Page 60 of Wicked Salvation

Is this really how my life is going to go?

XIV

SILAS

She’s late.

Of course she is.

It’s five minutes past the time I told her, and sheknowsI hate waiting.

Mostly because I hate how it makes me feel—out of control, like someone else is holding the reins. I pace the edge of the vestry, fingers drumming against the stone column, the old incense-stained velvet curtains brushing my sleeves as I turn.

When she finally appears in the door, I don’t speak.

I just stare.

Let her feel it, let her scramble.

“Silas,” she breathes, an apology and prayer all-in-one.

I can tell that she’s trying to look beautiful. Pink-tinted lip gloss, her flax-white hair curled too stiffly for a weekday. She’s even swapped her uniform cardigan for a cashmere one that’s tighter, giving her lanky body the illusion of a slim waist.

Vain little peacock.

“Don’teverwaste my time again,” I say flatly.

Her smile falters.

She steps inside, closing the heavy chapel door behind her, like this is some kind of secret rendezvous and not what it really is: surveillance.

“I’m sorry,” Anastazya murmurs, head ducking, shoulders folding inward.

I pinch the bridge of my nose, breath slicing through my teeth. “Your apologies mean nothing to me.”You mean nothing to me.I cross my arms. “What do you have for me?”

She shakes just the slightest bit, her blue eyes widening.

“After she left the library, I’m not sure where she went,” Anastazya whispers. “I saw her on the phone with someone before she went to the library.”

Anastazya Volkova was Vivienne’s first girlfriend. She was also the first girl who got in my bed during my first week at Augustine. I wouldn’t call what we had a relationship—but it obviously meant something to her. She was on my arm for all of seventy-hours. When I broke up with her, she found solace in Vivienne—and when Vivienne broke up with her?

Well, she’s been on the edge of sanity since then.

I guess that’s what heartbreak does to a woman—turns them into a shell of themselves, something easy to manipulate and mold into whatever you want. Dangle the possibility of rekindling a relationship in front of them, and suddenly they’re like putty in your hands.

And Anastazya? She’s been the most pliant of them all.

“What do you mean you don’t know where she went?” My voice is sharp and with a strong hand I flip her around, slamming her against the back of the vestry. “I gave youonejob.” Well, technically two. “And you can’t seem to do that?”

She stutters. “She got a book from the librarian.”

“A book? That’s the only intel you have for me?” I grab her throat, and that’s when the wordsand tearsstart flowing. “I think…I think…” She’s choking on her words. “I think she’s atthe cemetery. She came back crying the last time, maybe she’s gone to that bitch’s grave again.”

I loosen my hold on her.

Even in the fucking grave, Vivienne won’t get out of my life it seems. I clench my jaw and turn away, pacing once, twice.

“You really think she went to that grave to cry, Ana?” I hiss. “She went to him.”