Up above the door in Gage Oliver’s own words it reads,Always, and forever, you will be mine. You have all of my heart. Our love is eternal. Gage wrote those words for me, and right now I feel each one deeply.
Tears stream down my face once again as my adrenaline picks up. It’s happening. Everything I knew was true in my heart. Gage Oliver is still in there, being led by the nose in the very worst way, by the very worse entity in all the universe, his father.
“I’m coming,” that familiar deep voice of his thunders from inside, and soon the door swings open and we’re treated to those daring blue eyes as they examine us with equal parts anger and interest.
“Gage.” I latch my body around his, knocking him off balance as he staggers back into the house.
Logan comes in and shuts the door behind us.
“Skyla?” Gage calls to me softly, but I don’t have it in me to let go.
“Gage.” I pull back and take in his beautiful face, those dimples, the lips that made me dizzy oh so many times.
“What the hell?” He plucks me off and takes a step back. He shoots a look to Logan before reverting his attention my way once again. “Let me guess? Logan’s not wowing you in the bedroom and you want a refund? Sorry, Skyla. You married him, you’re stuck with him now.” He grunts over at Logan, “Dude, step up your game.”
Logan gives him a wry smile. “It’s not that.”
Gage ticks his head to the side. “It’s something. And whatever it is, I can’t help you with it.” He folds his arms across his chest as he gives me a stern look. “I don’t have the boys; therefore, neither of you has any business here. Go home.”
“Gage.” I pull him close by the arm. “We have news.”
His eyes round out. “You’re having a baby? I get it, you’re fertile. Congrats. I’ll send a fruit basket in about nine months.” He winces at Logan. “Did you sleep with Rory?”
“I’m not you.” Logan doesn’t miss a beat—although technically, he did just once, but that was when he thought she was me.
Gage gives a long blink. “What’s happening here?” His eyes oscillate from Logan to me. The TV is on in the living room, there’s a blaze roaring in the fireplace, and suddenly I want nothing more than to kick off my shoes and bask in the glory of the fact that Gage belongs to us once again. This place has never felt more like home than it does now.
Logan nods his way. “We have something to tell you. You might want to sit down.”
“No,” Gage grouses. “Whatever it is you have to tell me won’t kill me. I’m dead. In fact, we’ve all taken a walk on the disembodied side. Just spit it out and leave.” His eyes lock with mine a moment, and I can see the silent apology in them for the way he’s treating us.
Logan shrugs. “Have it your way. Skyla and I discovered something tonight. Something that will change you. It won’t be easy to hear. You’ll have to put down that massive ego you’ve been inflating for the last few years.”
Gage scowls. “I happen to like my ego. Newsflash: it’s not going anywhere, and neither am I. You have ten seconds before I shove you both out the door to do whatever it is you do at night to entertain yourselves. I’ve got a game on and a beer that’s getting warm.”
“Gage”—his name comes from me as a hoarse whisper—“it’s all been a lie.”
He tips his ear my way ever so slightly. “What’s been a lie?”
Logan’s chest expands. “The bullshit that Demetri’s been feeding you. You’re not going to Hell. You were never Hell bound, you never will be.”
“He used you.” I nod. “He got exactly what he wanted. Demetri wants the Fems to have the supreme position because he’s fighting to rule with my mother.”
Gage takes in a breath as he staggers back.
“Coop.” It comes out more of a question as he glances to the door.
“Yes, Cooper told us,” I say. “Gage, I know why you’ve been fighting so hard.” I fly forward, and my hands land over his warm, strong chest. “You thought we would be separated forever. You couldn’t stand the thought of leaving the boys, or leaving Logan and me.” That last part comes out in less than a whisper. “It’s not true. Demetri has been lying to you. Don’t you see? This is the grand delusion we were warned about. Once you were resurrected, we fell right in and never bothered to ask a single question.”
Logan nods. “You remember what Demetri and Wes were telling you before you agreed to be Demetri’s right-hand man? Let’s start from the beginning. No sooner did you find out you were Demetri’s spawn than he offered to grant you anything you desired. You knew your life would be short—you had visions regarding the fact—Candace affirmed it. You asked Demetri for length of years with Skyla.”
Gage’s chest puffs with a dull laugh. “And in order to fulfill my wish, I had to join the Steel Barricade and sell your dead body, Logan, to the highest bidder—to Demetri, in exchange for those years. Wesley stuffed you full of dolomite worms and had a temporary serum to hide the markers—just for the members of the Barricade, of course.”
I swallow hard as those painful memories filter to the surface. “And you broke faith with the Barricade once you realized that in order to keep the serum going, you and Wes would need to keep kidnapping live Celestra so those dolomite worms could gorge on their flesh.”
“I did. I stopped the distribution of that serum. Wes was forced to listen to me. It didn’t go over well, did it?” Gage takes a breath. “Breaking faith with the Barricade brought one hell of a curse my way—the heart of one I held dear would turn against me—one or both of my children. And then I agreed to be Demetri’s prince of darkness and grant him dominion in order to keep the curse off the boys.” He closes his eyes a very long time. “I understood that once my time on this planet was through, I would be brought back through a holy resurrection”—he holds out his arms as if to attest to the fact—“and I would be expected to perform for him—for the Fems.”
I nod. “And you did, Gage. Do you remember before you agreed to those terms, you wondered if you would become a robot of some kind once you came back, obeying Demetri’s every whim? Wes said that wasn’t true. But that something heavy would come over you, a swaying of your heart—thisgrand delusion—that you would be prone to believe the darkness.”
