Entropy

  “You did well.” Hattie’s eyes sharpen over the two of us. “What do you want?”

  “End this nightmare,” Coop is quick with the response. He molds his arms around me, and I can feel his warmth encapsulating me like a sheath. “Take Richard and Kara to whoever the hell is in charge of this shit parade, and let them know Ezrina has found the antidote. It will be slow going—and we can cure them all. But this war, this destruction needs to end tonight.”

  Hattie takes in a breath. Her chest expands with what I’m hoping is relief.

  “Done.” She nods to her brother and sisters.

  “And then come back.” Coop’s arms tighten around me. “Laken and I are ready to get our families.”

  My throat constricts. It’s almost too good to be true. Hattie had promised us passage in and out of those nefarious tunnels in exchange for Richard and Kara. And here we are at the gates of hell, chomping at the bit to be let in.

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Her lids fall low over her eyes. Her lips twitch at the corners. “Another is to take you.”

  “Edinger.” Coop nods. His heart kicks over my back like a welcome massage.

  “Edinger is right.” She winks over at Amelia, and now I wonder if we’re being played.

  Richard steps forward and takes up my hands. The dull light of the moon falls over him, and he looks handsome in his own right, so healthy and alive the Spectators won’t be able to argue with his physical appearance.

  “Thank you, Laken—Coop. On behalf of my sister and myself, we plan on helping you far into the future with whatever you may need.”

  Kara runs up and offers a spirited embrace to both Coop and me.

  “I have a little sister I’d love for you to meet,” I whisper in her hair.

  “Me, too.” Coop gives her a gentle pat on the back.

  Hattie plucks her away, and they take off into the night.

  “It’s done.” I twist into Cooper and sigh.

  “Mostly.” He plants a kiss over my head.

  We make our way to the inside of the boulders and sit beneath the mountain of granite as the moon streams across the sky like a satellite.

  “Soon the sun will come up.” Coop looks despondent by the idea.

  “We’re another day closer to getting our families.” I slip into his lap, wrapping my arms around his body, my head safe on his chest.

  “Can I ask what happened with Wes?” His heart gives a wild kick to my chest like a horse ready to burst through the gate.

  I pull back and take him in, sweet, gorgeous Coop. Here we are at an intersection I wondered if we would ever arrive at.

  “I ended things with him tonight.” I glance down as my body sags into his.

  “You did?” He straightens as if he weren’t sure he heard me right.

  “Yes.” I touch my finger to his strong iron-like jaw. “He’s one of them, and I want nothing to do with the enemy, Coop. Not now, not ever. Wesley can’t see how wicked the Counts are.” I shake my head, blinded by a sudden rage. “He’s too far gone. The Wesley I loved is the one I buried in Cider Plains. It’s true. He’s not the person I thought he was.” A tear comes without me noticing until Cooper wipes it away.

  “I’m sorry, Laken.” He rubs his cheek over mine, and I enliven with the coarse feel of his stubble.

  “It’s okay.” I swallow back the grief. “I think this is how it was meant to be.” A shy smile twitches on my lips. “Me with you. I can see a future for us, Coop. That’s something I can never see with Wes. Can you see a future with me, too?”

  “Yes.” His eyes widen. “Hell, yes.”

  “I want to have that with you.” My voice trembles. “I love you, Cooper Flanders.”

  His chest huffs with relief. His lips pull back in an easy smile. Cooper Flanders is gorgeous, humble, and righteous, and he’s all mine. He’s everything I could ever ask for. I’m the luckiest girl in the world.

  “Thank you for that.” He presses a kiss into my palm, and it’s only then I realize he heard me. “I love you, too, Laken. You saved me.”

  “How did I save you?” Coop is the one who traditionally does the saving around here.

  “I had until dawn to hear those words, and, if not, it was the tunnels for me”—his lids hang heavy—“forever.”

  “What?” I spike up, and he pulls me back until I’m relaxing over him again.

