Celestra Forever After (9 page)

Skyla lets out a guttural moan. She bounces her tongue over my teeth before outlining my lips, licking a line up to my ear.

“You’re my everything, Gage Oliver. You’re my forever—and don’t you ever forget it.”

She picks up a stick and traces out a heart over the damp sand.
Skyla + Gage
she writes inside. I take the gnarled branch from her and write
Forever
just below that.

“It’s just like that first unofficial date we had”—she gives a shy smile—“the summer I first moved to Paragon.” She slips into my lap, and I scoop her in close.

I remember that day. We went for a drive getting to know one another. It was just after Logan devised a plan for Skyla and I to have a fake relationship so they could keep seeing one another without tipping off the Counts.

“But this is the real deal,” she whispers warm over my lips.

Skyla knew I needed to hear those words.

Skyla always knows what I need to hear.

I drop Skyla off and make my way home. The lights are all on downstairs, a pretty good sign my parents are still up.

I park the truck high on the driveway and head in.

Mom, Dad, and Giselle are all standing in the living room, drowning in tension.

“What’s going on?” I toss down my keys and drop my backpack to the floor.

“Giselle, here, thinks Ellis is husband material.” Mom chokes the words out as if she were about to vomit.

“Ellis?” I blink back. What the hell is Harrison up to now? “Did he ask you to marry him?” I head over to my sister. Her dark hair is pulled high into a ponytail. Her bright denim eyes are watery as if she’s about to have a good cry.

“No. I was simply telling our
parents
that it might be a good idea because that way I could get out of the clutches of the Kraggers. Arson still thinks I’m his long-dead daughter, remember?” She snaps at Mom, and I try to hold back a smile. As much as I hate that they’re fighting, it sort of warms my heart that they can. It wasn’t too long ago that Giselle was dead herself. I suppose that’s one thing I can thank Dudley and Candace for.

“As much as I hate to miss the party, I’m wiped out.” I head for the stairs. “Goodnight.”

“Gage?” Dad calls as I’m half way up. “Did you happen to notice anything different in the driveway?”

“Driveway?” I turn around to find him at the base of the stairs. “No, what’s up? Someone syphon gas from your car again?” It happened twice last month to Mom’s sedan, and it pissed the fuck out of me. Swear to God, if I catch the bastard, I’ll be wanted for a felony myself.

Dad glances back at Mom and Giselle who are still going at it. “His truck is missing.” He gives a brief nod. “I thought perhaps you knew something of it.”

I jump down the steps until we’re face to face. “You think someone took it?” My heart pounds against my chest like a jackhammer. Shit. I was so hopped up on that heated exchange with Skyla, I didn’t even notice Logan’s truck was gone.

“No. He and Liam were here while Emma and I were at work. He sent a text earlier this morning. He said they’d see me soon.”

My heart jumps to my throat.

Logan is back, and he’s brought Liam with him. A swell of relief fills me and yet an undercurrent of anxiety is right there with it.

“That’s great.” It comes from me weak. “I’ll text him and see what’s going on.”

“Everything okay?” Dad drills into me because, for one, he’s always had the uncanny ability to know exactly what I’m thinking.

“Everything is great. First game is in a week. You going to be there?”

“You bet.”

“You’d better.” I climb the stairs without looking back. “Goodnight.”

Logan is back. I glance over at his darkened bedroom before making my way to mine. I pull out my phone and shoot him a text.

Someone stole your truck, douchebag. Call me
. I hit send and land the phone on the bed.

I head over to my bookshelf and pull out the Oxford Dictionary—a fat volume that my grandmother picked up for me at a garage sale one afternoon. The exact same afternoon she gifted me her two-carrot princess cut diamond ring.

I pull it out carefully and set it to side. The ruby velvet box is still tucked safely in the back. I hold my hand out in front of it and will it to come to me. Inch by inch it jerks forward until it crashes into my palm. I’m not sure why I have this new power. Why I can do a lot of strange things lately like will things to happen by outright demanding it mentally, but I suppose it’s some far-reaching Levatio skill I’m beginning to master. My father always told Logan and I that the older we got, the more powers we could accrue, that we could learn them like learning to play the piano. And now it looks as if that’s proving true, at least for me. I pluck open the soft velvet box, and the ring takes my breath away—beautiful as Skyla—platinum with smaller diamonds outlining a larger stone set in the center. I’ve gifted Skyla jewelry before, but nothing like this. This could be life changing for the both of us in the very best way.

My heart thumps clear into my ears, trying to hack its way through my skull with sheer enthusiasm. I can’t wait to ask Skyla to marry me. I was born to do this.

I glance over at the phone. Logan hasn’t bothered to return my text, and a part of me is glad. I just need a little more time alone with Skyla—a little more time to make her mine.

We’re almost there.

I hold the diamond up to the light, and a rainbow ignites across the room like a seizure.

We’ve almost got it all.

Logan

Ellis roars as he annihilates the enemy, in this case, Liam. They’re immersed in a game of Call of Duty in the middle of Dudley’s living room, passing gas, lighting up blunts like this were some frat house.

I throw a pillow at Liam’s head with missile precision and knock the joint right out of his hand.

“Like I said, don’t touch that shit, you’ll get hooked.”

Harrison picks up a pillow and nails me in the face. “And
I
said it’s not addictive. Go ahead, Liam, finish her off. I’ve got plenty more where that came from. It’s legal now in Washington in the event your brother isn’t up on his state laws.”

“No shit?” Liam stares down at the fat joint pinched once again between his fingers. Smoke blows from his lips as his chest bucks with a cough.

“How’s this? You’re both shit.” I get up. “I’m heading out for some fresh air.”

