Coldbrook (Hammer)(175)

His Inquisitor held his arm and steered him towards the Holy Father.

‘The Word has found your world, and spoken its end.’ The old man’s voice was flat and monotonous. ‘Welcome, heathen, to the true Church.’

Jonah looked down at the little man, and smiled.

‘I hereby cast out your sins of errant belief and bless you into God’s only world, and entrust you to perform God’s holy work.’

No more sin, Jonah thought, and his grin grew wider. He was moving away. His vision blurred, and when he blinked he saw his wife. She held out her hand and he almost laughed, because she was as he had always remembered her.

‘That way,’ the man said, nodding to his left. He drew a cross in the air in front of Jonah’s face, then glanced down at his chest.

‘God doesn’t know you,’ Jonah rasped. His senses faded to darkness, and all awareness of his body withered. His mind clung on for a moment longer, and his final thought was of Wendy walking away from him, and himself holding her hand as he accompanied her, two lost memories.

‘What’s that?’ the bishop said. ‘Blood, there, on his chest!’

Jonah’s mouth flooded with foul heat. He flitted away to blissful nothingness, fell forward, and bit.


With big thanks to my agents Howard and Caspian, and to my splendid editor Anna.