Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
My grip tightened around Lilith’s arm, and I pushed in front of her, tucking her behind my back. “What is this?” I asked.
The wolf-masked figured reached out a hand, and with two fingers, beckoned us forward.
With shaking breath, I whispered, “Run, I will buy you time.”
Lilith gave my arm a gentle squeeze before shoving past me and walking forward.
“No!” I called out, stumbling after her. “What are you doing?”
Lilith paused for a moment, a pained expression glooming her delicate features. “This is where you hate me, isn’t it?”
“Hate you? Why would I hate you?”
Lilith took my wrist and led me forward, stopping right outside the circle of figures in their masks.
The wolf tilted their head, gesturing towards the flat stone.
Two of the ones in lamb masks stepped aside.
With a sigh, Lilith pulled me forward. “What are you doing?” I asked, stepping cautiously after her, the glassy, beady eyes from the masks following my every movement.
When we stood by the stone, a lamb stepped forward, handing Lilith a dagger.
Panic seized my chest, but it was too late.
As her grip tightened on my wrist, she thrusted my hand forward, and in a quick motion, cut my palm.
I cried out, but she held me steady, letting droplets fall onto the rock below.
This time, when I jerked my hand away, she allowed it, passing me a downcast expression before glancing at the lambs and the wolf and repeating the cut on her own palm, dripping the blood into a small puddle on top of mine.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked, looking around as I clutched my hand. Their circle crowded around us, candles flickering, animalistic masks tilting in odd curiosity.
The wolf-masked figure, who I could only assume was this group’s leader, stepped forward. “Lilith,” a feminine voice said. “Would you like to tell her, or should we?”
Lilith glanced down at her feet, avoiding my gaze.
“Have respect,” I challenged the wolf. “She’s a nun. Her name is Sister Lilith, address her as such.”
“Is she?” The wolf questioned, the candle’s fire dancing erratic shadows across its snout. “Are you quite sure about that?”
My brows furrowed as I questioned Lilith. “Tell them, tell them what you are, who you are.”
Swallowing, Lilith kept her eyes on the ground before glancing up at me and sucking in a breath. “My name is Lilith, but I… I am not a nun. Not in the real sense of the word, at least.”
“How is that possible? You took your vows… you’re the most holy of women I’ve met. Pious, even,” I argued against her, denial flooding through me, even though a small voice inside acknowledged. ‘Oh.’
The lambs and the wolf watched on as if this were all part of their show for the night, a plan, a meeting—only it was Lilith and I on the cross in the middle of the crown of thorns. Our hands pierced, our blood shed, but I still couldn’t ascertain why.
“Explain,” I demanded. “Explain now.”
The wolf purred in an all too familiar tone. “Go on, Lilith. We’re all dying to hear it. Tell her how you found us out, too.”
Her blond hair tangled in a gust of wind as she shot a sidelong glare at the wolf before turning to me.
“Ahh woooo…” the wolf taunted.
Gripping her fists at her, Lilith spoke.
“My family and I are from Wilt Weald, a quiet, neighboring forest town to where The Church of Silent Damnation and their abbey reside. We never paid them mind, my community and I. Our gods were not the same, our practices much different. While you and your faith worship god, we seek divinity through the feminine spirts of the earth, through the goddess that is in all things.”
“That’s how you know so much about nature,” I whispered quietly. “Why you swim so well and why strenuous hikes don’t wind you… because of your religion, because of where you’re from?”
Lilith tilted her head in a slow nod, gripping her cut palm.
“It began slowly at first. The church stepping into our forest. They began luring our community over with the promise of an easier life in their town.
They had a bit of working modern amenities that did in fact make life easier.
The catch, however, was that once you moved, you were under their religious rules.
As more people left Wilt Weald, the church began taking over the space, adding to their rectory, expanding their own town and influence.
It was around that time that my father died, and my mother succumbed to grief, never leaving bed, not speaking.
