Page 9 of The Sinner and the Priest: Part 1

“It is the only one you get.” I hold his stare. “The prophecy changes the mission, sì. I understand this. I am changing the mission, too, but it takes time. You either trust me, or you stay out of my way. Capito?”

Zeke’s eyes narrow. I see the calculation, the weighing of loyalties. He knows I’m not telling him everything, but right now, I can’t. I need time to think things through.

“We will talk later,” I say, and put the matter to rest.

Four

Mercy

The instant I’m upstairs, I hunt Raven down. This team is out of control, and I’m done with the lies, moods, and secrets. She’s hiding something.

I raise my fist to knock on her door, but I don’t get a chance. She opens with a bundle of fresh clothes and a towel in hand and pushes past me.

“I’ve got first dibs on the shower,” she says.

“Oh no, you don’t.” I grab her arm and stop her.

There aren’t many people in this world I’m afraid of. Even the thought of my inevitable meeting with the devil fails to impress me. But Raven … she’s another entity altogether, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. I love her like a sister, would die for her, but even blood relatives can give you the spooks.

The smudged eyeliner glare she slides me should strip my soul. “If this is about your mysteriously empty body wash bottle, it wasn’t me.”

I blink. “I’m out of Santal 33?” Wait. “You’re distracting me. That’s not what this is about.”

“What do you want?”

“What was that about you and the Saint?” I demand.

“It doesn’t concern you.”

“But it concerns you and him?”

She shrugs me off. “You don’t want to know the answer to that.”

“Why not?”

Voices behind us. Footsteps grow louder on the stairs.

“You’d better be quick.” She holds my gaze, walking backward down the hall. “You’re almost out of alone time.”

With that, she spins and heads to the bathroom, almost bowling over a freshly washed, pink-skinned, towel-wrapped Tawny on her way out.

“I’ve got dibs after Raven.” Leila powers past us, aiming for her room.

“I’m after Leila,” Thea announces.

Tawny arrives at her door, the one I’m still blocking.

“You okay, Mercy?” She tugs at her dripping blond ponytail. “If it’s about your body wash⁠—”

“I’m fine, babe.” My voice is far too high-pitched as I back up toward my door. “No naps. Team meeting in the archives in fifteen.”

I don’t hear a reply. The blood roaring in my ears drowns out all sound, including the slam of my door closing. The thud of my spine hitting the wooden surface. My lungs heave as I will my body to calm the fuck down, but it feels like ants crawl beneath my skin. Everything is tight. Jittery.

You’re almost out of alone time.

I stare at my only sanctuary—the tiny, miserable monastic cell made smaller by two cots and my belongings strewn about. The chaos adds to the noise, and I hate it. I need the silence of a body that’s been properly bled, fucked, or punished. I need a desperate climax to silence the never-ending noise inside my body, always simmering beneath the skin. The one that likes to whisper, I’m the reason for it existing in the first place.

Shoving off the door, I drop to my knees and reach beneath my cot.