Expel (53 page)

“I love you forever, Skyla,” his voice hums through the night as if he had released a whisper that swam right into my ear.

“Skyla,” Demetri prods me with the metal saber, motions for me to turn around and face Logan, and I spin involuntarily. “Ms. Bishop,” he points the blade in her direction and Chloe is quick to appear by my side, spirit sword in hand. Figures—Chloe has no problem walking through a wall of raging electricity.
 

The wind picks up. A blue mist covers us, thick as oil.

“Why don’t you leave this world with a kiss,” Chloe pushes into Logan’s head with the sword until he brushes his lips against mine.

We’ll be OK
, Logan assures. Although at the moment it doesn’t feel so convincing with both our bodies in lockdown—a nest of lightning separating me from Gage.

“What’s the codeword?” Demetri twirls his hand in the air, enjoying his taunt.

He was there in the Transfer.

Of course, he was. I saw him there myself.

“Oh, I’m dying to hear this,” Chloe laughs. “Aren’t
you
, Gage? Aren’t you dying to hear what the procreators have been saying to each other? Don’t you think that’s a great idea, Mr. Edinger? You could have the two perfect Celestra mate. You can drink the blood of their children.”

“Always thinking, Ms. Bishop.” He cuts a dark smile over at me.

“The code?” Chloe digs the spear into Logan’s back.

“Happily ever after,” Logan expels with a sigh.

Gage steps into my line of vision, gives a slow blink when Logan says it. He eyes Demetri and Chloe like a predator waiting for just the right moment to pounce.

I look away not wanting to try and decipher whether or not he’s in pain, not wanting him to see mine. It was Gage who saved Chloe tonight, it was Gage who held her hand, partook in a rather lengthy conversation with her while I was in the forest—Gage who was revealed to be the well-placed boyfriend. What does it mean? He was my forever, and none of this was real.

My mother’s words come back to me—
trust only your heart
. She knew. She could see the deception from the throne room. This secret was only well guarded from me.
 

“Take me to Mia,” I blink back tears and inhale my resolve. This isn’t about me, or my wayward love life. It’s about saving my sister.

“I’ll give you one last chance, Skyla,” Demetri lowers his head. “Assure the young man his chivalry was well worth the effort—go home.”

“No,” I swallow hard. “It’s me who gets taken. If anyone gets to go home its Logan.”

“He stays,” Demetri is quick to answer.

“Then I stay with him.”

“That’s right, proclaim your love for Logan,” Chloe chides. “See Gage? You were right. She will never get over him. Oh, and, Skyla?” She digs something out of her heart-shaped purse, “I seem to have stumbled upon Melissa’s phone.” She tosses it over to my feet. “Can you make sure she gets it?”

Shit.

I look up at Logan in horror. She did this to us. She hooked us and reeled us in, shot us down like fish in a barrel.

“Skyla,” Gage wastes no time.

“Save it.” I might crack. I might lose my mind and bawl like a baby right here on this rock—I just pray to God it opens up and swallows me like a bad dream.

Gage jumps onto the stone, and a jolt of electricity crackles through him. It illuminates him from the inside as if he were his own universe, his body broken with bolts of lightning. He lets out a groan and struggles his way over, takes a breath as his body is restored, resplendent and new.

“There’s something you need to know.” He takes me up by the waist without permission, looks into me with those sacred blue eyes before touching my hand.
Those people who came from the Transfer were here for a reason. Chloe brought them
.

I try to wrangle my hand loose from his grasp, but he latches on tighter.

There’s a bloodbath coming for Celestra. Chloe gave them the walking tour of your home, the school. She made sure they saw you crowned as prom queen. Come home with me.

 
“Go home, Skyla,” Logan pleads.

A searing pain shoots through my stomach and exits my back.

“Too late,” Chloe growls.

Logan and I look down, take a breath and hold it simultaneously.

“Skyla,” Gage breathes my name as if he were grieving me.

The blade protrudes from Logan and skewers right through me. Logan’s white shirt blooms with color, my dress is quick to gloss over around the newfound incision.

She’s done this—Chloe holds the blade into Logan’s back and pushes it in, moves it around until he cries out from the pain.

Gage knocks Chloe down with his shoulder and wraps his fingers around the handle of the rapier. A storming seizure electrifies his body, as the sword ignites a velvet blue.

Chloe jumps to her feet, wastes no time in relaxing her arms over Gage, causing his body to stop seizing from the electric shock. He removes his hands from the sword and exhales in exhaustion.

Logan and I illuminate from the inside a perfect sterile blue. My body trembles, a warm buzz vibrates throughout my veins, carbonates my blood. I look past Logan’s shoulder at my beautiful Gage, my helper, my everything, my deceiver and mouth the words,
help me
—
my forever
.

Chloe lights up the fog between us with her anxious breath. “Here’s to happily ever after.”

The stone opens up, swallows Logan and me—the blade still skewering us together, holding us secure.

“
Skyla!
” Gage’s voice goes off like a gong, reverberates through this timeless tunnel of embers in one desperate cry.
 

Logan wraps his arms around me, pulls me in until his lips crash against mine.

We fall forever.

We search for happily ever after, but it never comes.