by Ivy Asher
Doubt flashes in Delta’s eyes, and confusion pulses through me. “Did Rafferty and the others not tell you what was going on?” she asks with bewilderment, and then worry shutters over her features. “Did something happen to them?” she demands as Acedia stands up too, the look on his face just as outraged as Tazreel’s as they both bear down on her.
“How dare you insult a Sin, you petulant twerp,” Ace bites out, and for some reason the use of twerp makes me giggle. All eyes flash to me, and I immediately balk.
Shit.
Note to self: The Sins don’t take kindly to being laughed at.
“I think these two need to be strung up in the ballroom,” Taz growls, making Ace nod in agreement.
Well, that sounds awful.
I clear my throat and quickly raise my hands in front of me. “Wait!” I say desperately. “What she means is that we’re currently being disguised, but she’s Delta, and I’m Sable, and Medley is wandering around here somewhere, and you need to listen to us or we’re probably all going to die,” I stammer, gesturing to the party all around me. “The pixie fucking was supposed to help you know it’s really us in these bodies,” I add, in case the word vomit that just occurred didn’t quite compute the way I was hoping.
The two Sins just stare at me, and then Ace looks over at Taz. “Can we string them up now?”
Double shit.
“She speaks the truth, Pride,” a female declares, butting in on the conversation.
Taz’s eyes widen as he sweeps over Delta and me, like he’s trying to see past our disguise. “Delta…?” he asks warily.
“Yep. Don’t freak out though. There’s no fainting couch for you here,” she snarks.
Taz sighs. “Yep. It’s her.”
Delta snickers as the new female comes up to stop beside us. “As I said. She tells the truth.”
The female is draped in a gown that somehow still looks battle-ready. She has warm brown skin, black freckles dotted across her nose and cheeks, and her wings and pixie style hair are a coppery tone, both red and orange depending on the light.
“And how did you know this, Wrath?” Taz demands.
“My progeny just informed me of what’s going on. It seems one of your triplets beaconed him,” she answers, waving behind her where I look to find Ire, his hard stare aimed at me. “I’d be up for offering mutual congratulations, but since it seems Morax is in our midst, I’ll save that for after we’re standing over the Ophidian’s body, toasting our victory and drinking from his skull.”
My eyes widen a bit at that visual, and what surprises me even more is the desire that bolts through me to see that happen. I suddenly want to stand on his corpse and look out at all of Hell, a warning etched into every cell of my face that when you come for me and my sisters, this is what you have to look forward to.
I blink, snapping myself out of the brutal daydream, and find a smile stretched across Wrath’s beautiful face. “Oh, I approve, Ire,” she says, her tone somehow both ruthless and warm.
Ire, Acedia, and Tazreel all stare back at Wrath like they’ve never seen her smile before. The looks on their faces would almost be comical if I didn’t already know that laughing at them is a big no-no here.
“Not only will we have long lost Annuli blood in our line, but she’s positively bloodthirsty,” Wrath announces as she takes me in with a grin.
Someone sucks in a breath. “What did you just say?” Tazreel demands, his voice low and menacing and his shoulders bunching. There’s a calm to his tone that the fury now radiating off of him signals as false, and everyone around me tenses.
Wrath’s head snaps to Tazreel, confusion written across her savagely beautiful features.
Delta turns to me. “How does she know what we are?” she hisses, and trepidation blooms in my chest.
My eyes connect with Ire’s bright blue gaze, and Delta curses quietly, piecing together what happened without my needing to say anything. Worry and anger churn in my gut, and I don’t know how to feel about Ire spilling my secret to his mother. I mean, I didn’t make him swear on promises of death not to say anything, but I wasn’t thinking when I spilled it all out for him in the alcove. I just wanted help, and I unloaded it all for him to help carry.
I messed up.
Tazreel rounds on Delta. “Annuli? You knew?” he growls at her, and I hear a hint of hurt buried deeply under the outrage that’s pouring off of him.
