Page 13 of Saint, Sorrow, Sinner
“Yeah, I’d bet on it.”
Finally.She sighed.Someone honest.“You wanted to use the Breath of Judas, didn’t you?”
“Until I saw it in action.” He shrugged, lifting the bug eye level. “Not very user friendly.”
Sophia huffed out a bitter laugh. “Definitely not.”
“What’s it like?”
“Loud,” she said. A pigeon twirled through the air, chasing a mosquito. “Like there’s a thousand people inside me all trying to whisper through a keyhole.”
“Gross.”
“Did Tehlor actually bring you back from the dead?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s that like?”
Lincoln made a dismissive noise. “Bein’ back? Same shit, different magic. But it’s quiet for the most part. She’s the loudest thing in here.” He tapped his skull and jutted his muzzle toward the back door. “Bein’ bound to a witch with a heart like a wildfire’ll do that, I guess.”
“You don’t like it?” Strange to hear someone talk so flippantly about life after death.
“Being tethered to Tehlor?” He considered the question, smiling sheepishly. “I don’t mind.”
“Power,” she clarified.
“That’s subjective. Power is volatile. People steal it more often than they cultivate it. I made a deal for mine. Didn’t go well.” He shrugged. The ladybug lifted off his knuckle and flew into the air. “But once you get a taste of it—true power, I mean—it’s hard to picture a life without it. Power like you have”—he tipped his head—“is a gamble. You can use it, be used by it, and hope you come out on top, or you can let it have you.”
Sophia thought of cages again. Hutch rabbits and hunting hounds. “What would you do if you were me?”
“Rule the fuckin’ world.” The answer rolled off his tongue with practiced ease.
“Seriously.”
“Fine, I’dmayberule the world. I’d probably, like, retire, though. If we’re being honest.”
“We are.”
“Then yeah. I’d retire.”
“How?”
“Raise a corpse army, kill some politicians, storm a few banks, fill an offshore account, and settle down in a country with no extradition law. Pay an exorcist an ass-load of money to get the Breath of Judas outof me, buy Tehlor a nice house, and spend the rest of my life drinking fruity drinks on a white sand beach.”
“I don’t think I believe you,” Sophia said. The wolf-man was too ambitious for such a cut-and-dried exit.
“If you would’ve asked me the same question last year, I would’ve meant it—taking over the world, having it all, hoarding power—but ...” He gazed at the back door. His lupine ears twitched. “I can mourn the man I might’ve been and still appreciate who I’m becoming. I never thought ... I don’t know, I never thought I’d havethis.I mean, c’mon.” He scrubbed his palm over his furry head. “Not many people get athirdchance. I used to want it all. Dying a few times changed that, I guess.”
“But you’d still rob some banks,” Sophia said, arching a brow. “Kill a few more people while you’re at it.”
Lincoln snarled a grin. “Oh, absolutely.”
Sophia laughed and shook her head. When she looked back at the birds, she noticed a few had flown away.
Power.The word slithered through her, cooed like a lullaby.What would you know of it, girl?
Sometimes memories stole her voice. Sometimes they paralyzed her. Other times, she witnessed them from above, watching her past become small and conquered at the hands of Amy, and Rose, and Daniel, and Haven.And Haven.She sucked in the cool autumn air and reminded her lungs that they were not full of water.
