Page 106 of The Sinner and the Priest: Part 1

My fingers curl into a fist, and I gently thump my thigh. Anger flashes in Cisco’s eyes when he sees the motion. Before he has the chance to rebuke me, I put my hands on the table and ask, “This sword is the silent steel the Gospel talks about, right?”

“Maybe.” Wesley rubs his jaw, turns to Thea, and points to a line on the translation. “It mentions igniting the flame … and a heart is another name for a sword’s hilt.”

Thea stares at me, and I see it in her eyes. She knows I thought it was mine.

“Pass it to Raven,” she tells Tawny. “See if the sword reacts to her. When I first touched Raphael’s staff, it glowed.”

“Mm.” Leila nods. “The Helwing gun did the same. It also called to me. Maybe the sword will burst into flames as the legends say.”

“Does it call to anyone here?” Hannah asks, shrewd gaze darting from face to face.

Raven takes it. Nothing happens. “Just a lump of metal.”

I bite my bottom lip as an unsettled feeling swirls through me. Maybe I should tell them I felt it call to me. I open my mouth to speak when Hannah elbows Jasmine, and she reaches for it.

“Give it to me.” Jasmine holds out her hand for it.

“Why bother?” Raven deadpans and puts it down, out of reach. “You’re not one of the five.”

“Who says?” Jasmine waves between herself and Hannah. “We could be.”

“We have beatific vision.” Raven’s brow arches. “You don’t.”

Hannah, who is closer to Raven, picks up the sword. She tosses it in front of Jasmine. “Nothing,” she grinds out. “Argument over.”

“Not yet.” Jasmine does the same.

Sparks crackle along the sword when she makes contact, and I feel sick.

She’s the one.

She replaces it on the table and rubs her palm. “That was … um. That was weird, right?”

I can’t look at her.

“Is that what you mean?” she asks the others. “It reacted to you?”

“How can she b-b—” Tawny stutters.

Even Raven looks perplexed, eyes on the whiteboard where the original prophecy is written out.

“That’s it? A few sparks?” Hannah sits back on her couch, unimpressed. “Looks broken to me.”

“Maybe…” I start. Take a breath. “Maybe we’ve been interpreting the gospel wrong.”

“No fucking way.” Thea folds her arms. “We interpreted it well enough to find the first two relics.”

Wesley folds his arms, scrutinizing the blade. “It could have been static electricity.”

I shake my head. “Or it could have been a divine relic trying to work but failing, like Hannah said.”

“You might be right,” he replies. “The gospel calls the steel silent. Then it talks about igniting the flame.”

Thea shifts her stare to Cisco, then back to the translation. God, I can read her like an open book. She’s now starting to realize the second reason I thought of getting the sword. The translated verses talk about a Lamb who takes away sin. Who else can that be than Cisco?

But if Thea thinks the same thing, she keeps it to herself.

Clearing my throat, I force my voice to sound steady. “Okay, so then what are we thinking? How do we repair the sword?”