A dull laugh thumps through him, but his expression is stone-cold.
“I know why you’re doing it. I know the motivation behind the madness. My question to you is, who else is privy to this nuclear bit of information? Logan doesn’t know. The two of you were pretty close. Skyla for damn sure doesn’t know. Does Dudley know?” He shakes his head just enough. “Does your father? The one who raised you? I’m guessing none of the above, or at least if they do know it wasn’t by your mouth. No, this is the kind of thing you’d want to keep under wraps because it has the power to unravel the universe very, very quickly.”
My gut seizes for a moment. “What in the hell are you babbling about?”
“My guess is that Wes knows. Hell, he probably ran to you with the news. Demetri, well, he’s known all along for as far back as the beginning of time.” He nods to me as if affirming an unspoken truth and my blood runs cold. “I know why you slaughtered Skyla’s people—your people. I know why you flipped the table of your sanity and upended everything you once stood for. Hell is in the bounds—an eternity without the woman you love.”
The wind howls and shakes the evergreens as a pricking of icy rain begins to bite over my skin.
“Shit.” I don’t say another word. Don’t want to. This is the part where I fake it. Tell him he’s delusional, but that determined look on his face assures me we both know he’s not. Rage fills me just as much as grief as I toss him against the wall with a violent thrust.
“Who else knows?” I might as well have askedwho else do I have to kill?
His fingers flick to the sky. “No one. Dudley and Ezrina helped me crack the code on that ancient alphabet, but I transcribed the book myself. Before I pieced it all together, I took Logan and Skyla down to Tenebrous. We saw the pit, the portal straight to hell.” He shakes his head, his panting fills the silence as he gently removes my hands. “I’m no fool, Gage. I knew your initial reaction would be to send me off for one long dirt nap. Your hands are already covered with blood. My blood would make no difference to you. But it wouldn’t behoove you to think about it. I’ve put a few things in place. If I die, everyone knows. Logan and Skyla first, then your parents, every Faction leader on the planet, and then finally the Faction members themselves. If you incapacitate me in any manner, your world will tip over slowly like a row of unsteady dominoes.”
The rain picks up and needles me with its intrusion as if trying to wake me from this dream I’ve come to hate.
“What do you want?” A thousand scenarios run through my mind at once. Skyla and Logan. The weeping, the gnashing of teeth. Skyla would never damn Dudley. She would never damn me. All of my villainous ways would be washed clean under the banner of our love. She would understand. The ruse of my marriage to Chloe quickly uncovered. There would be far more chaos than there is now. I don’t doubt it for a minute.
Coop takes a deep breath, his features softening as the rain eases up. “If you were me, what would your answer be?”
“Laken.” I close my eyes a moment. Yes, in every way Coop is my twin born of misery. Wes and his obsession with the girl bounce through my mind. “There’s no way Wes will ever—”
Coop’s hand closes around my neck as he gives me a rattle before pushing me away. “There is a way and you will find it,” he bears the words through clenched teeth. “You will land Laken back at my feet, back in my bed where she truly belongs. You and I both know that’s not with Wes.” His body shakes as he struggles to maintain his composure. “Now”—he takes a breath and straightens, his eyes set in the distance a moment—“I think I’ve just scored an invite to that dinner tomorrow night. Wherever Laken goes, there I will be. And you will move heaven and earth to reunite us sooner than later. This is happening, Gage. You might not get Skyla on this planet—and I understand why. She’s not dumping Dudley in that molten pit either. You pissed her off good because you want her to fight for her people. It would go against her nature not to, and for you she volunteered to roll over. But you don’t want a fair fight, because you’ve already proven you’re willing to play dirty to get what you want. No, you need her to lose, and that’s just the way it’s going to have to go. It’s a shitty deal. I get it.
“But as for me—if Laken is there, I’m there. I’m your new shadow. You are looking at your new best friend. This farce you are running is only as good as me. Cooper Flanders. Noster. There’s a bit of irony in it. Don’t you think?” He starts to back away. “And as far as that vise Demetri set your balls in”—he shakes his head to the skies—“heaven help you, because I sure as hell can’t.”
Coop disappears back into the house, the exuberant voices, the screeching laughter escaping as he opens and closes the door.
Hell on earth. Coop knows. If anything happens to Cooper—if my brother happens to Cooper, he will land us all in a bigger pile of shit than we’re already standing in.
I say goodnight to my parents and take Chloe home to our new home—the very home Skyla and I worked so hard to bring back from the dead. Chloe lies next to me in our bed—the bed Skyla and I shared the night before my life ended. And I truly do view it that way in every sense. Chloe stays on her side and I stay on mine. She’s tried to fumble her way toward me, wrap her limbs around me like a vine, but I threatened her with a growl and she has given me space.
Chloe has promised me all the time in the world to get where we need to be. Little does she know there isn’t enough time left on the human clock to do so.
Slowly, almost impossibly, I fall asleep despite Chloe’s endless chatter about our baby, the angel knitting itself in her womb that is part her and part me.
Unbeknownst to her, that child will share the same father as October. They will be full-blooded siblings in every way with the exception of their knowledge of the fact.
No, to the world that child will be mine, just like Nathan, just like Barron. No one must ever know.
It’s a dangerous game when secrets should be taken to the grave, and there are one too many unreliable players.
Yes, it is a miracle I fall asleep at all.
I dream of Skyla. Of the two of us in the butterfly room above our old bedroom in the Landon house. How I regarded that house as a living hell for all those years we were trapped within the confines of its walls, and now looking back it brings the sweetest memories. If you were to mine my life for riches, all of the gold would be buried within those crooked walls. What a sweet and precious time we shared.
Skyla kisses me as the butterflies dance around us. Her mouth is cool and tastes as sweet as strawberries. I take in the vanilla scent of her hair and it overpowers me. She lays me down, hovering over me, her bare flesh glowing blue in the incandescent light.
“I’m going to love you, Gage. Now and forever. I’m going to worship you, until the day I die.” Her kisses stream down from my mouth, down my torso, hot as molten iron, and I moan through the burn. She cruises lower to the base of my hips and her mouth wraps itself around that most happy-to-see-her appendage. Skyla rides me with her mouth, thrusting me down her throat with an abject violence.
She is proving a point, writing a poem over my flesh with her lips. My insides tense into a steel knot, so achingly hard I let out a roar as I hit my zenith. My entire body convulses into her and she drinks me down, every last sip.
My eyes blink wildly as I pant myself back to life. The butterfly room and all of its magic is gone. The scant light of the room reveals Chloe sitting at my knees, a wicked gleam in her eyes because she took me, caught me off guard and sucked me dry.
“Shit.” I get up and hit the shower, frustrated ten times more than I was before I ever hit the sheets. So what, Chloe took me with her mouth. It’s over. It meant nothing to begin with. I scald myself for what feels like an hour, turning off the water and letting the steam soak into my lungs. I’ll do separate bedrooms—a lock on the freaking door. It will never happen again. Little does she know that’s all the action she has ever and will ever get from me. Chloe has had me exactly twice now. The first time I was dead and decapitated, the second unconscious. That about sums up our fairytale.
You’re welcome, Chloe.