  “It’s a story for another time. Suffice it to say, I’ve got a supervising spirit for life now. But I don’t want to talk about Edinger.”

  I shake my head, my lips press together in horror. Coop held this tight to the vest while his entire world hung in the balance—Marky, his father. He risked everything for my happiness.

  He comes in close with those lips I’ve dreamed about diving into for so long. Close. So Close.

  “I’m going to kiss you now.” His heated breath rakes over my mouth.

  “God, I hope so.” It swims from me like a dream. A wild howl goes out over the landscape, harsh and harrowing, unmistakably belonging to a Spectator. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “I’m pretty sure.” He pauses as the moan drones through the woods, over the boulders and bleeds into all of Trinity County. “I think it’s over, Laken. They want to live.”

  “Thank God.”

  The Spectators drift like shadows back into the forest. We watch an entire army of them stagger deep into the murky woods as they journey toward their long-awaited reprieve.

  I glance up at Coop. We did it. The Spectators will live, and soon we’ll have our families.

  Coop leans in an inch, and I do the same.

  “This is happening,” he whispers.

  “Damn right it is.” I cover his lips with mine and dissolve under the duress of his achingly sweet affection. Every part of me wants to break—to exhale—to give in to the release of this incredible tension. Now that we’ve started, I won’t be able to stop. I should put it off—tell him we’d better wait, that this isn’t the time or the place—but I don’t. I want everything with Coop, the sooner the better.

  Coop presses in with a smooth pass of his lips before sealing over my mouth and slipping his tongue inside. My body melts to liquid. I can feel the stars breaking through the thicket of clouds just to peer down at the miracle taking place—Coop and I together at last. I push in hard and anxious, a moan locking off in my throat. Coop takes free roam of my mouth, and I let him. It feels intimate and right as if our mouths belonged in this very place all along.

  We part ways, dizzy with silly smiles on our faces. My heart feels light like a balloon that’s trying to float from my chest.

  “Just what the doctor ordered.” I peck another quick kiss just shy of his lips.

  “Oh, yeah?” He pulls me in and rubs his rough stubble over the side of my face. “I could have sworn the doctor prescribed this.” He dives back over my lips with an unrivaled passion.

  Coop and I sit in the shadow of Sleepy Hollow, showering one another with our lingual affection until well after dawn.

  We saved each other with our love.

  This is only the beginning.

  Cooper

  In the morning a thin seam of sunlight slips through my lids, and I bury my face in Laken’s hair, trying to stretch out sleep for another twenty minutes.

  “Out and about so early?” A disembodied voice calls from the ground clouds that have settled in the area.

  We sit up at the same time to find Edinger smiling down at us with that nefarious shit-eating grin he wears like a mask.

  “I must admit”—his lips curve up one side—“it’s a pleasure to see you both here. So young and in love.” His smile fades. “A rather timely coincidence for you, Mr. Flanders, but, nevertheless, it was I who was rooting for you the entire time, unlike your father.” He spears his coal black eyes into Laken as I help her to her feet.

  “I don’t have a father.” She wraps her arms around my waist and glares at him.

  “You most certainly do.” A voi
ce comes from behind as Jones steps in from the fog.

  “What?” Laken’s voice shakes, good and pissed. And judging by the hurt look on Jones’s face, it wasn’t the response he was hoping for.

  “That’s right.” He comes in close taking up her hands, and she lets him. “I wanted you here with me. I had Fletcher and Jenevieve, and I wanted you, too. You made Wesley happy, and when I saw how much you missed him, I knew what I needed to do.”

  She drops his hands like a dead fish. “You killed me. You killed all of us. And what was with those pictures?”

  “I thought they would convict you. I thought once you saw how much you might be hurting Wesley, you would relent.”

  “You were hurting me. You wanted me to believe all of your lies, but I couldn’t. You know why? Because a Celestra tried to save my life with the kindness in her heart. It didn’t matter to her that I was a Count. She saw me as a person, as someone who deserved to live happy and free—something you will never understand. And because of Skyla, I remembered everything.”

