“A liar with damn good aim,” I say, jumping into the driver’s seat.
It’s time to head to the rally.
I’ve got a Sector to speak to.
37
The Oracle
Paragon sparks electric under the charge of the student body at the senior rally. The undercurrent of something powerful is brewing, something far too magnificent for me to comprehend. The whole school has showed up in support of the senior class, and a few kids from East have joined in just for the after-parties alone.
I step onto the field with a smile as wide as the Pacific plastered on my face—albeit fake. But I do want to soak in all of this madness. The books are closing, on this my last year of high school, and I want to drink down the festivities, so I can remember them fondly decades from now.
Chloe Bishop looms in front of me, thrusting her pompoms into the air, gyrating her hips on what could very well be her last night of freedom.
“Get in line, Messenger,” she snarls.
I’m not in the mood for Chloe’s bullshit tonight. I try to push Logan to the recesses of my mind, but he keeps buoying to the surface like a corpse. I tried to find Marshall before the rally began, but he was nowhere to be found. He’s faculty, and perverted—he’s practically required to attend all events that star teenaged girls in their skivvies.
“What’s with you?” Brielle lunges in a series of high kicks as if she were aiming for Drake’s face.
“Just found out some interesting news.” I cut a hard look to Chloe. Emerson sang like the bird she was, and I never did get to share that bit of delicious news with Logan because he was too busy hacking my heart out with a pizza cutter. “You know, the kind of news that can change the course of someone’s life forever.” I try to split the distance between Chloe and me with the threat, but Brielle hoists me off to the side.
“Guess what?” She tips into me with excitement. “A certain someone was throwing rocks at my window last night.”
“Tad?” That man has gone too far. The next thing you know, he’ll be setting dirty diapers on fire and leaving them at their door.
“Who?” She looks genuinely mystified. “Drake. I let him in my room, and we, you know…” She bites down on a devious smile.
“Gah! Stay away from him!” He really is trying to live up to his nickname, the inseminator.
“I’m not staying away from him, Skyla. We’re officially engaged.” She holds out her left hand and exposes a red wire coiled around her ring finger.
“What the hell is that?” Dear God, he’s marking them like cattle.
“It’s a twist tie.” She fondles it like it’s made of platinum. “Isn’t it cute?”
I open my mouth to dispute said cuteness but deny myself the pleasure of being right because well, it sort of is cute.
“They do suggest he spends three months wages on the engagement ring, so, yeah, this is about right.” That one I couldn’t resist.
“Well, look at you.” She plucks the mirrored heart pendant from my chest and examines it. “Who gave you this? Whitehorse?” She flips it around and reads the inscription. “Wow, Skyla, whoever this guy is, he’s a real prince.”
“Logan gave it to me for my birthday, but in all fairness, Gage wrote me a poem, and Marshall gifted me Emerson Kragger.” I’m more than a little miffed at Logan for giving up so easily, although death is a pretty big demon to fight especially after it’s already claimed you.
Brielle hacks out a laugh on my suitors’ behalf just as Chloe pops up on the scene.
“Did I hear you say, Emerson Kragger?” She bleeds an evil joy. “Too bad Emerson is nothing but a big fat fake these days,” she muses, rubbing her metallic blue pompoms together as if she were plotting another homicide, and knowing Chloe, she probably is.
Brielle hops back into the lineup.
“Maybe this Emerson is a fake, but not the one I was just with. She’s a bona fide Kragger. As rotten as they come.” I take a step into her until I can feel her breath over my face. Chloe’s perfume sifts through the fog like an airborne venom. “I met up with the real deal tonight, Chloe. I’ll let you consider your options a moment before we return to the negotiation table.” I glance down at the ropelike chain that holds the protective hedge around her neck. “I’m not sure why you bothered to solder that thing to your body. I bet with the right motivation, either one of us could snap through that like a candy cane.”
