All on its own Paragon glows with an ethereal glory, but this night, this peculiar night, there is an otherworldly patina shining over us, sanctifying us, telling us that it is making everything new.

Coop, Wes, and I huddle together as we try to figure out how the hell to get Laken off of Raven’s Eye.

Wesley and I stare one another down in Demetri’s backyard as if it were a standoff.

“Fine, I’ll take Coop.” He grunts out the words as the party rages around us. The fog has settled over Demetri’s grand estate, and both Lizbeth and Emma dance the boys around with blankets draped over them.

I’ve spent the last half hour trying to convince this cheap knockoff of my nephew that Cooper needs to be a part of this. Nobody on this planet, not even Wesley, wants Laken back home and safe more than her husband. But Wesley, of course, doesn’t believe it to be true. In truth, it might be a toss-up. Wesley is hungry for her love. He is impatient at best with her decision to leave him for Cooper Flanders. And most of all, he is primal and dangerous on every single level. Wes acts first and thinks later, and that alone is why Laken is stuck on Raven’s Eye. Because Wesley himself invited the government to Paragon with open fucking arms.

Coop slaps me over the back and offers an anemic smile. “Tell Gage I said goodbye. I have full confidence Laken will be home in a few short hours.” He looks to Wes with a shot of hatred in his eyes. “The home I share with her. In my bed where she belongs.”

Wes shakes his head as he starts for the woods, and Coop takes off with him.

Skyla comes up, breathless, removing her glittering mask for the first time tonight. “We need to get this show on the road. The boys are starting to fall asleep, and Demetri is about ready to burp out his speech whether Gage is present or not. Speaking of my absentee husband, where is he? I’ve been texting him nonstop, but he’s not picking up.”

“I was with him out front before I hunted down Wes. Maybe he’s still inside.” I wrap an arm around her shoulders, and her flesh trembles beneath me. “You’re ice cold. Take my jacket.”

“Thank you, but I feel fine. I just have this unsettling feeling.” Her diamond-colored eyes flit from left to right, anxious and searching.

“You probably should.” I nod past her. “Demetri just took both the boys. Don’t worry.” I rub my hands over her bare shoulder, warming her. “I’ll find him.”

Lizbeth struts over with her hands on her hips, her eyes shooting daggers at us. “Skyla Oliver! Get over here. Demetri says he’s cutting the cake in five whether the two of you show or not! You are being rude, young lady.”

“Rude?” Skyla chokes out the word. “Gage probably got lost in that maze Demetri calls a home. It’s that demon who’s being rude.”

Lizbeth scoffs as if Demetri’s rudeness were an impossibility. “He who holds the gold makes the rules. You have five minutes.”

“I’ll find him.” I sigh at the sight of that behemoth mansion.

“I’m coming with you.” Skyla speeds alongside me as we head in and pass Ingram. She pulls at his lapel, and he turns to her. “Have you seen Gage?”

Ingram smiles with those blue lips, his skin an unfortunate shade of parchment. “Just a few minutes ago. He went that way.” He nods down the hall, and I take Skyla by the hand, gliding us past the empty rooms, the lonely stairwell.

“Gage?” I call out, glancing down the hall that leads from the entry, and my voice comes back to me as an echo. The foyer is empty, and we head into the grand room that sits idle—a stark contrast from the festivities taking place here just under an hour ago.

“Gage?” Skyla calls out as we scan the vicinity.

A slick puddle reflects purple under the harsh blue lights—and I head in that direction. A lake blooms in the southern part of the grand ballroom, and my natural curiosity quickly gives way to fear. A pair of shoes sits straight up as if there were a—body.

“Oh God,” I pant as I speed over.

A suit, a body, a pool of red, a pool of blood. I drop to my knees, slipping in the cold sticky mess.

A body. A body. A body and no fucking head.

“No!” I bark it out like a reprimand, like a battle cry, like the horrible realization it is.

“Gage?” Skyla’s voice shrills to the ceiling of this vast chamber. Even the chandeliers tremble with her howl. Skyla slips in the crimson liquid as she slides to the place where his head once stood. “Gage!” she pants, falling on all fours, the blood splattering her gown, her pale skin, blotching up her bone-white face like a massacre. “No, no, no!” Her hands pat the floor, soft at first then hard and violent, splashing the blood of her husband three feet into the air. “Stop the bleeding,” she whispers under her breath like a chant as her hands try to cover the gaping wound that is his neck. But the blood pours out like a river, far too much to ever be possible. Her hands flail in the liquid until it’s dripping from her head, her face completely covered, the whites of her eyes alone are glowing.

“Skyla!” I slide my way over in the crimson liquid, my body wet and sticky with the blood of my brother.

Bodies fill the room, screams from other people. Emma and Barron kneeling in the muck and the mire—the marrow of their only son’s body.

Skyla bucks and slams her arms down over the pool of blood that spurts up around us like a fountain. Her hands slam against the floor over and over, launching a sea of red, wave after burgundy wave.

“No!” she shouts to the heavens, but it doesn’t change a thing. Her limbs still splashing, her screams vibrating this entire damn house. I lunge to stop the flailing, and we slip and roll over the viscous evidence of Gage Oliver’s demise. We are bathed in his blood. Drinking it down like holy water. Dousing our hair, our eyes, our clothes, and every last square inch of our flesh in the blood of the one we love. Gage, who I love with something deeper than a brother. He is the other part of me, the better part, the one I gifted my wife to. I would have died in his place a thousand times. His family needs him. Hell, I need him, too. It’s not his time. It couldn’t be.

Skyla wails and thrashes, inconsolable. She is trying to make the blood disappear, pounding her fists over his chest, trying to kill Gage all over again, her teeth stained pink, her mouth dripping with all of him poured out over her.

Love.

The one we love is gone.

And all we see is red.