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I bolted upright, trying to grab my clothes to desperately cover up, but my hands were still bound.

Diana appeared briefly in the doorway, smoothly turning Kiva away before she could see anything with a hand on her shoulder. There was no judgment in her eyes—if anything, she seemed faintly pleased—but she winked at me before steering Kiva down the hall.

"Not now, little one. The grown-ups are busy. How about we clean our strawberries while the grown-ups...clean up themselves?"

Sloth gawked with his mouth open for a second longer before backing away with a bemused shake of his head.

Frustrated, I glared at the small bit of rope around my hands and it flared white, then disintegrated. My magick came easier now, smoother, now that I had a deeper connection with all of them. Blushing, I snatched up my clothes and dressed.

Like a spell being broken, Greed and Envy rushed toward the hole I'd hurtled Gluttony through. My hands shook as I tried to get my shirt on, and struggled with the zipper on my pants.

"Here, let me." Pride didn't look at me as he swiftly took care of my zipper, and helped straighten my clothes.

"There."

Lust was silent and still, like a Greek statue as he stayed where he'd been thrown, splayed on the floor. But through our bond, I could feel everything—his concern for me, his desire to hold me, his satisfaction at being the first to claim me, and underneath it all, a love so deep it took my breath away.

Embarrassed and terrified—but no longer alone—I took a page from Sloth's book and fled.

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

GREED

The moment the power exploded out of her, I knew we’d screwed up. Not just in thewe got caught acting like sex-starved demigods by a child and launched Gluttony through a wallway. No. This was different. Deeper. The kind of mistake that could rip holes in realms.

We’d forgotten what Wrath was.

Who she was.

Not just Wrath; not just some shiny new soul that Lust wanted to worship and Pride wanted to protect. She was a witch. With little experience despite her protestations.

And every damn one of us should’ve known better. G would have usually reminded us of this, or even Sloth–but we’d chased both of them off.

The aftershock of her magick still tingled across my skin. I could feel where it had entered me—like we’d cracked a seal none of us had the right to touch. And Lust—gods, Lust had taken the brunt of it.

He hadn’t said a word. Just lay sprawled on the floor frozen, wide-eyed, then running out like something had ripped open inhis chest. I hadn’t seen his face look like that since the Fall. And back then, it had taken a full pantheon to steady him.

“Fuck,” I muttered, dragging a hand through my hair. “We’re idiots.”

Envy stood beside me, eyes locked on the trail Lust had carved through the hall like a wildfire. His jaw flexed, throat working silently before he finally croaked, “She doesn’t even know what she did.”

“She can’t know,” I said. “And Lust—he felt all of it first. Every ounce of that power. She let him inside, and it responded like it’s been waiting centuries.”

“She was a virgin witch, and a sin,” Envy whispered, voice hollow. “That was her first time with all of us, her mates. You know what that means.”

“A magickal bond. Permanent. Sacred. Cosmic,” I recited, teeth gritted. “Yeah. I know.”

And with the kind of power surging through Wrath in that moment, it wasn’t just a spiritual entanglement. It was a damn magickal override. Lust was probably out there right now, crawling out of his skin, high on her energy and tethered so hard to her soul he couldn’t breathe.

“Gluttony,” Envy said, turning sharply. “We need to check on him.”

Right. Because nothing screams good decision-making like slamming our most temperamental brother through a marble wall with a burst of divine wrath-fueled orgasm magic.

We found him in the ruins of his wine cellar, sitting on a collapsed shelf of vintage merlot with a busted wall at his back, shirt torn and rage barely contained. Dust had settled in his hair, turning it white.

He looked up slowly as we approached.