Toxic Part One (Celestra Series Book 7) (20 page)

“Oh, um, Nev? Do you take Ezrina to love and to hold, and to spend the rest of your lives together—no wait—do you love each other enough to spend all of eternity bound together by a holy covenant under God?” Marshall would be so proud. Or not.

They look at one another forlorn as though my words could never be.

“Unfortunately”—Nev sighs without ever wavering from her eyes—“the curse we’ve acquired forbids such a prosperous future.” He depresses a kiss on her forehead.

“We have now.” Ezrina sounds normal in every way, not a word echoes in triplicate or spews out like gravel. “Come.” She tries to steal him away.

“Skyla?” Nev bids me to continue.

“Do you, Heathcliff…” I pause in the event he explodes. Nev has a tendency to go batshit when I invoke his real name, but in this instant, he doesn’t, he just continues to smile like a lunatic who’s about to get laid. “Take Ezrina”—she offers a warm smile—“to be your…” This wouldn’t really be lawful or eternal, nor would any of that death do you part crap apply. “Wife?” Keep it simple.

“I do.” He swims with joy. “I most certainly do.”

“And Ezrina,” I pause. She takes me in with those serious brown eyes. The slight curve of a smile plays on her lips. “Do you swear never to sever a limb from my body again as well as love Heathcliff as your very own husband?” I thought it wise to toss in that first part in the event once we all wake up from this psychotic stupor she’s moved to rearrange body parts.

She turns to Nev. “I will love you with my every mortal instrument both physical and spiritual that the Master has provided.”

They don’t wait for me to officiate any further or instruct them to conjoin at the lips. They simply fall into a natural, lingering kiss that exudes a romantic magic all its own.

They begin to wander off hand in hand, and Ezrina turns around.

“Skyla?” She pegs me with a stern expression. “If you don’t win this war, your body parts will very much be subject to the heft of my blade.”

Nev’s ears peak in slight horror before he ushers her swiftly under the cover of night.

There’s the Ezrina I know—all threats and knives, filled with her special brand of I’ll-cut-you aggression.

She breaks into a fit of giggles and fills Logan’s strange universe with the bubbling brook from her mouth. Nev rumbles something to her, as they disappear behind the curtain of a willow and its long, green tendrils. His shadowed figure lays her gently on the grass.

“You don’t think they’re going to—?”

“Consummate their union?” Logan interjects, pulling me down to the earth and wrapping his loving arms around me.

I slip my hands up his shirt and his rock hard abs quiver for me. Maybe Logan and I should consummate
our
union. Why wait another moment to experience what we’ve waited so long for? I want nothing more than his fevered body pressed against mine. My hand drops to his jeans and my fingers bypass the formality of the button, the zipper, and dip to the heated skin on the inside of his boxers. Logan snatches my wrist and lifts my hand up to his mouth and kisses it.

“We can’t do this here, not with Nev and Ezrina as a potential audience.” He raises his brows. “Not with unfinished business—”

I cut him off before he can bring up Gage. “Have it your way, but it will happen.” I slide into Logan’s lap and brush a quiet kiss against his cheek. “That was really nice of you to allow them to borrow your world. I’m sure Ezrina would have done anything for the opportunity.” Nev is far more careful than his sword-wielding counterpart.

“She is about to do something,” Logan whispers.

I snap at attention. “What?” Nev did say Logan had an unconventional request.

“The next time the Counts pull you into that treble, you’ll find out.” 

“Logan.” I press a hand into his chest. “I’m done with secrets. Tell me now.”

He flexes a smile. “Only if you promise no hitting or yelling.”

“Logan!” I’m petrified at what he might reveal. “I promise, no hitting or yelling.” I brush the pads of my fingers along his jaw line. I can easily spend an eternity like this with Logan in his perfect dreams. Well, they’re usually perfect. Tonight they’re a bit scattered and X-rated in nature.

“Are all your dreams this explicit?” I reel him in by the lip of his jeans.

“Mostly.” He breathes into my neck and dots a trail of kisses up to my ear.

“I bet you look forward to this every single night.”

“What I look forward to”—he pauses to graze over my earlobe with his teeth—“is turning this into reality—with you—every single night.”

“Just at night?” I give a flirtatious smile.

