Sage comes to mind with that smirk she wears whenever I’m around, with that beady-eyed glare she gives me oh so often, and my heart breaks on a whole new level.
“Oh no.” It comes from me low and guttural. In a lot of ways, I’ve treated my mother the exact same way Sage has treated me. It came from ignorance on my part, coupled with confusion and often terror.
Without hesitating, I collapse my arms around my mother and offer her a hard, lingering embrace.
“I am so sorry,” I whisper before pulling back. Tears slick my cheeks as I take her in with this newfound knowledge. “You mean, you’ve been thinking all of those things for me all this time?” A part of me still finds it very hard to believe. There have been so many difficult trials—all of them which could have easily done me in on so many levels, and this latest one takes the cake.
“Yes.” Her voice is hoarse for the very first time as if she herself were fighting off tears. “I love you, my dear sweet girl.” She wipes the tears from my eyes with the warmth of her hands. “You are mine. You are my entire heart. No matter what thoughts you might have had against me, that you may in the future.” She nods as if it were a given, and sadly, considering the state of my chaotic existence, this might be true. “I will continue to care for you with a flawless affection.” She takes a sharp breath. “That goes for your sister as well.” She frowns downward a moment as if she were looking at Rory on that spinning blue stone. “Skyla, sometimes it takes a daughter to have her own child before she can realize the depths of her own mother’s love for her. I do not hold this against you. Yes, your sister did a terrible thing. But she was not alone in her action. This was very much a dual effort. I have full confidence you will treat it as such. Now, what is it that you came to ask of me?”
“I want my body back,” I say, stunned that I even needed to pose the question. “And I want it now. Sorry to sound demanding, but I think I’ve earned the right. You’re my mother. I can be as bold as I want with you.”
She belts out an echoing laugh, and something about it unnerves me.
“You are right to be bold with me. Be bolder still.” She nods to Marshall. “Her Elysian is preoccupied at the moment. As my daughter’s spirit husband, you are also her supervising spirit. I’ll remove a hedge of protection from the person of Skyla’s choosing for a temporary internment.”
Marshall stiffens by my side. “I see.”
She nods his way. “You’ll grant entry. I’ll monitor the situation myself. The Master is already aware. Consider this a special grace for a special case.” She takes up my hands. “Do not be afraid of what lies ahead. You are well on your way to fulfilling your destiny. You can do this, Skyla.” She bears her luminescent eyes into mine as if she were begging with me on some level—as if there were a possibility that I couldn’t accomplish what she’s laid before me. “You mustn’t focus on the negative. Think of all things lovely, all things right. Focus on the good, the dawning of a new era with Celestra uniting all of the Factions in perfect peace. The Sectors must rule, Skyla. I won’t be bested. This will be a favorable outcome for me. He may never win. Do you understand me?”
I swallow hard. “Yes.” I understand perfectly. Gage must never win. This will be a favorable outcome for me. But I know that Candace included herself in a very personal way in the equation, and it makes me wonder why the stakes are so high for her.
“Very well.” Her affect hardens cold as flint. “Be on your way. Sector Marshall will help you chose a new home.”
“What new home?” I ask as she begins to fade away—only it’s not just my mother fading, it’s all of Ahava fading along with her. “Wait! I need to talk to Sage one more time. I need to tell her how much I love her. Please, just one more glimpse of her beautiful face.”
But my words fall on deaf ears as Marshall and I fall down through time and space. He catches me in his arms as expansive wings spring from him and we sail softly like a parachute all the way down to Paragon, where my mother thinks I should find a new home.
Paragon Island sits robed in a luminescent fog that glows lavender in the night. The island lies quiet as a corpse entombed in darkness. I can see traffic on the main thoroughfares beginning to slow. The rooftops of the houses look so miniature, it’s a wonder people can fit in them at all. The lights are on in just about every home and establishment, giving the island a fairytale appeal. And the evergreens that dust that overgrown rock look soft and supple like the fur of an exotic animal.
“What new home?” I ask Marshall. “Am I moving? Why?”
“Skyla.” He nods down at my ethereal frame and I gasp.
“Abody? Of course! But wait, I don’t want a new body. I want the old one. So help me, if you’re taking us to the cemetery.”
“Heavens no.” He chortles. “I’ve no interest in the dead. We’ve come to scout the living.”
“Scout the living,” I parrot. “Makes sense. So like a possession?”
“The long and short of it? Yes.”
“Then let’s go back to Ellis’ party,” I say, guiding Marshall in the direction of the ritzy Paragon Estates. “Ellis would let me take up his body in a heartbeat—his heartbeat.”
“We have no business there. Besides, Master Harrison isn’t the one I would suggest for your endeavor. Might I recommend a woman for you internment?”
“Temporary internment.” In truth, I cringe at the thought of taking possession of Ellis’ body. I’ve known Ellis for as long as I’ve been on Paragon—heck, I’ve known just about everyone I know for as long as I’ve been on Paragon. My old life in Los Angeles is but a sleepy dream. And from that time of ages past, my mother, sisters, stepbrothers, and stepfather are all that survived the move as far as relationships go. Not that I’d want to take over any of their bodies at the moment.
But Ellis, well, he’s a sandy-haired surfer type who requires quasi-legal forms of recreational entertainment to keep him mellow. And just the thought of knowing his body on an intimate level—from the inside out, makes me cagey.
He’s been dating Giselle Oliver, Gage’s younger sister, who was dead for a time but now has full possession—no pun intended—of Emerson Kragger's body. Although Ellis belongs to the Countenance Faction, he very much sides with Celestra.
In fact, when the Counts started recruiting members against my leadership, they splintered off into what Wesley called the Steel Barricade, and thus forcing Celestra to form its own new alliance called the Retribution League. We’ve been in a race to hide the genetic markers from our bodies—the very markers that can easily identify the Nephilim people as alien beings to the rest of the world. It’s a marker the government recently discovered, and they’re hungry to find those among us—thealienswho might have it. We’re not aliens per se, but we’re not entirely human either. We’re part celestial being. But try explaining that to a government authority. It’s been attempted and, believe me when I say, it didn’t end well.
The Barricade has had the upper hand for a very long while, especially ever since Gage’s reign of terror began, but just last month the Retribution League—my league—set its plan of damn near hiding the markers into motion. It turns out, the afterbirth I produced from my sweet baby boy Jaxson, a near perfect Celestra, considering he has me for a mother and Logan for a father—well, the blood from that event was the key element in getting the markers to flip their switch and shut down.
Right now, Ezrina has her finger on the pulse of converting the formula so that it’s eternally regenerative and the elixir we’re currently administering won’t need a maintenance dose.
And now that we have Wes and Chloe working on our side, let’s just say Gage really screwed up good to push them in my direction, but then I always knew he had it in him—the Retribution League is unstoppable. And hopefully soon, we’ll be able to produce a serum that will permanently hide our markers.
