Page 95 of A Serpent in the Garden

“And when do church services begin?” I asked as Remy laughed in my head, dropping back into his chair.

“Midday.” The vendor smiled, though his eyes flickered nervously to Valic.

“I thought I saw a flash of light earlier.” I tilted my head to catch his eye again. “Though it might have been the sun against a wave.”

“You’re not the first I’ve heard it from,” he said as I paid for the sunburst Valic was frowning at. I took it from his hands and pinned it to my breast as we turned back into the crowd.

Blinding white pavilions bloomed along the harbor like mushrooms after a hard rain, silks dancing in the wind. People lounged beneath them on fat white pillows, the sea breeze running salty fingers through their hair. Wineglasses tilted in the hands of those walking the waterfront marketplace, which sold spiced liquors, baked fish, furs, wooden chests inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

Valic and I took a left toward the church, where innumerable white pews had been set up on the sea of grass outside. A priest clad in white flitted between them. Sunlight blazed off the crystal cross set into the opalescent stone of the building, and this was an actual church? I’d never seen one so large and pristine. Ten stories tall, balconies and spires and pale gold onion domes that sent light shattering in every direction. Half walls surrounded it but for a ten-foot gap where a short staircase led to the front double doors, half a golden sunburst engraved on either side. I’d sooner believe it was a palace.

Though I felt the ugly scrape of its sanctity against my flesh soon enough. Valic felt it too, his mouth set into a grim line as we approached. Pain rippled across my skin, hot and tight, like a sunburn.

I gritted my teeth against the scorch. It looks so new.

It is. Relatively. They were partway through building it when I threatened that mass murder.

“We’ll grab the priest before he makes it back into the church,” Valic said. “He ought to know for certain whether Luceric’s coming. We’ll do it behind one of those walls. In and out. It’s going to hurt like a bitch.”

It felt like my skin was sizzling, as if an unquenchable fire boiled in my blood. It never hurt so badly near the church in Monde’s End.

This one was built with celestial help. It makes a difference.

The pain swelled, growing even more intense as Valic and I headed up the flight of iridescent stairs. We slid behind the half-wall when the priest’s back was turned, but I didn’t realize how badly Valic was affected until I glanced over to ask him a question that instantly died on my lips.

Horrible red, weeping wounds had blistered across his face, like he’d been poked all over with a hot iron, and they only grew larger the longer I looked. I nearly forgot my own pain as I gaped in horror. That the almost-kiss of the church could wreak so much damage turned my stomach watery.

“Are you okay?” I asked stupidly. Of course he wasn’t. He didn’t answer, his lips sealed shut, as if he didn’t trust himself not to scream. I felt my own burning face but my hands came away clean.

It won’t kill him, Remy said, when the thought broke across my mind. He didn’t sound very comfortable himself. It’s just fucking agony. You don’t know the half of it; you don’t have a demonic body.

The whites of Valic’s eyes were pink. He shook his head when I reached out a useless hand to clasp his shoulder.

The wait was probably somewhere around thirty seconds, but it felt like forever as my skin seared and Remy squirmed and his brother bled and shook and groaned. Finally the priest, wearing magnificent white robes glittering with gold thread, bounced up the staircase.

Before my brain could catch up to what was happening, faster than he seemed capable of moving, Valic yanked the billowing robe sleeve, caught the man by the throat, and in a quick upward thrust, slammed him against the side of the church.

Shadows sliced the priest’s petrified face in half. “What are you waiting for?” Valic grunted at me through his teeth.

Honey in my throat, glazing my mouth. “Will Luceric be here for services?” Remy asked, tongue silken, my eyes hardening on the priest’s brown ones.

The man stopped his fruitless struggle, sagging peaceably. The many gold rings on his fingers clacked against the wall as he dropped his hands from Valic’s wrist. “Yes.”

“How do you know for sure he’ll show?”

His plain potato face was lit by a smile. “It’s meant to be a reward for our devotion.”

“You’re positive?”

“Of course.”

“And he’ll show himself in his natural state? He won’t be hiding beneath a human face?”

“What better way to inspire us than to show us all his glory?”

A quick glance at Valic. His face smoked like cooking meat, raw and flayed. “We’ve never met before,” Remy reeled off to the priest. “You’ve never seen us. You’ll forget us the instant we’re gone.”

Valic let the man drop in a white heap, his face a map of rheumy, streaming wounds. He pulled up the cowl of his hood as the priest waved us off with a vague “Have a blessed day.”