Free Celestra Forever After by Addison Moore Page B

glance over at his darkened bedroom before making my way to mine. I pull out my phone and shoot him a text.
    Someone stole your truck, douchebag. Call me . I hit send and land the phone on the bed.
    I head over to my bookshelf and pull out the Oxford Dictionary—a fat volume that my grandmother picked up for me at a garage sale one afternoon. The exact same afternoon she gifted me her two-carrot princess cut diamond ring.
    I pull it out carefully and set it to side. The ruby velvet box is still tucked safely in the back. I hold my hand out in front of it and will it to come to me. Inch by inch it jerks forward until it crashes into my palm. I’m not sure why I have this new power. Why I can do a lot of strange things lately like will things to happen by outright demanding it mentally, but I suppose it’s some far-reaching Levatio skill I’m beginning to master. My father always told Logan and I that the older we got, the more powers we could accrue, that we could learn them like learning to play the piano. And now it looks as if that’s proving true, at least for me. I pluck open the soft velvet box, and the ring takes my breath away—beautiful as Skyla—platinum with smaller diamonds outlining a larger stone set in the center. I’ve gifted Skyla jewelry before, but nothing like this. This could be life changing for the both of us in the very best way.
    My heart thumps clear into my ears, trying to hack its way through my skull with sheer enthusiasm. I can’t wait to ask Skyla to marry me. I was born to do this.
    I glance over at the phone. Logan hasn’t bothered to return my text, and a part of me is glad. I just need a little more time alone with Skyla—a little more time to make her mine.
    We’re almost there.
    I hold the diamond up to the light, and a rainbow ignites across the room like a seizure.
    We’ve almost got it all.
     

 
    Logan
     
    Ellis roars as he annihilates the enemy, in this case, Liam. They’re immersed in a game of Call of Duty in the middle of Dudley’s living room, passing gas, lighting up blunts like this were some frat house.
    I throw a pillow at Liam’s head with missile precision and knock the joint right out of his hand.
    “Like I said, don’t touch that shit, you’ll get hooked.”
    Harrison picks up a pillow and nails me in the face. “And I said it’s not addictive. Go ahead, Liam, finish her off. I’ve got plenty more where that came from. It’s legal now in Washington in the event your brother isn’t up on his state laws.”
    “No shit?” Liam stares down at the fat joint pinched once again between his fingers. Smoke blows from his lips as his chest bucks with a cough.
    “How’s this? You’re both shit.” I get up. “I’m heading out for some fresh air.”
    “What’s the matter, princess? Not in the mood for a pillow fight?” Harrison blocks my path with his leg. “ Dude , toss off in the bathroom and let out a little steam. You’ll feel better, trust me. I do it like six times a day, and it’s just enough to pull me through.”
    Liam starts in on a never-ending laugh.
    “Look”—I start—“I’m not really interested in what you and Rosie Palm do in your spare time, which, rumor has it, you have a lot of.” I’ve seen him slacking off at the bowling alley enough to know this.
    “Come on, stay.” He beams me in the head with a pillow that I never saw coming. “We’re just getting this slumber party rolling. Don’t be a pussy.”
    “You’re a pussy,” I say, stepping over his leg. “And if I catch you passing this crap off to Giselle, I’m going to hit you in the head with something a little harder than a glorified ball of cotton.” I like Ellis, but his bad habits had better not transfer over to my niece.
    “That goes double for me.” Liam takes another hit off the joint, and his chest puffs up before filling the room with a white plume.
    “See you in a few.” I head out the back and walk down to the corral where the long-necked