“Nefta knew it would be used against us. It’s why she hid us in the first place and kept our Annuli blood a secret,” Delta tells him, no ounce of apology in her tone.
A myriad of emotions cross Tazreel’s face: shock, awe, hurt, indignation, rage. He settles the last one over his features, and a deadly calm takes over him. “I’m going to kill her,” he states simply, like he’s not prophesying the death of a mother I haven’t even met yet.
“How was she wrong in protecting that secret, Taz?” Delta demands, her own fury crashing against our fathers. “Look what’s happened to us just in the past couple of months because of what we are. Do you think we would have fared better as children fighting off the beings that were either threatened by us or wanted to use us like Morax is currently trying to?”
Morax’s name seems to snap everyone out of the tense moment and refocus us on the issue at hand. But then Tazreel lobs another accusation at Delta and I, losing them again. I disengage from their drama with a huff and look around for Medley or any spying eyes that will be a threat to us. I don’t see anyone watching us intently, which is odd since we’re kind of making a scene.
It’s as though the other Sins don’t care or somehow don’t see what’s happening. I look over at an Abdicated sitting in a chair not too far from us, staring boredly at a jeweled goblet in his hand. His fingers straighten, and the goblet drops with a loud clang, drawing a few eyes, but my attention moves away at the sound of Tazreel and Delta starting to quietly argue. I try to tune back into what they’re saying, but when I turn around, Ire’s blue eyes are focused intently on me. I look away, not sure how to feel about him right now.
First, it seems like he doesn’t believe me, then he outs me to Mommy Dearest, and now shit’s melting down and we haven’t even really addressed the whole Morax is going to kill all of you if you don’t do something about it issue.
“Stop!” I cut in, interrupting the growing agitation, my tone seething. “We can point fingers and slam doors later. Right now, we need to deal with Morax, because I’d rather die than go back to being his prisoner again. If we don’t do something, and do it fast, Morax will make sure that happens.” My voice cracks a little with emotion, and I can’t help but feel like we’re running out of time.
“She’s right,” Wrath agrees with a nod. “We need to get the other Sins and come up with a plan.”
Tazreel’s entire countenance is seething, but he nods once in agreement, and Acedia does the same, a look of disinterest on his features, like this is all just too much to care about and he’s got a nap scheduled in ten minutes that he’d really like to get to.
“Tell us exactly what’s happening,” Taz orders, so Delta and I quickly explain everything, right down to the fact that we’re all faking compulsion.
Taz’s face grows angrier and angrier with every word out of our mouths. When we’re finished, his jaw is practically cracked, that’s how hard he’s grinding his teeth. “Wait right here,” he orders, and then he, Ace, and Wrath, walk off, rounding up the others.
Soon, all of them are gathered together in a circle, and Delta and I share a look. “That was...intense,” I say with a sigh.
“Yeah. Honestly, it went pretty well, considering.”
I blink at her incredulously. “He threatened to string us up in the ballroom.”
She shrugs. “You should’ve seen him the first time I met him. He locked me up in his spiked cell of doom. Our sperm donor is a real ass,” she says, but I don’t miss the smirk on her face as she watches him. If I had to guess, I’d say she’s fond of him.
<
br /> The two of us watch the Deadly Sins speaking while the raucous party continues on below. With any luck, the seven of them are coming up with a plan that will save us all, because I really don’t want to die.
But I meant what I said. If I have to choose, I’d take death over Morax and what he’ll do to me.
I just hope I don’t have to.
31
Delta huffs out an irritated sigh. “Why won’t they let us in on their talks?” she asks as we continue to watch the group at the other end of the balcony.
“I’m not an expert on the Sins, but from what I’ve been able to tell so far, they’re arrogant. And not even just our Pride father. All of them,” I note.
She scowls at Taz when he shoots a look over his shoulder at us before going back to talking. “Let’s hope the Sins don’t try to use us now that they know we’re Annuli,” she murmurs.
