Page 33 of The Sinner and the Priest: Part Two

Metal tinkles and ricochets ahead of me.

The air grows cold, danker. Tunnel walls whiz past. It feels like I’m falling forever, and then I catch the distant sound of hollow water dripping, a choir singing, and then the ground gives way. It happens in a blink. I’m over the edge of a cliff I can’t see, and then I’m airborne.

My robes rise to swallow my body, smothering me in whipping fabric. The shock of icy air on my legs makes me gasp, which is fortunate because a second later I’m in water, submerging.

All of my failures flash in my mind.

I’m going to die.

I can’t save the Sisterhood. I can’t fix the sword. I can’t save Cisco.

I failed.

This must be the way to Hell. That’s why the choir stopped.

But then the waterbed meets my ass. The impact jars through my spine.

Deep water has a weight. This isn’t deep. Hope flaring, I scramble to find balance and kick off the ground, aiming to swim to the surface. Imagine my surprise when all I do is stand, and my head and shoulders break the surface. I flail in the darkness, checking. Yes, I’m not imagining it. The depth only comes to my breasts.

I hear the choir singing in the distance again.

“Mercy!”

Cisco’s frantic bellow echoes down through the dark. He sounds far away. Still up high.

“I’m fin—” I cough, sputter. Scrub my hand over my face. “I’m fine! I landed in water.”

I move toward him, but my foot hits something hard. Is that the sword? I hold my breath and dive. A surge of triumph fills me when my palm lands on the familiar, round pole handle.

I didn’t lose it.

I haven’t failed.

Don’t give up yet.

Straightening, I break the surface again with a grin on my lips.

I’m in water I can’t see, and likely hundreds of feet below the Basilica, going by the choir, but I’m smiling.

Sparks light up on the sword’s length, shooting orange and yellow light into the cavern like fireworks. Shadows and shapes loom around me, flickering over uneven and staggered formations. They look like the ruins we just left.

I think I’m in an underground city of some sort, long forgotten in time. I swing the sword to where the water meets the shore at my left. I wade toward it and then stop.

Why is it so quiet?

I strain my senses, peering through the shadows, reaching for any sound. Nothing.

“Cisco?”

His name echoes back to me, blending into the song, but he doesn’t answer.

Thirteen

Mercy

Just as I’m about to wade back to the cliff, a bomb drops a few feet away from me, throwing water in my face. I stumble backward, but manage to keep my footing.

I almost lose it again when a tall, broad-shouldered shadow barrels into me and starts checking me for injury.