The rest of their brothers gathered around them, a fraternal shield. “More Brethren deaths?” Bara raised his eyebrows. “Oh, if we must.”
The Fallen nodded in agreement. Then Noa was beside Diel. “Need some help with that?” she said, smirking as she always did. Diel released Sela’s face. His friend was burning with fury. And Diel knew it was for only one person.
His brother.
Father Auguste. Witch Finder General and a man with a red target mark over his fucking dead heart.
The cunt got away … but he wouldn’t stay free for long.
“We’ll go back to our study and try to break this code,” Jo said urgently, taking Candace’s hand and disappearing down the tunnel that led to the housekeeper’s home.
“We train even harder,” Dinah said. Noa threaded her hands into Diel’s, making a revenge pact. He could just see it now. Noa would heal entirely. The Coven and the Fallen would train until they were impossible to break. The code would be cracked. They would hunt Auguste down like a fucking dog, and let Sela kill his brother in cold blood.
Then they would get back Cara.
They would get back Destiny.
And they would bring them both home for good.
Noa leaned into Diel’s side and whispered, “I like how you think, monster.” His thoughts must have been written on his face. She smiled at him, and he knew she would be right by his side, killing and destroying the fucking Brethren too. And deep inside, he felt his monster settle, content to have their woman healing and whole …
And speaking such poetic words of sweet, sweet death.
She had always been their perfect fucking match.
Chapter 31
Gabriel watched as the children walked through the doors of the new home he had renovated for them on the manor’s grounds. His heart broke into a million pieces as he took in the vacant looks in their wide eyes. The many years of abuse and torture at the hands of the Brethren had stolen their childhood innocence from them, something Gabriel could never give them back.
The staff he had hired using his grandfather’s contacts ushered the children to their rooms. Just as he had done with the Fallen, Gabriel had designed rules for the orphans to follow, their own set of commandments. They needed structure and calm.
Maria smiled at the children as they passed by her. But Gabriel could clearly see the devastation on her face too. She looked up at him when a final group entered the home. The hairs on the back of Gabriel’s neck stood on end. Because it was like looking into a mirror reflecting him and his brothers in the past. This group of boys appeared different from the other orphans. No nerves or anxiousness in their demeanors, no fear. But something else hovered around them—death. Not a sense that they had experienced it, but that they wanted to bring it.
Just like Michael had been all those years ago in Holy Innocents. How Bara, Uriel, Raphael, and Sela had been when Gabriel had sinned enough to get himself a ticket to Purgatory and met them.
Those boys were guided to another part of the home. As they passed Gabriel—who had dressed in civilian clothes that day, rather than the priest’s uniform that may have caused the children discomfort—they each stared at him, arrogance and threat in their gazes … but Gabriel read what that cockiness disguised.
They were broken.
They were lost.
They needed help.
The final boy to walk through was the boy Noa had rescued from the Brethren plinth. The one who wore a collar just like Diel. His head twitched, the same as Gabriel’s brother’s had. But he kept his gaze to the ground, bypassing Gabriel and Maria without ever looking up. Katie, the den mother, gave Gabriel and Maria a nod and followed the boys upstairs to settle them in.
When the foyer had cleared, Maria moved beside Gabriel. She shook her head. “They seem so lost.” Gabriel nodded. He had just thought the same. Then Maria put her hand on his arm. “It’s a good thing you have done here. Giving them this sanctuary. To rebuild, to heal.”
Sadness caved in his stomach. “It’s not enough,” Gabriel said. He gestured around the new orphanage, where the boys would be safe and protected. They would be free to be themselves, no matter what desires ran in their veins. No matter what Brethren cruelty had turned them into.
Gabriel ran his hand down his face, and his soul shattered for all of the children still in Brethren clutches. For Cara and Destiny and the many Shunned that were listed in the ledger. And for all the other sub-groups they had yet to discover.
Because there would be others. Gabriel was no longer naïve to that fact.
“It’s a start,” Maria said, firmly. “We will both find and help others—that is our calling. We both believe this to be true—”