by Katie May
SLOTH
THE DAMNING BOOK 4
KATIE MAY
EXPRESSO PUBLISHING, LLC
Copyright © 2021 by Katie May
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,
including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except
for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Design by Melody Simmons
Edited by Meghan Leigh Daigle of Bookish Dreams Editing
To my amazing, incredible readers. Super sorry about the cliffhanger in the
last book. I’ll try to avoid them from now on (laughs evilly). Or will I?
Oh, and also to my mom because I promised I’d dedicate this one to her.
Just…don’t read the sex scenes. Please? Actually, pretend that there are no
sex scenes whatsoever and that your daughter isn’t writing about multiple
men banging one woman. I think we can all live much happier that way.
CONTENTS
Recap of previous books
Prologue
1. Bash
2. Ryland
3. Z
4. Lupe
5. Axel
6. Z
7. Devlin
8. Z
9. Killian
10. Bash
11. Lupe
12. Z
13. Z
14. Dair
15. Z
16. Devlin
17. Z
18. Jax
19. Z
20. Ryland
21. Z
22. Bash
23. Lupe
24. Dair
25. Z
26. Z
27. Z
28. Dair
29. Devlin
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Katie May
RECAP OF PREVIOUS BOOKS
When Z wins the Damning—a competition that pits the best assassins against
each other—her world is overturned. Suddenly, she’s forced to be the
assassin for the exact kings she wishes to kill.
Fortunately, she has the seven princes to help her with the tasks ahead,
each prince one of the seven supernatural species descended from the Seven
Deadly Sins…and her fated mates. There’s a prophecy surrounding the seven
princes that they’ll either save the world or destroy it. They despise their
parents and their inhumane treatment of humans.
At the end of the first book, Z had been poisoned by a competitor of the
Damning named Zack at the order of Aaliyah. Her mates are completely
unaware that she was poisoned…and that the poison is slowly killing her.
The kings assign seven tasks, seven games, Z has to complete to prove
her loyalty. Despite her hatred for them, a spell administered by the mage
king prohibits her from harming any member of the royal family.
She completes the first task, assigned by the mermaid king. In the
process, Dair kills his evil older brother, Tavvy, who’d attempted to rape and
kill Z. Just before he dies, Tavvy tells Dair that he and the rest of the Z’s
mates weren’t born—they appeared out of thin air.
Meanwhile, a mysterious female named Aaliyah is sending extinct
supernatural creatures after Z, including a gorgon, kraken, and fae. She
instructs her monsters not to kill Z, but to bring her to Aaliyah alive.
At the end of book two, Z discovers that Jax, her vampire mate, has gone
missing.
The kings assign Z her next task—find Jax and return him to the capital
in five days. If she fails, she dies. If she succeeds, the kings will have a
special reward waiting for her. The kings force Axel, their former assassin,
and T, a member of the Alphabet Resistance who has been taken prisoner, to
accompany them. Dair, who has finally confessed the truth about his father’s
torment to Z and the others, remains behind to recover.
While in the Vampire Kingdom, the inn they are staying at is lit on fire,
and Z is kidnapped and brought to the Bloody Carnival—a macabre event
where vampires and other nightmares prey on humans. She meets a young
boy, Miles, who she instantly feels protective of.
Killian, Lupe, Devlin, and Axel search for Z, while Jax and Ryland
continue their quest for Jax. Dair, back at the capital, uses a spell to bring him
to the others.
During the confrontation at the Bloody Carnival, Miles is killed, a fact
that devastates Z. Axel agrees to search for Miles’s younger sister while Z
and the other freed humans bury the bodies.
The gang—now including Dair—finally catches up to Ryland and Bash,
who announce that Aaliyah has been keeping Jax prisoner. Through her
connection with Jax, Z knows he’s been forced to feed on blood regularly,
losing himself to the bloodlust and madness.
Aaliyah arrives with her pet gargoyles and Jax and tells the group that
she’s Z’s sister and a demon. A fight ensues. During the battle, Jax is stabbed
and killed, and Aaliyah disappears before anyone can stop her. Z, in her grief,
pours white light into Jax, bringing him back to life. In the process, the
poison coursing through Z’s system catches up to her and she collapses.
Meanwhile, Axel finds Miles’s sister and discovers she’s the first
nightmare-human hybrid to exist.
T reveals to have been the one to give Z’s location up to the human
traffickers at the Bloody Carnival in exchange for S’s—his brother and Z’s
ex-boyfriend—soul. At the end of book three, S is alive and well and
demanding to know Z’s whereabouts.