Her eyes widen, her face bleaches to powder as the floodlights come on, igniting our world, bright as the afternoon.
A horn goes off in the distance as Principal Rice adjusts the microphone, readying to commence the ceremonies for the evening.
Ellis catches the corner of my eye as he heads toward the bleachers.
“Face it, Chloe, after what you did, you’re headed to both prison and hell—but I could stave off prison if you gift me that pendant.” It heaves from my chest as if I just ran a lap around the island. Perhaps reminding her she’s going to hell wasn’t the brightest move on my part.
“Skyla!” My name booms from a distance.
I look back and spot Ellis crossing his arms over his head from the stands.
“Think about it, Chloe.” I run off in his direction with enough adrenaline to tip the bleachers over if I wanted. I’m pumped and amped and gloriously ready to get that pendant back for Marshall—for Logan—to cure Logan’s incessant need for me to have it. My heart bleeds at the kindness he’s shown me, the sacrifice he made to protect me, and the ultimate sacrifice he made to get me to the sword of the Master.
“Dude, you seeing Dudley?” Ellis laughs while holding out his hand for a high five.
“What? Why?” I glance back at Chloe. I smell revenge rumors at work, and I know who started them.
“No reason. He just asked me to tell you to meet him in the woods. It’s not every day a teacher asks to meet with a hot student in the forest.”
“Why wouldn’t he tell me himself?”
Marshall has the gift to lob whatever the hell he wants into my brain. Unless, of course, he has somehow lost that ability…
“No clue.” Ellis squints into the thicket just shy of the parking lot. “He went that way. He was staggering, said something about killing the Pretty One. That’s not you is it?”
“No, that’s not me.” It’s Logan.
I bullet out toward the parking lot. No wonder Logan was beyond distressed. My mother probably clued him in on the fact his second resurrection was about to be revoked by way of a pissed off Sector.
I run off the field, through senior lawn, before darting across the parking lot. I reach the lip of the woods and try to catch my breath as the fog weaves through the maze of pines. The forest holds a strange luminescent glow to the left, and I migrate my way over.
“Marshall?”
The pale skin of a woman glimmers as she ducks behind the fat trunk of a birch.
“Skyla?” she says it low, but my name reverberates throughout the forest floor like a tremor.
She peers out as if uneasy to be here in the first place. That long, black hair, those piercing dark eyes—it’s Chloe’s elder, Marlena.
“Where is he?” I bolt over.
“Here.” She pulls back the loose shrubbery behind her, revealing Marshall with his face as brilliant as the sun.
“Marshall?”
“Hello, love.” He steps forward. His features are completely washed out, and it hurts to look at him.
“What’s happening?”
“I’m afraid the banishment has begun.” His voice echoes like a thousand wind chimes.
Marlena huffs as if she were miffed. “I can think of a dozen better ways to rid the world of you.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be dead in a ditch somewhere?” I’m not in the mood to deal with anyone’s crap tonight, least of all hers.
“Hush.” Marlena bites through the haze with her reprimand. “You’re just like that cross witch who thinks she knows best.”
I pull
back my cheek. She just described my mother perfectly.
“Come.” She takes up my hand and Marshall’s, and the three of us drift off to paradise.
***
The last time I saw my mother, our conversation was cut short by a rather abrupt visit to the Tenebrous Woods. Freaking Counts. I swear if they try to pull that crap again, just as my mother is about to dish some serious answers, I’m going on a hacking spree as soon as I get back. I’ll start with Holden and end with Chloe, oh, what the hell—I’ll spear them together like she did Logan and me.
A deep purple sky bubbles to life above Ahava. The falls in the distance whisper as my mother appears next to me just where we left off.
“Sorry we were so rudely interrupted.” She pulls me into a temporary embrace. “Now where were we?”
Marshall winces from a few feet away, and I run over and wrap my arms around him a good long while.
“Heal him,” I say. “I want Marshall on that island until I take my dying breath.”