It became my burden to care for my younger brother and sister, along with her, and with the lack of community resources, I had to get a job.
” Lilith glanced up at the wolf. “The only job I could get was at Silent Damnation, cleaning their church. It was hard work, but I didn’t mind listening to the sermons.
I found parts of your bible lovely, and other parts, not so much.
However, one day when I went back home, my family was gone. ”
“Where?” I asked, feeling my chest tighten with the answer I feared.
“The church took them and locked them away, claiming that god told them it was for their own protection… but I believe it was to get me to do their bidding.” The wolf moved towards her, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a lock…
her lock. Lilith accepted it with a weak smile and fiddled with the latch.
“It was then I became intent on learning how to pick locks and get them out. However, before I could succeed, the vicar claimed that they were possessed by evil spirits. He demanded they repent and agree to be bound by the church forever… or…”
“Or?” Her words circled my mind in a torrent of horrible images. How could any church be so cruel? No, I knew how. I just hadn’t suspected it being this bad.
“As I cleaned the next day, the vicar and Reverend Mother called me into their office. They told me that if I came here and gathered the intel they desired, reported on the inner happenings at Altar Church, and documented your sins… they’d release my family and provide them with a home and care for life.
My little brother and sister could finally be children without worry, my mother could receive the support she needed…
so, I agreed. The only catch was, in order to act on the church’s behalf, I had to become a part of it.
I had to take my vows and become a nun.”
“So you did,” I breathed. “You did everything they wanted… Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Sometimes I wanted to,” Lilith stepped forward but I stepped back.
A pained expression crossed her features.
“Everything the church did was under the guise of helpful kindness. They said they were aiding us, protecting us from evil, and giving us better opportunities. Most of the Wilt Weald community are happy now, even, and Silent Damnation has achieved its goal of growing its numbers. They’re not even forcing folks to go to church, only enticing them in.
I thought it possible you’d be on their side, that you’d support them.
Plus, I was worried what you’d think of me.
All the deceit, all the lies, the fact I came here with the intent of harm.
” She looked around the circle, speaking to the lambs.
“But I couldn’t go through with it. I have not written to them.
The people I’ve found here are good… and so is your church.
Your church acts as one would hope any place of worship might.
I’ve found Lost Souls to live up to its namesake, accepting the lost souls as their own.
” She shook her head. “Forgive me for my lies.”
The wolf stepped forward, placing a hand on Lilith’s shoulder. “You are forgiven.”
I faced the wolf, a fire burning behind my ribs.
“Who are you to say that? Who are you to forgive anything?” I looked around the circle.
“Are you all the monsters in the woods? The howls in the night… the creatures killing men? That’s all of you, right?
Up here in your tower doling out judgement as if you’re god, huh? ”
The wolf looked past me, bored. I’m not entirely sure how a wolf mask can look disinterested, but it did, at least to me.
Tilting its canine head, she addressed Lilith. “When did you figure us out?”
“I could ask you the same… Reverend Mother.”
Passing her candle to a lamb-masked figure, the wolf tugged off her mask and shook out her long salt and pepper hair. “Simply Veilentine will do.”
A huff of disbelief fled my throat as I took in the scene. “Did you kill those men?”
Veilentine lifted a shoulder and replied with her typical coyness. “What men?”
“Archie Maison.” I feared the answer. “You did, didn’t you?”
Veilentine’s lips tensed into a straight line as her hazel gaze assessed me.
A small voice behind me spoke. “No, she didn’t.”
I turned to see a lamb-masked figure step forward, passing someone her candle. Reaching up and pulling at her fuzzy ears, she pulled off her mask and held it slack at her side. Iris Maison let out a long sigh. “I did. I killed my husband.”
Lilith’s hand shot to her mouth as she gasped. I glanced over. “I take it you didn’t figure out that one?”
She shook her head, eyes pleading with mine, but I broke our connection and instead turned my attention back to Iris-the-lamb. “How, Iris? Why? Did he… did he…”