Page 100 of Terror at the Gates

“How many times have I told you not to call me that?”

“There are worse nicknames,” he said.

“There are alsononicknames.”

He chuckled but fell quiet, unfazed by my prickly behavior. After a few moments, I took a breath.

“I’m just not having a good day, Abel.”

“Nothing wrong with a bad day,” he said. “We’re allowed one now and then.”

“You be nice to her, Abel,” said Shelley, sliding a fresh drink to me. “She’s having a hard night.”

“Is it really that obvious?”

“Considering you haven’t finished your mozzarella sticks or convinced some poor sod to pay for your food and drinks, yes. It’s very obvious,” said Abel.

Damn, am I that predictable?I pursed my lips.

“I think I know what’s got you down,” he said.

“You do?” I asked, dread pooling in my stomach. If he brought up Esther, I wasn’t sure how I would react. I’d probably burst into tears.

“You heard about Tori, didn’t you?” he said.

“I more than heard about it.” I paused to swallow. “I found him.”

“I knew it was comin’,” Abel said.

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“He’s not the first to be executed for talkin’ about gods under the mountain,” he said. “You know that’s why Southgate got destroyed…too many people started believing in other gods.”

I frowned. I hadn’t actually known that.

“Who are these other gods?” I asked.

“They’re just stories that didn’t make it into theBook of Splendor,” he said. “Now and then, they surface, and the church stomps them out. At some point, you gotta wonder why they’re so afraid of something if it’s not true.”

“What do you mean there are stories that didn’t make it into theBook of Splendor?”

Abel stared at me like he couldn’t believe I was so ignorant, but I was raised within the walls of First Temple in Hiram. There were no stories outside the ones in theBook of Splendor.

“TheBook of Splendorwas curated by men. They came together at a council back when we had kings to decide what stories should go in their so-called sacred book. Theyclaim they were ‘divinely guided,’ which is a funny way to say politically motivated.”

“Do you know the stories?” I asked. “The ones that didn’t make it into the book?”

He shook his head. “Not fully. They don’t exist in written form anywhere that I know of, but I bet you can find someone who thinks they know the truth of it. The gist is what you’ve already heard. People believe there is more than one god and that they are trapped behind the Seventh Gate. They claim there are signs the gate is weakening, that their magic is slipping through the cracks, making the weather harsher, the people sicker and more violent, but if you ask me, that’s just people looking for an explanation for something they can’t explain.”

“So you don’t believe any of it?”

Abel shrugged. “Gods under a mountain aren’t any more unbelievable than a god in the sky. What does it matter?”

“It matters because people are being killed,” I said.

“People have always been willing to die for their beliefs.”

“Tori wasn’t willing,” I said. I didn’t think he knew what he was saying half the time. “He was targeted and murdered because the archbishop is a fucking coward.”