My stomach tightens. “I’m sorry,” I tell her. “I didn’t think about keeping it a secret. I didn’t realize—”
“It’s fine,” Delta says, cutting in. “It’s not your fault.”
She doesn’t say anything more as she continues to watch Taz, but I can tell she’s irritated. I don’t even need to check into our bond to feel the frustration coming off her in waves. I’m not sure if it’s because of Tazreel or me, or both, but it doesn’t surprise me when she grumbles that she’s going to go look for Medley and then walks off, picking up a tray of drinks from a side table before walking downstairs to bolster her disguise.
As soon as Delta is gone from my side, Ire immediately moves to close the distance between us, but I hold up a hand to stop him. Of course, he doesn’t listen and instead backs me into a corner and tries to level me with an unreadable look I can’t decipher because I refuse to look at him.
I allow myself to be herded and then trapped in the corner of the room, but I have nothing else to do except wait for the Sins to tell me how to save the world and myself.
“Look at me,” Ire commands, but I ignore him, staring past his large frame and studying the few Abdicated milling about on the balcony. None of them look familiar.
“Look at me,” Ire tries again, but the command through gritted teeth doesn’t ingratiate him to me in the slightest.
He cradles my face with both of his hands, and I wish I could say that I slapped them away, that I didn’t lean into the touch despite my better judgment, but then I’d be a liar. I feel like he puts me at war with myself. Then again, he is the son of Wrath, so what do I really expect?
“Sable,” he calls to me, softer this time.
“No,” I snap back, my eyes flitting to his for the briefest of seconds before darting away.
Ire releases a deep breath, but I don’t let his resignation or his touch coax anything out of me. Nope, I’m just mindless Sable again, empty and waiting to find out which side of this mess I’m going to come out on.
“Don’t do that,” Ire snaps. “Don’t shut down and shut me out like you did before. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I didn’t shut you out,” I snarl, but the smirk that tilts one side of Ire’s plush lips tells me I just played right into his hands.
“There you are,” he coos, like I’m some child so easily rewarded by just his bright gaze and pleased expression.
I roll my eyes and try to pull my face from his hold. He not only doesn’t let me go, but steps into me even more, and as much as I hate to admit it, his presence affects me. It’s like he’s one of those weighted blankets that Serenity Peaks uses to help calm a resident who’s having a fit. Something about being all cocooned helps the brain relax.
“I had to tell my Matron, Sable. They need to know what they’re up against,” he defends, but I don’t want to hear it. I’m more mad at myself for saying anything to him in the first place than I am at him for being a mama’s boy. “I didn’t know your Sire wasn’t in on what you and your sisters are,” he adds, but his words are like kindling to my anger.
“Of course you didn’t,” I snap. “How could you? We don’t actually know each other at all. We’ve been thrown into a mess of a situation, one you thought was a game up until fifteen minutes ago,” I point out, seeing the opening and going right for the sucker punch with no apologies.
Ire’s eyes grow stormy. “This isn’t exactly easy for me either, Snarls. I’ve grown up my whole life knowing that I’d eventually get beaconed, but I didn’t know it would go down like this. I wasn’t ready for you to smash into my life the way you did.”
“Well, I’m sorry my getting kidnapped and tortured cramped your style, Ire.”
The tic in his jaw pulses. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“Do I? I don’t know anything about you other than you showed up in my head one day and declared me unworthy,” I bark, throwing my hands up in exasperation.
“Fine, what do you want to know?” he asks me casually, taking his hands from my face before crossing his arms over his wide chest as though he’s ready and waiting for a battle.
His capitulation catches me off guard as does the longing that flashes through me when he pulls his hands away from me. I have the sudden urge to chase after my hormones with a spray bottle in hand so I can spritz them when they get out of hand and tell them to behave.
I take him in warily, but judging by his expression, he’s completely serious. What do I want to know about him?
Toreon speculated about who Ire was when we were in our cages, and that was my biggest question before, but now I know he’s definitely an Abdicated and that he’s the son of Wrath. Questions like how old are you or what’s your favorite color seem stupid in light of what’s going on, and I’m drawing a blank.
