Terror at the Gates (Blood of Lilith, #1)

by Scarlett St. Clair

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world… Ephesians 6:12

Forgiveness was an invitation to sin. I witnessed it every week, which was why I’d decided a long time ago that I did not care to be forgiven. I’d rather be a sinner than a hypocrite.

I’m sure he thought he was entitled to me. She was asking for it, he would argue, as evidenced by my exposed skin.

I realized everything the church had tried to say about women was a lie. We were not responsible for lust in men. We existed, and they desired. Sometimes that desire was mutual. Sometimes it wasn’t, but men had a hard time wrapping their dicks around the word no, and since our world valued them more, we were the ones who suffered.

Despite his participation in this indoctrinated world, he knew religion bred hostility, especially toward women.

Though other than creation, celibate priests were probably the biggest myth in Eden.

They saw the beauty, the glamor, the money, but they didn’t know the cost.

It might have begun as an institution for good, an organization that provided order and a sense of morality for people, but that all hinged on who ran it, and if the leadership was corrupt, everything else must be too.