Page 48 of The Sinner and the Scholar
I’m intimately aware of what the Entity does to neutralize threats. I’m dead when they learn this was my fault. But I’m desperate. And I’m not thinking about me. I came here on the chance that we could save Zeke, and I knew destroying the Sisterhood would be the next best thing if we couldn’t. Now it seems foolish. These women aren’t our enemies. They never were.
I wonder what Thea’s reason for doing this is. I know about saving Prue, but the rest of it—being a Sinner, a killer. It seems like she’s been shoved into this life, unlike us. No… not like us. We didn’t ask to have our family members destroyed by demons. She might not have asked to be turned into an assassin, but she embraces it.
I think.
The Cardinal warned us about them all. He said the Sisterhood kept hidden because they knew their actions were wrong. They treat their agents as expendable pawns and thus must all be evil because only evil is okay with sanctioning Sinners.
I turn my thoughts back to the relic we’re hunting. It’s imperative that I get my hands on it first, but my guilt is getting louder these days. My cell phone has already buzzed with incoming messages from the Entity asking why my location has deviated from the abbey. Zeke and Dom have also checked in.
I’ve ignored each message. I’m not ready to talk yet.
“If you want,” I say to Thea. “We can use this time to review the class material you missed.”
“I’d rather talk about Asmodeus,” she replies, keeping her alert gaze out the window. “That wasn’t his true name because he wasn’t under our control, was he?”
“There’s probably another part to it.”
I scrub my face. My skin crawls at the memory of the three-headed monstrosity I was ready to knife. His act had layers and was designed to distract us in many ways.
“He spoke in Latin,” I mention. “Is that what you heard too?”
I study her to gauge her response. While I heard Latin, none of the Sinners performing the summoning seemed confused. Either they all could translate, or—
“He spoke in English to us,” she said, then shrugged.
“And… what did he look like to you?”
“I saw a naked man.” She smirks. “A good-looking, well-endowed, and dangerously clever man.”
I stare out the window, forcing my mind to consider her declaration.Clever?She’s probably referring to the windy gusts he created to mess with the salt and chalk seal trapping him. I would have noticed his escape attempt earlier had I not needed to translate his words from Latin.
Didn’t think he was that attractive, either.
None of the Sinners had a language barrier. That secret and the fact they all saw something else when looking upon the damned is unsettling. As far as the church is concerned, the Sinnersarethe damned, and maybe that’s why they were on the same wavelength as Asmodeus.
I don’t believe it.
None of themseemevil.
Cisco pulled me aside before I joined Thea tonight. He warned me to keep a close eye on her and to protect myself. But they don’t know what I know… that Mary’s gospel has chosen them. It’s too obvious to discredit.
When I found the split manuscript in the Vatican’s archives and connected the dots between Mary and the Sisterhood, I thought the worst consequences would be controversy to the church, the Sisterhood discredited, or my ultimate death. At the very best, I hoped I would save Zeke’s life.
But now… now the Sinners have a supernatural sight linked to that gospel, and I suspect Thea is hiding more from me.
Shifting in the seat, I slouch and get comfortable. I want to remain awake while Thea is, but I’m not trained like her. A few all-nighters at university don’t quite have the same staying power as her training in the Art of War.
I heard a rumor they used to hang from trees by a noose to strengthen their necks—making them impossibly hard to break.
As I relax, my eyes take a sideways swipe to soak up Thea’s remarkable profile in the moonlight. I wish I hadn’t. Seeing her like this makes my cock stir, which reignites my irritation. Since that moment we shared in the archives, my body has been swift to react like this. Why does she have to be so bloody beautiful?
I wish I could say she was using her God-given beauty to manipulate me, but I think her brain gives me wood more than anything else. I’ve never met another woman who can outsmart me. Well, almost outsmart me. I’ll keep catching up with her. Anywhere she runs, I’ll follow.
I grin and stare at the back of the driver’s seat.
“What’s your story, scholar?” Thea asks.
“Pardon?”
