Yes, I was waiting for it, but I never saw this coming.
And how in the hell did he pull it off?
Worst yet, what if this grand delusion was another one of Candace Messenger’s great glorious plot twists? Her way of saying bend over, no lube.
The door cracks, and I barge right in. It takes me less than five minutes to recant the entire scene to Wes and he stands there, arms crossed, with a pensive look of worry, much the way Demetri just did. Like father like son. But that’s where the resemblance ends with Wes.
With me, not so much these days.
“Tell me the truth, Wes. Hell, I wouldn’t blame you for lying to me. But I need to hear something. What did I see last night?”
“You were there, Gage. It was real. Skyla took one for the team. It sounds like she gave you the grand tour. It’s up to you to believe it or reject it. And knowing the idiot that you are, you’ll take the slow road. You might get there, but it will be too damn late for my people.” He flashes a short-lived smile. “That’s right, Gage. I swing in whatever direction Laken tells me to. And you want to hear something? I have embraced Celestra. I actually care about them in a way that I never felt before. Isn’t that something?” A crooked grin erupts over his face. “You bought the lie, and I bought the truth. So very unlikely, isn’t it? And yet that’s where we are. You get to be the new poster boy for wickedness, and I’m one of the good guys. Laken always did know best.” His chest expands with his next breath. “What do you want, Gage? It’s clear I’m not going back to sleep. The kids are going to be up soon.”
“Convince me.”
He inches back. “Dude, you had Skyla, Candace”—he shakes his head—“you had Demetri spilling the truthandlies like oil, and your conscience wants to mop it up for him like you’ve done every other time. Just look the other way again. It’s what you’re best at. I’m getting some coffee.” He turns to leave, and I pull him back until he’s standing in front of me.
“You didn’t have Skyla, you didn’t have Candace, and God knows you didn’t have Demetri spouting off anything to you. Tell me”—I swallow hard—“take me to the beginning, Wes. Walk me down the road that got you here. I know for a fact Laken is good, but she’s not that good. You’re involved in this crap because you believe it’s true. You don’t go halfway not even for Laken. You proved that the first time.”
His jaw clenches, but he keeps his trap shut because he knows it’s true.
“Fine.” He pulls his phone out and begins tapping into it. “The road to freedom begins with Coop. Logan will want to be here, too.”
“No,” I grab him by the wrist. “Not Logan. Skyla will show, and that’s not what I want. I need to see this from another angle. Your angle. Show me whatever the hell convinced you. It’s time I weigh the evidence.”
“It’s past due, brother. Well past due.”
It takes an hour for Coop to drag himself out of bed, shower, and show up with that trusty old tome in his hand.
“Is this the Good Book?” I mean to sound playful, but it comes out grumpy as we settle on the sofa in Wesley’s man cave.
“Yup.” Coop opens it up and lands it close to me. “Written a hell of a long time ago by our Nephilim predecessors. Written in their celestial native tongue, something we lost ahold of almost right after this was written. There are three books in Wesley’s possession. Laken swiped them for me.” He sheds a brief grin to Wes. “Nevertheless, this is the smoking gun. Marshall and Ezrina transcribed as much as they could. I determined the rest with the code they helped me crack into—and long story short—you are having the wool pulled over your eyes in a grand manner. No one is going to hell. Not even the bastard that deserves to. At least not when it comes to so-called guarding that fiery pit. The only souls who will find themselves in there are the ones that refuse to believe in the Son. Nobody is landing in that hot spot because of their sins either. It’s black and white, believe or not believe—at least for those of age and in their right minds. And you might be of age, but, brother, you are not in your right mind.” He leans back and folds his arms as he examines me. “Gage, Skyla says you were well aware of the fact Demetri was about to pull out a strong delusion. That he was going to twist your heart and make you yearn to lean toward the enemy. Didn’t you for a minute think this could have something to do with that?”
I groan as I bury my head in my hand a moment.
“No.” I take a breath as I look back at the two of them. “And I’m not sure I believe this either. Look, I’m in a position that I think the two of you can appreciate. I’m not about to screw around with eternity—not mine, not my family’s. I have to be with Skyla and the kids. This is nonnegotiable.”
Coop nods. “I get it. Wes gets it. But you’re buying a fallacy that is destroying your wife’s people. You’re burning the world down, innocent people are dying, economies are being slung out into space with no hope of ever recovering in our lifetime. You don’t have five more minutes to figure this out. Get on with whatever else you feel you need to do to confirm this because there’s too much riding in the balance. Now that you have all the evidence in front of you, get to the truth so we can all have some peace in our lives.”
His voice is curt, there’s a threat in there somewhere, but my mind is reeling and I don’t care to find it.
“Coop”—I stare intently at him—“I need to be certain beyond a shadow of a doubt before I flip the table. But if and when I do turn over this demented game board Demetri is playing, I’m going to gut him like the rotten fish he is. He’s not getting away with this. And if this is just another ploy of Celestra’s, then you can have the last laugh because, I’ll admit, I’m rattled.”
Cooper and Wes take me on a journey that spans hours. Coop pulls out diagrams, breaking the code down in the text for me until it’s as easy as reading English. And there it is, in black and white, in complex diagrams, and none of it rings true to anything Demetri has ever said to me.
I head for the door. “Don’t worry. I’m ending this bullshit as soon as I can.” A thought hits me and I pause. “Three of my men are missing. Either of you two happen to know where they are?”
“Tenebrous.” Wesley’s chest bounces with a laugh, no smile. “And you’ll find a little more than half your guardians down there with them. Good luck getting them out. But, then again, once you figure out which way is up, you’ll want to make sure they stay there.”
“Tenebrous,” I say the word, stunned as if Wes just coldcocked me from across the room.
Coop nods. “That’s right, Gage. The show is just about over, and the Fems are done. Demetri knows his days are numbered.”
Wes takes a deep breath. “And before you even get there, welcome back, brother.”
Those are the last words I hear as I race out of the house, out of Paragon, and straight to Eversor.
* * *
