Page 1 of The Sinner and the Priest: Part 1

Prologue

My love, I have dreamed.

Judgment is coming.

The keys to Heaven will depend on the strength of our love,

for at its core is the promise of His teachings.

Man will judge first

And through his merciless pride,

his spirit found wanting

The Disagreeing Apostle will stand upon the bedrock peddling lies,

judging our union in the dark,

and the first crack shall form.

…

Babylon will fall.

Upon this rubble, he will build his church of lies.

And the cracks shall grow

and grow

and grow

so vast that the darkness swallows the light of our descendants and beyond.

Verily I say unto you,

the greatest danger to the world is judgment without mercy.

For if a saint cannot stand on equal footing with a sinner before the people,

then our teachings have failed.

What point is love without forgiveness?

What point is food without nourishment?

One

Mercy

“You call that a push-up?” I shout as I finish my fiftieth on the lawn beside the abbey’s lake.

The sun is about to set, and the misty air should be a welcome cool reprieve on my sweat-slicked skin. It only reminds me that I have a body and that it’s lonely and aching to be touched. Only one type of exercise obliterates the hollow ache I’ve lived with since I was twelve, and it isn’t boot camp.

Tawny, Raven, Leila, and Thea are lined up like soldiers facing the water. We’ve been at it for hours, and they’re falling behind.

“I know toddlers with better form than you.” I kiss the grass on my fifty-first push-up.