Page 110 of Beneath His Robes

Elias was strung up on the cross at the center of the room, his face contorted in pain, blood staining the wood beneath him. His hands were nailed on the crucifix, drawn above his head, his feet enduring the same treatment at the bottom. Blood spilled down the wood and onto the ground.

His head hung down, his reddish blonde hair slicked with even more of his blood. The most gruesome part of the scene was the man I loved, with every part of me, was bare, naked for all the world to see.

His beautiful penis was the last nail to be used. The skin was pulled down enough to embed a nail in the tip. It bled the most. Each faint beat of his heart had more of that blood pulsing down his legs.

I froze for a moment, my heart stopping in my chest as I felt as if it would stop.

“Elias!” I shouted again, running toward him with everything I had in me.

But Jack’s voice—cold and commanding—cut through the air.

“Don’t come any closer, Ronan,” he snarled. “He’s God’s boy now. Just like he wanted.”

The words were like a punch to my gut. My chest tightened, my vision blurring with rage, fear, and helplessness.

Elias’s head lifted at the sound of my voice. He was extremely weak, and his face was stained in his tears. His eyes shot toward me, his face pale, and for a split second, there was a flicker of recognition that it was me through the pain, but there was the love in his gaze that never left. It was gone just as quickly, replaced with that same hollow fear that twisted inside me. He was in pain.

Too much pain.

I didn’t know how to help him. I just knew I had to do it.

I took a step forward, hands outstretched, but Jack moved faster, stepping between us and blocking my path. He had something in his hand, and a new fear lit inside me. A scent of this place I couldn’t understand from before, couldn’t place over the other, was as clear as the evil in his eyes. It was gasoline, and Jack was holding a lighter.

“Stay back…” Jack warned, his eyes cold as ice. “You don’t want to block his path to God anymore, do you?”

“Fuck you…” I whispered, taking another step. “Let him go, Jack. Please. I am begging you. Stop this.”

But Jack didn’t move. He just stood there, flipping the lighter, turning the flame off and on, his grin twisted and predatory. Elias’s breathing grew more ragged, more desperate, weaker. My heart pounded so loudly in my ears that I could barely hear the words coming out of my mouth.

“You’ve done enough to me,” I said, voice shaking, pleading. “If it’s freedom you want. You have it. I don’t care anymore. Please. Just stop. Just let me help him.”

Jack laughed. It was a hollow, menacing sound that echoed through the church’s stone walls.

“How cute you came to be his prince charming. Too bad for you that this castle is about to blow up,” he spat. “You’ve always been so naïve, Ronan. I thought you chose the better path. But clearly, you just wanna burn with him.”

I had to do something. I couldn’t let him do this. Not to Elias. Not to the man I loved.

I launched myself forward, but before I could take another step, I heard Elias scream again, his body jerking violently as he slid down the cross little by little, only his skin holding him up for this long. That was enough to freeze me in my tracks. It felt like my chest had been ripped open.

I had to find a way out of this to save him. To get him free.

But the crushing weight of Jack’s presence, of his control, seemed to suffocate me. And all I could do was come to the reality that I was going to lose Elias—again.

And I didn’t know how I’d survive it.

“Just leave. Please.” I tried again, running at Jack to smash through him to get to Elias. Jack laughed and threw me backward into the ground.

“Okay, boy. You win. I ain’t interested in burnin’ for your sins. I hope you remember this. Remember that you don’t cross me, or there ain’t a prayer that will save you.”

The lighter in his hand flickered to life one final time, and Jack threw it to the back of the room, right into a pool of the liquidity gasoline.

ChapterThirty-Nine

Ronan

I couldn’t breathe.

The air in the room was instantly sucked away in the blaze of fire at the back of the room. The stained glass windows glittered with the height of the flames, and they were steadily getting closer.

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