CHARACTERS:
Z — Member of the Alphabet Resistance that advocates for human rights,
assassin, mate to the seven princes, and winner of The Damning. She is
poisoned at the end of book one
Dair — Z’s mate, mermaid, and descended from Envy. Like all mermaids,
he’s forced to live as a mermaid for twelve hours a day and a human the other
twelve. His father constantly cuts his legs off, grows them back, and then cuts
them off again each night.
Devlin — Z’s mate, genie, and descended from Greed. He has a soul trapped
in his lamp that he accidentally lost. He’s Z’s childhood sweetheart.
Killian — Z’s mate, incubus, and descended from Lust. As a child, he was
forced to watch his father rape and kill his nanny. Currently a virgin.
Lupe — Z’s mate, shifter, and descended from Wrath. His father
implemented the first human concentration camps. He prefers to fight with
words rather than violence.
Ryland — Z’s mate, shadow, and descended from Pride. He hides his face in
his shadows to hide his hideous facial scarring. He was the first to know all
of the princes were mates with Z.
Jax — Z’s mate, vampire, and descended from Gluttony. He’s facing
madness because he refuses to drink human blood and is only coherent
around Z. Currently engaged to Atta. He was kidnapped by Aaliyah at the
end of book two but is rescued in
book three.
Bash — Z’s mate, mage, and descended from Sloth. He distrusts the mate
bond and the lack of free will, so he struggles with his affections for Z.
Atta — Shifter and descended from Wrath. She’s Lupe’s younger sister and
the mate to Mali, but is currently engaged to Jax.
Mali — Vampire and descended from Gluttony. She’s Z’s best friend who
unwittingly betrayed her, leading to the death of the mage, Diego. Mate to
Zack (now dead) and Atta.
Diego — Mage and descended from Sloth. Z’s best friend and mate to HH.
He was murdered by Zack protecting Z after Mali betrayed them.
T — Z’s friend from the Alphabet Resistance and brother of S.
S — Z’s deceased ex-boyfriend who was killed by shifters and T’s
brother. It’s discovered that Devlin had his soul inside of his lamp until he
lost it. T makes a deal with human traffickers to retrieve his soul, thus
bringing him back to life.
B — Leader of the Alphabet Resistance.
A — Z’s former mentor before he died.
Aaliyah — Main antagonist of the series who wants to capture Z for reasons
unknown. She reveals herself to be Z’s sister and a demon at the end of book
three.
Zack — Mage and evil assassin who killed Diego and poisoned Z. He was
Mali’s mate, but now he’s dead.
Axel — Shadow and ex-assassin of the kingdoms.
PROLOGUE
T
He was here.
Alive.
In front of me.
I couldn’t help but note the minuscule changes from when I last saw him.
For starters, his hair was slightly longer, grazing his chin in brown waves
interwoven with darker red streaks. The change was so menial that I probably
wouldn’t have noticed if I didn’t carry around a picture of my brother, taken
two days before his accident.
Two days before he went on a mission with Z and never returned.
She’d told me that he’d been ripped apart by shifters, that she watched it
happen, but that wasn’t the truth. At least it wasn’t completely the truth.
Somehow, some way, my brother’s soul found its way into Devlin
Genie’s lamp. The Prince of Genies had been carrying my brother’s soul
around for years, and we’d been none the wiser.
What happened when those shifters attacked? What deal did my brother
make with the fucking prince, Z’s fated mate and lover?
I stared into his eyes, so much like my own, but his expression was
guarded. I would’ve almost described it as wary before deciding that didn’t
quite encapsulate it.
Confused.
Yes, my brother was most definitely confused.
He stared around the tiny shack we’d found ourselves in. It was the only
location I could find at such short notice, nothing but four walls of distressed
wooden boards, a crumbling roof, and squares where there were once
windows, the ground beneath them littered with shards of broken glass.
I knew the princes and Z wouldn’t have realized I’d left yet. No doubt,
they would be searching for me, if not now, then later. I was supposed to be
their prisoner, their slave, but I’d be damned if I let them chain me again. Not
after I’d gotten my brother back.
I’d traded my soul for his.
Once again, guilt swamped me when I thought about what I did. Giving
up Z’s location to that trafficker…
I told myself over and over again that her mates wouldn’t let anything
happen to her, that she was no doubt safe and in their arms, but even those
comforting thoughts couldn’t negate the guilt and worry. For all I knew, she
was still trapped in one of those sick human carnivals so popular in the
Vampire Kingdom.
Or dead.
“T,” S said slowly. His forehead creased. “Where are we? Where’s Z?”
A lump formed in my throat, and no matter how many times I tried to
swallow it away, it remained. It wasn’t painful or anything, but it sat there,
just sat there, and I felt as if I was suffocating.
