Page 34 of These Unhallowed Halls (Equinox Seasons Duet #2)

Twenty-Two- Lambs In The Lion’s Den Are Lambs Sent To The Slaughter

Temps

“W ould you quit it?” I swatted at Lizzie’s mischievous hands, laughing despite my attempt to shoo her away. “I’m trying to get dressed.”

“I’m aware.” She leaned across me as I stood with my back to the closet, snatching the shirt out of my hand and tossing it behind her with a smirk. “That’s why I’m getting rid of that offensive material. Nothing is keeping me from enjoying your perfect fucking tits for a few more minutes.”

I rolled my eyes, a smile creeping up the corner of my mouth.

Lizzie took a step closer, pressing her bare chest to mine.

Two idiots smiling like fools, we wrapped are arms around each other.

I stilled for a moment long enough to sneak a pinch of Lizzie’s nipple.

She gasped lightly, then yanked me to her lips, kissing me like it was the most important thing on the planet.

It wasn’t, of course. There was a “carnival cult” to deal with.

Still, I melted into the feeling of her, enjoying every moment because I could never get enough of them.

I’d fought this for so long, and now, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why.

So what if we had entered each other’s lives in a “less than traditional” way?

Lizzie was mine, and I was hers. Fuck what anyone else said.

“Mmm,” she swept her tongue across the seam of my lips as she hummed, and I eagerly let her in, relishing her wicked kissing skills.

Knock, knock, knock.

We paused, both of us eyeing the door as Lizzie said, “Who’d be knocking? Wouldn’t Cerberus just bamf him and Caleb in?”

“Umm…”

I was no empath, but something felt weird, a darkness radiating from the other side of the door. Smiling, likely unable to hide my concern from her, I stepped back and around Lizzie, grabbing my shirt and yanking it on over my head as I approached the door.

“Yes?”

“For goodness’ sake, Temperance! Would you open the door?”

My stomach dropped and turned to lead instantaneously. I knew that voice. But it was impossible. The school was protected. How in the hell would she even make it through the gate?

“Temperance! Let your mother inside!”

Lizzie was at my side, hauling on a shirt. “How the fuck? Barbara? Am I having a fucking stroke right now?”

“I don’t—” My mother continued to pound at the door. “Dammit. She’s going to draw too much attention if we don’t answer. Just…I don’t know. Be on guard or whatever.”

“Around the mega bitch, Barbs? Yeah, I think I can manage that.”

Rushing up to the door, I turned over the lock and pulled it open, coming face to face with the woman who’d single-handedly made me deny everything about who I was in favor of not getting chewed out by her. Oh, and it was only moments after I’d just been making out with my stepsister.

“Finally. What could possibly have taken you so long to answer the door?” Barbara stood at the threshold, wearing a pale cream suit skirt set, complete with the matching pearls she reserved for church days.

“We were tits out, Barbs. Did you want Temps answering the doors with her nips in your face?”

Shock played over my mother’s face, and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from snorting out a laugh. As she scoffed, she pushed herself past me and into the room, standing a few feet away from the door and glowering.

“I see this renowned advanced education has not improved your language, Elizabeth.”

Lizzie narrowed her eyes as I shuffled the wet towels from our shower over toward the closet, crossing her arms with her hip cocked out to the side.

“Nope. How’d you even get in here? We have a gate and everything.”

“Oh, honestly.” Mother rolled her eyes, waving off Lizzie’s annoyance like it was nothing. “I demanded that I be allowed to visit my daughters and take them for an important family outing.”

Before Barbara could even swing her head back down from her display, Lizzie was right in front of her, fury radiating off her like a dark cloud.

“You are not my mother, and I am not your daughter.” Nervous energy peaked inside me as Lizzie challenged my mother. “ My mother died, and there is not a day that goes by that I wish I could pull the old switcheroo.”

They were going to tear each other apart at this rate, and truthfully, I didn’t want something happening to Lizzie because my mother pulled a Karen and talked to the school. I shot up between them, stepping in front of Lizzie and reaching my hand back to squeeze hers.

“What’s going on, Mom? You said a family outing? We’re a bit busy for a middle-of-the-day, no-notice event.”

She waved off my complaint just as she had Lizzie. “Nonsense. You’ll both be coming. I’ve been going to far too many of these events by myself, and this time, I’ll be presenting my family , just like all the other top-tier parishioners.”

“You want us coming with you to the church? Are you serious?” Lizzie demanded.