  “I just wanted you to be happy, Laken. If it’s Cooper, who you want to be with then I support that.” His face melts into agony as Laken softens into me.

  “Thank you, if that’s how you really feel. I’m in love with Cooper, and I always will be. I will never be a Count. It may be in my blood, but that’s where it begins and ends.”

  His features sag at her proclamation. “Then I accept you that way.”

  There’s a lengthy pause.

  Laken stiffens. “Is Claire Anderson my mother?”

  “She’s my sister, your aunt.”

  A quivering breath of relief fills her. “So Suzanne?”

  “Is your mother,” he assures.

  She twists into me and latches on for dear life. “That means Lacey is my sister.” Laken turns back around. “Do I have Celestra in me?”

  “No.” His pale eyes fall over her. “That’s why I took the three of you. You’re Counts—you belong to me.”

  “What about the other Jen? The one I grew up with?”

  He shakes his head. “When I left, I took one twin—your mother kept the other. They’re fraternal, one is a Count the other is not.”

  “But you kept coming back.”

  “The relationship your mother and I share is complicated to say the least. It was easier for us to be away from one another.”

  “And you couldn’t care less about Lacey and Mom—send them to hell, no big deal. Your own family is suffering in the tunnels, and you don’t even give a shit.”

  The muscles in his jaw tighten. “That’s not how it went. Once you were gone, the protective hedge was lifted from their lives. They were taken without my permission.”

  Laken shakes her head. “I think I’m through with this conversation.” She looks to Edinger. “Take me to my family. I beg of you. It’s time to free them.”

  “I’m afraid I won’t be taking anybody to the tunnels today.” Edinger takes a step to the side.

  A shadow emerges as Wes comes up the path.

  “I will.”

  Wesley

  Coop holds Laken by the waist, and my brain fries just looking at them.

  Fuck. I thought this would be doable, that I might live through this without adding another trauma to my soul, but it’s doubtful I’ll come out of this unscathed. It’s bad enough knowing Laken walked out of my life but to leave me for Flanders—for a Celestra—it’s the twisting knife in my gut.

  Laken runs her tired gaze over mine. “Wes, I need my family back, so does Coop.”

  “And Casper.” Coop adds, but I don’t take my eyes off Laken.

  “Let’s go.”

  A black fog lifts us from one plane to the next as the Tenebrous Woods materialize around us. It’s just Laken, Coop, and me, and, for a moment, I toy with the idea of killing him, locking Laken up where she could be mine forever but resist the urge.

  “This way.” I lead them down the dusty path as the lavender moon glows up above like a pale stone. The woods are thick and knifelike, but the dusty path is backlit by a blue fog, the breath of the Countenance soldiers who have died. I wish I could reveal all of these mysteries to Laken—to make her see how special she is, how great we would both become one day, but her heart is too occluded. Maybe once her family is free, after some time, she’ll come back to me. It’s the only hope I have to cling to, and to give up now would be to fall on the sword of the horrible truth. Not one part of me believes she’ll ever be happy with Coop. It’s just not possible.

  The charred tree trunks of Tenebrous thicken as I lead us down a narrow pathway. I know for a fact Casper is up ahead. Demetri brought me down here earlier and showed me where the rest of them are.

  I turn back to find the two of them trailing, their hands interlocked.

  “Laken”—my muscles tense because I wonder if this is the last time she’ll ever let me get near her—“can I talk to you for a minute?”

  She and Coop exchange a quick look, and it’s all I can do to keep from pummeling him. Not only do I hate Coop—I hate the idea of Coop with Laken—touching Laken. He’s just another Celestra trying to dethrone the Counts wherever he can, and, in this case, he’s starting with killing my heart.

  “Sure.” She follows me over to the other side of the trail.

  “Laken.” I touch my finger to her face and she doesn’t recoil, that alone is worth the trip. “My love for you hasn’t changed. It’s immovable as stone.” She opens her mouth, and I land my finger over her soft lips. A hellish sadness settles in my stomach. “You don’t need to say anything. I want you to know I understand. I wish I could be like you, but I can’t deny who I am. Know this, I will always protect you—always love you. My arms and heart will welcome you the day you decide to walk back into my life.”

