Mortal Sin by Allison Brennan

led by her own mother. He’d helped poison the priests and had planned to turn his body over to a powerful demon. Had he succeeded… Moira didn’t know exactly what that would have changed, except a willing possession gave the demon far more power. The demon didn’t have to fight the soul of the possessed, and the possessed body didn’t break down like those who fought back. But there had to be more to it because Jeremiah Hatch was a leader, and leaders didn’t willingly give up their lives.
    These memories, the things Rafe knew that he shouldn’t, they’d never talked about. They’d talked around them, but never addressed them head on. Yet he wanted to do it now? While he was bleeding? On the floor of a low-level witch’s kitchen? And the memory was from Hatch? She didn’t want to talk about it, but Rafe was right—he’d pushed it out into the open, and she had no choice.
    Rafe continued. “It’s not that I know exactly what happened to the priests—all twelve of them who died at the mission. This isn’t simple memories. I feel what they felt. The pain, the terror, the desperation. It’s as if when I walked into the mission and saw the ritual, saw the dead as they died, and they became part of me.”
    She shook her head. “No. No. That can’t happen.”
    “Not the way you think. But for a moment here, I thought and knew and felt things that Jeremiah Hatch thought and knew and felt. I wasn’t him,” he quickly added, “but it was almost like I stepped into the past and relived a specific scene. Like when you went back in that alley in Los Angeles, and saw the demon Lust kill that student. You saw and heard, but you weren’t there. This, I think now, is similar.
    “This time, I learned things. And you have to know them.”
    “No.”
    “Yes.”
    “You’re playing with something dangerous. You have to stop.”
    “They’re all here.” He tapped his head. “And we need this information if we’re going to defeat the Seven. If we’re going to stop Fiona.”
    “Not if it’ll kill you.”
    “And you don’t risk your life?
    “This is different!” She didn’t want to yell at him, but why did he have to be so damn stubborn?
    “The memory came from three days before the massacre. He planned the whole thing. He was suspicious of me and why I was sent to the mission. They’d been planning this for years, Moira. Years. The massacre was one big step toward their end game, but not the only step. And he has the the secret. He kept it from the rest of the coven. If I can tap into more of his memories, I can learn what it is and maybe that’ll give us what we need to send the Seven back.”
    “Absolutely not. No. No! It will kill you.”
    You’re worried about more than his health.
    She’d had this nagging fear since the first time he’d revealed this knowledge that these memories weren’t simply memories , but he had a soul trapped inside him. That he was, maybe unknowingly, possessed. She had never heard of anything like this, where there was more than one set of memories imprinted, for lack of a better word. But what if it was more than memories? What if Rafe was unconsciously suppressing the ghost—or ghosts—who only came out when he was under great duress?
    “Moira… ”
    She whispered. “I can’t lose you, Rafe.” Her gut still felt ripped open, and there was no explanation for it. No explanation for how she knew Rafe was in trouble while she was in one part of the house and he’d fainted in the kitchen. But the pain was real.
    He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “You won’t.” He kissed the top of her head. “I love you. Don’t go to Montana.”
    “I love you. You know I have to.”
    He didn’t say anything, and they sat there on the floor, holding each other. There was no resolution. There were no answers. She didn’t know if they would ever find them. She didn’t want to leave Rafe, but she couldn’t say no to Rico. Not when John disappeared tracking one