Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Swim with me,” Lilith urged, taking my palms. “Just forget everything and swim with me.”
It took a bit of tugging, but eventually I gave in. “You’re a siren,” I grumbled. “Luring me from my self pity.”
“Your moths meant that much to you?” she asked, droplets of water clinging to her face and making her shimmer in the sunlight.
The sight made me sigh. She truly was angelic in every way. Bibles could have been written just for her, she was that lovely. “It’s more what the moths symbolized to me.” I shrugged. “But it’s over now. It took me forever to find, craft, and install that net. It’s silly, anyway.”
“Loving something is never silly,” Lilith answered. “Especially any of god’s creations.” She spun in the water. “Look at all this. It’s just your backyard and it’s glorious.”
The corners of my mouth lifted as I leaned against a boulder, my legs fatigued from treading water. “I like seeing you this way.”
“What way?”
“Free.”
Lilith swam closer, a mermaid from the deep. Holding onto my shoulders, she leaned in, her breath dancing over my ear, sending tingles down my body. “I’m not free.”
I glanced at her sidelong.
She continued, her lips skimming my ear.
“No, I can never be free. You’ve caught me in your net and I was too big for it.
I broke it with my wings.” Pulling back, her gaze dropped to my lips as my touch held her waist, feeling her legs wrap around my hips under the water.
“Don’t you see?” she said. “I’m your moth. ”
“You’re my angel,” I breathed, unable to resist the draw of her kiss. My lips brushed hers, tasting the salt and sweet of her taste. “Lilith,” I breathed. “If you keep squeezing me with your thighs like this…” I gripped her hips. “I’m going to lose control.”
“Oh, really?” She tightened her hold, thrusting her body flush to mine. “Would that be such a sin?”
Her perfect pussy, her soft stomach and… I groaned, “These perfect, fucking, tits are a sin.” Grabbing her harder, I pulled her pussy against mine.
“Your body…” She panted. “Would have to be crafted by the devil… because god would surely be too jealous of such an exquisite form.” As she held my shoulders, Lilith arched her back and rolled her hips into me. We both let out a small moan at the feeling of intimate bliss.
“Do that again,” I begged. “Just like that.”
Another thrust of her hips into me. This time, my palms fell to cup her ass, pushing her deeper, harder, faster. “Oh, my god,” Lilith moaned, her kiss dropping to my shoulder. “How can one feel so good?”
“Keep going, angel,” I urged. “Keep rolling those perfect hips just like that. That’s it.”
Lilith whimpered, half biting down on my shoulder, her breaths quickening. “I’ll never be free,” she whimpered. “I can never be with you.”
“I’ll free you,” I ground out as our bodies’ movements intensified.
With a half sob, half cry of pleasure, Lilith answered, “You can’t.”
My own release chased after hers, striking my body like lightning and pulsing through my bones. Lilith’s legs went slack, yet her hold around my neck tightened as she buried her face. “I’m sorry.” She sniffled.
Rubbing the back of her hair, I eased us onto the boulder and pulled her close. “You’re a good nun, Lilith. You’ve nothing to apologize for.”
She laughed through her tears. “I have so much to be sorry for, Jezebella. You’ll hate me when you learn of it.”
I cupped her face and swiped away a tear with my thumb, forcing her blue gaze to mine. “Shame is how they keep us trapped. Shame is the net, Lilith. Don’t fall into it. Don’t let it break your wings.”
“Jezebella, I have to tell you. I’m—”
The sound of barking broke her sentence. We both glanced towards the far shore as Bernard ran up and down the tide line, barking incessantly. I let out a sigh. “We should swim back and see what’s got him so worked up.”
When we made our way back to the shore, stumbling towards our clothes, Bernard had not calmed down in the slightest. His glassy eyes shone in the late afternoon light as he sniffed and barked. “What is it, buddy?”
I turned my head when Lilith stepped out, reaching for her tunic and tossing it to her. “Thank you,” she said. “Is the dog okay?”
I looked around, surveying the lake and surrounding trees. “He smells something.”
“I don’t like not knowing what he smells that has him in such a frenzy,” Lilith said as I pulled on my clothes. “Should we go back to Lost Souls?”
I shook my head. “We’ve made it this far. Your lock is just up that hill and I suspect so are more clues as to what the hell is going on.”
Lilith took my hand in hers. “Lead the way.”
With her hand in mine, we curved down the hidden pathway Delilyx had discovered and began our trek up the steep incline. “I think the rain made this path worse,” Lilith said. “It’s far more worn in than last time.”
“Where do you think the lock is? I don’t see the tunics we left here yet.”
“It was in my pocket,” she said. “I know it’s silly, but—”
“A wise nun once told me nothing’s ever silly if it’s something you love, right?”
