’s just being a mother. She’s excited. She’s—”
“A lunatic with the keys to the kingdom.”
Marshall groans, “Ms. Messenger, do hold your tongue where Your Grace is concerned. Once she’s set her mind to something, there is no stopping it. The sooner you understand this basic principle, you will learn to adapt and work around it.”
“Work around it.” I nod up at his glorious eminence. Marshall shines like a heavenly host himself against the velvet night sky, the powder white fog pluming around him. “It’s time.” I tick my head toward the pulsating window behind me. “I’m going to get my boys. I suppose they’re holding them hostage until I acknowledge them.”
“Do not congratulate them,” Logan admonishes.
Marshall’s brows bounce with amusement. “Please do, Skyla. When the enemy sets your feet to the flames, extinguish them with the water of kindness. They expect rage, Skyla. Dare I say, they are hungry for your venom. Don’t feed the fire, my love. You hold the power.”
“I hold the power,” I say as I head on in.
The room is heated and thick with bodies. The ghostly gentry are scattered around the vicinity, glistening like stars, their laughter rising like holiday bells.
An arm plucks me from my mission, and soon I’m staring Natalie Coleman, Michelle Miller-Oliver, Emily Morgan, and Lexy Bakova in the face. Lex is the one who’s holding me firmly by the wrist and I’m quick to wriggle free.
“I see you’ve already staked your new claim,” she grouses while hosing Logan down with her hatred. Her copper hair is cut short and curves neatly under her jaw. Her skin glows a deep tan and her features are precision cut. Lex has always been a stunner. “Chloe says you’re fine with this new setup. What the hell has gotten into you, Skyla? Gage Oliver was the love of your life up until a few minutes ago, and now you’re fine with him bedding Bishop nightly?”
Those last few words spear me like a knife to the gut, quick and blindingly painful.
“Shut up, Lex,” Nat barks as those tight ringlet curls of hers vibrate right along with her anger. “She didn’t know Gage was going to screw her over like that. He’s garbage to her now. She’d never take him back. She’s probably kicking herself for not sticking to Logan to begin with.”
I glance his way. “I need to go.”
Nat sinks her claws into my arm. “I’m still on your side. You did more for me than anyone. I’ll kick Bishop’s ass if you want me to.” Bymore, she means her brief reunion with the love of her life, Pierce Kragger, who has since gone on to the other side—specially delivered there by me.
“Okay. I’ll probably take you up on that.”
Em averts her eyes. “And once you give me back my brother, I’ll do ten times worse to her—as a thank you.”
“Great. I hope to have him to you soon.”
Michelle Miller—Oliver, flashes that enormous rock her father helped Liam purchase for her. “We’re family, Mess.” She offers a pearly grin my way. Michelle’s skin holds a deep tawny hue, and that smile glows as if she has a moonbeam trapped in her mouth. With her long dark hair, that naughty gleam in her eyes, Michelle has always been a wicked beauty. “But I guess Chloe and I are family now, too. Liam and I are taking them out to dinner sometime next week. We’ll pencil you and Logan in sometime after that.”
