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"Fiancé." Pride repeated the word like it tasted foul. "To a dead woman?"

The words hit the gathering crowd like a physical blow. Several people gasped. My mother blinked with confusion.

"She's not dead," Xavier snarled. "She's standing right there."

"Oh, but she is." Another voice joined us–Lust appearing at Pride's shoulder with that predatory grace I'd come to recognize. "Or rather, she was. I have it on excellent authority."

"What are you talking about?" My mother's voice was sharp with alarm.

Pride advanced on Xavier, and I watched the alpha werewolf instinctively shrink back. "Hazel Blackwood died several weeks ago. Murdered, in fact. Strangled and buried in a shallow grave."

"That's impossible," my mother snapped, but her voice wavered.

"Is it?" A third voice, lazy and amused, came from the shadows near the fountain. Envy materialized like smoke, his casual posture belying the danger in his eyes. "Because last I checked, murder tends to void most legal contracts. Something about the victim no longer being available to fulfill their obligations."

The college students were backing away now, phones out, some filming. This had gone from a family dispute to something much stranger and more threatening.

"You're lying," Xavier said, but sweat was beading on his forehead. "She's right here. I can smell her, touch her–"

His hand reached for me again and that's when Lust moved.

I didn't even see him cross the distance. One moment he was standing beside Pride, the next Xavier was on his knees, Lust's hand wrapped around his throat with casual, terrifying ease.

"Touch her again," Lust said conversationally, "and I'll tear your throat out with my teeth."

The air itself seemed to thicken with supernatural energy. Several of the bystanders fled, suddenly convinced they wanted to be anywhere else.

"Enough," my mother commanded, her own magick beginning to gather, silver light wreathing her hands. "I don't know what game you're playing, but that is my daughter, and she's coming home with me."

"Your daughter?" Pride's laugh was like breaking glass. "Your daughter died because of the contract you forced her into. The magnificent woman who stands before you is something else entirely."

"I brought her back," he continued, his voice carrying an authority that made even my mother hesitate. "From theUnderworld itself. Which means any earthly contracts binding Hazel Blackwood died with her."

The words hit my mother like a physical blow. Her carefully composed features cycled through disbelief, fury, and something that might have been fear.

"That's not possible," she whispered.

"I am Pride," he said simply, and suddenly the very air around him seemed to thicken with otherworldly power. "I am the Undersecretary of Hell, and I am telling you that your daughter fulfilled her contract in the most final way possible. Death."

One of Xavier's men made the mistake of reaching for something inside his jacket. Envy was on him before he could complete the motion, moving with inhuman speed to pin the man against a tree.

"Weapons?" Envy asked with mock disappointment. "How ridiculous."

The remaining hired muscles exchanged nervous glances. Whatever they'd been paid, it wasn't enough to face down supernatural beings who could move faster than human eyes could track.

"This is insane," Xavier gasped, Lust's grip still tight around his throat. "She's my mate. My property."

"Property?" The voice that spoke was new, deeper, carrying the weight of centuries. I turned as a pale figure approached from the street, moving with fluid grace despite his imposing frame. Even in the dim light, his presence made the other sins look like children.

Gluttony had arrived.

"Did I hear correctly?" he continued, his voice deceptively mild. "Did this...creature...just refer to a person as property?"

The remaining bystanders fled. Whatever supernatural instincts humans possessed were screaming at them to get as far away as possible.

Xavier's face was turning purple under Lust's grip, but he managed to choke out, "Ancient...rights...pack law..."

"Pack law." Gluttony smiled, revealing teeth just a little too sharp to be human. "How delightfully primitive. But the Sins are older."