Lilith smiled softly. “Not so wise.”
I climbed up a particularly steep passage and offered Lilith my hand, holding her forearm and pulling her up.
The path was definitely more worn since last time.
The awareness made me question our sanity in doing this.
What would we find on a hike so treacherous that would shed any light on what was happening?
With the exertion from swimming and the effort of the climb, I stopped by a worn oak tree to catch my breath, leaning on its thick trunk. “We’ve crested the worse of it, I think.”
Lilith stretched, far less winded than I was, and inspected the area, walking up ahead a few yards. “Jezebella,” she said. “You should see this.”
The sounds of Bernard’s barking were fainter now that we’d left him pacing at the bottom of the mountain trail, but still audible. Even with us out of earshot, he was still going. Something had him riled up, I just wish I’d known what.
Sucking in a breath, I pushed off the tree and made it over to where Lilith stood.
She pointed at a fern below a white birch tree. “At first I thought it was just on the plant… but then…” She moved a thin branch of the tree and pointed. “There.”
I peered first at the fern and the red droplets that covered it, before working up the nerve to look up. When I did, the smear was unmistakable.
“Blood.” We both said in unison.
“It’s bright red,” Lilith said. “Whoever… or whatever… left it here recently.”
Somehow the whole day had gotten away from us. The purple, hazy light of twilight was an alarm bell, warning us that soon we’d be alone, in the dark, on top of a mountain stained in blood.
Fighting through my panic, I gazed at the wash of red for a long moment. “One at the bottom of the trail.”
“Another by the lake,” Lilith finished my thought.
“And one here.”
“I think it’s a path leading up to the… stone.” Lilith hesitated on the last word. “I’m going to keep looking for my lock, it must be around here somewhere.”
I called after her as she walked away, combing through ferns and branches on her quest to find this ambiguous mystery lock—while completely avoiding telling me what it meant or why the stone made her pause.
Lilith was as much as a mystery as the unfoldings before us.
This enigmatic nun was a blood stain on a tree, though what path of growls and howls she was luring me down, I had no idea.
When I caught up with her, her shoulders slackened, arms at her sides as she gazed distantly at the row of short, thorny trees. Winded, I panted, “I’m guessing you didn’t find—”
“These blackthorn trees,” she interrupted, seemingly lost in thought. “They’re in a circle, and in Christian myth, associated with the crown of thorns christ wore on the cross. However, in pagan traditions, they mean something much different.”
“How would you know of pagan traditions? I know they’re not teaching you that at Silent Damnation Abbey.”
Lilith turned to me then, still contemplative. “When you walk through the branches, and they cut you, it’s a blood offering. If they allow you to pass into the circle, you’re either a witch, or…” She ducked under a branch and climbed over another of the dark, gnarly trees.
Feeling an uneasy chill slither down my spine, I dodged a thorny patch on my way into the trees. “A witch, or… what?”
Lilith glanced over her shoulder, only slashes of her face visible through the bark and darkness. “If the blackthorns let you pass, you’re either a witch…” she repeated. “Or a sacrifice.”
As if on some haunted cue, that very moment the eerie words left Lilith’s lips, a thorn caught onto my habit.
As I pulled away from the prick of its grip, it snatched my head covering away, leaving my wavy damp hair to fall across my back and shoulders.
Lilith noticed and paused her weaving through the bark-armed maze.
With the corner of her lips lifting in a smile, she tugged off her own veil and draped it over a branch.
“What else will you leave behind in the crown of thorns, Jezebella?” Shaking her moonlit hair free, she continued combing through the last of our journey to the very top of the mountain.
When I finally fought through the last branch, a thorn slashed across my arm.
I bumped into Lilith as she stood straight backed, staring into the middle of the circle.
Red trickling down her neck, staining her white collar, sent alarm through me more than the gash that the trees had given me.
“Your neck,” I said, reaching up to assess the wound. “Are you—”
It was then I realized we weren’t alone in the darkness. It was then I noticed Lilith’s features were lit by flickering flames. With a weak and shallow breath, I turned to face the center of the mountain clearing.
Six figures loomed around the flat stone in long robes. My heart froze in my chest, and I felt the overwhelming urge to run, letting the blackthorn trees shred me on my way out. Suddenly, the figures turned to face us, and the gruesome and nightmarish picture was complete.
They each held candles as they faced us.
Yet where human faces should have been, there were masks.
Masks of animal heads.
Five blank, white and pink faces of lambs gazed upon us.
And one at the center, a longer snout, gray fur and fangs, their leader, I assumed… wore a different animalistic mask as it stared us down before turning its attention to me.
I stared back, my palms trembling at my sides, as I faced down the mask.
The mask of a wolf.