Expel (50 page)

Chapter 88

Body Language

The Madison Lights Ballroom is bathed in billows of precipitous baby’s breath. A blue tinted fog aligns itself with the fact tonight is a new moon.

“Your people have entranced my mother,” I say sarcastically to Logan as we enter the establishment. “She’s been going to the meet and greets with Demetri, often and willing.”

“I’ll find out what’s going on. If she’s at the meetings I’ll see her there for sure. I missed tonight’s, but there’s a follow-up three days later called the Slaughter of Plenty. It concludes the New Moon Festival.”

I don’t know whether to be frightened or impressed that Logan knows so much about the Counts. And the simple fact the phrase he just uttered contained the words
slaughter
and
plenty
, both frightens and unnaturally arouses me.

“There she is,” he nods behind me.

“Let me,” Gage offers.

“I’ll go with you.”

Gage wraps an arm around my waist as we head on over. Chloe pretends not to see us coming and continues to listen thoughtfully to whatever Michelle is filling her ears with.

A giant black rose lays flat against Michelle’s swollen chest. I pull a bleak smile at the thought of Marshall actually taking my advice and gifting her a new one—bigger and better at that.

 
“There’s a good chance Mia is stuck in the mirror.” Gage lets into her with a tone that clues her in on the fact he’s not shitting around.

“What’s it to you?” She snarls at the two of us as if she never did love him, as if she hated us equally.

“My sister is missing,” I hiss. “Remove that stupid binding spirit you placed around it so she can get out in one piece.”

“What the hell kind of hallucinatory drugs are you on?” Michelle pulls at a lock of her hair as Marshall whistles for her in the distance. She gives a sultry smile before trotting off dutifully like a well-trained dog.

“The mirror, dear Skyla, and everything in it is mine.” Chloe cuts a scathing look to Gage. “Why did you bring me back?” She hacks into him accusingly.

His eyes widen. He looks from me to her. “I got a text saying her sister was missing, and all roads to trouble always lead to you, Chloe.” He effortlessly slashes her with the blade of his tongue. “Do the right thing for once and let her go, she’s just a kid.”

“At the beach,” her eyes gloss over, “you said you cared about me, that you had feelings for me. You were faking it all for that stupid brat. You’ve been faking everything, haven’t you?”

Gage doesn’t say anything. He lets his muted silence speak volumes about how much he loathes her.

I’m no expert, but I’m guessing that while bargaining for my sister’s wellbeing, it’s a lousy time to clue Chloe in on how much he hates her.

“I’ll give Mia back,” she doesn’t look at me when she says it. She never takes her eyes off Gage. “But I want to speak with
you
, alone.”

***

I wander outside and find Logan leaning against the corrugated trunk of a palm, gazing out into a pale sapphire curtain of fog with a dismal expression.

I strum my fingers lightly over his arm. “Everything OK?”

“It is now.” He pulls me in, doesn’t hesitate wrapping his arms around my waist.

“Have I told you how dapper you look tonight?” Every Greek god should bow to his feet, but I don’t tell him that.

“Where’s Gage?” He sears my cheek with the question.

“Chloe—she’s probably telling him off, or vice versa. I didn’t feel like sticking around for the show.” A strangled silence crops up. Now that I’ve got Logan back, there is so much to talk about it’s impossible to know where to begin. “Hey,” I jump. “I thought of a way you might be able to save the bowling alley.”

“Please, share,” he gives a little laugh.

“You could tie in the pizza kitchen to every school lunch program on the island.” I leave out the part of me accusing Chloe of coming up with it. Technically it was me who had the stroke of brilliance.

“You, Skyla Messenger, are a genius.”

I relax my head back and laugh. “I’ve been called many things, genius is not one of them.”

Logan offers a quiet smile. He draws me in with his steely gaze, makes my heart skip a beat.

“You wanna take a walk?” He nods down a path that leads into the woods.

I take up his hand and we head into the forest, the thicket entombs us with a quiet calm, a stark contrast to the bad eighties music that’s hijacked the speakers inside.

The moon glows above the mist, soft as a lamplight.

“God, that feels good,” Logan takes in a full breath.

“What feels good?” I stroke his hand with my thumb. It’s so nice to have him back inside his beautiful body.

“Air in my lungs,” he presses the back of my hand to his lips, “but now you’ve eclipsed that.” Logan sears into me with his ironclad gaze. He galvanizes himself around my soul, fills me from the inside with all of his formidable splendor. I know damn well it could be dangerous heading into the woods—heading anywhere with Logan on a night like tonight, when I have him back, when I want him so bad.

The wind picks up, brushes against us as we move through the forest. An entire herd of Transfer transplants whir past us, frenetic, chatting a mile a minute.

“What the…?” Logan turns and watches them head towards the resort.

