Chapter 12 Scarlett
Scarlett
Things were shifting again.
Not just a little, something had happened. Something serious. I could feel it in the air. I could feel the tension, the anger. Everyone was mumbling about what would happen next, what the next steps would be, and this talking wasn’t just among the Leaders, but among the Pillars too.
One of the branches had burned to ash. Mr. Alascer, who had been visiting at the time, almost died. Luckily for him, he had been running late to the service, but I truly wouldn’t have minded if he had died too.
There had been a Favorite there as well, just one. A very special Favorite from what Thomas had said. Mr. Alascer had been planning on bringing her here to introduce to Pastor Masters, but then the fire happened and nobody survived.
There was anger in the air, and I half wondered if it had something to do with The Family.
They were taking out the Church of Daylight slowly, just like what Thomas had said all those years ago, and now the Leaders were angry at Pastor Masters for not taking it more seriously when Mr. Nelson had died.
If I were them, I would have been angry at the Elders as well, being as how they were supposed to be protecting us like God protected his sheep.
Why were they truly coming after us? Why weren’t the Elders doing anything about it?
I suppose I held no real complaints. Maybe I would die in the crossfire just like the other Favorite, but I was curious why they were doing it. It couldn’t have just been about Mr. Alascer’s daughter, there had to be more to this.
I knew that there were other churches out there, not just ours. Lots of other churches that went by different names and taught different things, but Thomas promised that we were the One True Church, so maybe that’s why they were coming after us.
Maybe they didn’t want the true message to spread.
I wouldn’t want that either.
Maybe The Family was filled with people the Church of Daylight had wronged, just like Mr. Alascer’s daughter. Maybe they had claimed more women who perhaps didn’t like when men broke the rules and so they were going after them in revenge for all they had lost.
How nice.
I hoped they succeeded.
I hoped they burned this whole place to the ground.
And I hoped that when that day came, I at least had the strength within me to look up and watch as the world turned to ash.
I kept my eyes on my feet. I was wearing black clogs today and my pastel green sweater, paired with a straight black skirt that fell to my ankles. Thomas was standing a foot away, having ordered me to remain so he could speak with one of the Pillars.
They were talking about the fire, about what this meant going forward. He couldn’t give away too much. One, because the Pillar wasn’t on a high enough level, and two, because he didn’t know much.
As far as I could tell, his father wasn’t telling him much of anything regarding that fire. Nothing more than ‘it was tragic’ and ‘it’ll create a dent in our business’.
I wasn’t sure how much of a dent because from what I heard, the Delepski’s hadn’t been a part of the church for too long.
Whatever they were doing had been against the rules anyway, and Mr. Alascer had gone there to not only pick up the Favorite, but to deal with their rash decision-making, which had started within the Church of Daylight they had built in Russia.
He hadn’t come back yet, Mr. Alascer, but I could feel a pair of familiar eyes resting on me that told me that today of all days, Azrael had come back.
“Have you ever heard of wild roses?” I heard him ask just before his shoes slowly walked into my line of sight.
Thomas was quiet a moment before he dismissed the Pillar he was talking to and turned his attention to Azrael. “Heard of what?”
There was something chilling in his voice this time around. Something that made my entire body taut with a feeling I couldn’t quite understand.
“Wild roses,” he said again. “I’ve heard their thorns are razor sharp, especially when touched by hatred and rage.”
After all this time, I knew how he spoke. I knew what that meant. He wasn’t talking about roses; he was talking about a Favorite. Just like his daffodil and little mouse. This wild rose was another woman, and she sounded angry.
She sounded so filled with rage that it burned sharply and painfully through her. Just as I imagined my pain and rage would burn if I could feel anything at all.
Was she the Favorite who had died in that fire?
Had she been Azrael’s Favorite or just a woman he had wanted as his Favorite?
He had to have known her to know that much about her.
So perhaps it had been his Favorite. Perhaps Mr. Alascer had been bringing her back here for him so that he could finally have a Favorite at this church.
Payment for helping with the transportation.
Thomas released a breath. “I don’t have time for your word games, Thorin, we’re dealing with something much more important.”