A dark laughs rumbles through him. “It sounds like we’re going to have an impressive happily ever after.”

“It will be most impressive,” I say, running my finger up his chest and dipping it into his mouth for a moment. “OK, now spill your secret.”

“I might have bartered a little with Ezrina.”

“Oh my gosh, you’re just like me. You have to learn everything the hard way.” I’m terrified and breathless at what he might say next.

“Skyla, I can’t bear the thought of the Counts torturing you. I don’t want to see you afraid or in pain, ever.” His eyes glitter with moisture. “In exchange for letting them into my dreams, Ezrina agreed to accept your torment.”

“How? Because she’s Celestra?” I’m puzzled.

“Not really. She agreed to enter your body when the treble hits, and you’ll be returned safe and sound once it’s over. Unfortunately, she’s not allowed to undergo anything outside the treble. That’s not her domain. You’ll still have to endure the cyanide, but I swear, I’ll be right there with you.”

“So once the treble hits, I’ll be magically transported into Ezrina’s body?” I hate Ezrina’s body, the version that lives in the Transfer anyway. “And what if she’s tricking you, and I get stuck there?” I foresee this as more than a possibility—plus its win-win for Ezrina—play with Nev under a lavender moon, then get the added bonus of being seventeen all over again.

“Not going to happen. You won’t get stuck.” Logan assures. “I had her take an oath. She can’t break it. It’s all going to work as planned.” He presses a warm kiss over the top of my head. “And I wouldn’t worry about Ezrina’s body, you won’t be in it.”

“Where will I be?”

He taps his hand over his heart. “You’ll be in here with me.”

Chapter 29

The Note

I startle awake and find myself back on my bed in Paragon far from Ezrina and a sexed-up Nev. That must have been a
real
dream. Something must have gone awry. There was no way Logan would go along with such an insane idea, let alone formulate it.

A cool breeze stirs through the vicinity, carrying the distinct scent of Gage’s cologne.

I turn on the light, and squint into the room with suspicion only to find an envelope on my nightstand with my name written in his undeniable handwriting.

A dull laugh huffs through me.

I bet he popped in to see if I was telling the truth about my “date.” I’ll have to ask Marshall to secure my bedroom with a thousand binding spirits to keep Gage Oliver from running in and out like he owns the place—and me.

A dull ache penetrates my chest as I pick up the envelope.

Gage. The old version still has me so completely, and I wish it wasn’t so.

I press the cool paper to my cheek in one final act of humiliation, brush my lips over the seam he licked and pretend it’s him. I would kiss the floor he walked on if only he would morph back into the person I thought he was.

It takes a full half hour before I have the courage to run my finger along the inside ridge of the envelope and extricate its contents. A piece of paper floats out easy as a butterfly.

Dear Skyla,

Sometimes there are no words.

I’m dying. I beg of you to give me a moment. Hear me for a minute, and then if you choose to never speak to me again, I will understand.

You are the sun and without you there is only unimaginable darkness.

I miss you so much. I miss every last detail about you. I miss the way your perfume lingered in my room hours after you went home. I miss touching you. I miss your kisses. I miss being near you, the touch of your hair against my face.

I thought we would always be together. I knew in my heart that we would be. I can be wrong about everything, but I would have sworn on my life that I would never be wrong about that.

No matter what you decide, just know that I love you. I will love you for as long as I’m spinning on this planet and then I’ll love you after that, too.

Love forever,

Gage

Gage Oliver loves me?

I close my eyes and pretend it’s true.

***

The next morning, I text Logan to make sure Gage and I are working different shifts at the bowling alley, but he doesn’t text me back. I can’t say that letter didn’t affect me, but there’s a part of me that can’t believe a word Gage Oliver says. It’s the kernel of doubt that Chloe planted as small as a mustard seed, and now it’s blossomed into a spreading tree large enough to house every bird on the planet.

I head downstairs for breakfast, trying to push that letter out of my mind. As much as I’d like for it to be real, as much as I need it to be, I’m sure Chloe and Gage have regrouped for part two of Operation Take Down Skyla.

“Morning, sunshine.” Chloe raises her mug. She sits across from Brielle at the table as Mom and Tad huddle in the corner having an all too serious powwow for this early in the day.

