“What do you care?” He snarls at me as if a graveyard brawl were in the cards for us, and it just might be. I haven’t given him a proper beatdown just yet, and I plan on eviscerating him, for eviscerating me. What’s fair is fair.
“I don’t care.” I fold my arms across my chest, mimicking his body language as we look out at the empty graveyard. Not even a ghost in sight. “What’s the matter? Jealous of the good time all these souls are having up in paradise? You should be. You won’t be joining them.”
“And because of your determined foolishness neither will you.” He flinches. “Yes, you will.” He softens as he changes his stance on the subject. “And you’ll have me to thank for it. There is no way in hell you’re bringing in the W for Celestra. You know I will claw my way to the finish line if I have to. I will not let go of the victory at hand. But I get why you stepped over enemy lines. It’s quite brilliant, actually. You get to pretend to fight for Celestra while I do all the dirty work. Or are you here hoping to pull a few puppet strings like the old days, Wes?”
“Nope.” I kick a pebble with my foot as the dark, angry sky growls overhead. “I’ve abandoned you, brother, fully. You see, Laken is a smart woman. She sees through any and every one of my schemes, and if I am less than genuine in her eyes, I will not find the redemption I am seeking. She is the light and I am the darkness, and someway, somehow, I need to find a way to wiggle back into her good graces. Spending hell in eternity would be a pleasure cruise so long as I have Laken’s true forgiveness, her true respect, and her true heart once again, if only for a moment. She’s worth life and death and eternity to me. I know she’ll take good care of my children. And I know that at the end of the eternal day, they will respect me, too. I’m not burning down the world anymore. I’m lighting fire tomyself. In the end, all you’ll have is ashes, Gage. That’s it. You think you have everything to lose, but you’re too stubborn to see that you’ve actually already lost it.”
His chest bucks with a silent laugh as the wind picks up and pushes the fog along the cemetery stones like a herd of poltergeists stumbling through.
“Wes”—he growls my name out—“you talk a good game, but deep down, you know you’ll be with Laken in eternity. You know this because you’ve seen that my own tenacity to maintain our position is equal to or stronger than the one you had for the Barricade. Essentially, you have two versions of yourself running around on the planet. And, since I wear what you call the cloak of darkness well, you’ve decided that it’s safe for you to don the light. The irony here, and I do believe there is one, is that you have fooled the one person who truly needs to believe your spiel, and it isn’t Laken. It’s you. There’s not one part of me that believes you’d be fine with eternal separation from your children. That’s the biggest bullshit I’ve heard in my life. Yes, Laken is the prize, like always with you, Wes, the only golden carrot you will every truly give a damn about, but you care about the long run, too. You’re not impulsive. You’re not passive.
“You’re certainly not a person who gives up on what he believes in easily, Wes. And all of that emotional math tells me you are planning to enjoy one hell of a ride—pardon my pun—on my coattails. And you know what? I don’t care. Hell, I wish I had thought up this scheme for you. But the best part is, you came by it honestly. And I guess in your new delusional world, that’s what counts.
“Isn’t that right, big brother? Truth over fiction, good over evil, Wes 2.0 over the version that truly lurks in the recess of your mind, of your heart. You are a liar, Wes. And the person you’re lying to is yourself.”
I give his chest a firm shove. “Don’t you ever discredit my truths again.” A bout of emotions bubbles to the top, and I swallow down the urge to roar with anger, to shed a tear, and I’m not certain why he’s struck such a raw nerve. This is Gage. He’s alone. He’s hurt and injured. His only defense is to lash out. I know that.
“Dude, you killed your wife,” I hiss in disbelief. “You smothered her with a kiss of all things. Do you know who you are anymore? Do you know how low you’ve sunk?”
He examines me a moment, and I can tell he’s piecing it together, wondering how and why I know and swallowing the fact others know, too.
“I didn’t think she’d come back.”
“You didn’t think?” A dull laugh pumps from me. “Did you justthinkCandace was going to roll over and let her daughter, the one she appointed to lead the Factions, play dead? Come on, Gage. You’re smarter than that. Of course, you knew she’d winnow her way back here. She’s more tenacious than the two of us put together. She was given one possession. She had to ask permission, and do you know why Chloe agreed to it?Chloe? Because the people who hate you are banding together to defeat you. Have you ever heard that old adage,the enemy of my enemy is my friend? You are going to see a lot of oddball friendships develop fairly quickly over their shared disdain for you. And now Skyla is back. Not one version of me, past or present, has any good advice to give you regarding that. In fact, I want to warn you that the demon you loosened in her place has no desire to work for you either. And I don’t even know Rory. I don’t need to know her, because what I knowofher is enough to make me keep my distance. She is the rejected daughter of Candace Messenger. And you can’t tell me she wasn’t rejected.”
The sky crackles overhead like a threat, and it sounds as if a pair of jeans were ripping at the grip of strong hands.
“All right.” I throw my hands up at the sky. “She’s perfect.” I look over to Gage. “See that? She’s delusional, too. You have no idea the nightmare you just opened up, buddy. But one thing is for sure, you have one hell of a fight on your hands.” I pull him in by the shirt as the first few fat drops of rain fall over my face. “So tell me, brother. What the hell are you doing with Cooper Flanders? I don’t believe for a minute he came to your house voluntarily on some angelic wellness check. You summoned him, didn’t you?”
His dimples invert, a sure sign he’s been discovered. I know his face well enough to read it like a book. I own a copy of that shitty novel myself.
Leave it to Coop to plunk himself down in the middle of yet another mystery.
“What is it?” I give Gage another rattle, but his lips remain sealed. “Oh my God.” I close my eyes as I let him go. “This is big.” I take a breath as the rain starts in at a quickened clip.
“It’s not big,” Gage replies a little too quickly, a little too late, and I squint over at him.
“Coop knows what you know.” He swallows hard. “That’s all.”
I squint over at him. “And what the hell do I know?” About fifty different people would pay to hear me say just that.
He slicks his hair back with his fingers as the rain bounces off of him. I can see his frustration level rising no matter how hard he’s trying to submerge it. Something is afoot, and Flanders holds the key. I don’t know who I dislike more at the moment, Gage or Coop. And ironically, I consider them both brothers.
“He knows.” Gage nods, those stormy eyes of his sirening out like cobalt lanterns. “Cooper figured out that either the Fems or the Sectors will be locked away as the official watchmen at the gates of Hell. He knows that if the Fems sink for eternity, we sink for eternity too. He knows why we we’re fighting so damn hard. He’s known for a while.”
“Then why not tell Skyla from the get-go?”
His chest heaves with a laugh. “You’re not as bright as I gave you credit for. Put on your thinking cap. Figure it out.”
A thousand scenarios run through my mind and only one prevails.
“Shit.” I squeeze my eyes shut tight. “Because Skyla wouldn’t put up a fight. She’d call a ceasefire and demand answers from every heavenly being, her mother first and foremost. She’s not sending Dudley, or her mother to Hell, but she’s not sending you there either.” Same reason Gage wouldn’t tell her.
“That’s right, genius. She would lie down. I would secure the victory—or not. She would be a wild card. And a wild card is something I cannot afford. This is a war, Wesley. Kill or be killed. Damn or be damned. There is no in-between. Nothing at all.”
I glance out toward the exit to this dismal place, through a curtain of rain, and glower in that direction.
Hell, I have to find Coop. We can’t just blurt this news to Skyla. If she loses the will to fight, if she paralyzes our people, Celestra won’t stand a chance.
