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As soon as the waiter picked up the glass, the tray he held and all of the glasses evaporated into thin air. We all gasped, looking over the bar to the pile of clothing and spilled alcohol that was left in their wake .

In its place was a familiar small card with gold lettering on it.

“Tier Nine: Lust,” I read. “What?” Bexley said, perking up.

“You must have been the only one being tempted by gluttony,” Anna said.

“So what does that mean? We’re in the next tier? Just like that?” he asked.

Anna shrugged. “Looks like it.”

“Lust,” I said under my breath. If we were being honest and worrying about getting stuck in the tiers, with Anna in my presence, this was the only tier I was truly concerned about.

If I could make it through Lust, then I only had one more tier to go before I was free and on my way to the Elysian Fields.

Anna apparently had the same thought and concern with this tier as me, as her eyes found mine.

Another servant, looking oddly similar to the last but with coppery-red hair, entered.

“Your bedchambers are this way,” he said. Both Anna and I shook our heads, while Walter and Eletha jumped up eagerly. “We are most definitely not going in a bedchamber.” I

splayed my hands out in front of me.

“What?” Walter and Eletha said, looking confused when Bexley smiled at them.

I realized they’d missed out on some stuff. “Bexley liked saving you, Walter. It changed him. He’s given up drinking.”

“What?” Walter said with a giant grin.

“He’s given up drinking and dust for good and is going to the human realm to help the humans not be sent to his father,” I stated.

“If we can make it out of here,” Bexley interjected.

Walter gave Bexley a giant hug. “That’s great, man,” Walter said, beaming as if his own son had come home with an award. “You’ll do great there.”

“Just watch it with the—” I held my hand up to my throat and made the motion like I was being electrocuted with my hand .

“The whole hand thing. The humans are way more fragile than we are,” I said with a grin. Mostly I brought it up to see if I was the only one who hadn’t known about his powers working here.

Though apparently I wasn’t because no one said another word about it.

“Listen,” Eletha said, interrupting, “I’m exhausted.

I am tired and hungry, and I want a bath that isn’t a crimson ocean.

” She sounded short. “Though time down here is different, we have been on this journey for what feels like forever, and if you don’t let me stay in this bed with my boyfriend, we’re going to have some new issues. ”

“She said, ‘My boyfriend,’” Walter said, sidling up next to her. Though he sounded surprisingly unhappy with the term boyfriend, which surprised me.

“Yeah, boyfriend,” Eletha said with a smile. “What, do you think we just go straight back to being engaged? That’s not how this works.”

“Whatever you say,” he said, dusting the hair off the back of her neck and leaning in to give her neck a kiss.

I couldn’t help but smile and look away. The two of them were magnetic together. Happiness seemed to emanate from them and it was such a difference. It was a true testament to the changes that love could make in a person.

Eletha grabbed Walter’s hand and the two of them scurried off, following the servant as if they were two newlyweds.

“Nothing like being aware in the deathly Tiers of Tartarus,” I said sarcastically.

“I don’t know about you guys, but a night of rest sounds pretty good to me too,” Bexley said. “And a shower.”

Anna mock gasped. “Possibly a shave,” she said with a quizzical brow.

Bexley smiled. “Perhaps a shave, even though I’ll probably cut up my face. It’s been a while.”

Instantly I touched my own face, feeling for my stubble. When I realized that again I still had none, Bexley caught my attention .

“Angel demon,” he said with a shrug. I kept forgetting he wasn’t fae, like me. Bexley slid off the stool and followed after the others out the large open door.

Anna and I remained in the sitting room.

“It’s not a good idea,” I told her. Another servant appeared, this time a blond woman with a tight bun.

“We’d like two rooms, please,” I said.

“Of course,” she said, and Anna and I looked at each other. “The Ten Tiers of Tartarus are not taking mercy on us and letting us have a night of rest,” I said, as we followed the woman out of the room and down an ornate hallway.

“Here you go,” said the woman as we climbed up what felt like the nineteenth staircase.

Anna made a point of wiping away a fake tear after my remarks, pretending to be sad about not sharing a room with me.

I rolled my eyes and couldn’t help but smile.

We walked into the room, expecting another adjoining one. Instead, we were met with the sound of a door slamming shut and locking behind us.

