Page 174 of The Harbinger

I took two steps back to his one stride. “Or what? You’ll bleed me out on the altar you fucked me on? How about a good old-fashioned drowning? You don’t seem to struggle with that.”

A sneer pulled his lips upward, and he lashed out, gripping my jaw with a powerful hold. “You will keep your voice down.” My butt hit a hard wooden dresser along the wall, and my back bowed over it. He bared his teeth in a vicious snarl. “I’ve sacrificed countless men and women on my altar, but their humanity made their cries that much sweeter.”

“You’re a monster.” A tear escaped and dribbled down my cheek, and my stomach dropped like a stone in water.

“Everyone has a monster inside—man, woman, and child. The difference is that I choose to be who I am instead of hiding it like the rest of you.” He ran his finger down my temple. “Would you rather I not be my true self?”

Nausea swirled upward, and acid scorched my throat. “I think…” I brought my hand over my mouth, and his fell away from my cheeks. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

I shouldered passed him and darted for the restroom, my stomach purging bile as I fell to my knees at the toilet. When my belly calmed, I sat back against the wall, my knee drawn up with my hand on my forehead. I clenched my eyes and breathed in through my nose, the silence deathly still.

What had I gotten myself into? Who were these people? If he had such a massive following, which appeared to be the case, how was the world okay with their rituals?

“I’m sorry.”

Sacha stood in the doorway, a wet washcloth clutched in his extended hand.

“What?”

I took the washcloth and used it to cover my mouth as I wiped it, then flushed the toilet in the process.

“I’m sorry. If I could go back and change things, I would. If only for the sake of my feelings toward you in the beginning.”

Sliding my back up the wall, I stood, then shouldered past him. “Not because you brought me here to die?”

“I brought you here because I felt compelled to do so.” He grabbed my hand and spun me around. “You have a ring with Lucifer’s sigil on it. What was I supposed to think? I’d been taught that you’d come and set us all free.”

Yanking my hand from his, I tugged at the silver burning my flesh. “This… she…” I grunted as I pulled.It shouldn’t be so tight.

“Here.” He took hold of my hand and wiggled the ring back and forth until it came off in one smooth go. “It’s gone. You’ll never have to see it again.”

“I still feel it.” My finger turned red as I rubbed it until he put his hand over mine, stopping my struggle.

“Maybe this was too much at once. How about we discuss more of this in the morning?”

“I can’t sleep.” Stepping around him, I grabbed my toothbrush and smeared paste on the bristles. “I want to know everything.” I stuffed the brush in my mouth and scrubbed my teeth, the scent of mint flooding my senses and calming my nerves. “Start with the test,” I said, my words barely intelligible.

“He wants you retested to see if you carry the Eldritch gene. It’s incredibly rare and has only been found once before.”

I stared at his reflection in the mirror. My brows furrowed as I continued brushing. “And this gene… what? Points to me as some kind of key to bring Satan to earth? That sounds a little far-fetched.” I shook my head, spit in the sink, then rinsed the toothpaste from my mouth.

“It’s been seen before. A woman named Delilah Eldritch discovered it while examining one of our deceased believers. He also held the same marking on his back—the exact same place in the same design. She found the mutation and named it after herself.” He walked forward, placed his hand on my shoulder as I put the toothbrush back in the holder, and then turned me around. “Ina had a vision of the next one who would possess such a mutation, and I thought she was you.”

“So why didn’t his death bring about the apocalypse or whatever you’re calling it?” I grabbed the hand towel, wiped my mouth of any remaining droplets, tossed the towel on the counter, and crossed my arms.

“He wasn’t you.”

I scoffed. My mind drew back to the day Ina grabbed me and his reaction when I told him her words. “What did Ina say to me that day?”

“You’re here.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Maybe I’d said the words incorrectly.

“I can only assume she saw the woman from her vision… you.”

“This is nuts, Sacha. You have to know that? You’re too smart to believe in this crap.”

“Every religion has the belief of someone coming from the heavens or hell and either creating chaos or destroying it. The Zoroastrians have Saoshyant, the Hindus have Kalki, and we have you. Or at least I thought we did.”

---