Throne of Fire Read online

  “How did this happen?” I bleat in lieu of congratulations. No wonder Melissa wasn’t going to be anywhere near this place tonight. She and Mia have been warring over Gabe the Babe for as long as I can remember.

  Mia and her betrothed exchange a curious glance as if they had zero clue themselves.

  My sister bubbles with laughter. “He just came up to me that night”—the infamous night of Gage’s beheading—“and said we should like totally get married.”

  A husky laugh rumbles from the homicide to be, aka Gabe himself. “And like you said, cool.”

  Mia chortles right along with him while pinching his nose as if it were the cutest thing. “I know, right? I said, like, let’s do this, right?” She looks at me with all of the pride and emotion one might truly have on the night of their engagement reveal. “And like, here we are!”

  “Like, wow,” I marvel. “Not only has Gabe taken you off the market, but he’s turned you into a Valley Girl as well. Like, totally amazing.” I glower at him. His sister Carson and her skanky BFF appear like unwanted apparitions, and I gasp. It was another day and another time when those two twits left me in the Black Forest the day Ezrina chopped off my arm. Sure, Marshall ordered it, but I’ve secretly always held them accountable. And right about now, I’d give my remaining biological arm for this entire scenario to disappear just the way they did that day. I’d glue both Chloe’s legs and funky feet to my body in order to right this wrong.

  Carson preens my way. “I guess this makes us family, Skyla.”

  Tad stumbles over, growling and gagging. “No way, no how! I’ve got enough mouths to feed. I don’t need another underage meathead taking up residence in my daughter’s bedroom.” He bears his fangs at Gabriel. “And don’t you dare start multiplying! The only mathematics the two of you need to be concerned with happens to have a high school teacher at the helm. You’re too young to be getting married on purpose!” Tad stops cold. His body bucks back as if he had just been shot while choking on his next thought.

  On purpose…or because they have to.

  “No way.” I shake my head hard at Mia.

  “Come on, Gabe!” Mia snatches her betrothed by the hand. “She’s gonna blow!” They take off laughing, and all I can do is shout after them with a jumble of incoherent words. I let out one giant scream and don’t even get near piercing the outrageously loud music. Instead, I stomp forward to Carson and her ridiculous pink, blue, and green bob thanks to the neon light show my mother has prescribed for the occasion. “So help me God, if your nitwit of a brother knocked up my sister, I’m going to bury your entire family alive.”

  “Right,” Carson huffs a dull laugh directly into my face, her pert little nose clipping the air as she upturns it. “Like you did the Factions, Skyla? Because you’ve really freaked my family out with your leadership abilities. Or should I say, inabilities?”

  My mouth falls open. Carson is one of us. News to me. Figures.

  “Perhaps if your family participated a bit more, they wouldn’t be so freaked out about anything. I haven’t seen a single Armistead at any of my meet and greets, and it’s a damn shame because we need all able—and crooked hands on deck. What’s your dominating Faction?” I spit it fast and aggressive. “You know what? You make me feel like a drill sergeant, one of those mean—bordering on vulgar and abusive ones you see depicted in movies. In fact, that’s a persona I’m about to adopt whenever I’m around renegade angels who think they can put down my leadership skills while acting like a bunch of psychotic sloths. These Factions don’t function unless all parts are moving. Moving being the keyword here, folks.”

  That lump in her throat rises and falls as she swallows hard, and, swear to God, I think I see a vague glimmer of fear in those evergreen eyes of hers. “Noster.” She gives a nervous glance to her left where that ditz Carly Foster tosses her arms in the air to the rhythm of the music. Come to think of it, I don’t have any clue if Carly is one of us either, but I don’t want to pry. No use in ripping the lid off every Pandora’s box in the room. One new nitwit is enough to welcome into the fold for the night.

  “You tell your family I expect to see some Armistead faces represented at the next Faction meeting. And if you have any functioning brain cells, you will show up, too. There’s too much going on in our world to stay uninformed.” I give a quick glance around and overhear Mom regaling Demetri with plans of a backyard wedding. Tad stands idly by, stuffing his face with pie while Gage and Logan whisper secretively about something. “Are any of you with the Barricade?” It pains me that I have to go there. I hate that there are dissidents in the ranks, Nephilim brothers and sisters who have defected to the dark side only to have Wesley the Weasel turn them into Spectators or perhaps something worse he’s busy inventing.