“They’re everywhere. There were a million at prom,” I shrug. “Marshall’s got it under control.” I don’t know that I really believe it, but I’m determined to let him work his black magic, and I’m going to stay the hell out of the situation.

We head further into the shadowed woods. Even the thin veil of moonlight is defused by the dark expanse. Each towering evergreen stands at attention, the blade-like tips of their branches extend, sharp as bayonets.

We stray hand in hand, make our way through a maze of tree trunks until the noise dissipates completely from the ballroom, all that’s left is the sound of our breathing.

Logan takes my hand and places it over his chest. I can feel his heart thump wild and erratic from underneath his shirt.

“It beats for you, Skyla,” his voice dips into its lower register.

He didn’t need to go there. His presence alone seduced me.

“I need to get back.” I try to turn my head towards the resort but I can’t look away. It’s like a car accident waiting to happen with Logan. I know I should run—Chloe loves the wreckage.

Logan steps in, backs me into a tree—grazes his face against my cheek, takes in the scent of my neck.

“I couldn’t feel you,” he whispers. “You weren’t real to me,” it comes out almost inaudible as though it were never meant for my ears.

“I’m here,” I whisper soft as a lullaby and pull him in. It feels good holding Logan like this. Reassuring him everything is going to be all right because Holden isn’t wearing him like a coat anymore.

“Being apart from you made me realize what hell it would be to live without you,” he shakes his head when he says it. “I’m going to fight for you, Skyla.”

I glance back at the Madison Lights Ballroom, which has become a mere orb of light smothered in a thicket of fog.

“Gage,” I whisper. Gage is my life raft—my forever. A horrible sadness comes over me, thick as lead, knowing that I can’t have Logan if I have Gage and vice versa.

Obviously the Decision Council knows nothing about love and everything about rotten timing or they never would have put two wonderful people in my life at once.

“You know,” I whisper, “sometimes, I really hate my mother.”

The whites of his eyes glint. Logan shakes his head as if I should never have gone there.

A dull sound whips through the air, cuts through the wind as it fast approaches. A horrific thud erupts in the trunk of the tree just inches above our heads.

“Shit!” I hiss, jumping away from ground zero. “What the hell was that?”

Logan nods up at a silver hatchet artfully lodged in the timber.
 

“
Mine
,” a frazzled voice echoes from behind.

“We have to go,” I pull Logan by the arm and run blindly in the other direction.

Ezrina appears like a crimson stain, blocks our path at every turn—her image splinters in each direction like a funhouse mirror.

“What does she want?” Logan pants, holding me as she stalks us from afar.

“She wants, me.”

A bird screams in the night. The rustle of wings brings Nevermore straight to my shoulder. He lets out a series of aggressive cries before settling in, sinks his talons through the fabric of Gage’s jacket until he hits my flesh with a sharp bite.

“Trial?” Ezrina pounces forward. Her girth alone produces a solid thump.

“My mother’s working on it.” Even I know that’s bullshit. The one time I asked for help she outright evaded the answer.

“Your mother?” Ezrina steps forward, the dowager hump on her back pronounces itself like a stone laid under her cloak.

There it is—I take her all in. The gnarled fingers, the spasms of endless wrinkles that encase her eyes, her lips—hair like twisted wire hangers. My future is laid out before me, and it appears my mother could care less. I bet she’s already seen it, read it like a book—the Ezrina years. My forever will be spent wrapped in a curse that was never intended for me.

“My mom wants to talk to you herself,” I say, backing up with Logan. I’d gladly sic Ezrina on my mother. Now there’s a showdown I’d love to watch—lightning bolts and hatchets flying every which way.
 

“Liar,” she reaches up and snatches a branch right off the tree, thick as a leg.

“Shit,” I hiss.

“Time,” she takes a bold step forward, holds out a crooked hand and inspires Nev to scream out at her.

“Get Marshall,” I whisper to Logan in a panic.

“I’m not leaving.” He tightens the grip around my waist, annunciating the fact.

“I have Nev, just go,” my chest heaves wild with alarm. The last thing in the world I want is for Logan to take off, but I need some celestial tap dancing and he just isn’t going to cut it. “Please, I’m begging you. I brought you back—now I’m begging you to help
me
stay.”

“No,” he whispers it so low I barely make out the word.

“He’s behind us in the ballroom, grab him and drag him back out here. Just go—
run
!” I shout, pushing him away.

“I’ll be back in less than ten seconds. Don’t move,” he fixes his eyes on me with determined aggression. “You can count to ten. I will be back.” His voice strangulates tight as a wire as he darts his anger towards Ezrina.

Logan melts into the anemic teal fog, disappears like a dream—leaves me swimming in a nightmare.

Ezrina, lunges forward, snatches a fistful of hair from the back of my head and breathes her putrid stench over me.

“Nev!” I cry out, my voice trails through the forest like a siren.

Nevermore flutters into the air, dive-bombs Ezrina with peck after peck.