“Yes, well, I think we all know the rest of that story.” I pull my plate back and consider my meal. “We had the boys, Skyla. Beautiful, perfect beings created in our likeness.”
“Your likeness.” She glances away. “They’re your doppelgängers. How I miss them.” Her features pull down. “You have no idea what it was like for me to hold them yesterday if for the briefest moment.”
“We were so happy the day they were born.” I try to steer her away from the darkness that so easily wants to creep in. I want to hold onto this delusional truce for as long as I can. “We cherished every second.”
She nods. “And we had Lexy document just about everything. It was precious. Can you imagine if we weren’t caught up in these celestial games? If we spent a lifetime growing old side by side and watching theboysgrow? What if we had Sage? What a full,magicallife that would have been,” she whispers, staring off to the floor, tears pooling in her eyes.
And in that moment I can feel it, the official letting down of the guard. After all these tumultuous months of me brooding, sulking, breathing hate, breathing fire, the walls are crumbling. How much more fortitude will it take to maintain my position? I don’t know the answer to that, but I can rest assured I will find it and deliver. This woman right here, the soul before me, is the reason I exist. And knowing what I do about the blip of human life, eternity is where it is. I can justify every last action, including the fact I snuffed the life right out of her.
Yes, Skyla—I bear hard into those dark eyes—I did it all for you.
“We already had magic,” the words whisper from me weak with passion. In this small blissful moment, it feels as if we had recouped some of that magic indeed. I had never doubted Skyla’s undying affection for me, not even in the moment she promised to hate me most. But I had made her doubt my affection. I put her in a painful position so that she would not be in an infinitelymorepainful position for eternity.
A deep sigh comes from me as we stare one another down.
“Chloe”—I search her face as if searching for her spirit—“when I gifted you my attention, you laid down arms for me, for my purposes. And Skyla, you abandoned ship and handed Logan the keys to the kingdom. You rolled over into my arms without looking back. Then I shredded your heart, Chloe. And Skyla, I destroyed both your heart and your body for my purposes, for the only purpose or reason I would ever hurt you.”
Her nostrils flare—which one did the action, I don’t know.
She gives a curt nod. “Yes, Gage. A riddle of the ages.”
I press out another sigh. The rife look of disappointment on my face is impossible to hide.
“The answer lies in the riddle,” I say. “You are smart girls. You can figure it out.”
“No, Gage.” Skyla shakes her head. “I cannot figure you out that easily because I have a feeling the most important key to that conversation was conveniently left out.”
“There are some things that are not for you to know.” I wanted to addright now, but I’m not one to get ahead of myself.
She leans in, a cutting mixture of disdain and anger crossing her face. “That’s where you are wrong. I have been charged with ruling the Nephilim sphere here on this planet. That is my destiny, my task. Not yours. You stole it. You are a thief. The night you appeared to me after your brief internment with death, the first words you said to me were, ‘I came to kill, steal, and destroy.’ And you have certainly kept your word.
“At the time, Gage, I had no idea it was me you would inflict all three of those punishments on. You are parading around in the crown meant formyhead. You sit onmythrone. You are holding a scepter that was fashioned long ago forme.Allthings are for me to know. There is no knowledge you can keep from me that I won’t find out.
“You prevail in the battle, but I win the war. Enjoy your short-lived victory, Oliver. That metallic stench of Celestra blood in the air that you perfume yourself with will soon be replaced with the blood of your people.
“Maybe I did need to die to have the blinders completely fall off. You have spent the last two years trying to push me off of my pedestal, I should have figured the planet was never far behind. Goodbye, Gage. I would ask you to leave my presence, but this new version of me is all about being in control. I won’t wait to see if you’ll comply. I no longer need you to.
“The winds of change are blowing. I can feel them propelling me forward, to my true destiny. I may need a miracle to pull off my victory, but you will be denied even that. You have no more celestial favors. You see, I have friends in high places and I have pulled a few strings. You’re about to find out the only person you have in your corner is nothing but a sickly serpent who dried up long ago. Demetri may have started his carnage in the garden all those millenniums ago, but it ends here, on my turf. Once again, Gage, I am putting you on notice.”
She stands, and I do the same.
Skyla takes a bold step forward in that strange Chloe skin.
“I would kiss you”—her voice is lower than a whisper, her pain is palpable—“right on the lips.” She shakes her head as her eyes flood with tears. “But that will only happen on the day you bow down to me once again. It will be a welcome home kiss, a kiss for the ages. And that will be all you will ever get from me again. Not because you’ve surrendered me to another. I willingly fled to the one you once regarded as a brother. And now those you willfully tormented will torment you. Only God knows why you’re truly in the predicament that you’re in. But I’m certain, before too long, I will be in on your little secret, too. You cannot stop me. Not in life, not in death. I am your immortal companion, and I will save what is good in you and destroy the wicked. Remember these words, Gage. I am unstoppable.”
She stalks off, and I take a moment to catch my breath.
Those words seeped down deep into my bones the second they left her lips.
Skyla is unstoppable.
It’s exactly what I wanted. It’s exactly what I fear most.
I drop a few bills onto the table, before heading out as the thick Paragon fog welcomes me in its cold, icy arms. I dissipate in the cloak it provides for me and reappear in Eversor without missing a beat.
“Father!” Sage screeches with something short of rage. There’s a note of panic in her voice that I have never heard before and it alarms me. “You’ve been with her, haven’t you?”
“Yes,” I pant as I examine the fury in her eyes. “Why, what’s happened?”
