Perfect Love (A Celestra Novella) (10 page)

Skyla’s chest rumbles with a laugh as she crashes those glorious lips over mine again.

My hands run down her back, sinking further to her bare bottom, and I round out her delicious curves before diving my hand between her legs again.

Skyla’s entire body vibrates with a moan as my tongue swipes over hers. I spend the next several hours pouring a fire from my mouth to hers.

It’s bliss like this with Logan, if only for a little while.

The room fills with a permeable fog that I can feel, and taste, and touch. Skyla lies folded in my arms as Dudley appears next to me. It’s only then I note I’m actually standing beside the bed in addition to laying in it. I guess that’s the final pony trick that death likes to pull. It lets you observe yourself in that final moment as you search to digest this new bit of shit news.

“Are you ready?” Dudley rumbles, and his voice makes every part of me vibrate in some weird perverse way.

“Turn that crap down,” I whisper, reaching over and caressing my fingers across Skyla’s cheek, trying not to wake her.

“Language. And no need to worry, you won’t startle her. She can no longer hear or see you.”

“She can see my corpse.” I watch as my body evaporates from underneath her, and I want to break every damn thing in this room because I’ve truly left Skyla alone in the world, in Rome no less. “We can’t leave her here.”

“I agree. The Oliver home should suffice.”

“She needs clothes. Maybe that dress…” I try to figure out where her wedding dress could have ended up. The last three days swept by in a dizzying blur, and suffice it to say, clothes were our least priority.

“The dress is not an option. It had properties. I’ll put her in street clothes.”

“My team jersey, my sweats.” I nod into the idea as bona fide tears stream down my face. Who knew you could cry on the other side.

“Go ahead.” Dudley motions to her. “Gift her one last kiss.”

I blow out a breath before bowing into her. It takes all of my strength to hover over her like this and not take her one more time. My heart, my body, and soul all ache for her with a bitter intensity, and we haven’t truly been separated yet.

“Skyla,” I whisper into her ear, hoping to God she’ll somehow hear me. “I love you more than the heavens love the sun and the moon,” the words choke from my throat like barbed wire. “You’ll always be my princess. We fought the angelic war, and we fought the beautiful war—the one with our hearts. I know we’ll win both.” My tears drip down over her skin and dissipate as quick as a vapor. “I’m going to make my way back to you. I don’t how, or when, but I promise you this—I swear on all that is holy I will make it happen. It isn’t over for us. I know this much is true.” I press a kiss over her lips, and the room shifts and spins until we’re back on Paragon, in my bedroom.

I pull back from the kiss as Skyla nestles into my bed, blissfully asleep, unaware of what’s just transpired—her cheeks still flush with the efforts of my love.

“What happens now?” I look up at Dudley, good and pissed.

“I dress her.”

“Let me.”

“Afraid not.” He’s already rummaging through my drawers and quickly pulls out my sweats triumphant. I pick up my team jersey from off the floor, and he yanks it from me. “Your desires are heavy. You’ll want to make love to her. I’m afraid that’s strictly forbidden. It’s something akin to necrophilia, and, in this instance, you’d be the corpse.”

“Great.” He’s right though. I land my lips over her cheek and pepper a trail of soft kisses all the way to her ear. “I will move heaven and earth to make love to you again, Skyla. Sleep tight, princess.” I press a tender kiss over her lips, and, for a fleeting moment, it feels as if she’s kissing me back. “Until we meet again.”

I swallow hard as I take a step away—hardest damn step I’ve ever taken in my life. It’s like trying to move through quicksand. Everything about this moment feels impossible.

“Where’s Gage?” It gruffs out of me because it’s taking all of my restraint not to curl up on that bed with her and have Dudley extract me out of here, kicking and screaming. But I know there’s one more thing I have to do.

“In his bedroom, but you can’t speak with him. It’s firmly against the rules.”

I knot up his tidy little dress shirt and pull him in until we’re nose to nose. I glare into those bizarre, fucked up, crimson-colored eyes of his and let out a roar.