“Yes. Now stop loafing about and get changed into something becoming of two proper young ladies. None of that black crap, Elizabeth.” She jabbed a finger forward. “And don’t try me either. I have no issue with speaking to the school board about our payments for next semester.”

Dammit. She really is that obsessed with all this .

“Alright, alright, Mom. We’ll go, just give us a moment to get changed, okay? We’ll meet you outside.”

“Excellent.” She clapped her hands together, smiling like a snake. “Hurry up. Things begin in an hour.”

I escorted her to the door, closing it behind her, and then sagged against the wood with a sigh. “Fuuuuck, okay. I’m sorry, but can we just get changed and go to this thing? Maybe it’ll keep her off our backs for a while.”

When I looked across the room at Lizzie, she narrowed her eyes at me but nodded. “You owe me. Big time.”

“I do.” Hurrying over to her, I leaned in for a kiss and then landed back on my heels. “So much. You can even tell Caleb and Cerberus that you’re owed some loving.”

She brightened at that, scampering off to her closet with a grin. “Ooh, good play. You should negotiate more often.”

“Well, when this is all over with,” I went to my closet, searching through my clothes for that pale pink outfit my mom had gotten me, “I’ll definitely think about it. These kinky rules of yours sound fun.”

Glancing over my shoulder, I watched Lizzie bite her lip as she pulled free the only white shirt she owned and the weird overdress thing my mom had gotten her last holiday season.

“Done.”

“I swear this is the itchiest fucking thing on the godsdamn planet.” Lizzie pulled at the neck of the overstretched dress thing, and I fought a laugh.

“Sorry,” I frown sympathetically at her, squeezing her hand as we pulled to a stop in my mom’s car, “I’ll admit that this thing isn’t as uncomfortable, but I don’t know how I’m supposed to pee in it. I think I’ll—”

My words died as I looked out the window and realized where we’d driven. I’d yet to take a car here, so I didn’t know how short the trip would be, and every warning bell in my head blared at max volume.

The carnival.

“How the fuck…This can’t be right. Is your mom really taking us to a fucking church meeting at the carnival?”

Lizzie kept her voice down as we pulled into a spot, and my mother threw the car into park. I couldn’t find the words. We knew that the symbol she was sporting was suspicious, but I’d clearly been in big-time denial. I really hadn’t believed that she was actually involved in all this.

I was going to throw up.

“We still made it. I’m so glad I can finally introduce you to Pastor Paine. Ugh, he’s a revolutionary. I have never felt as good in my entire life as I have since I’ve started coming to these. You’ll see!”

“I…” I squeezed Lizzie’s hand, shaking my head. “I’m not sure I can do this.”

She adjusted on the seat as my mother got out and started toward the open flap of the faded red and white striped tent, a line of people already there to get inside.

“We can do this, Temps. We can find out more about what they’re doing. A circus holding sermons is seriously less than normal. We can see why no one has said anything.”

My heart was so loud in my ears, and I managed a dull nod.

“I’m right here with you, babe. Always.” Lizzie pulled my chin toward her, meeting my eyes as she leaned forward and rested her head against mine.

Her presence warmed my clammy skin, and I held onto her. “Okay. Thank you. I’m…I’m alright. Let’s go.”

Exiting the car, we walked over toward my mother, and I was suddenly so grateful for the clothes we were wearing.

They acted like some strange disguise. They were so different from anything we’d be caught dead in that the polyester and starch acted like ingredients to a spell, keeping us nearly invisible to the people around us.

And there were so many of them, too. At least forty.

As we all filed in, the seats in the front of the tent, which had been cleared of the red wooden ring and replaced with a pulpit lifted on a dusty, crooked wooden platform.

This smaller section of the tent, the stands blocked off by bits of the fabric that could apparently fold in on themselves, was so much smaller than the usual ring.

That, of course, meant that while my mother beelined to the very front for the only seat left up there, Lizzie and I were left to stand near the back.

Totally okay with me.

Lizzie? I looked over at her, and she nodded subtly. Seems safer than talking out loud. Just keep your head down and play it cool, babe.

I nodded back, ever more grateful for her talents. Then, a single spotlight hit the pulpit, and we watched as the Ring Lead, Jeb Junior, walked up and patted on the microphone to get everyone’s attention.

“Welcome, folks. So glad our devoted followers could make it to another sermon. We heed His call.”

“And give our will to Him that is higher,” the crowd answered.