Chapter 36
Priest
I stepped through the shattered doorway with Caine and Kael at my back.
No weapons. Every man I'd had stationed around the estate was dead.
There were twenty men with machine guns all pointing at the girls.
The air hit me first—gunpowder, blood, and that expensive perfume Lilith always drowned herself in when she wanted attention.
Miyori was on her knees in the middle of the room. Blood covered the right side of her face. Lip split, cheekbone swollen and split open, one eye almost closed. Her hair was still fisted in Lilith's hand like she was a doll someone had decided to break.
Every muscle in my body locked.
Caine muttered something behind me; I didn't hear it.
All I saw was the way Miyori's chest rose and fell too fast, the way her hands were clenched in her lap as if holding herself together by force of will alone.
She looked up when she heard my boots. Relief flickered across what was left of her face.
Lilith saw me and smiled—that same wide, cracked smile she used to wear when she put a knife to her own throat and told me she'd make her father skin Miyori alive if I didn't come home. The smile of a woman who had never learned the difference between love and ownership.
"There you are," she said, almost breathless. "I knew you'd come. I know you love me most."
I didn't respond. My eyes stayed on Miyori, cataloguing every mark.
"Let her go."
Lilith yanked Miyori's head back. Fresh blood ran down her chin and dripped onto the marble.
"Her?" Lilith laughed, high and delighted. "You mean the mistress?" She forced Miyori's face toward me so I could see every cut. "Why would I let her go? Look at what she did to us. You're pointing a gun at me—all this for a dirty whore."
"Why are you doing this, Lilly?" I used her nickname, and it worked. She smiled.
She let Miyori go and walked toward me. "Because we need a purge. I started it already: the fire at your house, the bomb at Kael's warehouse, the bullet in Malachai, the attempt on Caine." She smiled. "That was me. All of it. Every single piece."
Behind me, Caine cursed her.
"They're a problem. They've been the problem all along."
"How does me leaving your crazy ass make it their problem?"
"They enabled you. They're a bad influence.
You don't need friends like them." She gestured toward the room, toward the women, toward the blood on the floor.
"Caine is a king who can't even control his own woman.
Malachai lost his wife for three years because he couldn't protect her.
And Kael—" She laughed. "Kael turned a junkie into a killer and called it love.
They're all broken, Priest. Violent. Damaged.
And they're dragging you down with them. "
I said nothing. This bitch really was crazy. Her father was a madman, her brother a serial killer, and she belonged in the nut house I'd locked her in to die.
Lilith stepped closer. "I can give you peace.
I can give you normal. They can't. You and me, Priest. The way it was supposed to be.
" She touched my chest, right over my heart.
"I've always loved you. Even when you locked me away. Even when you tried to bury me. I loved you through all of it. You loved me, too, didn’t you? "
I looked down at her hand, then up at her face.
"No."
Her smile faltered. "What?"
"I said no." My voice was flat, cold.
She stared at me, the manic light flickering in her eyes. "You don't mean that."
"I've never meant anything more." I refrained from telling her I hated her. Lilith was here for a reason; I had to wait for her to tell me before I did too much. But even if I didn't say it, I had never loved her—and she knew that.
Something in her snapped.
She screamed—a high, broken, animal sound.
She grabbed the nearest object, a crystal vase, and hurled it against the wall.
It exploded into a thousand glittering shards.
She grabbed another and threw it—a lamp, a picture frame.
Glass shattered everywhere. Her men didn't move; they'd seen this before, and they knew better.
"You—" She pointed at me, her hand shaking.
"You were supposed to be mine. You were always supposed to be mine.
You love me. But she—" She pointed at Miyori, still kneeling in the blood.
"She took you. She took everything. I gave you everything.
I gave you my life, my soul, my sanity! And you threw it away for her! "
She whirled toward her men, her voice climbing to a shriek. "Kill them! Kill all of them! Every single one except him! Nobody leaves except Priest—nobody but my priest!"
The guns raised.
She held up her hand before any shots were fired. “Unless you leave with me.”
I looked at Miyori. She was still on her knees, bleeding, but breathing. Her good eye met mine. She knew what was coming.
"I'll go with you," I said.
Lilith froze. "What?"
"I'll leave with you. Right now. You want me to leave these people behind? Fine. I'll do it."
Her manic smile returned—tentative, hopeful. "You mean it? You'll come with me?"
I didn't answer her. I walked toward Miyori and knelt in front of her. The blood on her face was still wet—her lip split, her cheek swollen, one eye nearly swollen shut. But she looked at me like I was still the only thing in the room that mattered.
"Priest—"
"I'm sorry," I said. "I’m sorry this happened. I brought this on you."
She blinked. "What are you—"
I pressed my forehead to hers. "Take care of the kids."
I kissed her forehead, then stood and walked toward Lilith, her men following behind her.