Ethereal (10 page)

I try and formulate a poem for him in my mind, but each time the word love pops up uninvited. Is this what it feels like to be in love? What I feel for Logan?

He buzzes right back.

Rutting is my new favorite word. BTW, Gage wants me to give you a message. He very much looks forward to rutting with you.

Ha. Ha.

Tell Gage anytime. I’m waiting, and coincidentally very lonely at this very moment. ~S

Less than ten seconds.

Never mind. I suddenly have a great disdain for the word rutting. You must never rut with Gage. Promise me this.

My heart warms at his sudden burst of jealousy.

Will you rut with others? Turnabout is fair play. ~S

No.

Promise. ~S

I place down the phone and settle in to watch the rest of the movie. It was a strange yet comforting conversation with Logan. I think I’m one inch away from being his girlfriend. I wonder how it gets to be official. Write on your Facebook wall? Change your profile to read
in a relationship
? Or maybe it just becomes so painfully obvious that after a while everybody and their mother, knows. I’ve never had a boyfriend before, but I’d sure love to know the answer to these questions.

Chapter Eighteen

Take down

It’s not fifteen minutes into cheer practice that I manage to tweak my ankle entirely on my own. I’d love to blame just about anybody for today’s literal misstep, but the bulk of the blame is on me. OK, all of it.

“How’d you do this?” Logan’s football coach hovers over me. He presses his forefinger down over the growing bulge until I squeal in pain.

“Nice method of evaluation.” I slap his hand away. “If this were the middle-ages.”

His eyes bug out with surprise. I don’t really care what he thinks, I’m not one of his jocks who needs to take whatever he dishes, especially if what he’s dishing involves pain.

“You need to ice it. Stay off it for a day or two. Nothing’s broken.” He rises to his feet then claps his hands extra loud in an effort to break up the crowd.

Logan reaches down and picks me up effortlessly with one arm under both knees, his other supporting my back. “Where to?”

“I need ice.” I whine when I say it. I try not to let on that I’m on the verge of tears. It’s not so much the pain than the embarrassment and extra attention. I never was a big fan of either.

“I know just the place.”

Brielle walks besides us over to his truck.

“There’s no way you’ll get her in there.” She says full with concern over the aerial feat Logan’s ready to attempt.

He has Gage hold open the door and block Brielle’s view in the process as he lifts me safe into the seat as though I were as heavy as a hollowed out egg.

Gage hops in the back and we take off.

“First sunny day in a week and I blow it.”

“Blaming yourself for an injury is a defeatist attitude.” Logan says, looking at the road. “It’s time to relax and let your body heal.”

“Wise and true.” I wave to Gage out the back window.

We turn left instead of right at the light, towards the bowling alley. I live in the direct opposite location so I’m clueless as to where he might be taking me.

“Falls of Virtue?” Actually that’s to the left as well. It’s just my round about way of grilling him for details.

“Nope. I know somewhere with much stronger healing properties. The foods pretty good too.”

“If there’s an ER visit involved, count me out. I hate hospitals almost as much as I hate blood.” A quick spike of panic shoots through me at the possibility.

“No ER, I promise.”

“Is there rutting involved?”

“Only if you want there to be.”

“No thanks.” I wince as I shift my weight.

“There’s a cute yellow lab named Charlie, some hot chocolate, a grilled cheese sandwich, an ice pack and maybe some reality TV.”

“Sounds like heaven.”

“Almost is.”

A black sports car with deep tinted windows swings over into our lane, and just keeps coming. It races towards us without wavering.
 

“Do something!” I scream in a panic.

The left lane is full of traffic and there’s a steep embankment to our right.

I can’t look. I go to cover my eyes, but as I do I notice the trees outside are at a standstill, the cars alongside us are no longer racing in the other direction, the people in them frozen in horror as they observe what’s about to happen.

The truck however is still moving, flying in slow motion over the oncoming car as we pass it—obnoxiously slow. Logan takes out his phone and snaps a picture of the men in the vehicle.

Then the world speeds up again, and we’re traveling at a normal velocity on the open stretch of road ahead as if nothing had happened at all.

I look over at the truck bed. Gage hops back inside and settles in.

It was him—Gage. He carried us over. Super human strength must be their shared gift.

I wonder what else they can do.

                                                      
  
***

Logan and Gage run theories past each other of who those men could have been.

“There’s a meeting at Nicholas Haver’s in two days.” Gage informs him.

“We’re there.” They share a fist bump in the kitchen of their palatial home. Their parents aren’t home and I’m sort of disappointed. I’ve met the uncle, but I’m dying to meet Logan’s aunt, my supposed future mother-in-law. I guess she’d be my mother-in-law either way. I don’t know why, but I’m fascinated with other people’s mothers.

“I want to go.” I interject.

“Go where?” Logan’s busy pulling out the ingredients for our lunch.

