The Sinners of Saint Amos - Logan Fox Page 0,167

It feels like everything’s just happened.

I can’t bear to let her slip away. Not a second time.

When my legs and lungs start burning, I push harder.

And I’m rewarded for my effort. Despite my heart clanging like a race horse’s in my chest, despite the fact that I’m breathing fire, I make it in time.

I turn the corner.

I see the car.

Gabriel’s car.

I’m in exactly the right place to watch him drive off, a shadow slumped beside him in the passenger seat.

He doesn’t notice me because I’m yards away. If he did, I doubt he’d care.

Because I’m too late.

I ran too slow.

I didn’t give it my all.

My legs collapse. My teeth clack together as I go down.

I’m still there, staring at the last place I saw them, when Cass runs up to me. He’s out of breath, muttering something about stairs and smoking, and then his hand is on my shoulder.

I slap it away. I’d stand and face him, but I can’t.

Muscle failure is a bitch.

“Gone?” he asks, but it’s more a statement than a question.

Fucking gone.

And I was so close. If I’d pushed a little harder, if I’d thought just a little faster…

Cass helps me up. The ground feels spongy as we head back to the library. Something catches my eye.

I turn.

Zachary’s standing on the front steps of Saint Amos. The big doors are open wide—Gabriel must have left that way. Zachary turns and disappears into the blackness without a word.

And then it all comes together.

I’d be mad, but I’ve got nothing left. I burned up everything in the useless sprint over here. It’ll take time for my tank to refill.

I don’t say anything to Cass, and I probably should. But sometimes it takes me a while to process things.

Like the fact that we were just betrayed by our brother.

Chapter Eight

Trinity

It was all a dream. Saint Amos, the Brotherhood, Ghosts and Keepers and Guardians. Nothing but a nightmare. Sure, it makes no sense, but how else do I explain waking up in my old room back in Redford with groggy memories of photos and men with knives and losing my virginity in a library with four psychopaths?

My core aches when I try to remember details of the dream though. How they used my body for their own pleasure until they were spent.

Until I was spent.

I’ve had sexy dreams before, but nothing like that. Nothing that intense, that...vivid.

I force myself to picture the Brotherhood’s faces.

Zachary with his intense green-eyed stare and that serpent tattoo on his chest. Apollo with his long, sandy-colored hair and light-brown eyes. Cass—mouthwateringly handsome, but those blue eyes so heartless. And Reuben. Black eyes and such a kind heart.

I sit up in bed, staring around blearily at my room as I scratch my tummy. Daisy wallpaper. French-pane windows. Pastel pink curtains.

My body is stiff, my muscles sore. The itch is what woke me, I think, but it’s hard to remember more than that.

I tug down the sheets and stare at myself. I’m still wearing the lacy white dress. There are a few spots of blood on it. More blood on the inside of my thighs—dried, smeared. My neck feels stiff. When I touch the back of my head, I find a bump on my skull. It should hurt, probably, but it doesn’t. Not really.

The aroma of onions trickles into the room, wiping out my own stink of sweat and dried blood. There’s a distant thump. Someone’s in the kitchen.

Mom? Dad?

Awesome. I should go say hi.

Somehow, I make it to the top of the stairs, even though it’s like I’m walking on clouds. From here I can only see a slice of the kitchen floor—I still don’t know who’s making the noise. The smell of cooking is intense now. I should be hungry, but instead I feel empty inside. Hollow, like a chocolate Easter egg. But in a good way.

I don’t know why, but everything’s good. And if it wasn’t, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t give a damn anyway.

I cling onto the railing as I make my way downstairs because my legs feel kind of unreliable. Cigarette smoke comes to me in between the breakfast smell.

Wait. That’s not right.

Dad’s not allowed to smoke inside the house. He didn’t even do it when Mom went to the shops.

Where is Mom?

She died in a car accident.

I falter halfway down the stairs.

Oh my God. They didn’t both die. All this time, Dad’s been living in our house in Redford while I was sent from pillar to post. While I had to bear