He holds out his arm and I quickly thread mine through it.
“To the beginning,” I pant in anticipation.
“To the beginning indeed.”
Marshall rockets us out of the house, straight through the ceiling, into the sky high up above Paragon as if we were ghosts in flight back to heaven. But it’s not heaven we’re headed to. It’s right back to that dot of an island below our feet that looks so convincingly harmless, so alarmingly insignificant, that it makes me want to coo at its cuteness. The moon is proudly displaying its majesty, so bright and brilliant that my breath hitches at its splendor. Paragon is robed in a never-ending blanket of fog and neither the sun nor the moon can show off its majesty.
You forget how bright the light can be after your eyes have been veiled with the film of deceit.
Logan flits through my mind and I glare up past the stratosphere. I would not put it past my mother to pry into my thoughts. I would not put it past her at all to try to utilize this, the most broken moment of my life, to steer Logan and me together once and for all.
Marshall gives my hand a squeeze and I hadn’t even realized he was holding it. “The thoughts you have you must learn to own. Perhaps they are revealing something to you that your heart is yet to become aware of.”
I shake my head emphatically. “I don’t want to think about that. Take us back, Marshall, to where it all began. I will change something. I will do something to unravel this chain of unconscionable events.”
“Very well.”
A heavy wind picks up as the stars whiz by in a series of elongated lines and the universe spins around us like a top. I can feel the weight of the present lifting off me like a stone and hear the groaning of time as we skip back years to where I first laid eyes on Gage Oliver in that bowling alley. How seemingly innocent we all were back then—and God, I pray we were. It wasn’t Gage who first captivated my attention. No, we were a slow burn, but once the flame was lit, we had the power to set the world on fire. I thought we had done just that—united our hearts and thus were en route to uniting our people. Gage and I were going to break the mold and restore peace to feuding angelic Factions once and for all. It was Celestra, Noster, Deorsum, Levatio, and the Countenance. Celestra and the Counts, as the Countenance is unaffectionately known as, are continually warring for power.
We are—werethe strongest Factions. Celestra bore the support of the Sectors and the Counts and Fems. The Sectors are for good and the Fems are nothing but a public nuisance, constantly purveying wickedness with their selfish intentions. Whichever Faction has the celestial seat of power enables the Sectors or the Fems to hold the podium in the heavenlies. But Wesley appeared on the scene a few years back and dropped a hammer over our world.
Wes—Gage’s look-alike brother from another mother—same wicked father, Demetri—decided that he would start a rebellion steering members of any Faction away from my leadership. Thus, the Steel Barricade was born—Wesley’s brainchild that accepts Nephilim of every angelic Faction who is willing to go against my people and me. He lured them under the guise that the government is closing in on discovering a genetic marker that delineates the Nephilim from the average human. And, of course, Wes also claims to be close to hiding those markers and protecting any soul that sides with the Steel Barricade. Whether or not Wes is close to hiding the markers is up for debate. But I’m closing in on them, too, and once my feet hit the planet once again—in the correct time continuum—it is the first order of business as far as restoring all that was lost.
Wesley cannot win, and neither can Gage.
Marshall gently brushes the hair off my face. “Are you prepared to face the past, Skyla?”
“I’m more prepared than I have ever been for anything.”
The stars blur into a spiral of thin lines once again and my heart soars at the anticipation of reliving that sweet day. It was my best friend, Brielle, who took me to the bowling alley just after my family and I moved to Paragon.
When I think of that day, a smile always comes to me, the purity, the unadulterated innocence of anything angelic. It was the very last moment before I officially gave my heart away to a boy—two of them if you want to get technical. It was the very first day I would lay eyes on the father of my children. Perhaps if I had it to do over again, knowing what I do now, I could right so many wrongs.
My heart wrenches as Logan bounces to the forefront of my mind. Could I really deny him what we had? Perhaps to save Gage from himself I could. Logan would beg me to do it.
Marshall and I free-fall back to earth, his strong arms holding me taut against him as the wind whistles past our ears. We sail softly those last few hundred yards until the dense bushy trees of the island become visible. I glance around for familiar landmarks, Devil’s Peak, the oversized mall, which leaves a concrete footprint over a vast area, and the ocean surrounding that supernatural island, but I can’t find any of them.
We land deftly upon clay-like soil the color of burnt umber. The trees catch me off guard, cedars ten times taller than any I’ve seen on the island, and I try to recall ever being awed by their height before. The air is perfumed with the strong scent of jasmine along with something sweeter and far more glorious than that mingling with it. And dotted among the cedars stand some sort of sunflowers at least six feet tall in yellow, peach, red, and blue. It’s a hypnotic sight and makes me wonder once again if this entire day has been a bad dream.
I’m about to tell Marshall that I don’t think we’re behind the bowling alley when a peacock struts by, a beautiful male with his plumage fanned out in jewel tones of aqua and green.
“Marshall?” My breath is taken away from the sheer glory of the creature before me. It’s larger than any I’ve ever seen, almost as tall as I am, and for a second I fear for my safety, but then I remember who I’m with. Marshall would never let a thing happen to me in his care. A bird certainly won’t eat me.
“No, Ms. Messenger”—his chest rumbles with a laugh—“he won’t eat you.” He gives my hand a squeeze, letting me know he can read my mind. A part of my Celestra powers is mind reading when I’m touching someone, and, of course, Sectors share in this questionable gift.
No sooner does he get the words out than an enormous tan furry creature pokes out from between two cedars. It takes me about six stunned seconds to identify it and jump into Marshall’s arms with a scream of terror shredding from my throat.
“A lion!” I howl. “We don’t have lions on Paragon.” I’m quick to swat Marshall’s arm. “It’s clear your head is still congested from the sight of all those scantily clad can-can dancers. You’ve landed us in some subtropical paradise.”
“We have a lion here, Skyla.” He frowns at the ferocious beast who steps over cautiously, sniffing the air, his magnificent mane stiff and perfectly blown back. He looks up at Marshall, and I would swear on all that is holy he just nodded at him before heading off in the same direction the bird went off to.
“We have a lion on Paragon,” I say breathlessly as Marshall bounces me back to my feet. “I don’t remember anything about a lion on the island, but then, I was so love-struck by Logan we could have had an entire zoo on the loose at the time. I’m sure they’ll subdue him, first thing.”
“They will. In a lot of ways they already have.” He glances over his shoulder. “And no, I’m not talking about the creature that just strutted past us.”
My mouth falls open. “You’re talking about Logan, aren’t you?”
Many years ago Logan was represented in many prophesies as a lion—Gage was an eagle.