My eyes trace his face, landing on the metal ring he has hugging his septum. I’ve never pierced anything. I don’t even have my ears done, and I wonder why he chose the middle of his nose aside from the fact that it makes him look tougher and even more appealing in an if you stand too close, you’ll get burned kind of way.
“Does that have any other significance other than you wanting to look tough?” I ask, pointing to the ring placed between his two nostrils.
Ire’s eyes widen in surprise and he brings a hand up to touch the piercing. It’s clear he wasn’t expecting that to be the first question out of my mouth.
He looks at me carefully before dropping his hand. “I have a lot of piercings for a lot of reasons,” he tells me as though it’s not a big deal, but that just stokes my curiosity even more.
“Oh, yeah? Tell me,” I say, honestly curious.
“Well, my nose I got when I became an adult. A sort of rite of passage for being the progeny,” he tells me.
My hand immediately comes up to my own nose. “Oh, crap, I’m not going to have to do that, am I?” I ask, unsure if this is a thing that all progenies do.
He chuckles, stunning me into silence when he smiles because hello, gorgeous.
“No. It’s a Wrath progeny thing,” he tells me.
“Oh. Good,” I say as my hand drops. My septum practically breathes a little sigh of relief. “Okay, what else?”
“My second one I got while I was training in my Matron’s army,” he says.
Before I can ask, he opens his mouth and slips out his tongue, showing me a black barbell pierced there. I wince a little at how badly that must’ve hurt, even as I lean in to get a better look. As I do, he curls his tongue toward me, so close that he nearly licks me.
“Wanna taste, Snarls?” he teases, though his voice is husky and his mouth so close that I can feel his warm breath against my cheek.
I immediately straighten, and his eyes glint with amusement. I look away, trying to dislodge all the thoughts of our tongues meeting, of him stroking that piercing against my body, licking me in all the best places. I’m supposed to be irritated with him, not thinking about the tongue tango. He outed me. He told his Matron I’m an Annulus for goodness sakes!
Yeah, but he didn’t know it was a secret, my stupid head reminds me.
“Uhh, anywhere else?” I ask, deflecting.
“Yep,” he says, our bodies still right up against each other. “But we’ll have to continue that show and tell later, Snarls.”
“Why?”
“Because the rest of my piercings are in places it’s not polite to whip out in public, like my cock, and as much as I’d love to show you, I’m guessing you’d rather do that in private.”
His words make heat flare to life in my cheeks and between my legs, and I can feel my eyes widen. “Oh,” I squeak.
He grins, a hint of fang showing in his teeth. “Yeah. Oh.”
I need to dislodge this moment between us. Ire throws me off-kilter, makes me feel unsteady. As much as I just want to rant and rave at him, push him away, to not care, I consistently do the opposite. I don’t know enough about beaconing to understand the physical and emotional mechanics of it all, but Ire has a hold on me and it’s a little scary. Like I could fall heart-first into his gravity kind of scary, and I don’t know if he’ll help me float or if I’ll crash down to the ground.
I clear my throat. “How many times have you said that before?” I ask, my tone aiming for snarky but falling short.
He frowns at me, the aroused, mischievous glint in his eyes dimming as the grin slips off his face. “What?”
I know I shouldn’t go there, but I’ve already begun this line of thought, and there’s no stopping now. “Looked like you and Nipple Dress out there were pretty cozy. Has she seen your other piercings?” I challenge.
Ire’s temper flares. “Say it,” he grits out.
“Say what?”
“You want to know if I’ve fucked her, if I’ve asked her to drop to her knees for me, so say it. Say whatever you’re accusing me of,” he snaps.
“Never mind,” I grumble, and then I try to push out from between him and the corner, but his hands come down to my waist and he traps me, showing me a glimpse of just how strong he is, because I can’t move an inch. I scream in my head at how that shouldn’t turn me on, that something must be wrong with me, but my pussy clenches and my pulse races, ignoring my rationale.
