Logan pops up next to me, water beading over his broad shoulders, and that ear-to-ear grin on his face suggests he’s up to no good.
“No games.” I fall onto my back and begin to float. The exposed surfaces of my flesh are instantly scolded by icy bites of Paragon fog. It would seem that Paragon in general detests anything warm, anything that has to do with that fiery orb in the sky in general. It expends so much energy trying to hide its beauty, its warmth, you would think it were a sin to enjoy the pleasures they invoke.
“Not even a quick race?” Logan grabs ahold of my foot, and I try not to let him ruin my balance as I close my eyes, aching for a moment of rest, some sleep at last to soothe my weary bones. “Come on.” He takes a bite out of my ankle. “You can sleep later.”
“Ouch.” My limbs sink under the surface as I struggle to right myself. I splash at him, missing his face on purpose because I’m not up for starting a water war. “You’re like a puppy, you know that?”
“And you’re like a—”
“Okay”—I cut him off before he lets me know exactly what he thinks of me—“I’ll race you. But just this once. Then we float and pretend to nap while enjoying the soothing sound of rushing water.” I blink a smile.
“I was going to say—you’re like a really lucky person because I was going to watch over you while you napped in totally hazardous conditions, just to make sure you didn’t drown. But now that you want to race.” He eyes the Falls. “Last one to hit the middle has to tell Giselle I’m going to burn down that barn.” He dives underwater with the elegance of an Olympic swimmer and takes off like a shark going after its prey.
“Logan Oliver!” I do a sloppy rendition of the breaststroke until I finally meet up with him under the middle fall. “Cheater.” I laugh as we swim to the back of the grotto and take a seat on a natural stone shelf. I scoot in close and land my head on his shoulder, the water comfortably nipping at my neck. “I’m pretty sure I’m not telling Giselle anything of the sort. I like her happy. I like everyone happy.” I look up at Logan, his eyes set ahead as if he were transfixed by the rush of water tumbling in front of us. “Are you happy? You know, with Lexy?” There you go. Now that’s one way to ensure my mother’s impromptu date will crash and burn in a spectacular Bakova-sponsored blaze.
He takes in an enormous breath, and his chest expands impossibly wide as he scoots in next to me. “Yes,” he says with the least credibility in his voice that I have ever heard, and yet it spears me as certain as a knife to the heart. The sharpest blade, dipped in poison strong enough to kill the most callous of hearts. And God knows I have tried to have a thick skin regarding the situation. I scoot away, unwilling to let him pry effortlessly into my thoughts by way of touch. Besides, there is far too much flesh rubbing up against one another. I don’t think Gage would be thrilled to know I was splashing around in my underwear with Logan, let alone touching his legs, his chest, our feet playing footsies as if they were trying to warm one another.
“That’s great.” I stare catatonically at the Falls right along with him, and we both lose ourselves in that curtain of water. “So how far do you think you’re going to take this? You thinking marriage, a family? I mean, you should.” I choke on those last few words without meaning to. Logan should most definitely not marry, nor breed, with that beast, but honestly I don’t think I could find a girl on the planet who would be good enough for my Logan. My Logan. I lean my head back and lightly bang it against the sheer granite. He’s not my anything. Just a friend. Family. Basically a brother-in-law and an ex all at the same time.
“We’ll see. I mean, she’s made it clear she’s ready for all that. All of me,” he says that last part begrudgingly. He lets out a heavy breath and hangs his head a moment. “I just want you to be happy, Skyla. And a part of me is afraid that if you sense me pining after you that you won’t truly be happy. I don’t want your pity anyway. I want you and Gage to have all that this life can give you.”
“That’s very sweet of you and I want that, too, but please don’t rush into something you’re not ready for just to prove a point. You have your whole life in front of you. And it really would kill me to know that you missed out on having a beautiful family just because of me.” A sharp jolt of pain strikes me as Angel, our baby, comes to mind.
“I want those things, too.” He nods as if he’s trying to convince himself. “And I have a gut feeling they’re going to happen.”