  “No,” she snaps as if she’s ready to wring my neck for not following the other lemmings off the Steel Barricade cliff. “And don’t you think we haven’t thought twice about it.” She leans in so close her words nip at my nose. “And don’t you think we won’t defect any time soon either.” She grabs Carly by the arm, and the two of them disappear into the crowd.

  “Assholes.” I can’t help it. There’s just something about those ex-cheerleaders from East High that I can’t quite click with. I turn to find Brody Bishop speaking with Logan and Gage.

  “Skyla.” He nods my way. With the lights low and psychotic tonight, I can clearly see the evil in his face, aka Chloe. But Brody is a pretty great guy. Too bad he has to go through life as a Bishop. “When’s the next round table? I’m thinking it’s about time the Retribution League doles out some retribution.”

  “I’d like to sit in,” Gage says it so fast it unsteadies me a moment. I hadn’t thought about that. Aren’t there very real trust issues at play between us now? A part of me wants to assure him he’s more than welcome, but another part of me says slow down, sister. You don’t invite a dragon to dinner and not expect him to eat the steak off your plate or in the least incinerate it.

  Gage’s brows dip down as his face fills with a touch of sadness. “I need to get the Spectators off Host. I promised their families. I know it filled a gap for you, but it’s my job to get them home.” He holds his hand out for a second as if asking for help. “Emily’s brother is one of them.”

  “Of course.” There. All it took was for him to humanize it for me to be all in.

  “And we need to get Kresley out of there.” I shudder at the thought of what they might be doing to her. “We just don’t have any reliable access.” No sooner do I say the words than Tad begins to spin, his arms flailing wildly before his hands clutch at his throat, the universal sign for—

  “Oh my God, he’s choking!” I bolt over as Mom and Demetri do their best to catch him.

  Tad freezes solid as a statue. His face looks pale—my God, it could be blue as a berry, but with the light show going on, it’s impossible to tell.

  “I’ve got this!” Mom cries as she sucker punches him in the gut, and Tad’s eyes bulge ten times their size.

  “Allow me.” Demetri comes up behind him and positions his fists under Tad’s sternum. He gives a few good inward thrusts, but Tad’s windpipe is still as stopped up as a toilet filled with concrete. “Breathe!” Demetri roars over the music as he all but chops Tad in half with his violent propulsions into Tad’s body. But Tad is relentless in his pursuit to die on the spot.

  I look to Gage and Logan in a panic. “Do something!” I roar. I’m pretty sure my mother’s short-lived soiree in the party biz will be cut off once her hubby bites the big one at her postmortem debut. Good grief, she really is the Grim Reaper.

  Gage steps forward and throws Tad to the ground on his back before stepping violently over his chest, and just like that, a river of vomit spews up and lands over the front of my mother’s dress.

  “Tad Landon!” she screams, jumping back while inspecting the glistening chunks dribbling down the front of her chest. “We can’t have a single decent night out on the town without somet
hing going wrong, I tell you.” She offers up a swift kick to his side, and the poor guy rolls over with an oof. He staggers to his feet, and Mom navigates the two of the them to the exit.

  “You’re welcome!” I shout after her before turning to Gage. “And thank you. The last thing my mother wants is to be known for her party planning body count.”

  “You’re welcome.” He glowers at Demetri. “You could have saved him.”

  Demetri reaches up and brushes his thumb over Gage’s cheek, admiring him with love as if he were a real father. He’s not, so I won’t bother getting too caught up in the theatrics. “I’m not the hero in this narrative. I will never take that role from you, son. I’ve prepared you for this moment. And now, this night, it is time for you to take flight. You alone are going to change the world.”

  “The world?” I balk. “Or your world? Anything you have Gage doing is strictly for the benefit of the Fems. You have zero interest in people or you wouldn’t have allowed Wes to morph the Videns into brain eating zombies. Explain that away with your sleight of hand.”

