Chapter 35
Kat
The moon shines on the blade of the horseman’s ax as it hangs above me and a scream escapes my lips.
But instead of bringing it down on me, his hand shoots forward and he grabs me by the throat, lifting me up in the air. I’ve never seen him this close before, never felt his hands on me, the immense power, the horrible stink of evil that rolls off him in dark waves.
I try to breathe, to speak, but I can’t. My fingers go to his gloved hand in vain, trying to pry him off, but he holds me there, my feet dangling above the ground, and I feel him watching me despite not having eyes.
Why is he staring at me like this?
“Are you just going to stand there like an idiot?” Leona’s clipped voice says, and the horseman swings around toward her. Leona is standing by a wilting dahlia bush near the back of the cathedral, Ana on one side of her, Margaret on the other. No Sophie.
She motions to the horseman with her bony hand and the Hessian starts marching toward her, dragging me along. The sisters go through a back door into the cathedral, and the thing with no head follows.
Before I know what’s happening, the horseman is placing me on a table, no, an altar, and Ana and Margaret go to my arms, holding them down above my head.
The horseman keeps a firm grip around my throat, preventing me from screaming, just allowing me enough oxygen to breathe, while Leona goes to my legs, parting them wide and strapping them down to the table before I can kick free.
Then Leona does the same to my hands before she grabs a bottle of laudanum from underneath the altar. The horseman forces my mouth open with his foul-smelling gloves and Leona pours the poison down my throat.
It stings and burns and as the fear and panic take hold of me, threatening to obliterate me, I can only hope and pray that what was in the charcoal neutralizer is enough to work through this because they just gave me enough to knock out a horse.
Then the Hessian releases me and I open my mouth to scream but I stop myself. Leona, Ana, and Margaret are staring down at me, their faces now monstrous, like I saw in Ms. Peek’s bathroom, and they’re all looking at me expectantly.
They’re waiting for the drug to work.
This is the only defense I have.
I have to pretend.
I close my mouth and blink at them slowly, as if I can’t keep my eyes open any longer, and let my limbs go limp under the restraints, let my head loll to the side. With half-closed eyes I try to survey the scene inside of the rest of the cathedral.
And my heart drops.
I see Brom standing in the middle of the aisle, inside a pentangle lit by clumps of melting black candles. He’s completely nude, his cock stiff, and he’s staring straight at me with his dark and intense eyes.
This is the Brom that the horseman is controlling, I think to myself. This is really going to happen to me, isn’t it? They’re going to force him on me.
But where is Crane in all of this? I don’t see him in the room anywhere. Is he being held elsewhere, perhaps with Sophie? Or did they already kill him? Is he being sorted and sifted and siphoned right now, somewhere in the depths beneath the cathedral?
My heart feels stuck in my chest, the pain immense, and I can’t bear to think those thoughts without giving myself away, can’t bear to think about losing Crane.
But I still have to think.
I have to do something, don’t I?
I think about my power, my magic, and if only my hands weren’t restrained, then I could at least try to light the sisters on fire. The bigger problem is the fact that I wouldn’t light Brom on fire, and he’s currently the biggest threat.
“She’s ready for you, Abraham,” Leona calls out to him. “Don’t be afraid, dear boy. Come and take what is rightfully yours. Come and sire your heir.”
Brom nods stiffly and starts walking down the aisle toward me, the weapon bobbing between his legs. I keep my eyes half-open, feigning drowsiness, hoping I can still reach through to him somehow. Isn’t there some small part of him that recognizes what’s happening?
But his black eyes show me nothing. They are cold and damned and there is no love for me in them anymore. I’m just a vessel.
The sisters step away from the altar, the physical horseman doing the same, as Brom approaches. He stops right beside me, his empty gaze coasting over my body, and it takes all my strength not to react, to pretend to be drugged and helpless. I must fool him, I must fool everyone.
“Part her legs, shove up that nightgown,” Leona barks. “Get on top of that table and penetrate her.”
Brom does as he is told, climbing up onto the table with ease, going between my legs. He reaches forward with his hand and roughly moves my nightgown up to my waist, so I’m bare and defenseless below.
Then his cold gaze finds the corner of my eye for a second.
Daffodil, Brom’s voice comes inside my head.
I nearly open my eyes wide but he quickly hushes me. Don’t react. Lie still.
Brom? I think. Is it really you?
I borrowed Crane’s voice, he says, and I’m unsure if he actually heard me or not. They don’t know I’m in complete control. They think I’m being controlled by the horseman, but I have control of him too.
He has control of the horseman? No wonder he knew how to choke me without doing any harm.
But we still have to go through with this, he goes on. I’m sorry.
I gulp and feel his cock as he pushes against my entrance. No surprise, I’m not wet in the slightest. I can’t help but resist him.
I don’t want to hurt you, Daffy, he says mournfully.
Then he spits into his hand and brings it between my legs, pushing his spit inside me.
“How crude,” I hear Sister Margaret sniff.
Just relax if you can, Brom continues, sliding his fingers in and out. I love you. I don’t want to hurt you. Please.
I take in a deep breath and try to relax even further, try to open up myself to his hand. I force myself to pretend that we aren’t here, that we’re together somewhere alone, the barn, and that this is my Brom, my Brom who I love so dearly, and it’s only for us.
He spits into his hand again, bringing more of the moisture inside me, and I find myself relaxing into his familiar touch, let myself believe in the illusion.
That’s it. Good girl, he whispers. I’m going to push inside you now, okay? I’m not going to come. We’re going to act this out, but I’m not coming. Don’t worry.
He adjusts himself above, reaching back for his cock.