My mother inverts her lips as if she’s considering this. “Do you have the Eye of Refuge?”
“I will,” I say. “He gave me all the ammo I need to squeeze it out of Chloe’s a—astronomically huge ego.” I pump a quick smile. “Anyway, I’ll get it. Tonight.”
Marlena sits on the lawn like she’s settling in for the show.
I lean into Marshall. “What was she doing there tonight?” I whisper. “Not that I’m jealous. OK, maybe I’m a little jealous.”
Marshall carves a satisfied smile out on his perfectly chiseled face. “I knew I would need her, that’s why I summoned her to begin with.”
Marshall needed someone, and I was probably the last person on his list he thought to ask.
“Not true.” He touches his forehead to mine a moment. “It’s just that Marlena has far less to occupy her time,” he says it lovingly with a level of understanding that breaks my heart. “I knew she had the ability to bring us here if my powers faded. We both needed her.”
I turn back to my mother.
“Whatever it is that needs to be done—to be sacrificed for Marshall—I’ll do it.” I hold her steely gaze, those pale-stone eyes needle right at me as if I had just volunteered to slaughter my firstborn in an effort to save him.
“You do love him.” Her entire demeanor sags with relief.
“Yes.” I’m a bit surprised to hear myself say it. “Of course, I love him. Now reinstate his visa, or soon Marlena here won’t be the only one showing off her medieval skills.”
“Did you just threaten me?” She chortles, amused at my childish antics.
“Oh”—I shake my head incredulous—“the threats are just beginning. I want Logan back in his body and that pendant around my neck by midnight right where it belongs. And I want answers. I’m sick of trying to decipher my heart. For once I’d love for you to step up to the plate and be a mother by definition instead of just biology. I’m hurting, and I could use a little damn advice.”
“Sector Marshall.” Her eyes never waver from mine as she hacks his name through the air. “Take Marlena. I would like you to give Skyla and me some much needed privacy.”
A sea of clouds seep into the area, and the two of them evaporate with a marked finality.
“Did you just kill them?”
“Technically, Skyla, neither of them is alive by earthly standards.” She wraps an arm around my shoulder, and we walk over toward the lake, right past the shore and onto the water.
The only thing running through my mind is don’t doubt, don’t doubt. It’s funny, and sad, and richly ironic because this is the exact place Logan proposed to me, sort of. Of course, at the time, we were in Demetri’s demented mirror but still, the premise was the same.
“So tell me, Skyla,” her voice moves with a melody all its own. “Which suitor pleases you most?”
“They all do—equally. And it sucks, by the way. Just knowing I’m going to crush someone’s heart kills me. I’m dying over this in a big way.”
“I see.” She considers it as if I’ve built a strong argument, and for what I don’t know.
I pause and take up both her hands. Her hair blows back, revealing the refined details of her jaw, her sharp almond eyes—it’s like looking in a mirror.
“I beg of you, let Marshall live.”
“He lives.”
“On Earth.”
“Pendant, please.”
A spike of heat bites through me with frustration. “This is trivial.” I call her out on her bluff. “There’s another reason you and Logan are after me to get that pendant, isn’t there?”
“You’re my child through and through.” Her cheek rises as she tucks in a smile.
“Tell me.”
“Figure it out.”
A cool breeze picks up as I glance back at the falls. It reminds me of the Falls of Virtue, and every time I think of that place, Logan springs to mind. I swear I thought we’d have a million Celestra babies running around one day.
My mouth opens. I go to say something and choke on the words.
My heart bangs against my chest like a prisoner who’s just discovered she was lured into a trap.
That child in the vision… Dear God, is that why Logan wants me to get the pendant back?
“I’m done with games, Mother,” I spit it out. “I want all of the truth and all of it now. Who do I choose, and which hearts get broken? Please help me. No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to do this on my own. It feels as if, maybe, I was destined to be with all three.” Maybe this is the cowardly way out, but, in truth, if my mother isn’t going to guide me in the least, I needed the help of the future me to sort this mess out. Keeping all three suitors just isn’t a viable option.