  “It will never happen.” She pulls my hand away from her face. “I’m sorry, Wes. I just don’t want you lost in some twisted delusion. Please, don’t bother pining for me. The Wesley I loved died a long time ago.” But the tears in her eyes tell me another story.

  “I had a vision.”

  “Don’t believe it.”

  Anger coats her from the inside out. She won’t hear of the fact that we reconcile someday. That all of this is for not, and she stands by my side as it was meant to be from the beginning.

  “Your father is the king of lies, Wesley.” She shakes her head, sorry for me. “When you pull through this, and I hope you will. I’ll welcome you back into my life—as a friend.”

  Our eyes lock. Laken’s lust filters through the air, her own deception circles around her head like a crown of thorns. This is nothing more than a pep talk she’s giving herself. My father didn’t give me the vision. It was gifted to me from the Justice Alliance last night when I toyed with the idea of taking Cooper to court. It was the bread of peace offered to me as a means to appease my broken heart. Laken will be by my side again one day. She just doesn’t know it. The Justice Alliance always speaks the truth, and there is no bigger solace than this.

  I bear into her with everything I am. “I will always love you.”

  “And I will always love who you were.”

  My heart stills, this twisted world born of darkness spins. It had finally happened. Laken was leaving me.

  We head back to Coop and continue further until we come upon the cage of bones Casper is holed up in. I kick in the makeshift shelter, and she bolts to Laken and Cooper before coming over and embracing me as well.

  “I’m really free?” Tears spring from her eyes.

  “You’re really free.” I pat her back. “Now, let’s get the others.”

  “So what’d I miss?” Her blonde hair is almost down to her shoulders. She’s thinner but one hundred percent Casper Masterson. “Is Flynn still a moron? Are Grayson and Kresley still the power bitches I always knew they could be?”

  “Something like that.” Laken slings her arm over Casper’s shoulder.

  We take a turn at the end of the road into the tower, and
I let them in and listen as they marvel at the nefarious beauty of the facility. The Tower is an architectural wonder with an extravagance unsurpassed by anything on earth. We follow the black-and-white checkered hall down to the end until we find the three of them there in a holding area usually reserved for those waiting to do time in the woods.

  “Laken!” Little Lacey cries out. Her cheeks are sunk with pallor, her hair darker than I remember. She wraps her arms around her sister and doesn’t let go. Her mother comes in and collapses over the two of them, and every memory I’ve ever shared with Laken’s family comes back to me.

  “Cooper?” A tall, blonde woman with reflective grey eyes hops up and latches onto Coop. I sniff back my emotions as she sobs over her son. “God, I’ve missed you. I missed you and Marky so much. I died every day without you.”

  Laken looks back, her eyes lock onto mine.

  “Thank you,” she mouths.

  “I love you,” I mouth back.

  She gives a slow nod. “I know.” Her eyes close, and I can feel her love for me radiating, wrapping around me like an ethereal glove. But Laken doesn’t say the words—and my heart breaks.

  The room begins to jolt and spin as I transport them all to the Flanders residence.

  I pull back and evaporate to nothing, letting them have their reunion. I want them to enjoy all the peace and harmony this moment can afford.

  My day will come with Laken.

  And when it does, it will feel just as good.

  “I love you, Laken Stewart. I believe everything you’ve ever told me as if it were coming straight from the mouth of God.”

  But it’s too late for that.

  A lone tear falls from my eye, and no one is here to see it.

  No one is here to care.

  I’ve lost the only thing that’s ever mattered to me.

  For now.

  12

  Epilogue

  Laken

  Almost Two Years Later

  The sun crests over the horizon, rousing me from an indecent night’s sleep. Cooper’s roommate has forfeited the room for the next few weeks to help get his girlfriend settled, so I’ve taken advantage of the situation.