Page 6 of Our Sins in Silver (Coven of Sin 3)

He was naked, his ashen flesh smeared in blood. Many of the nuns had collapsed to their knees in prayer. The abbess clung to my other arm, joining us in transfixed horror as we watched the nightmare unfold.

The man straightened to his full height, pulling the lion’s hide around his shoulders like a king’s mantle before slowly turning his hellish gaze on us. He leered at us through the iron gate like a ravenous wolf inside a cage.

Blood oozed from his charcoal-black hair, and his dark eyes gleamed with something that sunk straight through me and cleaved my heart in two.

This wasn’t a man at all.

He’d shed the lion’s carcass like a cloak.

I was certain that this flesh of man he wore was just another layer to his disguise.

He prowled toward our gate, lips spreading into a malevolent grin as everyone shrunk away.

Even the abbess.

Only Elijah remained rooted beside me, trembling against me as I held my ground. The creature appeared intrigued, his hell-red eyes fixed on me.

The scent of death seeped through the gate as he approached the bars separating us. He pushed his body against the iron barrier, razor-sharp canines flashing in the moonlight with his ear-to-ear grin.

“Be sober-minded, be watchful,” the entity cackled. His voice came out multifaceted, smooth and honied, yet demonic and booming at the same time. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

My stomach heaved. This thing, this…demon, was recitingscripture.

My apprentice looked up at me, his words coming out so weak I barely heard him at all. “B–B–Brother. Y–your curse.”

Fear filled my lungs like blood intent on drowning me. What I’d said to Elijah in the scriptorium was only the mutterings of a tired monk that had been pushed to his limits. It meant nothing. Still, my curse rang through my skull like a bell.

What matters is that our efforts are righteous in the eyes of the Lord. And if He views our mission as a sin, then Lucifer curse this place, Elijah. Lucifer curse it all to Hell.

No, no, no. This wasn’t the devil.

It couldn’t be.

I refused to accept that nightmare as reality.

Tamping down the tattered fragments of my nerves, I turned to the abbess, beckoning her back to my side. In the absence of the abbot, she was in charge. It was her duty to address our most unwelcome visitor, or at the very least, say something inspiring to the rest of the abbey. Or lead us in prayer, or bloody anything.

The nun only gave a frantic shake of her head.

I swallowed the fist-sized lump in my throat as I turned back to the creature. “What are you, stranger?”

The man’s gore-smeared chest rumbled with a laugh that was as light and amusing as a thunderclap made of a thousand screams. “You are a man of God, Priest. You should knowpreciselywhat I am. But if a name will bring you comfort when I’m tearing out your throat, I’m known asLuciferi equitis. But my mate…” His voice contorted with emotion as he gripped the iron bars. He threw his head back and let loose a flayed moan of agony that bled from him like a wolf howling mournfully at the moon. “Oh, my sweet bride. My darling, human mate.”

I gaped at the stranger. He was in pain. He’d lost his woman. Surely he was a demon, but not Satan himself? I doubt Satan would take a mortal lover, let alone be grief-stricken over her loss.

My attention dropped to the bloody potato sack, and I wondered if it was her body that he’d dragged behind him.

His hand shot through the bars, moving so fast there was no time for me to react. He seized me viciously by the throat, and I sputtered for air. Elijah and everyone else stepped back with a gasp. My breath latched in my chest, unable to squeeze past the vice-like fingers crushing my windpipe.

“Look at me, Priest,” the demon sneered. His blood-laced saliva dripped from his bared canines, painting his infernal grin in sin. “You asked me a question. Few have been brave enough to do so, and even fewer have survived long enough to receive an answer. That makes you special, therefore I will give you a special answer. I am known asLuciferi equitis, but my mate called me Thomas. You may do the same.”

Chapter three

The Devil Prowls Like a Lion

Sterling - Pt. 3

Thedemon’scoal-hoteyesran me through like a burning pike. With his fingers still clamped around my throat like a collar, I could scarcely breathe. It was almost as if he was challenging me to succumb to the darkness blurring the edges of my vision. Perhaps it would have been smarter to give in to the monster. Somehow, though, I couldn’t make myself break his stare. The profound agony buried beneath his blood-crusted mania held me rapt.

---