“You’re going to break a few rules today, Dudley. I need to speak with him,” my voice cracks. “There are still some things I need to say.”

“Very well.” He sweeps me away easy as brushing off lint. “I’ll freeze time and put you both in a thermodynamic capsule which will enable you to have a quick—”

“Sounds good.” I cut off Dudley’s psychobabble as I head toward Gage’s bedroom.

“You can walk through walls,” Dudley shouts after me.

“I figured so,” I say as I speed out the door without bothering to open it.

The air warbles with each step I take as if I were walking through water. Looks like Dudley’s tricks are proving beneficial one last time. I give a gentle knock over my nephew’s door before walking on in like a normal person. I’m not really in the mood to terrorize him. Hell, I just want to tell him that I love him. That I always have.

Gage looks up from his desk and rises to meet me. He looks suspicious, still slightly ticked. His duffle bag sits on his bed with the clothes vomiting out. He must have just got back from Host.

“What’s up?” He meets me midway with a knuckle bump. “Rumor has it both you and Skyla conveniently disappeared together this weekend. So I guess you finally broke down and told her.”

“That I did.” My eyes glaze over, and I can’t hold back another second. I pull Gage into a tight embrace and lose it right there.

“Whoa.” He pulls back and takes me in, rife with worry. “Logan, you’re still here. I thought about it, and you might have infinitely longer. A day to God isn’t like a day to us.”

“It’s done, dude. I’m already gone.” I wipe my face down with the back of my hand and take in a breath, trying to pull it together one last time. I need to focus on the fact I was lucky to have been born in the first place, to have been destined for Skyla in some small way.

“What do you mean it’s done? You’re right here. Get over this so we can work on getting you a loophole.” He pats me on the back as if to say it’s going to be okay.

“We’ve run out of loopholes, Gage. The loophole I had was that Treble Candace put me in the day of Dudley’s party—and now it’s been revoked. Dudley put some hold on time, and that’s the only reason I’m standing in front of you.”

“Where’s Skyla?” Gage looks afraid for me, afraid for Skyla.

“She’s in my bedroom. Before you go, I want you to know how much I care about you, man.” I give his arm a light sock. “Remember when we were kids and Emma took us to the dinosaur exhibit at the museum—and I freaked you out because I told you they were going to come to life and eat you?”

“Yeah”—he relaxes a moment—“I remember.”

“I’m sorry I lied to you, buddy.” I press out a depleted grin. “I’ve always felt bad about that.”

“No worries. I’m sure I’ve pulled a few over on you.”

“Yeah, well, something you didn’t pull over on me is the fact you want Skyla. I know you love her as fiercely as I do, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Take good care of her for me, would you?” I’m losing it again. “Make sure she’s happy. Give her flowers—take her to dinner, make her breakfast every damn day. Don’t let her get too down over how things turned out for me. Make sure she smiles a lot.” Tears stream down my face in rivers, and I don’t give a shit. “Love her body, soul, and mind with such intensity she never has to wonder if there’s anyone in this world that truly has her back. I want her to know the heights and depths of love. I want her to feel like she’s in a fucking romance novel twenty-four seven, you hear me?” I don’t mean for it to come out like the threat that it does. “Love her,
worship
her, and I know she’ll return the favor. She’s crazy about you, Gage, and I’ll be the first person to say I’m glad. I’m rooting for you guys. Take care of her for me.”

“I will.” He looks as if he’s about to get hit by a train.

“I love you, Gage. You’ve been my true brother in every way, and I want you to know that.”

“I know.” He pulls me in tight, and this time it’s my shoulder getting doused with tears. “I love you, too, man.”

The room warbles and shifts as Dudley appears by my side.

A harrowing cry erupts from down the hall as Skyla rouses to her first cruel day without me by her side.

I pull back and look into my nephew’s watery eyes. “You better get going.”

“Come back to us.”