“So,” Brielle says, holding up a butter knife. She squints into its reflection viewing her upper lip, “how long do you think I should let my girl-stache go before taking action?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Chloe says, “you should ask someone with experience in facial hair, like Skyla. She’s practically a werewolf.”

I shoot a look to Mom and Tad who so obviously missed the cutting remark.

“Oh, I don’t know, Chloe.” I take a seat next to Brielle. “You seem to know a lot about removing unwanted debris—
people
—from the planet.”

“The same could be said about you.” She beams, delighted with the fact I’ve personally removed a few souls myself.

“Are you working today?” I choose to ignore Chloe and pose the question directly to Brielle.

“I’m off. I thought I’d go to the mall and buy something to wear Saturday.”

Saturday is the day that sausage lovers everywhere will descend on Rockaway Point to indulge in a gluttonous frenzy of pig flesh—otherwise known as the Fourth of July. Ironic how Tad has no qualms about eating pork-filled intestines and yet bacon is permanently off the menu. His hypocrisy knows no bounds.

“Aren’t you due to spend some time at the Edinger estate?” Chloe purrs. “I’ll be there all day, if you want to join me. I’m excavating the basement. It’s full of interesting goodies—portholes.” She scatters the crumbs to see if I’ll follow.

“I’m busy later.” Weeping in my room, but I don’t tell her that.

“Girls…” Mom heads over. “I was wondering if I could get you to do me a favor.”

“Anything.” Chloe is quick to accommodate. She’d mop the floor with her hair, if my mother asked her to.

“I promised Mr. Dudley I would drop off print samples at his place this afternoon, but something just came up.” She nods back at Tad with a scowl on her face.

“Oh,” Chloe straightens, “I’m sure Skyla can. She has a little crush on him. Don’t you, Skyla?”

“I do not have a crush on him.” I’m quick to refute. My face burns a thousand different shades of red. I may have a little crush on Marshall, but it’s only because he keeps pushing himself on me so successfully.

“He is a doll,” Mom whispers before biting down on her lip.

It’s like those hormones she’s injecting herself with have turned her into a lust-driven lunatic. It’s no wonder she’s pawing all over Demetri whenever she gets the chance. His image has been warped under the lens of mega doses of estrogen. I’m sure once those erotic-shaped scales fall from her eyes, she’ll eschew his company every chance she gets.

“Sure, I’ll do it.” I volunteer. “And I do not have a crush on my teacher.” I decide to reiterate the fact just to play it safe.

“That’s right,” Mom corrects, “you have a crush on Gage.” She says it so dreamily I suspect she might have a crush of her own on the blue-eyed sage.

“No.” I shake my head. “Actually, I don’t. I’m back with Logan again.” Technically, I’m not, but eventually we will be, so it’s really not lying—it’s fast-forwarding the truth.

“What?” Mom gasps as if I had just made some egregious declaration.

“Told you she’s fickle.” Tad slides his coffee along the counter. “Give her another month or so, and they’ll both be history.”

“That’s not true.” Mom cuts him an icy look. “Skyla, what happened?”

“I’d rather not say.” Like ever.

“Well, I’m concerned. Are you OK?” Mom rubs my back, inducing in me the strong urge to bawl like a baby. Speaking of which…

“So did you tell them the great news?” I ask Brielle, mustering all the enthusiasm I can to get the words out.

“Oh, I totally forgot.” She spins her finger in her hair. “I’m bringing the baby by this week. I hope you’re ready. He needs a bottle in his mouth twenty-four seven just to keep him from screaming bloody murder.” She snorts into her toast.

“Yes, I’m ready!” Mom grips her chest with excitement. Little does she know, she’ll have a casket permanently lining her bedroom just like Tad predicted. He also predicted I would have dumped both Logan and Gage in a month, but that’s not going to come true, at least not the Logan part.

“So where are you headed this afternoon?” Chloe bats her doe eyes into my mother. “Anything else you might need help with?”

Really? It’s like she’s trying to steal my mother, too.

“I’ll be at Detective Edinger’s estate. He’s donating some of his grandfather’s belongings to the Paragon Community Museum along with organizing items for auction.

“He’s a real saint,” I grumble. Just like he’s donating my blood to the Counts and organizing a win for the faction war.