Sela’s cheeks had reddened at the sharing of this information about his brother. The Fallen hadn’t known where Auguste was, or what role he played in the Brethren. Gabriel had never been able to discover anything about him, even with all his contacts.
Now they knew.
“Not twins,” Raphael said, his arm securely around Maria. “Auguste is his older brother. They just look alike.”
“And it sounds like Auguste’s scooting up the Brethren ladder,” Bara said, wiggling his fingers at the Coven. “Cleansing one little witch at a time.”
“Bara, enough!” Gabriel said firmly. Bara shrugged, then closely watched the woman who had attacked Sela. His redheaded brother was nothing if not provocative.
“You know where he is?” Sela said to Dinah, voice cold.
Dinah stared at Sela, unease rolling off her in waves. “It’s like I’m looking right at him,” she whispered. The damage and pain Auguste had clearly inflicted on her and her sisters was evident in her shaking voice.
“Genetics,” Uriel said. “Believe us when we tell you Sela and Auguste may look identical, but they are nothing alike.”
“You know where he is?” Sela pushed harder, his hatred for his brother slowly rising to the surface.
Dinah sighed, then pushed her hood back from her head and the scarf from her face. Her dark skin shone deep bronze in the moonlight, and her braided hair blew in the wind. She looked to her sisters, and the final two who still wore hoods and scarves removed them too. A small brunette with big dark eyes was revealed, along with a statuesque blonde.
Diel practically vibrated beside him, but as long as he stared at Noa, he seemed to be keeping hold of the monster who was rearing its ugly head inside. Dinah turned back to Gabriel and his brothers. Her gaze caught on Maria again, but then she sighed, lifted her shirt and revealed to them all a brand.
Gabriel’s breathing came quick as he saw a pentagram burned into her skin, and in the center an upturned cross. One just like the Fallen’s. “Our Coven’s brand,” Dinah said. “Forced onto us as children to show our sinful ways.” But it wasn’t the only mark on her. All around the brand was burned and mottled skin. Dinah turned, showing them her back. She had been burned all over, barely a spot where untouched skin remained. The burn seemed to reach the top of her neck, but her clothes hid that truth.
Her whole body. They had burned her entire body.
When Dinah turned, she dropped her shirt and nudged her chin in Diel’s direction. “When we saw his brand, we knew we were somehow connected to you.”
“They burned you?” Uriel asked, voice dripping with hatred for the Brethren.
Dinah nodded. “Among other things. Drownings were a firm favorite too. Drown and burn the witches. They were traditional in their approach.” Dinah gestured to her sisters. “We all have similar scars.” Then she smirked. “But it seems like we devil’s whores managed to get one up on them. I can only imagine how pissed our theft of their little sinners will make them.”
“The children,” Gabriel stated.
Dinah nodded. “Innocent children like we were.” She motioned to her sisters, then assessed Gabriel and his brothers. “As I’m guessing you were too.” Gabriel felt sick as he thought back to their visit to Purgatory not long ago, when they’d found seven new boys living in the quarters that had held them for so long.
It was happening again.
Apparently, it had never stopped.
And now Gabriel knew the Brethren were everywhere. How many children were they harboring in secret? Orphans, with no one to save them or even care that they were being harmed.
“Gabriel?” Maria’s voice pulled him back from his rising fury, and she walked toward him. Raphael stayed at her back, protecting her the entire way. Maria smiled at Gabriel, a reminder to him to curb his anger. Getting angry wasn’t going to help anything. He had to be calm; he had to keep emotionally steady. He inhaled a deep breath.
“Let’s invite the Coven home,” Maria said. “We have much to learn from one another, and it shouldn’t be done out here.” Although the graveyard was secure, Gabriel knew she was right. There was too much to discuss, to discover.
Gabriel inhaled once more and cooled himself down enough that he could talk. He felt the biting cilices tighten around his thighs, tearing into his muscles. The recent stripes on his back throbbed, stripes from his beloved leather scourge that rid him of his daily sins by taking them from his flesh.
He didn’t know why God had chosen him to walk deeper and deeper into the Brethren’s sinful world, but he would follow wherever He led him, sacrificing his own soul for his brothers and any other victim they met along the way. Gabriel looked at Dinah and, for a moment, he saw himself reflected in her dark eyes.