I can’t help but grunt, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Logan nods over to Gage. “While we’re forcibly conjoined at the hips, why don’t you look me in the eye and tell me you had nothing to do with those thirty missing Celestra ending up on Raven’s Eye.”
Gage comes just shy of winking, a twitch that used to take over when he was suddenly feeling overwhelmed. “Not quite.” He looks to me. “I meant to kill them.”
My heart cinches. “I guess you went with a fate worse than death.”
Gage blows out a hard breath as if he were hard pressed. “No, Skyla. I didn’t.” He needles me with those cobalt eyes that once softened at the sight of me. “I wanted them hurt in a far more traditional sense—and that is the truth.”
A dry laugh pumps from me. “It begs the question, why did you want them hurt, Gage? Did they personally offend you? Is it not enough that you robbed me of my celestial standing? That you upended the very people you swore to me you’d protect? It doesn’t make sense. And in that sense you are very consistent.”
Gage glances back at Chloe before he settles his elbows over his knees. He’s so close I can feel the rhythm of his breathing heating up my knees.
“I will tell you.” He looks from Logan to me. His lips knot up the way they tend to do when he’s fighting mad. “Because I want you to focus on the Factions.”
Logan and I exchange a quick glance. I look up at Chloe and she looks equally baffled.
Barron kicks his way off the couch. “Natey and me going watch cartoons.”
Chloe is quick to mobilize and switch on the television—ever the doting evil stepmother—while Barron shouts at her to turn the channel.
“Gage”—his name comes from my lips sharp like a reprimand—“Iamfocused on the Factions. I am trying to protect the Factions from you, in fact. But in case I’m missing it—” Nathan perks to life and joins Barron on the floor in front of the television. I lean in toward this menace who once held my heart so completely. “What in the hell do you think I’m focused on?”
Gage glances to Logan for a moment. “Him.” He bears all of his anger into me through those stern, hateful eyes.
“Knew it,” I hiss. “Hear that, Chloe?” I glance to the witch. “Your husband can’t handle the fact I have someone else in my life. If he truly loved you, he wouldn’t care if I was with the mailman.”
Logan grunts, “You stole people’s lives because you’re angry that Skyla and I are spending time together?” The muscles in his jaw pop and I’m half-afraid I’m going to have to break up a fistfight.
Chloe scoffs as she looks to Gage. “That’s not true. Every move Gage makes in this war is calculated to help the Barricade.”
“The Barricade is winning, Chloe,” I hiss. “This was extracurricular bull that didn’t need to happen. Celestra’s numbers are so small, there isn’t a threat in the world we pose to your husband or the Barricade.” I pin my hostile gaze to his once again. “You know that I slept with Logan.” It comes out incredulous with a laugh buried in my throat. “My God, I don’t know how I didn’t see this before. This was straight-up retribution for the night I spent in Logan’s arms.” The words escape from me numbly as another far more horrific thought enters my mind. “You watched,” I whisper as the room stills strangely around us. “You saw us, didn’t you?”
Gage drops his gaze to the floor before glowering at the two of us again.
“Shit,” Logan hisses, I can practically feel the steam emanating off him. “Are you kidding me? Do you know the hell I went through when I knew that you were loving Skyla in the way that I wanted to? I didn’t choose to die, Gage. In case you’ve forgotten, your wife cut my head off in the first Faction war we were in. And then, I had to sit back and watch you paw all overmywife—and like it or not, I had to enjoy the show. I was civil. I was encouraging. I wanted you to keep your family intact long after I received breath in my lungs once again. I never set out to end you. But in retrospect, maybe I should have. You left Skyla for Chloe. You let her go. She is a free agent, and you or your temper has no say in who she’s with.”
“Gage?” Chloe’s voice sounds like an annoying squeak you’d want to power wash with oil, or in this case gasoline and a match. “You didn’t have to do that. You’ve already won.”
There’s an air of surprise in her tone and how I love the fact that we’ve stirred a whole new tension in the room.
Maybe something good will come of us spending copious amounts of time together. Logan and I will get front row seats to Chloe and Gage strangling one another, and knowing Chloe it will get her off just as good as anything that Gage does in the bedroom.
My stomach boils in its own acid and I run for the restroom, vomiting into the toilet before I ever get a chance to shut the door. Chloe shouts and curses up a storm—something to do with the fact my puking is making her have to puke. Nice. We will puke our way through this forced internment. That sounds about right. I clean myself up and Logan brings me a cold glass of water and wraps an arm around my shoulders as I try to decompress.
Logan looks to Gage while Gage studies us from the hall as if he were a scientist observing alien creatures for the very first time.
Logan sighs. “I think we’ll take the matter to the Justice Alliance.”
“It won’t fly.” The words speed out of Gage’s mouth as if he were resigned to it. “It’s war. I conferred with my council. We were all in agreement.”
I narrow my gaze in on him, turning the tables and studying him with suspicion.
“Was Wes in agreement?” I ask. “Because honestly, this level of wickedness doesn’t reek of Wesley.”
Gage tips his head back and his jaw clenches as if he were forced to digest a hard truth.
Logan shakes his head. “I think that’s a no. You’ve really outdone yourself. Do you know what’s going to happen? Because I do, and I don’t need a crystal ball to finish this story. They’re going to winnow away every detail that’s different about these creatures they think they’ve captured and eventually, perhaps fairly quickly, they will find the markers.”
