“Louis was an idiot trying to go at it with only his Favorites by his side. We are stronger than them,” Mr. Edgars stated evenly. “Better. They are so much smaller than us. Shadows were meant to run from the light. That’s what we are, the Church of Daylight. It’s our job to destroy the darkness.”
“I’m starting to consider that it’s the right thing to do,” Mr. Kels put in. “We have thousands. They are but one family.”
“We didn’t even get close to them,” Mr. Young huffed. “We were thwarted long before we could even find them, until Louis,” he went on with a breath.
“And then they killed him without hardly trying at all,” Thomas muttered. “Pathetic waste.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Pastor Masters ordered, his voice louder than the others. “Louis is dead, Charles has fallen back in his actions so as not to draw any more attention, and Mr. Thorin will be helping us fill a void we so desperately needed filled. Don’t worry about The Family, the Elders will handle it.”
“How do you know?” Mr. Alascer asked. “They never responded after our last message.”
“Yes, they have,” Pastor Masters said tightly. “A couple of times, but we are not permitted to know every ounce of information they have, that is why we are the Leaders, andtheyare the Elders. We must have faith.”
It was something he always said when things started looking uncertain. The last time he had said it, other than at the funeral, was the Sunday after the last driver died. He told us to have faith, and then Azrael walked right through the front doors.
I wondered who would come this time.
“Faith has always gotten us through. It will get us through now.”
“You’ve officially hired Azrael as the Transporter?” Thomas asked, changing the subject abruptly.
“It’s been almost three years, Thomas,” Mr. Young breathed out. “Don’t you think your father would have excommunicated him a long time ago had he felt otherwise?”
It did seem like a desperate question. Azrael had been transporting Favorites and the children of Favorites and Pillars alike for the last year and a half at least, if not longer. To keep asking this question was disrespectful, but who was I to speak on what was respectful and what wasn’t? I had countless lashings to prove how many times I had disrespected Thomas. I shouldn’t have an opinion on this at all.
“You trust him enough to do this?” Thomas asked, ignoring Mr. Young completely.
“I didn’t tell him why,” Pastor Masters explained, clearly tired of this narrative. “The women drop them off at our daycares, he picks them up and shuttles them to the churches. That’s all. He believes he’s reuniting them with their families.”
Believes? Was he not?
“Until you decide to make him a Leader,” Thomas stated. “You would really risk that?”
“Yes.”
“And what if he turns on us? What if he steals the children away and disappears? What if he becomes some sort of moral god and does something as stupid as going to the police?”
“He won’t,” his father assured him.
“How do you know that, Garrett?” Mr. Alascer stated, his voice having shifted as well. “It’s quite a risk; one I highly suggest you stop taking.”
That was new. Mr. Alascer never agreed with Thomas.
“I’ve been given assurances. Now that’s enough, we must get back out there, or people might start to talk.”
No, they wouldn’t. The Leaders had meetings all the time, nobody would think anything about it, but I think they all knew Pastor Masters was done with the conversation. So, reluctantly, the others agreed, and we all shuffled out.
Pastor Masters must have believed in Azrael a lot to not have even a single doubt about him when everyone else did. Doubt wasn’t allowed in the church, yet they all voiced their concerns, grumbling in response. Allowing Azrael to take control of this part of the church’s business didn’t sit well with some of them.
We mingled through the crowd, Thomas speaking a word here and there to mourners of the church. Apparently, Mr. Louis had been loved by all.
All I knew him as was a toucher. He liked to squeeze me. Pinch my thigh and my butt. I was glad he was dead. I didn’t like theway his scratchy, dry fingers felt against my skin, but was Mr. Bastrom that much better?
No, he wasn’t. Even as a Pillar, the rules were only suggestions to him. He liked to push.
Things were shifting in the inner workings of the church, it felt like. From years and years of testing, to almost no time at all. From silent testing to openly discussing it with people like Azrael. From accepting them into being a Leader to some sort of initiation.
It all seemed…it felt like how I felt when I broke the rules. Like a knot in my gut. Like I was waiting for the pain to hit. That’s what it felt like in that room. It felt like they were doing what they could to fix something before it broke.