“The meeting. It’s a Celestra thing, right?”

“Faction council. You’re a Celestra.” Gage corrects.
 

“There’s no way you can go.” Logan plucks a pan from underneath the cabinet. “You could endanger yourself. The less people know you have Celestra blood, the better.”

“Once you’re on their radar…” Gage and Logan share a look of discontent.

“Once I’m on their radar they’ll want me dead.”

“Not necessarily right away. They might give you a fighting chance.” Gage folds his arms across his chest.

“Like you?” I direct it over at Logan.

“Apparently I have more than a fighting chance. I’m going to live to a ripe old age, remember?” He darts a look over at Gage.

“We both are.” I confirm.

“Yeah, well. Remember what I said about vegetables.” Gage slaps his hand against the doorframe on the way out of the kitchen.

I’m going to that meeting, neither Logan or Gage can stop me.

I watch as Logan fires up the stove, sprays the pan with oil.

It will all work out in the end, because I’m going to live to be a ripe old age.

A bitter acid rises to the back of my throat.

Live to be a ripe old age.

Gage says so.

If I follow that logic...then I must also believe I’m going to marry him, which I don’t.

Do I?

Chapter Nineteen

Scheme

“Wake up!” My mother tears open the curtains. “Rise and shine and give God your glory, glory!” Her voice grates in my ears. I think I would have appreciated bamboo shoots beneath my fingernails just a little bit more. Her singing solidifies my perpetual bad mood for the day.

A patch of pale sunlight streaks across my lids as I roll over trying to ignore both it and the happy gale force hurricane disguised as my mother.

“Come on, Skyla.” She rattles me by the shoulder. “Tad and I have a surprise for you. Well, not just you, the whole family. Come on.”

The room quiets down. My mother took her fanatical jubilation with her, and the room reverts back to the peace and calm I’ve come to appreciate from it. I try to absorb the tranquility, the lull in the air, in an effort to balance out the agitation my mother drilled into my bones.

I get up on my elbow and peer out the window. Fog softens the harshness of reality, steals the definition from the world—blankets itself around everything as if it were some supernatural form of protection. I’ve come to love Paragon. Its moody days, cool star filled nights, the falls, even the cemetery was a thing of beauty. Most of all I love the people. It’s amazing how connected I feel in just a short period of time. It’s like I’ve always belonged here, like everything else was just a waypoint until I arrived at my final destination.

A hard knock detonates on the other side of the door.

“
Now
, Skyla!” Tad barks.

I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and push into my flip-flops before heading downstairs.

                                                                
***

My mother has her hair done, her good jeans on, make-up in place, and it’s not quite seven-thirty.

A small sprig of hope churns in me at the thought this might be their big divorce announcement. Now
that
would be a surprise. That’s one announcement I’m very much anticipating.

I plop down on the couch next to Mia and Melissa, while Drake busies himself by pouring a box of cereal down his throat.

“Your father and I have…” my mother starts.

Tad cuts her off with a brief wave. She nods submissively and holds out her hands as if to say take it away.

I hate how he does that to her. It’s not the first time he’s interrupted when she’s about to say something. It’s like he thinks whatever’s about to come out of his mouth is far more important.

“It’s sort of my baby.” He says before continuing. “Allthorpe has set up a meeting for me in Seattle tomorrow, and I thought what better way to get to know the surrounding area than taking a train ride through the local mountains with the family? So, your mother and I,” he drapes his arms over her shoulder. “We’ve decided that it’s going to be our first official family get away.”

“A train?” Mia squeals into Melissa’s face.

“Cool.” Drake pours the remainder of milk into his bowl without missing a beat.

“Have fun.” I wipe the sleep from my eyes. The thought of having the house to myself for the weekend sounds more than delicious.

“We will have fun. With
you.
” My mother chides. “This is non negotiable.”

“If she’s not going I’m not going.” Drake says with a full mouth.

“Oh no,
he’s
going. I’m not staying in house alone with him.” I’m sure he’ll have Brielle over the second they hit the bottom of the driveway. I’m not interested in bearing witness to another fuck-fest.

“You’re both going. Everybody get ready. We want to try and make the afternoon ferry. Tad gather’s his briefcase from off the kitchen counter and heads upstairs.

“I’m not going.” I look dead on at my mother. If she really wants a challenge I’ll give her one.

“Why, Skyla?
Why
?” She doesn’t bother hiding her exasperation.

Mia and Melissa amble upstairs in a frenzy of excitement.

“Because…” I pause considering my options. “I have my period.” I give a sly smile over to Drake while my mother busies herself in the kitchen. “Monster, debilitating cramps.” I groan, clutching at my abdomen.

“Gross.” Drake does a magnificent disappearing act.

“Do you really have monster cramps?” She stops short from scrubbing the granite counter raw.