Page 115

"Thank you," I said simply, letting the words carry the weight of my gratitude.

Pride inclined his head in acknowledgment, while Sloth merely waved a lazy hand. Envy, however, leaned in close, his voice dropping to a whisper meant only for me.

"Don't thank us yet. Wait until you see what we're capable of."

His words sent a different kind of heat racing through me. One that had nothing to do with excess magickal energy andeverything to do with memories of what had started in that room earlier today.

Envy clapped his hands together.

“Let’s go hunt down some motherfucking traffickers.”

Chapter

Thirty

LUST

Iran until I couldn’t breathe.

Then I ran further.

The world around me blurred—woods, stone, shadows—none of it real enough to touch. Not with the fire still raging inside my chest. Not with her still burning beneath my skin.

Wrath.

I didn’t just take her—I was bound to her.

All of us, but I was the first. We all felt the snap of it, even if they didn’t know what it meant.

Well, maybe G did. And Sloth.

It wasn’t just sex, it was magick so old it didn’t have rules—just reactions. And I was the one she’d opened to first. Fully.

Now I couldn’t shut her out.

Not her thoughts, not her feelings. Not even the way her body still hummed like it was crying out for more. Her power crackled along my nerves, hot and erratic. I’d always been good at controlling myself—at mastering the energy I embodied. But this?

This wasn’t lust. This was possession.

I collapsed in a clearing, dirt digging into my palms as I braced against the earth, trembling. Sweat slid down my spine in rivulets, but it did nothing to cool me. The magick of the bond—the golden burn of it—flared through my blood like a brand, burning and writhing in my veins like a living creature as it struggled to either acclimate, or escape.

Every heartbeat was a throb of magick. Every breath tasted like her.

My head dropped forward.

Her voice whispered across my mind.

Not words—just emotions.

Worry. Curiosity.

I felt a surge of her power.

Guilt.

She was trying to suppress it, but the bond didn’t lie. It didn’t care if we were ready.

A laugh cracked from my throat, wild and bitter.