Slowly, he pushes his cock in and I wince at the sharp pain, but I quickly turn my face blank again, grateful that the sisters can’t see my expressions clearly.
The farther he pushes in, the more I relax, and it almost feels good, and I’m focusing on the fact that it’s my beloved Brom inside me.
Oh, Kat, he murmurs, his words pained. I will get us out of this. Just a little bit more. Just hang on.
“That’s the spirit,” Leona says. “That’s how fornication should be done.
” Then she claps her hands together, the sound echoing across the cathedral.
“I think it’s time we bring out Goruun. He would want to see conception take place.
He will want to be the first to eat Abraham Van Brunt when he’s spent his seed.
It’s an awful shame that Sister Sophie isn’t alive to watch her son’s gruesome demise. ”
Oh God.
Don’t worry, Brom says, still pumping inside me. Don’t worry.
How am I not supposed to worry?
How is he not supposed to worry?
Then there’s a terrible noise from the other end of the cathedral. I open my eyes enough to see a giant creature coming into view, coming down from above. Like it’s been in the rafters of the church this whole time and is slowly descending.
I whimper, unable to help myself, and Brom grunts loudly, purposefully burying my noise with his.
The creature, meanwhile, rights itself.
It’s as black as night and at first I think it’s Daredevil; it’s about the same size as the stallion.
Until it moves forward.
It has eight spindly legs, but the front of it looks like a human draped in black sinewy muscle, and it moves toward us slowly, the legs making a tapping sound on the stone floor.
Despite all that’s happened, all that’s currently happening, I have never been so terrified in all my life.
Goruun is a demon and a giant spider centaur.
And we are so utterly damned.
Try not to look at it, Brom says, still fucking me. I saw it earlier. Sister Sophie had led it out of the basement below the cathedral. Then it proceeded to tear her limb from limb and eat her alive at Leona’s command.
This isn’t helping.
We are waiting until the right moment, Brom says, his breath becoming raspy with exertion as he thrusts into me. I have been speaking to Crane inside his head and he’s inside mine. He’s moving around in the shadows. He’s waiting.
Oh thank God, I think, my heart skipping, but the relief is short-lived when I hear the click-click-click of those spider legs coming toward us.
It won’t be hard to kill the sisters, Brom says. You have your fire magic, magic that Crane can borrow too. You can incinerate them. And I have the horseman. He will do my bidding now until the end, as long as I uphold my end of the deal.
What deal? I think with a stab of panic.
The demon will be hardest to kill, he goes on, thrusting slower now. But we’re going to give it all that we’ve got. Isn’t that right, Daffy?
I meet his eyes for a moment, his troubled, sweet, dark eyes.
That’s right, I think.
Or we’ll die trying.
I’m going to pretend to come now. You’ll know what to do. Just wait until I free you.
He quickens his pace, making his breath sound shorter and more labored, throwing a few more loud groans in there, and it’s hard to know what he’s faking and what he’s not.
“Oh, Goruun, come see this up close,” Leona says, clapping her hands together. “Come see the point of conception for the new age.”
The spider centaur comes closer.
I can barely breathe, I’m so terrified.
Brom cries out, a strangled yell, pretending to come inside me, his body shuddering. For a moment I believe it until I don’t feel his cock release, until he remains just as hard inside me.
“Oh, how wonderful,” Leona says. “Isn’t this wonderful, to witness such a thing?”
I feel the spider stop a foot away, the smell of sulfur and rotting flowers and death overpowering me.
I open one eye, just a little, to see the waxy hide of the spider’s chest where four needlelike cocks protrude, fighting for dominance, blood dripping from them, and it takes everything not to vomit in my mouth.
The horror might kill me in the end.
He didn’t release, Goruun says with a deep, craggy metallic voice, so inhuman that it makes my skin crawl, makes panic thrum through my veins, and I feel the urge to run away screaming.
But I am still in restraints.
And Brom is still inside me.
He didn’t release his seed! Goruun yells.
“What?” Leona says.
Now! Brom’s voice booms inside my head.
The Hessian soldier springs forward, ax raised, and brings it down over the spider’s head, slicing it clean off. It rolls on the floor, stopping just below me, its beady red eyes staring up at me, looking both human and not.
Then Brom pulls out of me, jumps off the altar, and starts undoing the straps that are keeping me down. Once I’m freed he picks me up off the table and places me on the ground behind him, putting himself between me and the sisters.
They’re screaming, trying to attack the horseman. The Hessian lops off Ana’s head, an arc of blood spraying in the air, and it goes thumping across the floor, causing Leona to shriek. She retaliates by pointing at the Hessian, lightning coming out of her fingers and zapping him.
He shakes uncontrollably, the air filled with the scent of fried leather, then Brom reaches for the wall, pulling a long broadsword away from the stone where it was mounted.
“Kat, stay back,” he says, holding the sword out.
I’m about to tell him that he doesn’t know how to use a sword when Sister Margaret comes flying through the air at him, her hair turned into writhing snakes, her eyes bulging out, her tongue long and flicking like a serpent’s.
I conjure flames to my fingertips, ready to throw a fireball at her.
But Brom stands in my way as he takes the heavy sword and raises it like it weighs nothing at all, waiting until the last moment before swinging it, slicing it below Margaret’s awful face, cutting her head clean off.
Brom can control the horseman.
Brom is the horseman.
He looks at me over his shoulder with an expression of shaky pride as her head bounces to the floor, but that look on his face quickly turns to horror as his gaze goes behind me.
Because eight giant spider legs wrap around my stomach from behind, pinning my arms to the side, before I’m suddenly yanked high into the air.