“I never saw her after that day until she was brought back here. And I could never bring myself to hate her as everyone else did. Although she was shunned and renounced by my mothers and father, I prayed for her to come back.” Phebe’s wary eyes met mine. “Even though you are a breathing demon, you seem to care for her, and maybe that is where she belongs, with the people of darkness… for she is sinful too. I ask you to give her true love. My Rebekah deserves to be loved.”

My eyes dropped to my beautifully broken woman, and I whispered, “Rebekah…” Her eyes fluttered at that name and a moan passed through her lips. The name suited her—blond-haired and blue-eyed Rebekah.

“We gotta go,” Smiler said from behind. “Like fuckin’ yesterday. Next patrol is in thirty minutes, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t wanna take on an army of a fuckin’ thousand jihadist cult guards when there’s only six of us Hangmen!”

As we set off at a run, the redhead’s gaze never left her sister clutched in my arms as AK hauled her away and attached her to a tree. I had a consuming need to get my woman back safe to the compound. I saw AK staring down at the redheaded bitch, and I knew he didn’t wanna leave her.

But there was no time for sympathies and good conscience in this outlaw life, sister or not. For all we knew, she could be lying, trying to fool us into thinking she cared… fooling Lilah too.

Lilah was my woman and everyone else could fuck off. As a unit, a fuckin’ brotherhood, we took off for the fence and never once looked back.

Seventy minutes later, we entered the gates of the compound and, holding Lilah’s limp body to my chest, I ran straight for my room. Smiler immediately went for the medical bag, just as Mae, clutching Maddie, Beauty, and Letti came barreling down the hallway. My mind worked enough to see that Maddie had actually fuckin’ left the apartment.

Taking one look at my old lady, Mae and Maddie dropped to their knees, pained cries pouring from their mouths.

Laying Lilah on my bed, I felt relief that my bitch was back in my arms, my bed, but I knew when she woke, it weren’t gonna be good… Nothing about any of this messed-up witch torture shit was good.

This whole thing was a clusterfuck…

A goddamn fuckin’ clusterfuck…

Chapter Twenty-One

Lilah

“Smiler said she’ll be good. Just gonna take time. Been patched up, fever’s broke.”

“And what of the men that did this to her? What of the men responsible?”

“We got two of ‘em, sent ‘em to Hades. Her fuckin’ father was one of them, Mae.”

“And… and the prophet?”

“Nowhere in sight. She was on some witch trial stake, out on a hill in the middle of nowhere.”

“I cannot believe he would allow this to be done to her… the lashes of Christ, the crucifix burn—”

“Being fuckin’ raped! Multiple raped!”

“Please… do not say it… I cannot bear it…”

“Yeah, well, that cunt ain’t the person you knew. He’s a deluded prick with a God complex that’s gonna die… real fuckin’ soon.”

My throat was tight and dry, and I ached everywhere. Talking around me filtered in and out of my consciousness, but I could not make sense of what was being said.

Where am I?

My back felt as though it were on fire, my stomach too tight to move. Panic began building my chest, my heart thundering, my breathing coming in short, sharp pants.

New Zion… I was at New Zion… Fire, there was fire. My flesh too hot and flames licked at my legs.

I tried to move my legs, but they were tied down, my hands restrained over my head. My father and Brother Micah were reciting scripture at my feet, their voices growing louder as their language changed to the scared one of our Lord.

I was damned, burning in the hellfire, my soul being purified from the burning temperature of my blood.

A scream built in my stomach, and unable to take the heat of the fire, I let it loose.

“Lilah!” a female voice called.

Heavy hands pinned me down as the pain from my thrashing body grew in intensity.

“No, please!” I begged. “Do not kill me like this… not by the flames! Any other way but by fire!”

“Lilah, baby, calm the fuck down.”

That voice… that voice… centering me, grounding me.

My body froze and something rough yet gentle ran across my forehead and down my cheek. “Lilah, wake up. Open your eyes, sweet cheeks.”

Doing as commanded, my heavy eyelids opened and I blinked furiously, trying to see clearly. Dark shadows played before my eyes until they revealed a face… It was a familiar face; I knew that beautiful face.

“Lilah? You there, baby?” his deep southern drawl rasped.

I darted my attention around the room, dark walls, wooden floors… It was familiar; I knew this room. My hands felt along the linen. This linen was familiar; I knew this linen.

“Baby?” My eyes beheld a pair of blue eyes. They were familiar; I knew those beautiful eyes. I was not in the fire… I am not in the fire!

“Ky?” I rasped, the sound through my throat like razor blades. My hands covered the skin of my neck as if they could soothe the flesh inside.

“Here,” a soft female voice said beside me, a glass of water moving before my mouth.

Long black hair and a pair of strangely colored blue eyes came into view. “Mae,” I said, and she smiled down at me, though the action looked pained.