“Why is her hair like that?” he asked suddenly, causing my heart to flip. “The rules state that Favorites aren’t meant to dye their hair, yet hers has been like that since I arrived—”
He had noticed me. He noticed me enough to notice how wrong my hair was. He noticed me enough to ask about it. But why?
“—Have you allowed her to break a rule, Thomas? Shall I remind you that not even the children of the Leaders are allowed to break the rules.”
“It’s a genetic condition,” he said through his teeth. “And it’s on file.”
“Oh?”
And the way he said that single word caused my heart to flutter.
My hair was why I was so coveted. Why all the Leaders wanted to watch me while they orgasmed. Because I was chosen in the eyes of the Lord to be theirs. The Blessed One. I was their gift for being so obedient. One of a kind, rare, an enigma.
“Why are you so angry, Thomas? Is it because you don’t like me? Is it because I’m taking the job you so desperately want?”
He what?
He wanted Azrael’s job? Why would he want to be a shuttle for the children?
I heard a shuffle and then Thomas’s voice again. It was low and threatening, as if he didn’t want anyone else to hear. “If you want to fuck children, then go ahead and fuck them. All I care about is being the first to fuck her.”
There it was again, the ticking of the sea, only this time, it didn’t come from the clock in his pocket, it came from his very own tongue.
“Such fowl language in a place of godliness. If I were you,” he hummed, his tone becoming a deep, terrifying sort of purr, “I’d watch my tongue.
One would hate to have it ripped straight from the hyoid bone. ”
My skin ran cold, that thing between my thighs pulsing again, like a little heartbeat. That threat was different than Thomas’. Something about it just felt so much more real.
“Substance,” that voice in my head hummed, “that’s what makes a good threat. No substance, no fear.”
No substance, no fear.
“Are you threatening me?” Thomas asked, a slight waver in his voice.
And that waver only filled me with that strange weightlessness.
Fear, it sounded like. I had forgotten what it felt like, but I know what it sounded like.
I heard it in the voices of the children at the auction.
Thomas was afraid of him, and it made that numb part of my brain spark for just a second.
Just long enough to get a taste of something delicious.
I wanted Thomas to always sound like that. I wanted him to always be afraid.
“No,” Azrael answered. “Not at all. My condolences for the church that burned down. Such a tragedy for the Russians. Give my best to your father, but I must get going. Places to be, roses to sharpen.”
“Don’t go, it’s not enough time.”
But a second later, Thomas’s hand was wrapping around my arm, and he was jerking me up painfully. “Go to the hall,” he ordered me, shoving me towards the Back Hall. “Be on your best behavior, they need this now more than ever.”
I stumbled for the back doors, my mind whirling. Everything he spoke was a riddle. Everything.
Everything I knew about that branch of the church told me that it hadn’t been filled with just Russians, it was only that one family. The Delepski’s. So why only mention them? Had they had a part in the burning?
Had they caused it?
Was it a coop of some sort from the Russian Church of Daylight rather than just the Delepski family?
My hands tightened slightly where they were folded at my hips. If they had caused it, then maybe Azrael himself felt a sort of need for his own vengeance. If his Wild Rose had died because of them—
No.
No, he had said he had a rose to sharpen. That was present tense.
My heart skipped as Thomas jerked open that door. She was still alive.
She was alive.
And if she was alive, maybe the tsunami that had been building all these years was finally going to come crashing down.
I knew the sea had come for a reason, and while I knew this wasn’t his first reason, the reason that brought him here, it might be the reason that pushes that sea closer to the city.
13
Bonus Chapter
Azrael
September 20th, 2022
Things into that room when she was alone was rare these days, so I had to watch carefully, wait. It wasn’t something I was unfamiliar with but seeing as how this job had just become a little more complicated, I did feel the pressure of being quick.
While I knew this wasn’t the last time I would visit her, this would probably be the last time I would attempt to visit her and speak to her.
Maybe not, who’s to say what the future held.
Her faithful little mouse and her guardian wolf both awakened at my presence.
Lucy’s ears folded back ever so slightly, but despite her feralness, I knew she recognized me and my scent. I was not a physical threat to her dear human.