“I will.” I pat his back as Dudley and I dissipate in a vat of fog.

I watch as Gage bolts out of the room and over to Skyla’s side. I watch as they hold one another, while Gage tries desperately to comfort her. Their days to come would be engulfed with sorrow, death and caskets, because in their reality life had not yet swallowed the grave. But it was already done, victory on Calvary, and I was the beneficiary. My riches will remain hidden from the world, at least for a little while, leaving Skyla and Gage an inglorious crown of pain.

An ethereal road tunnels out above me, leading to the sky. I’m alive and well, mostly, and heaven lies before me.

Dudley and I lift through the roof, into the day already brimming with life. The sky recedes like a scroll, and we drift off into a familiar looking lavender fog until we land in the ethereal plane, my feet firmly planted in front of Skyla’s mother. Just seeing her striking resemblance to the girl I love drives an arrow through my heart.

She settles her clear eyes over mine as a peaceable smile glides up her lips.

“What am I going to do with you, Logan Oliver?” She walks over the expanse of the lake until she’s standing two feet before me.

I step in and take up her hands. “Send me back.”

Her lips curve at the tips. Her hair glows with a ray of light traveling through each shaft, and it only makes my heart bleed for her earthly twin all that much more.

“Send you back?” She runs her fingers through my hair a moment. “And how do you propose I do that?” She tucks a smile in her cheek as if she knows exactly how it can be done.

“I’ll take anything you’re willing to give me.” My heart pounds against my chest as if it actually had a function left to perform.

“I’d consider a Treble—but the rules have changed.”

Dudley clears his throat. “Now, now, let’s not make any hasty decisions.”

“You’re right.” She holds up a hand to silence him.

Shit.

“
Language
.” The two of them pipe up at the same time.

“I’ll send you back, Logan.” She gives the hint of a smile. “But how long you stay won’t be up to me.”

“You will?”
Yes!

“It will be painful.” Her features iron out serious as stone. “Your heart will be grated to shreds, one painful stroke at a time. You’ll come back to this very spot and beg me to relieve your grief by sending you to the paradise of God.” Her eyes glow. A smile plays on her lips as if she were enjoying this on some level. “Do you wish this brand of torment on your living soul?”

“I do.” I’d accept any torment she’s willing to gift me so long as Skyla and I can be together.

She sharpens her gaze over me. “Who says you’ll be with Skyla?” The ethereal plane trembles with her laughter as I suction backward through the thick lavender fog.

“Now look what you’ve done,” Dudley bleeds the words into my ear as we land safe on Paragon just shy of his overgrown barn.

“I have to get to Skyla.” I start to take off, and he pulls me back.

“Not so fast. It’s Jock Strap’s time to shine.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Did I stutter? Besides, no need to run, you’re in a Treble. You can appear to them at will. But might I suggest you hold off a bit and let them grieve the fact you’ve truly left the land of the living. This Treble she’s put you in is far more fragile than the one she gifted you prior. I wouldn’t run around making any big future plans—or dinner arrangements for that matter.”

I pull my arm free as his words settle in. Dudley wants me to let Skyla grieve once and for all, and in the process she and Gage will bond immeasurably.

“Precisely,” he muses. “I can hear you by the way.”

“What do I do in the meantime?”

“There’s a fresh bed with your name on it in the Soullennium.”

“What about here?” I motion back at his overgrown house. “You’ve got sixteen spare bedrooms.”

“I’ve work to do, and I’m afraid I can’t have you in my way.” A shit-eating grin spreads over his face.

“Are you still my supervising spirit?”

“As long as you’re in the Treble.” He winces as if the idea pained him.

“I’ll give Gage and Skyla some breathing room, but it doesn’t mean I’m not popping in every now and again.”

“Very well.” He tips into me with a solemn expression before turning toward the house.

I pull him back by the sleeve. “Watch her for me, will you?”

Dudley glances down at my fingers still gripping his shirt, but I don’t let go. “I promise you, I’ll do just that.”