Side by side with his bandmates, Remi would make sure this was a night that no one would ever forget.Ollie, Liam, West, and Remi stood in a straight line, flipped their skirts up, pulled their underwear down, and flashed their bare asses to the protesters.Cheers erupted from the fans as the protesters screamed in indignation.Tilted Haze turned around, gave the protesters their middle fingers, and screamed, “Fuck you!”before running back inside the venue entrance just before the fans broke the line and swarmed the doors.
Remi’s heart pounded loud in his ears, and he was grinning so wide his cheeks hurt.It was a better feeling than every rebellious prank he ever pulled, better than every revenge fantasy he ever had.He was soaring.Freedom and rebellion and joy fizzed through his body.It was a high better than any drug.Pissing people off.Showing up how he wanted to.Dressing how he wanted to.Being a part of something bigger than himself.
Remi put his arms around West and Ollie.West’s eyes twinkled with the same pleasure, and Ollie’s entire body looked like it was buzzing.Liam beelined to Skye, trying to grab her phone.
“How’d my butt look?Come on.Come on!I wanna see!”Liam said.
Skye laughed.
Remi, West, and Ollie took off sprinting after her with the same question.Remi grabbed her around the thighs and picked her up as she laughed at them.
“Yeah, come on, Skye,” Remi said.“How’d my butt look?”
Liam stole her phone, and Skye planted her hands on either side of Remi’s face and kissed him.“Pretty cute actually.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
TiltedHazefinishedtheirfirst stadium tour, and after deducting the refunds from their Metalfest take-home guarantee, they didn’t owe the label for the canceled shows.Her boys had done it.Finished their first coast-to-coast tour.
Skye’s bargain with Remi was complete.They signed a record deal.Their cross-country stadium tour had finished, and they had three singles off their album streaming at over 500 million.Oh, and West wasn’t in the psych ward, obviously.
The band could have afforded to buy houses in any city in the world, but it didn’t surprise Skye when they all planned on staying at West’s grandmother’s house in New Orleans until they headed back to LA to start recording their next album.
Remi had only grumbled when Skye mentioned finding her own place.“What the hell, Skye?Why wouldn’t you stay here with us?”
And that was that.Skye moved in with her band.She slept with Remi in his bedroom in the attic, ate breakfast with Ollie in the kitchen, talked to West about his plans to put a new roof on the house, and got high with Liam on the couch.It was like being on tour, but even better because there were no emergencies to handle.
Or so she thought.
Three days before the band was due in LA to start recording, the boys had all gone out to a local record store to sign copies of their first album, but Skye stayed behind, wanting the peace and quiet of the house to work through the final tour accounting.Her phone rang as she was working through a spreadsheet, the screen flashing with Tilted Haze’s lawyer’s name.
“Hello?”
“Skye, it’s Casey.Did you get the notice of termination?”
Her heart sank.“The what?”
“It just came in my email today—” Casey kept going, but Skye couldn’t hear her.She clicked to her email and pulled up the official notice that was at the top of her inbox.“—due to a breach of contract.Four people have come forward with proof that the band plagiarized their songs.The label doesn’t want anything to do with the lawsuit, so they’re dropping you guys.”
Righteous indignation was a fiery pitchfork in her chest.“My boys did not steal anything!The label has to know that!”
“At this point, it’s not even about losing the record contract,” Casey said.“The lawsuit has some heavy hitters spearheading it.Even if we win this case, it’s going to take a shit ton of money and years to get it through the court system.I recommend settling.”
She skimmed over the notice, but her vision tinged red, blurring the words.“Why is this happening?”she muttered under her breath.
Casey sighed.“In my business, this stuff happens all the time.It’s an unlucky break.”
“Unlucky…” Skye trailed off as her hand flew to her necklace and held the diamond gem.The crystal was cool in her hands.Cold, like when the shadows…
She glanced down at the black diamond necklace, shadows swirling happily inside.After the tour ended, she’d forgotten to check on Remi’s soul.But it hadn’t forgotten her.If the shadows were back, that meant—
Fire flashed through her body, burning her from the inside.She dropped the phone, crying out as she fell to her knees.Pain pierced her eardrums.The Devil’s summoning didn’t start as an easy-to-ignore throbbing headache like it usually did.
Blood trickled down her neck from her ears, but she hardly noticed.Flames encased her, melting her skin, her entire being from existence, forcibly sifting her from Earth and into Hell.
The flames vanished as Skye manifested in what she thought was the throne room, but a heavy magical smoke hung thick in the air, obscuring everything.
She was still on her hands and knees, shattered glass lying everywhere, puncturing her palms, slicing her bare knees.
