The Church (The Cloister Trilogy 3)

He reaches across the bed for the gauze, and when his sleeve rides up, I see an ugly red circle of burned flesh on his inner wrist.

“Hey.” I point. “What the fuck?”

He pulls his hand back quickly. “Nothing.”

“Noah.” I lean forward and stare him down. “Tell me.”

He gives a half-hearted shrug. “Dad called me in first thing this morning. Saw the video from last night.”

My hands dampen. “And?”

“I wasn’t supposed to fuck her in the ass. Senator’s rules. So, I got a little reminder. That’s all.” He grabs the gauze. “It’ll heal.”

Fuck, I’m a dick. “I didn’t even think—”

“God, if he knew what really happened in that room.” He snorts. “Don’t worry. It’s just a little burn. You’ve had a lot worse.” He kneels and gets to work on my toes.

“You should put something on it.” I inspect my stitches. They’re holding up, the raw skin melding together without any care for the fact that pieces of me are missing.

“Sure.” He sighs. “Dad was off this morning.”

I give him a wry look.

“More than usual, I mean. He kept talking about the fire. He said the fire was talking to him and telling him his downfall. And he was worried. Like to the point that he couldn’t sit down. He just paced and mumbled until he yelled at me to get out. I don’t think he’s slept for days.”

“Batshit.” I still don’t believe my father has any divine intuition, but maybe his regular human warning signals are twitching at the shit storm forming around him.

“He was coming unglued. I just left. Castro was there, but he stayed out of the way. It’s all a clusterfuck. Speaking of that, what are we going to do about tomorrow?”

“We’ll do what Mom wants. I’ll show up, melt into the crowd, and wait for my moment. We’ll both have to keep an eye out for Jez. If she, or Chastity, or Ruth shows up with a backpack full of dynamite, things are going to get dicey real quick. We just need to get them the fuck out of there before they do anything stupid.”

“I’ll see if I can meet with Chastity today. Talk some sense into her. She’s the ringleader, seems like.”

“She’s harder than I thought. Smarter, too. But she’s got a soft spot for Emily. Use that, if you can. Tell her that Emily will be at the service this Sunday. She has no choice but to show up.” My jaw clenches at the thought of why she has to be there. It’s her goddamn wedding day. My guts clench. I’ll kill that piece of shit senator with my bare hands if I get the chance. I’ll gladly reopen the wounds in my palms if I do it while I’m snapping his neck.

“Adam.” Noah peers up at me. “Evan won’t get her. Relax.”

“I’m relaxed,” I reply, a little too loudly. Felix jumps on me, as if my raised voice is an invitation. “Great,” I groan.

He settles on my chest, his head tucked beneath my chin.

Noah smiles at him indulgently. “Let Felix work his kitty magic. You’ll feel better.”

“Better?” I pet him against my better judgment. “He makes my eyes itchy as hell, that’s about all.”

“He’ll keep you sane. He does that for me.” Noah shrugs.

I keep stroking the purring fur ball. “There are too many moving pieces, and I can’t see the whole board.” The lack of control eats at me. I want to know what happens next. More than that, I want it to happen because I make it happen. But that luxury is long gone. There are too many factions, and far too many variables. I have to concentrate on what’s important—keeping Emily and Noah safe and thwarting the dynamite attempt.

Noah stands. “I’m going to see if I can accidentally bump into Chastity and get her in a choke hold.”

“Good plan.” I loathe lying in this bed instead of doing something. But I can’t move around without suspicion, especially not during the day.

He opens the terrarium and drops a couple of live crickets inside. “Just relax here. Keep that brain firing to find us a way out of this. I’ll go do the footwork.” Closing the lid, he bends down and watches as Gregory ignores his lunch. “Asshole.” He points at Felix and says, “Be good,” then does the same to me. I flip him off as best I can.

When the front door shuts, I turn the TV back on and watch Emily. She’s lying down now, her face resting on her folded hands. An angel. No, a firefly. I smile at the reference, because her sister was right. Emily does shine in the darkness, bringing light into the grimmest parts of my soul.

She jumps and sits up. I push Felix off and lean forward. “What the—”

My father walks into view and offers her his hand. What is he doing there? After a moment of hesitation, she looks up, her eyes wide, and takes it.