“With Lex?” It comes out a little too loud, a little too argumentative.
“Why not?” He shrugs into the idea as if I just somehow managed to talk him into an unwanted game at the bowling alley.
“You should fall in love. Hard. That’s when you’ll know it’s right. And it will work best that way.” My chest bucks as I hold back tears. I instantly hate this girl that Logan will love, hard, and here she’s simply a figment of my imagination. Lexy could never be that girl.
“Lexy could be that girl,” he says.
I inch back and make sure we’re not touching in any way. We’re not, and I’m stunned to think he could have actually come to that conclusion on his own.
“She could be in theory.” He reaches over and picks up my hand. “Don’t be afraid to let me in, Skyla. I already know what you’re thinking.” His eyes sink deep into my soul as he says it. I know it’s true, every word he spoke. “I can learn to love Lexy. She’s already there. It’s not like I get out. I’m not lost in some party scene. I don’t know how I’d meet anyone else anyway.”
“Wow, right place, right time. Lexy really is a lucky one.” I glance down at our entwined fingers, desperately trying not to envision Logan and Lexy going at it, but it’s there in the back of my mind niggling at me, mocking me and my incessant need to make everyone happy. “I’m married to Gage,” I say as the words strum out numb and the sky electrifies with a jag of lightning in protest. “I am, Mother!” I sneer over at Logan. “I am.”
He winces, playfully butting his shoulder to mine. “You’re actually not.”
“Don’t you start on me. I’m sick of everyone throwing that whole covenant thing in my face. Surely Gage wasn’t sent back to me for nothing. We have a family. In fact, we’re going to buy him a new wedding ring as soon as we get around to it. Demetri said he’d host the wedding ceremony for us.”
“Demetri? Skyla, are you even listening to yourself?”
“He’s official, you know, a created being—a Fem. Marshall won’t do it. And what good is a mere man? At least this way we’ll have the blessing of a heavenly host, and on top of that, it will give me some leverage with Demetri.”
“Because bearing him heirs was simply not enough? I hate to break it to you, but Demetri is the only celestial being we know that’s pushing for the two of you. That speaks volumes.”
“My mother—Lizbeth, she supports us.” I take in a ragged breath because somehow mentioning my earthly mother plays into the fact this should be dissected from every angle. “Anyway, I’m still me. I’m still in charge of the Factions. I’m still for the Retribution League. I’m for Celestra. I am Celestra. So there. Demetri can’t tweak that.”
Logan grunts as if he’s still trying his hardest to refute the idea. Although, I refuse to pry around in his brain at the moment to prove it. “Let’s change the subject.”
“Okay”—I start slow—“how’s it going with the repairs to the bowling alley?”
“It’s looking like after the repairs are done, and inspections are through, we’ll be back in business sometime in the spring. But the gym is doing great. Raking in money hand over fist. I’m starting to feel a bit like Drake.”
“Words I once prayed Logan Oliver would never say.” We share a quiet laugh. It’s true, though. Drake and Brielle have had their fair share of successes until they botched everything up. I suppose that was destined to happen with Drake and Bree at the helm. Yes, they’ve amassed unimaginable wealth with multiple businesses, but that’s all on hold for now. Bree’s even hinted at a book she mig
ht be writing a time or two. Bree and Drake are certainly living their lives fearlessly. “You do realize they’re on the hook for tax evasion and have an entire army of angry customers trying to sue them.”
Logan’s chest pumps with a silent laugh. “You know what they say—with every blessing there’s a burden.”
Those words I read in The Hallowed Tomes come back to me. Deep love of the enemy is the downfall of many. I’m quick to shake it out of my head. I don’t want to think about it. I hate those words, and I hate the implications they might have for my people. Gage is not the enemy. I will scream that from the top of the universe if I have to. I take a deep breath and get back to the subject at hand. “But I’m glad it’s working out for you—your new businesses will lead to new successes. I firmly believe that. And Ellis? Is he at the gym every day?”