  “No need.” He gives a quick tick of the head. “The Videns were created for a common use. Not everyone can be utilized in a noble manner. My son has them in his heart. He will do whatever is necessary to ensure their safety.” He says those last words while looking deep into Gage’s eyes as if casting a spell.

  “I will,” Gage says wide-eyed with a blank expression, and something about the eerie exchange frightens me.

  I pull Demetri in by the shoulder. “You have to help us. I have to get Kresley off Raven’s Eye. She belongs to me. I don’t care how many times she’s sworn herself to Wesley’s allegiance. He’s the one that landed her there in the first place. Something I’m sure the Justice Alliance will severely frown upon.”

  Demetri frowns because he knows I’m right. “Something must be done.” He looks to Gage once again with that trance-like stare. “You have the power to free the people. But you must be aware of the ramifications.”

  Crap. Demetri is right. This is precisely why I put the Spectators on Raven’s Eye to begin with—to feed the feds’ need for knowledge in some way that didn’t involve my people. I tried resurrecting the dead and gifting them to the feds, but let’s just say that was a dead end, pun intended. I could no sooner bear to see my deceased people in pain than I could those currently under my charge.

  “I’ll give you a sneak peek into the Retribution Leagues private powwow. The Spectators will stay for now.” I grimace at Gage. “But Kresley comes home now, no matter what. I’m sorry, Gage. I can’t just leave a vacuum in their wake.”

  Demetri tips his head back. “Or the government will surely come for your people.” He offers that placid smile I’ve grown to hate so much. My God, can someone really hate a smile? Yes, I guess, with Demetri even that is possible. “Dear Skyla, what a dilemma you have upon you. Best of luck.” He gives a mock bow and takes off for the bar to refuel that bullshit generator in his skull.

  “Best of luck,” I hiss the words out like an expletive.

  “You won’t need luck.” Gage picks up my hands and swings them between us. “You’ll have me.”

  “And me,” Logan is quick to interject. “Hey”—he nods to the back—“check that out.”

  We look over to find Melody Winters and her creepy mother, Dominique the Dominatrix, ripping good old Demeet a new one.

  “Huh.” I jut my hip out while trying to figure this one out. “I wonder what he did to piss them off?”

  Logan comes up alongside me and I can feel his warmth. “Dominique entered that body years ago, right?”

  “That’s what we learned.” I try to wrap my head around it.

  “And Melody’s bodily host died Christmas before last.”

  “Yes,” I say, suddenly short of breath because I know where he’s going.

  “Under whose authority do you think they did this? It’s mighty supernatural to escape one time period and enter the next.”

  “Oh God.” Cold chills run up and down my body. “The only person I know with that kind of clout is—” I glance to Logan and shake my head slightly. I don’t dare say my mother or her candy-coated name.

  Gage steps forward, his gaze still pinned to that wicked father of his. “Why would she do that? What if it was Demetri?”

  “No offense, but your pops is nowhere near as powerful as my mother.” The lights dim to darkness before the spasms of a neon rainbow start up again, and the crowd goes wild with approval. “Consider that a celestial wink from my mother because it happens to be true.”

  “It’s true,” Logan affirms, and my stomach turns a bit. My mother and Logan have a twisted relationship all their own. No, it’s not sexual, but it definitely falls into the death-pact promises category. My mother loves Logan almost as much as I do. My stomach explodes with heat because yes, I still very much love Logan.

  Dominique and Moldy Melody are here again, in this time frame, but why? My mind churns thinking about the possibilities. “Maybe I’ll bring it up to my mother the next time we meet. There are so many, many things I need to bring up to my mother.” I glance to Gage. “I did bring up that stone—not that it got me anywhere.” I blink back tears that have come uninvited to the party. “My mother doesn’t lie, and neither does that bag of tricks she reached into that day. That stone said seven. It was either seven years or decades.”

  Gage shoots a mean look to Demetri, his brows dipping down like daggers as if he were about to kill somebody. “Seven.” His jaw clenches. “Yes, I know. But my life was cut short.”

  I lift a finger to his lips. “It was true, Gage. My mother must abide by what that stone says, and even better than that—you’re back. Don’t you see? It wasn’t seven years. It must have been seven decades. Until my own life ends. I have you now forever.”

  Logan flinches, and that knot in my stomach tightens. “Hey, look”—he nods to my left—“Emerson Kragger is telling off Chloe.”