“Oh shit,” I said, turning to pry the door open. Dejectedly, I looked down, closed my eyes, while still holding the door handle. I let out a heavy sigh. “There’s a bed in this room, isn’t there?” I asked Anna, not bothering to open my eyes.

“Uh-huh,” she said, “and some other stuff.”

“Oh,” I said, letting my forehead rest on the door just below the knob after I slid to my knees.

Anna let out a laugh. “I don’t know what you’re so worried about.

We’re both adults. I know that I can control myself,” she said.

“Besides, I don’t think the tier traps you for experiencing lust. The tiers trap you when that particular sin overtakes you.

Neither one of us are going to be overtaken by lust,” she said, turning from the bed back to face me.

“Speak for yourself,” I said, keeping my eyes closed, hearing her movements only by the ebb and flow of her voice as I kneeled on the floor. I refused to open my eyes for fear the deceitful master of the tiers would only let me see Anna without clothes on or some horrible trick.

“We don’t have to sleep in the same bed,” she said with a laugh.

I pounded my head against the door. “Go ahead,” I said. “Go ahead what?” she said.

“Sleep, take the bed, shower, clean up, do whatever it is that you need to do. I’ll be right here, not looking at you.”

She snorted. “What are you going to do, stay there the whole time?”

“Yes,” I said, tightening my eyes closed when I heard her voice soften with closeness.

“You’ve been around me this entire time.

What makes you think in this moment you wouldn’t be able to control yourself?

” “Because I’ve barely been able to control myself since we were in Treachery.

Your insides are confusing, and I can’t tell if I want to marry you or never see you again,” I said, a grin lifting the corner of my mouth.

It was so hard to be serious around her.

I found myself constantly in a state of playfulness when she was near.

“I mean, you don’t think they set this tier up as a trap for you?”

“I most definitely think this tier is a trap for me, that this room is a trap, that you are a trap,” I said, pounding my head against the door.

I was really struggling not to look at her.

It made me realize how often my eyes seemed to wander to her.

“You’re not out having sex with prostitutes every night.

Are you?” she asked, putting her hand on her hip.

I realized one of my eyes had opened by a slit and was taking in her appearance. As soon as she put her hand on her hip, I covered my eyes with my hands.

“Don’t do that,” I said. “And no, I haven’t been going to prostitutes every night.

I’ve barely been with a woman in a decade because I was too busy waiting for something that isn’t real with your sister.

” Just as I began to regret my words, I shrugged—maybe bringing up the past with her sister woul d

put some tension in the room and douse the lustful kind of tension that was there now.

“Did you and my sister ever do anything?” she asked, and I felt her sit down next to me, her knee bumping into mine.

“What are you doing? Stop this,” I said, turning in the opposite direction.

“No, Cal and I never did anything. We kissed a few times and that was it. To be honest, I should have known then that it was only friendship. A kiss really tells a lot. When I kissed you—” I trailed off, stopping my explanation.

“When you kissed me, what?” she said. I could hear the smile in her voice.

“Are you doing something or are you just going to sit here and taunt me?” I said. “Go take a bath and sleep.” She giggled, apparently loving the reaction she was getting from me. Though to her credit, she did get up.

“Ooh,” she said, “there are buckets of hot water by the fire, and a tub.”

I wanted to gouge my eyes out. “Is the tub in front of the fire as well? Next to the bed?”

“Yes,” she said.

“So in order to take a bath, you’re going to have to strip down naked and be soaking yourself ten feet from me.”

“I suppose I could not take a bath,” she said. “That’s probably for the best.” I nodded.

She let out a grunt. “You’re going to let me not take a bath just for your comfort? I’m taking a bath,” she snapped.

“Well, then why did you offer to not bathe?” I said, putting my hands up in surrender.

Suddenly, the door opened into my face, knocking into my already aching head and pushing me back.

“Ooh,” Anna said.

“Pardon me, sir,” said the familiar servant woman as she pushed a cart inside.

I stood immediately and tried to run out the door, but the servant grabbed the door on the opposite side by the hinges.

For a second, my gut clenched, thinking she would pinch her hand in the door as I closed it, but instead, she grabbed the door and flipped it, closing it in the opposite direction as she stepped out, leaving me trapped with Anna.