“He’s at the gym every day—as a patron. I’m the one oiling the equipment, making sure nobody drops dead in hot yoga.”
“Aww”—I give him a hard poke in the ribs—“that must be so hard for you. Having to watch all of those women in their barely there, painted on latex workout wear.”
“They’re naked, Skyla.”
“What?” I shriek so loud my voice reverberates around us like a distress signal.
“Kidding.” He holds up a hand to keep me from beating him. “Nobody’s naked, not even in the shower, and trust me, I reviewed the footage.”
“Logan!” I attempt to rattle some sense into him, and he slings his arms under my legs, picking me up, swimming us out around the curtain of water and back into the lagoon where the water only seems to get warmer.
“You still want to sleep?” he asks as we float seamlessly across the great expanse.
“No.” I lean my head over his arm. “I just want to stare at you while you tell me nice things. It feels as if all I do is worry. I have literally become one big ball of stress. I can’t seem to manage my finances, my home, my family, my mother, and least of all, Gage. Just tell me something easy, Logan. Something nice.”
His lips press tight a moment as he glances out past the horizon until finally he sags, his muscles relaxing beneath me.
“I can’t. Because life will never be easy, Skyla. That much I know is true.”
My mouth opens, but my vocal cords are unwilling to protest these hard truths. I land my head over his chest and continue to gaze at Logan in all of his glory, water up to my neck and warm as tears. So much has changed for the two of us. So much is changing still. My mother in all of her manipulative ways has given us a strange gift. What was meant as a romantic interlude only brought us that much farther apart. With me cementing my commitment to Gage, and Logan hoping to do the same with Lexy. Lexy of all people. These circumstances really do exemplify the fact that a human being can be emotionally in both heaven and hell. I don’t think enough centuries could pass for me to ever get used to Logan being with Lexy Bakova, anyone for that matter. So just the way Logan has accepted his fate with Lexy, in a strange way I’m accepting her presence. She is interchangeable as far as my hatred for her goes. Anyone in her shoes who might find their way to that bed of his, in the house he built for me, will automatically be gifted my ill affection. Maybe not if it was Laken, but then, Laken already has her fair share of suitors. Maybe that’s what’s really keeping her safe. No—there is no one safe from my percolating wrath, the insane jealousy that is wild within my body. Heaven and hell are real, and they exist inside of me.
Logan looks down, examining my face. “You didn’t let me into your mind, but I saw it plain as day on your face. I meant what I said. I know you better than I know anybody, more than I know myself. Let go of it. Don’t breed hatred. It only brings pain.” He closes his eyes a moment. “I know this all too well.”
“Skyla!” a distant, angry voice calls out, piercing the membrane of solitude around us.
Logan lets my legs fall into the water as he swims us to the rocky shore.
“Skyla!” The voice cuts through the air like a dagger on fire, and only then do I recognize the razor-sharp passion that belongs to a severely disjointed Sector.
“That’s Marshall,” I say as I muster my Celestra strength to pull myself onto the closest boulder, but I can’t seem to do it. Strange. It’s as if every time I’ve tried to utilize my powers these last few days, they’re not as sharp as they used to be. I’ll be the first to admit there’s not a lot of sleeping going on in my bedroom, and it’s not entirely the boys’ fault.
Logan hops out ahead of me and gives me a hand as the fog envelops us with her icy fury. A mean shiver hits me, and Logan scrambles to toss me my sweater, my jeans that cling violently to every inch of my legs as if they were refusing their duty. Logan struggles to get dressed himself as if we were trying to beat Marshall and his impending wrath to the punch. But it’s too late. I spot him over the top of the hill with a look of disapproval and rage all rolled into one.
“I think we’re in trouble,” I whisper as I jump into my shoes, and Logan laughs as he zips his jeans.
“That seems to be a theme with us.”
It takes less than five minutes for Logan and me to hike over to where Marshall glares at us from the peak above the Falls of Virtue.