  I glance over and smirk. “My, my—tempers are flaring this evening, aren’t they? Not that I care if Emerson rips Chloe a new one day after day. It was Chloe that landed her on the wrong side of eternity to begin with.”

  Logan’s eyes enlarge twice their size for a moment as if I hit a nerve.

  “What’s the matter?”

  He swallows hard as if trying to process whatever has him on edge. “Emerson shouldn’t be here either, Skyla.”

  “Emerson, Dominique, and Melody Winters.” I look to Gage. “Killion and Moser.” My heart thuds unnaturally in my chest. Although it’s clear Killion and Moser are Fems showing off their freakish abilities and lack of decorum. “My mother is on a resurrection roll. Why exactly, I have no clue.”

  Logan shakes his head. “I don’t know either, but I’d better put a stop to those two before there’s another body to deal with.” He takes off for Emerson and Chloe while Gage winces down at me with a playful smile tipping his lips.

  “Is that what I was?” he asks. “A body to deal with?”

  I groan a little at the harsh analogy just as the music shifts to something slower I can really move my hips to. “He didn’t mean it that way.” I wrap my arms around my husband and pull him in tight as our bodies conform to one another. “I love how solid you feel. Is that a weird thing to say?” I blink up at him as the lights sweep the room with a wash of electric blue.

  “Not weird at all.” A dark grin blooms on his face. “In fact, I plan on impressing you later with exactly how solid it can be.”

  “Gage!” I swat him over the arm. “I’m going to hold you to that.” I waggle my brows up at him. “And speaking of holding you to something—I want to make us official again.” I give a little shrug. “But I don’t want to take Demetri up on his offer.” Gage mentioned that Demetri offered to marry us if we were game. “I much prefer Marshall or my mother to host the ceremony.”

  A low growl emits from him. “I doubt either would host anything for me.”

  “It doesn’t matter. W
e can have your dad do it. Barron, the real one. Heck, at this point, I guess I wouldn’t care if it were Demetri himself. I just can’t believe you’re back and our lives are back on track. This is so much better than I could have hoped for. You here with me.” I shake my head in disbelief. “I’ve got a feeling that this next year will be our best yet.”

  The lights cut out, and the music dies down with a demonic growl. A bevy of concerned voices roar to life, and just as cell phones begin to illuminate the room, the lights and music bounce back on as if they never left. A series of wild cries and whoops circle the bowling alley. But I’m not feeling so celebratory at the moment. As much as I’d like to believe it was sheer coincidence that as soon as I declared the next year our best yet, the world stopped cold and we were plunged into darkness.

  I glance to my left and spot Logan doing his best to stop Emerson from clawing out Chloe’s soulless eyeballs. Nat and Em have joined them and seem to be engaged in the argument just as vehemently.

  Gage leans in. “You think we should head over?”

  “You read my mind.” We speed over just as Lexy arrives. I can’t help but scowl at Lex. That red dress she’s wearing, or rather not wearing, has made more than one head swivel this evening. And don’t think for a minute I’m not aware of who that boobalicious ambition is geared toward. I’m so sick of her trying to spike her claws into Logan’s pants. A thought comes to me and stops me cold. Logan is back, too. If I’m with Gage, it certainly wouldn’t be fair to ask him to ward off women forever. There’s no reason he shouldn’t have all the pleasures of life, including the love of a woman and all that it entails. Logan is beautiful both inside and out. He should have a family of his own, a wife to come home to, and make love to whenever he wishes, children who share his gorgeous amber eyes, that smile that snatched my sanity the moment I saw it.

  I stagger away from our small circle for a moment, tears blurring my vision. My heart feels as though I’ve just pulled it through a sieve and it’s shredded into a million ribbons. As much as the logical side of my brain demands I want those things for Logan, my heart and soul demand otherwise. How selfish I’ve become. How self-absorbed I must be to feel this way. I can’t have both Gage and Logan. That’s not how this works, nor would any of us want it to work that way. I look over and find Lex in Logan’s arms and everything in me freezes. Can it be? Has Logan already sealed his heart off to me in that way and invited someone else inside? Lexy Fucking Bakova?