Page 91 of The Sinner and the Gunslinger
A snarl behind me. Leila lifts her gun and shoots but then lets out a curse word. My body reacts before my mind catches up. I spin as an infected woman in a terry-toweling bathrobe leaps at us. I fire, hitting her between the eyes. She falls inches from our feet, splashing mud.
I nudge Leila. “I wouldn’t be your huckleberry if I waited.”
“For the last fucking time, you’re not Doc Holliday.”
I shrug. “You don’t know that.”
“And here I was thinking you were all wounded over Snuggles.”
A slice of self-loathing flashes through me, but I shake it off. “We don’t have time to bleed.”
More villagers appear down the path. Their eyes are all crazy and dark as they stumble toward us like zombies.
“Leila,” I mumble with a bone-chilling realization. “I can see the black web coming from their eyes.”
“You can?”
I nod gravely. “With the infected nuns and at the poker game, I didn’t see. I knew they were infected because you told me they attacked. I’m not supposed to see.”
“What do you mean?” she breathes, eyes wide.
Wes said that as long as Leila and I are together, the cracks on the seals holding the gates of hell will remain small. If we fight or are enemies, the cracks grow bigger. But I haven’t told her that part of the prophecy—how us entering a relationship is supposed to stop any of that from happening. Now’s not the time. Maybe I see this because half of our teams still aren’t quite working together yet. Maybe with each passing day, the cracks still grow until we all work in harmony. I reload my pistol chambers.
“Zeke? What do you mean by that?” Leila repeats.
“I just meant that I thought you five Sinners were the only ones with the supernatural sight.” The white lie tastes bitter on my tongue.
“Whatever the case,” she says, aiming her gun at an infected family shuffling closer. “They’re infected with the war disease, but I don’t see Asmodeus. He must have popped in and infected everyone to slow us down.”
“We hope.”
Orlov walks up to us and fires his shotgun at the infected. I grimace as a body goes down.
“You must get to the truck,” he says, pumping, reloading, and releasing a spent shell. “Take that path behind our house. The truck is the blue one with one brown wheel.Go now.We will hold them off.”
“But—” Leila’s protest is cut off by Orlov.
“This is our destiny, Vânatoare. Do not take it from us.”
I glance over my shoulder and see his family standing on his porch, armed to the teeth with guns, crossbows, and grenades. Claudia has just finished pouring salt around their house. With the correct sigils, they’ll be safe inside if they can’t control or contain the infected. The war disease eventually wears off, but it could take weeks without Thea’s healing relic.
We don’t have time for this. Not if Asmodeus is already at the church.
“Let’s go.” I grab Leila by the arm and drag her down the path Orlov pointed out. Pigs oink. Goats bleat. Chickens cluck. But no demons as we run. No Flauros. No Asmodeus.
I don’t like the knot of dread forming in my gut. As we get to the truck, I put my guns away and hold my palm out to Leila. She slams a set of keys into my hand with a grim look. I see my own panic reflected in her eyes. The sadness.
“We can’t stay.” I open the driver’s door and get in.
She knows I’m right because as I start the engine, she’s already in the passenger seat, peeling off her pack.
With a tight jaw, she unfolds the map. “Drive.”
I plant my foot on the gas. “Don’t look back, kitty cat.”
Her fingers crumple the map, but her eyes stay focused ahead. As we hurtle down the beaten track, splashing mud, I glimpse flames in the rearview mirror. Matei’s cracking war cry slices through the morning air.
Don’t look back.
