A ragged laugh left me as I took a break from sucking on Pride.

"What's so funny?" He grit out, irritated, but seizing on the distraction like a shark scenting blood in the water.

"I...can see why your matchmaking rates are horrible," I rasped out. "Too. Much Talking."

Greed and Envy burst out into laughter and even Pride cracked a grin.

It was enough to tip Lust over the edge, and he thrust into me without any more preamble.

The moment he entered me, everything changed.

Not just the physical sensation—though that was overwhelming—but something deeper. Like a door I hadn't known existed suddenly flew open inside my chest, in my very soul. I gasped, not from pleasure but from the flood of sensation,emotion, him pouring into me through the newly formed connection.

And underneath it all, the satisfied purr of my witch magick finally awakening, recognizing its catalyst, roaring to life like a wildfire.

"Lust," I breathed, and his name carried weight it had never held before. Through our connection, I felt him shiver at the sound of it.

His eyes widened—he felt it too. The bond snapping into place like a key turning in a lock I hadn't known I carried. The sense of completion that went soul-deep.

"Mine," he whispered, and I felt the truth of it resonate through every fiber of the connection. His possessiveness, his fierce protectiveness, his overwhelming need to keep me safe.

"Yours," I agreed, the word pulled from somewhere deeper than conscious thought. Through the bond, I felt his triumph, his relief, his love crashing over me in waves.

"Ah!" I cried out as he moved within me, every sensation amplified by the connection. I could feel his pleasure as if it were my own, could sense the exact moment when his control began to fray.

"Oh hell, she's squirting,” Lust swore.

The magick that had been building since the moment he entered me suddenly reached a crescendo. I felt his amazement through the bond, his pride at bringing me to this point, and then?—

Without warning, everything exploded.

Magick erupted from where we were joined, a golden nova of power that sent shockwaves through the room. Wetness and heat poured from me as the magickal explosion threw all of them away from me, leaving me gasping and alone on the chaise.

Threads of fate twined in my veins, pulling tight between us all. Our bond hummed between us like a live wire, carryingechoes of their concern, their desire to get back to me, and their awe at what had just happened.

"Shit."

"Fuck."

"Son of a bitch?—"

"YOU ASSES! I TOLD YOU TO WAIT FOR ME!"

The door to the room flung open so hard it actually cracked and broke, falling off the hinges with the force. Gluttony strode into the room with enough rage on his face that my own wrath latched onto it, bypassing my own fear and surprise.

But beneath my emotional response, indignation and anger swirled. Not mine–-theirs? All aimed at Gluttony's interruption, and a possessive rage at anyone who would threaten what we'd just shared.

My magick didn't give Gluttony a chance, seizing him and tossing him across the room and through the wall like a rag doll.

Or, rather, through the wall.

Silence reigned. Nobody moved.

Sloth poked his head in the open door, eyes wide. I heard Diana's amused voice from the hallway.

"Well, that was loud,” Diana commented.

"What happened? Can I see?" Kiva’s voice asked from the hallway.