Page 9 of Our Sins in Silver (Coven of Sin 3)

All because of me.

The chasm of self-hatred that split me apart fused in an instant when a muffled voice sounded from the other end of the cupboard.

“Brother, are you in here?”

Elijah.

My apprentice was alive.

Chapter four

The Demon Called Thomas

Sterling - Pt. 4

Ibroughtmyfistto my mouth. The sheer shock that Elijah was still alive quickly dissipated into pure joy. I wasn’t sure how, but my apprentice lived. He’d escaped Satan’s wrath. Perhaps God had shielded him. I attempted to hurry across the floor, but Catherine caught my tunic as she shook her head frantically. “No, don’t go. What if the devil is still out there?”

Smoothing my hand over where her fingers knotted in my clothes, I smiled. “It’s alright. It’s just Elijah. And if the devil is still out there, I won’t let him hurt you.”

She didn’t want to release me, but she did. I opened the hidden panel and popped my head out of the cupboard, just in time to see my apprentice about to leave the dining hall. “Elijah,” I hissed. I beckoned him with a wave. “Over here.”

The scribe looked so overjoyed at the sight of me. Even in the dimly lit room, I saw that the boy was covered in blood. His robes were tattered. His face was littered with deep cuts. Like he’d had a wrestling match with the beast.

I helped him inside and fastened both doors shut behind us.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you safe, my friend.” My back sagged against the door. “I won’t lie and say my faith hasn’t been tested this night. Seeing you alive, I’m reminded that there is still much to thank God for.”

The scribe gave a jerk of a nod. He was so rigid, his shoulders were nearly touching his ears as he surveyed his new surroundings. He regarded the silver with slitted eyes. “What is this place?”

“This is where we keep our valuables. Only the senior monks know of it.” I frowned at the way he wrinkled his nose in displeasure. He was acting as though I’d pulled him into a viper’s den and not a sanctuary. “What’s the matter with you? It’s silver. Not poison.”

Elijah didn’t answer me. He turned his back to me so he was facing Catherine, who was still curled up in the opposite corner of the room. It seemed she wasn’t comfortable being seen by the scribe in only her nightgown, based on the way she wrapped her arms around herself and kept her gaze averted.

“How did you escape?” I asked the boy, half in curiosity and half trying to ignore the unease spreading through me like a sickness.

“I didn’t.”

“What?”

Catherine’s blood-curdling screams tore through the room before the word had fully left my mouth. I stared at the back of Elijah’s head, dazed and confused. Then I saw the flesh on his neck twitch and pulsate. Something beneath his robes shifted, and his flesh rippled.

It dawned on me then, the error I’d made.

I’d seen this trick before when a man emerged from a lion’s carcass.

The demon could wear corpses.

My apprentice wasn’t alive at all. His remains were being worn.

The devil had donned a most clever disguise indeed, and because of it, I’d invited him into our sanctuary.

Elijah’s flesh plopped to the ground as I collapsed to my knees, my legs unable to hold me any longer. My entire body shook as a thick wail bled from me.

I didn’t think I could experience more torment than I already had until the demon—who still had pieces of Elijah’s flesh clinging to him—plucked Catherine up by her hair. She screamed and thrashed, and he ground out a guttural laugh as he forced her down onto a crate, ripping her nightgown from her body with one swipe of his claws.

“Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.”

Even as the monster pried the nun’s thighs apart, he recited the scripture with a wicked smile and a wink tossed in my direction.

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