Page 48 of The Preacher's Pet

The birds are singing, and that magical morning light still illuminates the sky. I used to love the early mornings at the commune the best of all. They were the time for the women, as the men mostly still slept or were working in the fields. Wewould feed the chickens, and milk the cows, and tend to the cooking for the day. Without those glowering male presences, the air would feel lighter, and freer.

I have two glowering male presences either side of me now, except they don’t feel like a threat; they feel like a promise.

“Let me do the talking,” Cain says.

I swallow hard, still finding it difficult to assert myself, but I force myself to speak up. “Actually, I think I should ask him.”

Cain’s gaze narrows. “He might be an asshole to you.”

I smile. “I can take that, and I think it’s best if the request comes from me. After all, I’m the one who needs his help. You’ll both be there, to back me up.”

“Sure, if you really want to do it that way,” Cain says. “But I swear, if he starts being a fucker—” he corrects his language “— –umm, not nice to you, then I’m stepping in.”

We reach the looming water tower, and I glance up at it. “Is this normally where you’ll find him?”

“Most of the time, if he’s not in his room,” Malachi says. “He does like to be out in the forest though, so we might need to check there next if he’s not here.”

He tries the door and grins when it opens without it needing to be unlocked. “See?” he mutters softly.

The two men step inside first.

“Isn’t it early to be working on new incantations?” Malachi asks the person he finds there.

I follow them into the dimly lit space and spy Roman, sitting on a three-legged stool by the counter that runs down one end of the room. He’s grinding something in a mortar and pestle.

The sight of that simple, plain instrument of domesticity has my stomach clenching. We used them a lot at the commune. Living simply was a virtue, the Prophet said, which meant cooking things in the most labor-intensive way possible. Female labor, of course, never the men.

Roman turns to his friends, and his gaze skitters past them to land on me. I can feel it all over me, as if it holds special power. I tremble under his regard and only relax a bit when he looks away. God, but he’s got a powerful charisma about him. He might not be as big as Cain, or as striking as Malachi, but he’s got an aura about him that’s impossible to ignore.

“What’s she doing here?”

The fact he asks them, and ignores me, hurts.

“Just hear her out, okay?” Cain’s voice is harsher than I’ve heard it before.

Roman lifts one eyebrow but gives a short nod. “Fine.”

He picks up a cloth and wipes his hands before leaving the stool and heading to the couch. He sits, and I swallow in trepidation when he pats the seat next to him.

“Come talk to me,” he says.

My heart is beating out of my chest. I perch beside him, every muscle in my body knotted with tension. I ball my hands together and press them between my knees. Then I take a deep breath, and I tell him what I told Cain. I don’t need to try to put emotion into my story—my words speak for themselves. When I’m done, I look at Roman, and bravely holding his gaze, I say, “I think you can help me, Roman. I need you to help me.”

But he shakes his head and drags his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry for everything you’ve gone through, but it’s not our problem. We have our own, bigger, issues to deal with, and I’ve already told you that we don’t need the distraction.”

Cain takes a step forward. “She’s more than a distraction, Rome.” His tone is hard.

Malachi joins his side. “We’re allowed to care about someone other than ourselves. If we don’t, what the fuck is the point in all of this?” He gestures around at the water tower.

Roman gets to his feet and glares at Malachi. “You know what the point is. We need to be strong. Powerful. If we’re not, then the people who hurt us will just get away with it.”

“They’re not going to get away with it,” Cain growls.

“They will if she comes in and fucks this all up.”

I draw a breath. “That’s not what I plan to do, I promise.”

Roman snaps at me. “You already are. Can’t you see that?”

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