Celestra Forever After by Addison Moore Read Free Book Online Page B

if I head down to sit with her?”
    “Go for it. I see one of the guys from the team. I’ll be holding up the rear.” He seals it with a kiss, and my bones melt with lust for him. I watch as Gage climbs the stairs, and my eyes can’t seem to peel away from his Levi’s. Gage Oliver is the perfect package. And I’m pretty darn sure it’s time for me to do some unwrapping.
    I trot down the stairs and cut off a blonde with beach balls for boobs, dropping down into the seat next to Laken before she can.
    “Sorry,” I whisper, but the girl doesn’t waver from her resting bitch face. She simply moves on down the row. Her eyes linger on Laken’s a moment too long.
    “Don’t apologize to her.” Laken pulls out a notebook before turning to me. “There’s nothing Grayson Evans likes more than giving me hell.” Laken is beautiful, high cheeks, stormy blue eyes, and the kind of pouty lips that girls the world over pay good money for. Laken does a double take before her mouth rounds out with surprise. “Skyla, is that you?” Her face turns ashen as if she were in shock.
    “ Yes .” I land my hand over hers to calm her. Poor Laken has never seen me outside of a light drive or the bowels of the Celestra tunnels—and I doubt she has any memory of the time she logged some serious hours in one of Ezrina’s overgrown test tubes. It’s kind of creepy thinking I’m the one who peeled off Laken’s clothes and landed her in the blue goo to begin with. That’s how Ezrina stored the dead Counts—in blue keeping solution, each in their own overgrown glass vial. My heart sinks because that’s exactly where Logan’s body is now, in one of those overgrown vials.
    “This is so exciting!” Laken whisper-shouts as she leans in. “Coop and I thought about finding you.” She averts her eyes, clearly enthused. “I mean we were going to find you, and now you’re here. I can’t wait to tell him.”
    “Coop? I love Coop!” A part of me wants to ask what the hell happened to Wes. I haven’t been to the tunnels in months, and he’s my usual caller. The Counts have a thirst for Celestra blood because it enables them to tap into our powers for a time. But it’s not Wes I’m eager to see—it’s Logan, my forever escort in that madhouse—my Elysian.
    The room settles down, and Laken nods just past my shoulder as the Professor strides to the front. There’s something alarmingly familiar about that tall, sturdy frame, that dark blond hair. He spins around and—holy shit.
    I sink in my seat as a small choir of Dudley breaks out around the room.
    “Oh, God.” I give a little moan. “I had him in high school,” I whisper just as all of those erotic dreams swim through my mind like a carnal inferno. “Not like that”— I correct—“he was my teacher.”
    Laken gives a soft laugh. “Of course, not like that. Your Elysian is your boyfriend.”
    Right. I sink a little further. I can’t wait to share all the sordid details of my shattered love life with Laken. That’s one way to break the ice, trying to explain how my heart splintered in three, and that Logan’s time with me is still decades away—forever if I have any say because there’s no way I can lose Gage. I’ll do anything I can to keep him. Logan’s death was like a black hole that swallowed me. When Chloe took his life it was as if she cut out my beating heart at the exact same moment. I can’t bear that pain again. I can never go back there.
    I turn to look at Gage just as a loud explosion goes off toward the front. I spin quickly to find a small stack of books at Marshall’s feet.
    “Eyes on me.” Marshall calls court with his attention fully settled in my direction. A strangled silence takes over as every student in the oversized room sits at attention. Marshall Dudley is a force of nature that should be feared— worshiped —preferably naked with the female form. I give a wry smile. I should have figured he wouldn’t let me out of his sight. I can