He glowers openly at the two of us as we come within feet of him. “I hope you’ve had your fill of whatever nonsense it was the two of you were partaking in.”
A breath hitches in my throat at the lewd implication. Marshall of all people shouldn’t think that I would stray from Gage. “We weren’t—”
“Save it.” He turns and begins heading back toward the Estates as we struggle to keep up with him. “You’re coming with me. Do not leave my side. Do not blink or wink at one another. This isn’t the time for childish antics.”
Logan glances over his shoulder a moment. “Look, I’m going to get my truck. I can get us there in half the time.”
Marshall roars out something unintelligible, inhuman, as he looks back to Logan and lifts a hand. A bolt of lightning emanates from his palm, seizing the three of us in its membrane, and just as quick as it came it dissipates. But the world around us suddenly looks as if it’s made of water, and it becomes apparent by the way the evergreens speed by that Marshall is well-equipped to provide his own accelerated mode of transportation.
I reach over and pick up Logan’s hand, still cold from our wet and not so wild romp.
What do you think is happening? I ask as we keep pace with the Sector leading the way.
Logan gives my hand a squeeze. It’s always been his way of acknowledging the fact he can hear me. And it’s been a sweet reassurance from the beginning.
He frowns at our fearless leader. I don’t know, but something or someone has pissed Dudley the hell off. Was it you?
And sometimes Logan just isn’t all that sweet. You’re quick to point the finger. It wasn’t me. Maybe it was you?
He grimaces. Nothing would surprise me anymore.
No sooner do we end our spat than we come upon Marshall’s enormous estate, and the world around us shifts back into focus—our pace becomes far more plausibly human.
Logan darts forward as Dudley lets us in through the oversized front door. “I hope your magic trick came with a shield of invisibility because your little celestial tantrum may have just sent a serious red flag to the feds. Or have you forgotten all about that zoo habitat they’re running like a torture chamber?”
Marshall bolts to the dining room where we find Ellis and Brody already there with a hurricane of loose papers spread over the table, each of them with a pen in hand. To Brody’s left there looks to be a crude map of some sort.
“What’s going on?” I ask as both Brody and Ellis glance up momentarily and nod. If I were to guess, it looks like they’re both working on some intense algebraic equation.
Marshall looks to me sternly, his jaw set so tight it looks as if he’s about to lash out violently and take the whole house down with him. “Where’s the final piece to this ragtag army you’ve outfitted us w
ith? Where’s Flanders?”
“In the Transport with Laken. They’re—” I hesitate from spilling the truth and do my best to shield my thoughts from him. Coop warned me that Marshall might not like the idea we were digging into ancient texts. “Trying to rekindle their romance. Coop is, at least.”
Marshall glares at me. He bears hard into my soul with something just this side of hatred. He knows I’m not telling the truth. Well, technically, that is the truth. Worse than some silly lie, Marshall knows I’m holding something back because he thinks I don’t trust him. Of course, I trust Marshall. An errant thought comes to me. If I trust him, why am I keeping things from him? And yet I have no answer for it.
“What have you come up with?” he riots so loud both Logan and I buck.
Brody slams his pen to the table with a marked finality. “Noster,” he shouts back. “We came up with Noster.”
“I’ll summon them immediately.” Marshall speeds over and glances at the chaos strewn over the table.
Ellis looks up and he’s wearing his wire-rimmed glasses that he dons on occasion, and it warms me to him, to the past. Ellis looks every bit the innocent little boy with them on. “You won’t be able to house them all. We’ll need to go to Tenebrous.”
“Tenebrous?” Marshall howls, incredulous. He flicks his anger my way momentarily before reverting to Ellis. “You don’t think the disappearance of an entire Faction of angels will give someone on this planet a moment of pause? We’re not going to Tenebrous. I’ll call those on the island to come immediately.” He looks to me. “And then I will leave you in charge of the meeting. You will do as I say and not as you please.” Marshall looks to the window sternly as if casting a spell—as if he were communicating on some deep telepathic level. “They’re already on their way. Outside, all of you.”