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That makes eight of them.

Envy takes off. He jumps onto the nearest crenellation and spots a dragonfly free of its rider. The sight resurrects a memory of something he’d told Sorrow.

As a youth, I’d try and talk with them. Not that they understood me.

He shouldn’t. He’s not allowed. He may offend the creatures.

Envy makes a flying leap onto the dragonfly’s back and practically falls off. Teetering sideways, he grasps its thick hide and scrambles upright. On a whim, he speaks to the creature like he used to in the cove. Though why he does this now, as an adult, makes no sense.

But maybe this winged being had been part of that memory. Maybe it lived in the cove when a younger version of Envy tried to communicate. And maybe it remembers him.

Maybe he’s being asinine. But maybe the creature comprehends anyway, because it accepts his weight and heads where he’d asked it to take him. It soars with Envy, looping around each tier of the fortification and passing over the blooming crest. The air bats at his hair, and his bare chest pebbles as he scans the carnage.

Only one face is missing. He hunts the vista for a glimpse of an ice arrow.

Pity and Kindness wrestle with Cruelty. Courage pits himself against Fear. Surprise crosses arrows with Shock.

A flash of sapphire archery confirms Nostalgia’s presence. He must have recovered his weapons from the sea, too. Presently, he squares off with an archer whom Envy cannot identify among the pandemonium.

Echo contends with Harmony, neither of them able to get the upper hand.

Siren’s copper tresses glint as she coasts atop a dragonfly, heading toward Envy. Her eyes dash across his face and waver. With a sad smile, she steers the creature away from him, her departure a fracture to the chest, immobilizing Envy.

Or does this paralysis have to do with the projectile homing in on his sternum?

Cursing, Envy tightens his thighs around the dragonfly and nocks his bow—but an ice arrow intercepts the strike. It illuminates the cliffs, rendering every crest and crevice of the world momentarily visible.

His head snaps toward the source. Scanning the expanse of water, it occurs to Envy how the lake reflects this war, turning it upside down.

Turning upside down the slender figure in a shredded skirt.

Envy’s heart thrashes. Positioned on the opposite side of the water, Sorrow brandishes her weapon, anxiety distorting her lacerated face as she disables Grief.

Grief, who’s not a rebel. Grief, who’s a loyal. Grief, who’d been about to annihilate Hope and Joy.

Sorrow has been fighting for a while now. But on which side?

While Grief rolls across the grass in an unconscious heap, Sorrow jogs backward with the same harrowed expression that she’d worn while telling Envy about her memories of war. She could have ended that deity, but she hadn’t.

She doesn’t want to extinguish anyone.

However, she might make an exception. Envy realizes this as she spots him.

Despite the leagues separating them, their eyes crash. The jolt produces a chemical reaction. Something toxic, flammable, spellbinding.

Now he knows what pain feels like.

And maybe one other emotion—a persistent feeling that’s been shadowing him like a pest, that’s been creeping up on him since the day he first lost his mind and touched her. That infamous moment in time, when he’d traced her sarcastic mouth, those lips painted a brooding purple to match her hair.

In the past, her chronic scowls, dreary clothes like an overcast sky, and perpetual middle finger used to nauseate him.

Hidden beneath the tough exterior? The watery texture of hurt. The wine-and-fig taste of rapture.

Those are the parts of her that he wasn’t supposed to discover. Those are the parts that came later.

She should mean nothing to him, because she’s the last person he has ever wanted. But instead of stopping, they’d continued to touch, and they’d torn each other apart. And then, because there’s always one more way to fuck up, they’d finished the job by tempting one another.

Yet his transcendence hadn’t begun until the instant he’d asked her a question:What’s your pleasure?