“No more games.” Her eyes enliven like silver flames, her lips pull back with a satisfied smile. “I’ll touch on the highlights for now, but I’ll fill you in on all the details another time—when you’re fully ready.”
“No,” I say it sharp and caustic, and my feet sink into the water a good six inches.
“Yes.” She motions for me to rise, and I do.
She gives my hands a gentle squeeze and looks into me with the love and affection that only a mother can deliver.
“This is your destiny. I designed it this way because I love you.” She starts in slow, and I listen intently to each word as she speaks them regarding love and heartbreak. It’s like experiencing heaven and hell all rolled into one as she touches on the highlight reel of my future. Something galvanizes in me as a person as she chants out the journey that lies ahead for me and for everyone I love. It’s as though the girl in me is disintegrating, evaporating like smoke, and a new person is forming in her place, stronger, far more independent, fierce and able to fend for herself. The road ahead is colored with laughter and tears, with the magic that rainbows bring, along with bitter sunsets.
I nod into her as she finishes up, her eyes sparkling with tears.
“Now look what you’ve done.” She gives a hard sniff. “Your future is a masterpiece, Skyla.”
“I can see that.” I take a breath while trying to absorb what she’s told me.
“Do you approve of the journey ahead?”
The universe stills for a moment as if waiting to hear the answer.
“Yes—I guess I do.” The landscape of tomorrow is brilliant and frightful, congested with both heartache and joy. I don’t know all the ins and outs, but I know enough to satisfy me for now. “So Marshall, huh?” A coy smile rides up my cheek, and I blush at the thought. Even after all those erotic visions this surprises me, but not too much.
“Sector Marshall.” She lends a smile to match my own.
I take in a breath. Ahava glitters with approval as all of this knowledge, all of this blissful and tragic news bubbles anew inside me.
“Thank you.” I lean in and press a kiss over her cheek. “You’re the best Celestial mother a girl could ask for.” I give her hands a gentle squeeze. “Now take me back to the woods behind
West.” I straighten with a new sense of resolve. “The future begins tonight.”
***
The fog bleeds in around me as I whisk away into the pale blue haze.
The world transforms then remakes itself with startling familiarity as my feet land secure on Paragon soil. The evergreens expel their fragrant oils and assure me I’m home again. I’ve crossed a threshold. The past is behind me like an old friend, the future no longer a pinhole of light but a stream of warm sunshine filled with peace, and love, and tears, of course, but those are for later. Little does my mother know I’ll do everything I can to keep the tears from coming. She might have her agenda but I sure as hell have mine.
I speed out of the woods and through the parking lot, I traverse a series of benches in the quad as I burst my way onto the field and stop cold when I see her.
Chloe in all her wicked brilliance. Her light is the most deceptive because once she lures you in, she turns up the furnace and burns you down.
“Ms. Messenger.” A male voice thunders from behind.
I spin to find that lovely face, that vexingly gorgeous body.
“Marshall!” I jump up and hug him right here on the field in front of a thousand witnesses, and I really don’t care about the consequences. “You’re back.”
“For a moment. Do refrain from your enthusiasm, or you’ll land me in the unemployment farm.”
I take a respectful step back and admire the way the fog presses around him like a halo.
“You mean the unemployment line.”
“Farm, line what’s the difference? I refuse to be herded like cattle.”
I turn and catch Chloe glowering over at me, and I’m drawn to her.
“Teach me how to share a vision.”
Chloe is a black hole that’s pulling me into her vacuum.
“The knowledge is already yours. But I bid you, think twice.”
The Eye of Refuge sparkles from her chest under the duress of the floodlights.
“It’s almost mine, I can feel it,” I whisper. My feet move in Chloe’s direction, and her eyes slit to nothing. A black smile expands across her lips like a rubber band.