“What’s the matter, princess? Not in the mood for a pillow fight?” Harrison blocks my path with his leg. “
Dude
, toss off in the bathroom and let out a little steam. You’ll feel better, trust me. I do it like six times a day, and it’s just enough to pull me through.”

Liam starts in on a never-ending laugh.

“Look”—I start—“I’m not really interested in what you and Rosie Palm do in your spare time, which, rumor has it, you have a lot of.” I’ve seen him slacking off at the bowling alley enough to know this.

“Come on, stay.” He beams me in the head with a pillow that I never saw coming. “We’re just getting this slumber party rolling. Don’t be a pussy.”

“You’re a pussy,” I say, stepping over his leg. “And if I catch you passing this crap off to Giselle, I’m going to hit you in the head with something a little harder than a glorified ball of cotton.” I like Ellis, but his bad habits had better not transfer over to my niece.

“That goes double for me.” Liam takes another hit off the joint, and his chest puffs up before filling the room with a white plume.

“See you in a few.” I head out the back and walk down to the corral where the long-necked llamas roam free. I shake my head at the odd menagerie. Dudley’s a freak that’s for sure. There’s a light on in the barn, but not a sound comes from that direction. Maybe he slipped on a pile of shit and knocked himself unconscious? Who am I kidding—I’m not that lucky.

I glance up at the sky as the clouds break just enough to offer a peek of the navy backdrop. The stars glitter in a cluster right above my head. If I weren’t feeling so screwed over by life, I’d try to strangle some hopeful analogy out of it, but, the truth of the matter is, I’m dead for all practical purposes, while Gage is out there somewhere very much alive and working his way into Skyla’s pants. Who knows? They might be going at it right this very moment. I squeeze my eyes shut tight, trying to pull the visual out of my mind.

A llama sticks its face in mine, and I bat it away.

“Crap.” I catch my breath. “You scared the living shit out of me.”

It brays in my face with what sounds like
goooo.

“Go where, wiseass?” I glance back at the house and spot Ellis and Liam still lost in their videogame—a haze of smoke blooming around them. A noise comes from the barn, and I groan because Dudley is the last face I want to see tonight.

“I want to see Skyla,” I whisper.

The world quivers. Dudley’s estate warbles in and out, and, holy shit, I think I’m doing it.

I want to see Skyla.
I close my eyes. I’ve been transporting myself all over this island like the ghost I am, but Skyla is where I drew the limit—until now.

The atmosphere closes in, heavy as lead, and Paragon wraps itself around me like a glove. I can feel myself magnetizing toward her, the universe pulling me to Skyla like a vortex I’m more than willing to fall into. I can feel my body dispersing into millions of particles, and, for a second, I imagine her inhaling me right into her being. I wouldn’t mind. I want to fuse to her flesh, become a part of her in the most intimate way. A visual of her cells and mine melding together puts a dull smile on my face.

The butterfly room forms around me—the original one above Skyla’s bedroom.

I choose to remain in my translucent state and linger close to the wall with the butterflies glowing right through me. They’ve been luminescent ever since Gage worked his magic and made them each light up like a blue flame. It’s weird because it wasn’t exactly a Levatio ability, but since Skyla decided not to call him on it neither did I.

The blanket on the floor moves, and I hold my breath a second.

Skyla emerges from beneath it, plucking it off before rolling it up and lying on it like a pillow. Her face is red and swollen. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize she’s been crying. She cradles something in her arms, and it’s not until she turns to her side do I see it’s the framed picture I gifted her on graduation—the one with Gage and me flanking Skyla like bookends during our last football game at West. My heart breaks just witnessing the event. I know Skyla’s heart is breaking, too. I’d venture to guess she’s wishing we could somehow go back, recapture all the magic—I know I am.

I shake my head. There was so much going on that we couldn’t see we were already steeped in our glory days. Our love was ripe and new—her heart an entire fertile field. Then in one sweet burst she became my wife, and it all ended just as quick as it began. I’ll never forget those last few days, our bodies tangled in knots, hovering over Rome in a hotel suite that looked as if it were ripped right out of the pages of some romance novel. It was our time, and damn it to hell if we didn’t use it wisely.

“
Logan
.” She whimpers into the picture, and her chest bucks as she sheds an entire river of tears. “Forgive me.” Her voice floats to the ceiling with the quiet plea.

Forgive her? There’s nothing to forgive.

“I will always love you,” she whispers.

I hold my hand out to her.
I know.
I glide down beside her and brush the hair from her face.

Skyla startles and looks right up at me.

A body materializes into the room, stone cold from nothing—Gage.

“Hey, you okay?” He doesn’t hesitate scooping her in his arms and planting a docile kiss over her lips.

Skyla struggles in his arms a moment, glancing around the room with the slight look of panic. I do my best to blend in with the scenery, the butterflies lighting me up in all the wrong places.

“I’m fine.” She melts back in his arms. “It’s just one of those nights.” Her arms clasp over him like a vice. “Everything’s changing so fast. I guess I don’t do good with change.” She sniffs into his neck. “Promise me we’ll always stay the same. That you’ll never leave—never die.”

Never die. And there it is. I’ve caused her so much pain, she never wants to relive it. Can’t say I blame her. Death hasn’t exactly proven to be a pleasure cruise.

“I promise you one thing”—he dots her face with his lips—“we’ll always be the same no matter what.”

My heart breaks for the two of them. Gage knows better than to promise her he’ll never die. But, I guess no matter what, he’s right—they’ll always be the same. I know Skyla will love Gage forever and that she’ll love me just as long as well.

They whisper into one another and share quiet kisses while I circle the tiny space like a cat in a well.

I have no right to be in the room with them, ever.

So I do the only thing I can.

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