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He nods. “That’s okay, too,” he says. “Just dance with me.”
The violin sings across the prairie, the notes of the guitar gliding along with it. And Reyes is sohot, his bronze skin rippling with a glimmer of sunshine in the dead of night. I lean into him until our bodies are pressed together, reminding me of that delicious and devastating kiss on Sunday afternoon. His hand is like a brand in the small of my back, marking me as his.
“Will you hear my confession, Father?” I ask, my voice soft.
He nods against my cheek, his beard rough on my flesh. “Of course,” he says. “Let’s go somewhere private—and I’ll listen as long as you want to talk.”
?
I fully believed that this was all an excuse to have sex, but Reyes doesn’t take me back to the den. Instead, he takes me by the hand and leads me right back where we came from: to the outdoor chapel. The music is muffled here, and everyone else seems to have vacated the chapel to go to the party. Reyes pulls me right up to the front of the chapel, where a curtain of flowers separates the pews from a little area behind the makeshift pulpit.
“I haven’t done this in years, so I might not be great at it,” he says. There’s laughter in his voice, and I wonder if he’s drunk. “But just take a seat right here and I’ll hear your confession.”
He pulls a chair up in front of the curtain with a grin, and I sit down. The whole situation is so absurd—especially when I thought this was all some elaborate pickup—that I can’t help but laugh. “So we’re really doing this?”
“I meant it when I said I would listen,” he says. “So…” He ducks behind the curtain of flowers. I can just barely make out his hulking form on the other side, backlit by a camping lantern somewhere in the background. “I’m listening.”
He doesn’t tell me to confess. The order doesn’t come, because I’m sure he knows I would then be forced to tell him everything. Fuck, I wish we were having sex right now, but instead…
I’m about to tell him the truth.
Tell himeverything.
“Isn’t there a script for this or something?” I ask.
“There is, but I assume you haven’t been baptized, so we’re already breaking more than a few rules,” he says. His voice is deep on the other side of the curtain, sending a shiver up my spine. “It starts like this…in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
“I’m not saying that,” I say.
“I would tell you to play along, but I won’t be giving any orders tonight,” he says, an edge to his words. “Fine, then…you had something you wanted to tell me?”
I swallow hard. He’s trying not to give me orders, and I appreciate it—but it would almost be easier if he tied me up and interrogated me, forced me to spill all my secrets…
I’m so,sohorny.
“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned,” I murmur, repeating the words I only know from TV and movies before the Convergence. “This is my first confession.”
He doesn’t respond, but I can hear him breathing.
“I’ve killed,” I say. “Not a lot, but enough that I’m going to hell for it. And I thought it was righteous for a long time, but the past few weeks have been…instructive, I guess, and I know I was wrong now.”
I take a deep, shuddering breath.Shit. This isn’t sexy at all.
“I’m listening,” he says again.
“I’m starting to believe I was on the wrong side right after the Convergence,” I say. “I thought people who were Blessed were just complaining. I didn’t understand what you all went through. And the people who rebelled…I really thought you were wrong.”
“That’s not a sin, Tilda,” Reyes murmurs.
“But it was wrong.”
He sighs. “It was a difference of opinion.”
“A deadly one,” I snap back. “You know I came here to kill you, don’t you?”
Reyes is silent for a moment. I wonder if this is it; if he’s going to kill me, or keep me prisoner forever, or send me home right away. I don’t want to go. “I had my suspicions,” he says. “I knew the Heavenly Host had a bounty out on me and mine.”
“They told me they wouldn’t deliver medicine again until you were taken care of,” I say. “And I’m not…I don’t really think a lot of things through. I’ve fought Lycan before and I figured I could take care of you and be done with it.”
