My breathing stopped, and I sat straighter in the Seat, trying not to tremble. If I looked afraid, people would notice. Father would notice. And then—
“…and there is one among us,” Malachi continued, “who continues to fall to this temptation.”
I went still. He wasn’t looking at me. Wasn’t looking at Jace in the back of the crowd. He was looking at the front row.
“Brother Silas,” Father said, voice booming. “Come forward.”
Silas?
Awkward, earnest, always wringing his hands when nervous, Silas. He had confessed last night—whispering that he’dwantedto touch himself again, but hadn’t. He said he fought it. He said he prayed until the urge passed.
He didn’t sin. Hedidn’t.
Silas rose slowly, pale already, and made his way up the aisle. My stomach twisted.
Father gestured for him to kneel at the base of the dais. Silas obeyed instantly, though his hands shook so badly he kept clasping and unclasping them like he was trying to hold something together.
“I have punished Silas numerous times for this weakness,” Father said, turning to the congregation. “And still, he fails to learn. He fails to understand purity.”
My fingers dug into the carved armrests beneath them.
Failing?
He wasn’t failing—he was trying. He was always trying. He never even—
“I will attempt,” Father said, “to banish it once and for all.”
The chapel fell so quiet it felt like sound itself had been swallowed.
Ban—banish?
I didn’t know what that meant, not exactly. But Father’s voice had that tone—calm, cold, absolute—the tone he used when he’d already decided the end of something.
Silas looked terrified.
Father raised a hand. Two members of his Inner Circle—Brother James and Brother Paul—stood immediately and approached. They took Silas by the arms and held him in place at the dais.
My breath stopped.
“F-Father?” My voice was barely a whisper. Not loud enough for the congregation. Probably only loud enough for him.
He didn’t look at me.
Instead, he reached behind the pulpit, lifting something long and coiled.
Leather.
Dark.
Heavy.
A whip.
My entire body went cold.
Father lifted it for all to see. Gasps rippled through the crowd. A woman covered her mouth. Silas made a sound—small and awful, like something inside him cracked.
No one moved.
