Page 20 of The Sinner and the Gunslinger
Another groan slips out of her lips. “You say the sexiest things sometimes, babe.”
I scoff. And then we’re off again, continuing our jog around the estate.
Eleven
Zeke
After Wesley storms out, I get up. “I’ll speak with him.”
“Then you come and see me,” Cisco orders.
For confession. I don’t want to, but I have to. Even if it’s for our priest’s sake because I know he’s a man of routine. And he does care.
I jog to catch up with Wesley. His long legs are already making strides down the path to the abbey. “Wes.”
He catches me in his periphery and shakes his head again. “How could they?”
“We probably should have told them earlier.”
“It wouldn’t have made a difference. You heard him—he’s an agent of the Entity. What’s worse is that they’ve been communicating with me as though I was their contact for this mission. Maybe it was Cisco all along. I don’t know who to trust.”
I fall into step beside him and put my hands in my pockets. This whole situation is messed up. I don’t even think our priest is confident he’s doing the right thing.
“So, what now?” I ask.
“We keep hunting for the relics. That’s all we can do.”
“Will you tell the girls?”
“Of course I will. They deserve to be prepared for whatever the Vatican sends our way.”
“You said there was something else Cisco and Dom needed to know.”
Wesley pales and avoids eye contact. “I couldn’t tell them. They’re not ready. Cisco still wants to dismantle the Sisterhood. Dom thinks he cansavethem.”
“So tell me.”
His intelligent eyes dart over me as if he’s actually putting me in the “people he can’t trust” basket.
“There was more to the prophecy than us working together,” he finally says, glancing back at the church. “Sinners of Saints, it said.”
“Okay. What does that mean?”
“We thought it could mean a few things, but before Thea killed the demon Vepar, she confessed that I was the first to mend the cracks. The cracks are the divide between the genders. With the discovery of Mary’s gospel, it proves a woman was in high regard of the Savior. This means women can be as involved in the church as men. Me being with Thea—us closing these cracks—is keeping the gates of hell shut. Lilith wants the gates open. She wants divide and friction. Each demonic horseman is foretold to split a relationship between a Sinner and a Saint apart.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m only the first from our team fated to find love with a Sinner.”
My lungs seize. “What?”
Leila’s face flashes before my eyes.
He adjusts his spectacles. “I’m willing to stake my life on the fact that we all have had some kind of demonic experience in our childhood—something that involved death. Lilith’s minions tried to kill me when I was a child... and for half my adult life. It was all to stop me from meeting Thea, but somehow, it’s brought us all here.”
“Are you saying it’s my fault a demon killed my baby sister? Because I’m part of this prophecy?”
“I’ve lost people too,” he points out. “We all have.”
