Now her voice shook, too. “What happens if he is unable to attend?”
“Souls only find salvation through penance and prayer.” The words weren’t new. That phrase is what drove people to rent souls. It was a way around the penance part of the whole equation, a shortcut to Heaven. She doubted Father Giles was talking about confession with her.
“I don’t think the Soul Charmer is available to assist in services at this time.”
“I suspected as much. He has not returned my calls.”
The muscle in Derek’s temple was ticking. He glared at the phone like he intended to fight it, but stayed steady and warm at her side in the meantime. Callie needed to wrap this up before anyone else entered the room.
Father Giles’s dry cough didn’t dislodge anyone’s discomfort. “Would you be able to assist me tonight?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but her voice failed her. How did she explain this to him? How could she tell him why it was a bad idea? Why she wasn’t ready and why stepping away from the Soul Charmer’s shop was dangerous for her? Why she didn’t want to leave a hostage in the basement with only a single guard? She couldn’t tell him any of those things. He hadn’t contacted her as her priest. He’d called as a warden needing to prevent a riot.
“Miss Delgado, I would not ask this of you if it weren’t vital.”
Callie had spent her entire life attending the required catechism courses and getting her butt in the pew regularly. Zara had made it clear it was required. The citizens of Gem City took strong stock in attending the Church. Callie hadn’t attended services since she’d been fired from the retirement home. She no longer had to win the favor of society by looking respectable. The dual rituals of prayer and confession were exhausting. Now she had access to facts that dictated faith. She’d pulled away from the routine of showing her face at mass, but now believed. That was the mindfuck. She wasn’t about to start coming to Derek’s brother to shill her sins like the tally on her soul wasn’t earned.
Only now she had a priest begging her to help him. That pleading tone from a man she’d only ever seen on newscasts before the Charmer led her down the winding stairs to the soul well. Father Giles was the hardened face of Cortean Catholicism in Gem City. He was stern and demanded devotion. Or at least he was on TV. Now, on the speakerphone, he was something else, someone else. He was a human, a believer, a man in need of help.
Callie’s answer rushed from her mouth before she could overthink it. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Bless you. I will be waiting in the sanctuary.”
Of course he would. No pressure. Callie tapped the button to end the call, and then looked to Derek.
“You’re going to go, aren’t you?” he asked.
She hesitated. Her face pulled tight like it, too, couldn’t decide how to feel. “I think I have to?”
His agreement was slow to come, but there was no question in his tone. “You don’t have to do anything, but you should probably do this.”
“What about what’s happening here?” She inclined her head down, like Lexi and Beck were below their feet.
Caramel and kerosene clashed in Derek’s throat to give her a “not your problem” sound.
“But customers…”
“But nothing, doll. They’ll wait. The Charmer knows the demand is there. He’s made people stand out here for an hour before.”
She almost pointed out that he wasn’t here, but those were words too dangerous to speak aloud. Even here. Even with only the two of them. “Okay.”
“I’m going to call Henry, though.”
“I can talk to him at the cathedral if you want.”
“No,” he snapped.
Callie flinched.
“Sorry.” He meant it. “I don’t want anyone but him to know about the quill. I don’t think his bosses would be cool with him having that book we gave him, either.”
“We gave him?” She sucked her lips in to keep from smiling.
“You got a problem with shared ownership of our fucked up life?”
“Not even a little.” She skimmed the back of her fingers against his.
Derek wrapped his hand around hers and squeezed. “If we’re dragging Henry into this, I want to limit how much hits him.”
“Agreed.” Callie didn’t need anyone else getting burned by Nate or the Soul Charmer or any other awful person waiting in the shadows.
“Plus, I’ve never gotten him to come into this place before. So that’ll be fun.”
Callie understood the pettiness of siblings. “You’re going to light extra incense, aren’t you?”
His grin was brilliant and warm and needed. “He’s going to reek of it for fucking days.”
“Call him, and I’ll go distract his boss with my mad nighthawk skills.”
“You almost sound excited.”
“I’m faking it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Nighthawk skills? Who was she kidding? Callie’s mark began itching far before she even arrived at the cathedral. She’d stayed at the Soul Charmer’s shop long enough to let Derek phone his brother, and to convince him that it wasn’t a terrible idea for her to drive herself to the church. Now, though, as she accelerated into an icy corner, her wrist was acting up and her stomach was making loud protests about its perpetually empty state. She finally had enough cash for decent food, and was too stressed to eat. That was some shit.
The cathedral sparkled at the center of the plaza. A shimmering layer of snow coated the grounds. The holy statues lining her path to the front steps wore the flakes like cloaks, and spotlights
