She threw her head back, and her pleasure coursed through me, stealing away what little resolve either of us had left. If Satina was going to kill me like this, hopefully she would at least have the common courtesy to wait until he was finished.
Yet I couldn’t live in the moment—not this one. No, not with Satina’s stream of conscious rushing over my own. Thoughts of her family—all powerful Conduits—and how in a few short days, on her eighteenth birthday, she would shift into the form of a beast herself. All she wanted was to escape, to live a normal life. And here was Abram, charming, handsome, and strong. If anyone could help her, it was him.
Suddenly, the door flew open. The girl pulled away, covering herself with her hands and leaving Abram on his knees, shirtless and smiling.
“Father!” she yelled, tears pooling in her eyes.
But the man on the other end of the door wasn’t her father. At least, not the sort I expected. He was a priest, complete with collar and rosary.
It was then that I realized what was going on. The emptiness of the room, the way the girl was so apprehensive. She was a nun. He was actually screwing a nun.
“Again, brother?” the priest said, looking down at Abram.
Heaven help me. Satina wasn’t a nun … Abram was a priest.
“I suppose asking for forgiveness wouldn’t help my cause?” he asked with a fiendish glimmer in his eyes.
The priest’s frown carved deep lines around his mouth. “Not this time.”
“I’m not even the first,” the naked woman muttered, and I felt the shame, regret, and anxiety slam back into her.
“Not even close,” the priest said. “But you will be the last.”
The girl scampered to dress while keeping her body shielded from the other priest, but he had already turned his attention to Abram.
“You’re a disgrace to all who would give themselves to the Lord,” the priest said. “And I, for one, am done covering up your sins. I’m reporting you to Father Jacobs with the sunrise. You’ll be arrested within a fortnight. Let’s see you break your vows within a prison cell.”
“You wouldn’t,” Abram cut out, the lightness leaving his voice. “You know of the demons I struggle with, brother.”
“Enough of your excuses and lies!” The priest raised his hand. “I will not let you make a mockery of this house, of these women, or of your own body. Not any longer. You will be brought out into the light of day, brother. Nothing short of divine intervention will stop me this time.”
Suddenly, I wasn’t in the room anymore. I stood on a crowded dirt road, watching a building as it was devoured in flames. People stood around it, gawking and praying. Most of them were priests as well.
The building I had just been standing in … it was on fire.
My head snapped to the right. Abram stood beside me, a hood pulled low over his face. His grin had returned.
“I suppose not all intervention has to be divine,” he muttered.
“You burned it!” I yelled, but I wasn’t there any longer. I was back in the old house, lying on the floor with a faded ceiling above me.
“What have you done?” Abram’s voice boomed. Satina’s throat was in his hands. She was pressed against the wall, rope binding her hands where the chains had failed. “Where is she?”
“I-I’m here,” I said hoarsely, trying to stand.
Turning to me, Abram’s eyes widened. He released the Conduit and rushed over to me, helping me up.
“Are you all right, Charisse? Where did she send you?”
I pulled away from him, squirming at his touch.
Satina laughed. “I suppose you know the truth now, don’t you, Supplicant? You see the type of man he is.”
“Quiet! Before I silence you myself!” Abram growled.
“All monster, no magic,” she taunted. “Such a waste.”
He spun around on her. “And whose fault is that?”
She glowered at him. “Yours, you idiot! I offered to protect you. My family could have kept you safe after what you’d done!”
He clenched his jaw. “I told you then, and I will tell you now: I don’t need you or your family.”
“Actually,” she said, tipping her head to the side. “You do need me. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t be here, now would I? You could have had it all, Abram. You could have shared this magic with me. But you made your choice—your stupid, idiotic choice! Look where it got you. And still you try to deny me.”
Now it made sense. She hadn’t wanted him to save her from becoming a beast. She’d wanted him to join her. For him to marry into her powerful Conduit family so she wouldn’t be alone. She’d given a piece of herself to him in that bedroom, and when he betrayed her, she’d given a piece of herself to him in her death as well. The piece of her that would become a beast, making Abram a monster with none of the Conduit power to fight her back.
Was that why she couldn’t turn into a beast now? It would explain why she hadn’t broken from her chains sooner. By reanimating herself in that poor dead girl’s body, Satina had found a way to be a Conduit without the curse of being a beast.