“Yes, really. What if the boys need us?” I pull the phone close so we can both see the screen, and I’m a bit surprised to see that my messages have blown up. “Wow, I’ve got a text from just about everyone we know.”
I click into Marshall’s first.We’ve got trouble.
Logan and I exchange a glance.
Something tells me our stay-cation honeymoon is over before it ever began.
13
Gage
The sound of explosive knocking thunders through my head.
“Shit.” I moan as I peel my eyes open. I fell asleep as soon as I came home. It was daylight out, and judging by that luminescent crack in the window, it still is. Different day, I’m guessing.
The knocking persists, and by the sound of it, my brand-new door is about to blow right off its hinges.
“All right,” I growl as I fling my legs over the side of the bed and head downstairs. If I didn’t think there would be a chance this could concern the boys, I would demand they go away. But before I utter those two words, I need to make sure it’s not my parents, or God forbid, Skyla and Logan in some hellish emergency.
A brief vision of Skyla and Logan naked entangled in one another’s arms flits through my mind, and I push the thought away.
I yank open the door, only to find Demetri at the other end, an angry hard look on his face.
“You lied,” he growls as he barrels on past me.
“Of course, I lied. I take after you.” I slam the door shut and meet up with him in the living room. “Sit down. Stay a while. You want a beer?” I head for the fridge. “What the hell did I lie about this time?” I yank a cold one out of the fridge and snap the lid off in haste. I’m not big on liquor, but with everything that’s transpired, it seems like a good idea.
He knocks the drink out of my hand before I can turn around and glass shatters at my feet.
Demetri pushes his hand to my chest so hard you’d think he were trying to bore a hole into it.
He pulls me in by the shirt and lands my face next to his ugly mug.
“You knew Skyla’s spirit has been inside Chloe this entire time. You pig.” He loosens his grip on me before taking a step back, that half-smile returning to his face. “Did it please you to know you were holding something over me?” His dark eyes sharpen over mine. “But now I know, son. I am apprised.” He takes a breath. “I’ll forgive this grievance.” His lips harden. “But don’t you ever think about doing this again. Skyla is holding a Faction meeting.” He tips his head. “And Logan. Did he know? Does he know that he’s married to a virtual stranger?”
I inch back. “Wait. You said she’s holding a Faction meeting? This morning?”
“Right now.” His brows jumps as if he’s amused. “She’s screaming it from the highest mountain. She has been possessed.”
“Skyla is screaming it?” I glance out the window as if I might garner a clearer answer that way.
“Yes. Skyla claims she’s in Chloe Bishop’s body. Logan has married Rory.” It comes out more of a question. “I don’t buy it.” His lips twist. “Candace would never allow it. What the hell is going on, Gage? Who is who? I’ve dispatched Barnabas, Belshazzar, and Micah to look into it, and they’ve come up empty. Tell me now. I demand it.”
“Freaking hell,” I pant as my gaze pings around the room, unable to settle anywhere at all. “I don’t know what’s going on.” I rake my fingers through my hair. “Skyla, she was killed and she left. The next thing I knew she claimed to be in Chloe Bishop’s body.” Logan assured me that farce was over last night. And by the looks of the way Skyla greeted Logan as she ran down the aisle, I believe it.
“And you didn’t think I needed to know this because?”
“Because I didn’t care enough to spread the news,” I growl. “What we have going is between us and the Fems.”
“Wrong!” he barks. “It’s us against the universe, and if you haven’t figured that out by now, you are in for a rude awakening. They were playing with your head, boy. And now you’re so turned around, you don’t know which way is up.” He steps in close, his anger seething through his coal black eyes. “So it wasn’t Skyla who led her people to make the gravest error of all.”
I nod. “The pledge—that was all Rory.”
“The covenant,” he corrects. “Once they break faith with Celestra, there is no going back. We hold the power to shut down Celestra once and for all. You know what needs to be done.”
That backward serum of Wesley’s flits through my mind. We will singlehandedly be infusing a limelight over Nephilim DNA, not hiding it. An anti-savior to our people, for the greater good, of course. And right about now, I’m not entirely sure it’s good at all.
“Heaven or Hell, Gage. You hold the keys to your destiny. As the king, you must grant permission. No legitimate move can be made without it.”