My brother’s face lightened when he said her name, the love in his eyes
plain to see, even as his features twisted and contorted.
So how the fuck did I shatter his heart—the heart that only just started
beating again mere minutes before—by telling him Z had moved on with
seven other men? Seven other men…who happened to be the feared princes
of the land. That one of them was the same man who’d broken her heart as a
teenager, the first person she’d ever loved.
“T,” I began cautiously, gauging his reaction carefully. “What do you
remember?”
Do you remember dying?
The shifters attacking?
Devlin?
His face remained placid, except for the slightest tightening of the skin
around his eyes. He absently scratched at the back of his neck.
“I don’t…” His nose wrinkled. “I don’t remember.” Shaking his head
from side to side, he frowned and speared me with an intense look. “But
where’s Z? I need to see her!” When I didn’t immediately answer, at a loss
for what to say, he lunged forward and gripped both of my shoulders. “Where
the fuck is my girlfriend?”
Oh shit.
ONE
BASH
W hat the fuck are we going to do?
I stared at Z’s face, serene in sleep. Some of the worry lines
that had grown more prominent over the last few weeks had
abated entirely. In sleep, there was no heavy weight resting on my mate’s
shoulders, pushing her into the ground.
Thunderous anger cascaded through me at the thought of Zack, the
asshole assassin from the Damning who’d poisoned my mate. He was dead
now, but apparently, we still couldn’t escape him.
My mouth felt unbearably dry as I rested my hands above Z’s chest and
sent a burst of healing magic into her system. Her mouth parted, a tiny gasp
escaping her, as she arched her back. Her beautiful features were etched in
pain, her blonde brows furrowed.
“I know, baby. I know,” I whispered, feeling as if my heart was being
torn in two.
Because while there was fear and agony…there was also guilt. A lot of
fucking guilt.
I’d been an asshole to Z when I discovered the truth about the mating
bond. A real dick. I knew she didn’t love me the way she did the others, and I
had no one to blame but myself. My love was toxic, a burden I wished no
person had to bear, but now that I couldn’t even offer Z the chance to
experience it, I felt oddly bereft. Empty. Devoid of anything remotely human.
“How is she?” Devlin strode into the room we’d rented out in the nearest
inn, just on the outskirts of the Vampire Kingdom. His olive complexion was
waxy and pale, and his dark brown curls were wildly disheveled.
It’d been hours since we arrived, since I confessed the truth to my
brothers about Z’s condition—a secret I’d been carrying for far too long.
They were angry at first, as they rightfully should’ve been, but that anger
quickly transformed into worry for our girl. Lupe and Killian went to the
local library to do research, though I had no idea what they were looki
ng up.
It was impossible for me to determine the exact type of poison used, and her
symptoms could be attributed to nearly a hundred different combinations.
Either way, they felt the need to do something, anything, besides sitting here
and twiddling their thumbs.
I understood that. I did.
Dair was sleeping in the room next door, his body still recovering from
his father’s torture a few days prior. Ryland was trying to calm a distressed
Jax—yet another problem to add to our list of fucking problems. Problem,
problem, problem, problem.
I was really beginning to hate that word.
Because Z, my perfect, angelic mate, was somehow able to bring Jax
back to life. We had no idea how that was possible, but whatever transpired
between the two of them somehow exacerbated the poison running rampant
through her bloodstream. The amount of power she’d wielded…
It had broken her.
And by default, it broke my already crazy vampire brother too.
The brief coherence he’d found had shattered until he was back to the
rambling, drooling, fearful man he’d become after he accidentally killed
Sasha many years ago.
“Bash!” Devlin snapped, pulling me out of my thoughts. His lips pursed
as he glared at me, and I realized I’d never responded to his question.
“She’s the same,” I admitted with a heavy sigh. I was running on empty,
but I wouldn’t stop, couldn’t stop, not until Z’s eyes opened. Until she graced
me with one of her cocky grins that only curled up a corner of her lips.
“I can’t lose her,” Devlin whispered hoarsely. “I can’t.”
“I know.” I brushed a hand through my blond hair. “I’m doing everything
I can—”
“Well, that’s not good enough!” His words made me flinch, though I tried
to hide it. I failed, apparently, because his eyes immediately softened, some
of the tension draining from his taut shoulders. “Look, I’m sorry. I know
you’re doing everything you can—”
“I am,” I said firmly, interrupting him as I turned away to face Z once
more. “You’re not the only one who cares about her, Dev.”
You’re not the only one who loves her.
But those were words I would never say out loud, never admit to my
brothers or the sleeping girl in front of me. Those words held power,
