Chapter 26
Gage
The fog wraps around me like a wet shroud as I walk the empty streets of Paragon, my phone heavy in my pocket with Chloe’s latest text.
She wants to meet up, wants to talk, and I know exactly what that means. I also know I should want it. I should want the distraction, the chance to prove to myself that I can move on from Skyla Messenger.
But I don’t.
My feet carry me toward the cemetery without conscious thought, drawn to the one place on this island where I can think without someone watching, analyzing, or trying to fix me.
The Paragon Cemetery has always been my refuge—ironic, considering my family runs the place—but there’s something about the quiet rows of headstones that makes the rest of the noise in the world fade away.
Tonight, it feels like the only honest place left.
Chloe said she wanted to talk, and I told her I was in.
I settle onto the stone bench near the old oak tree, cold marble seeping through my jeans, and pull out my phone to stare at Chloe’s response.
Meet me at the pier in twenty. I have ideas for the two of us.
The way she worded it makes my skin crawl. Chloe Bishop has always been beautiful and sharp, and yet completely lacking in whatever makes other people human. She collects hearts like trophies and trashes them just as easily.
And right now, that’s exactly what I deserve.
A shadow passes overhead, and I look up to see Nevermore circling in the fog like some kind of omen. The massive raven’s wings cut through the mist with silent precision, and for a moment, I swear he’s looking right at me with those beady little eyes that have seen way too much for way too long.
“Hey, Nev,” I say quietly.
He lands on the boulder beside me, folding his wings with the kind of dignified grace that makes me feel like a clumsy idiot in comparison. Which is exactly what I am.
“You saw the whole thing tonight, didn’t you?” I ask him. “The way she looked at Logan. The way he looked at her.”
Nevermore tilts his head, studying me with an intensity that’s unnerving.
Sometimes I swear this bird knows more about what’s happening than the rest of us combined.
He’s been around forever, seen things that would probably drive a normal person insane.
I can’t hear what he’s thinking without Logan or Skyla, but we seem to understand each other just the same.
“I’m going to see Chloe,” I tell him, the words tasting like ash. “Probably going to make the biggest mistake of my life. But at least it’ll be my mistake, you know?”
Nev makes a low sound in his throat, almost like disapproval. Or warning. Probably both.
“Yeah, I know what you think of her,” I continue. “Hell, I know what I think of her. She’s into me, though. And maybe that’s what I need right now. Someone who won’t look at me like I’m broken.”
Nevermore stares at me in a way that seems to see straight through to my soul, and I have the uncomfortable feeling that he’s judging me. Finding me lacking.
“Skyla chose him,” I say, the words coming out rougher than I intended. “Whatever we had, whatever I thought we had—it’s over. So, I might as well act like it.”
The fog rolls in thicker now, making the headstones look like ghosts in their own right. Somewhere in the distance, I can hear voices through windows, the clinking of dishes being washed, and the sounds of a family going about their evening routine.
Normal sounds. Safe sounds.
Everything I’m apparently determined to complicate.
My phone buzzes again. Another text from Chloe, probably wondering where I am. Probably getting impatient with my lack of response to listen to her ideas.
I stand up, brushing dust off my jeans, and Nevermore takes flight. He circles once, twice, then lands on a nearby headstone as if he’s making a point.
“Fine,” I tell him. “You think I’m making a grave mistake. Message received.”
But I’m already walking toward the cemetery gates, toward whatever disaster Chloe Bishop has planned for me.