the shooting range. We definitely hadn’t been expecting a windstorm.
I turned back to find Emma even closer, and I backed into the low tables, a kid’s sized chair scratching against the linoleum.
“Stav, I just can’t—” she started again, eyes blinking rapidly like she was about to cry, or trying to fake it.
“Emma, I’m going to stop you now,” I said, catching her hands and ignoring the clutch of them around mine as I pushed her back a step and moved to give myself room to move away. “I know that you find some...relief or comfort in looking outside your marriage, but unless you want counsel, I can’t be that for you.”
Emma’s jaw tightened, blue eyes flashing. “You provide plenty of comfort and relief for that—that creature.”
“Deyva and I are in a relationship, yes.”
She gasped, eyes growing wide. “You’re a priest!”
Like somehow a committed relationship was so much worse that one-night stands that just kept regretfully happening?
“I was, or maybe I am,” I said, shrugging. “I want to be here to support Bethel in whatever struggles you all face. Just as this town has been there as I’ve struggled. I’m whatever I can be, considering the situation. But I am very happy, and I plan on being very faithful to my relationship.” She didn’t need to know yet that my relationship included Zach. That was up to him when he wanted to share. “And I really recommend that you try talking to your husband, or your friends, and see if you can find a way to be too. Even if it's an understanding about what you both need outside of your marriage.”
Emma’s shoulders sagged, mouth twisting with distaste as she blinked up at me. “I don’t understand what you see in her.”
I shrugged. “Have you even tried?” Outside, the wind roared, drawing my gaze back to the window. “Emma, I think I better go check and see if we’re looking at a storm or something else.”
“Right, well...thanks for nothing,” Emma muttered, sweeping her hair back off her face. “I suppose I can’t be surprised you’d end up with a hellion made to suck dick all day.”
“Emma,” I snapped, fists clenching. Except what could I really do? If it was her husband, I probably would’ve snapped off and hit him, but that wasn’t the right reaction either. I glared at her, jaw grinding as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Sort your shit out,” I said slowly. “And quit fucking trying to add me to the pile.”
She blanched and I left her alone in the room, dropping the sticky mess of shredded newspaper into the wastebasket on my way out. It was harder to hear the storm outside from the church hall, but it was banging the doors by the time I reached them. The sky outside was dark and thick with clouds—no, not clouds but smoke.
Figures stood out in the street, and it took a surprising amount of effort for me to shoulder the doors open, their gunfire-bang as they slammed shut ominous, even in the howl of storm. I jogged against the incredible current of the wind, so rough it was like hands pushing me backward, trying to tear my clothes back, burning my eyes dry. The air was far hotter than it should’ve been, as if it were the middle of July instead of the tail end of October.
My eyes watered and it took me a minute to pick out the familiar silhouette of Deyva in the crowd, that usual wide berth of space from the others surrounding her. I moved to her side and she jumped as my arms wrapped around her shoulders, clutching her against my chest.
“We haven’t seen this before,” I said in her ear, not sure if she could even hear me over the roar.
I didn’t hear her answer, but I watched it on her lips. “I have.”
I looked up, frowning, and finally saw the monster in the smoke, my eyes growing wide, tears tracking down my face as the wind snapped them away.
There was an inferno in the smoke, a dark black spiral of dense smog, occasionally thin enough to reveal the red blaze inside. It spun like a tornado with limbs reaching out, clawing at the ground outside of the gate, dragging itself closer. A shadow loomed behind me and I jumped, turning to find Az at my side, his wings tucked as close as they could be to his back, feathers rustling.