Page 7

Gluttony

“I composed a new melody today.” “Play it for me?” “It’s for your ears only.” “Don’t ever let anyone else hear it.”

The shadows. He’d said he needed the shadows.

I’ll find out who this person is even if it means staying within the shadows for eternity. Why is he stalking me? He could have attacked at any point. He hides himself so well I may not even see it coming.

I’m a friend.

“Friend” comes under a lot of categories. What kind is he? A trustworthy one or someone waiting for the right moment to strike? A liar or an ally?

Sparks of lightning caress my skin as I roll the orb around my palm. It’s warm, and my magic accepts it like an old friend. Nothing like the other one. It doesn’t glow white or have tendrils. It’s filled with lightning. With me .

A satisfied smile curves my lips.

Mine . He said this one is for me alone. Deacon can’t touch it. No one else can. I’ll find a place for it on my shelves, where I can look at it whenever I want to.

It opens when I push a little of my magic into it, and I almost drop it in surprise. A sweet sound fills the room. A music box.

It’s a fucking music box. What the hell?

A set of silver scales rotates in the center of it. On the left side, a heart sits on the scale, lit up gold like the original orb. Infused with Dark Fae magic. I can smell it, but something about it is different. Sweeter. Somehow familiar. Like the stranger. He’s not Fae, though. He doesn’t smell like anything. Cloaking himself somehow. I can’t think of a single creature from that side that has the ability. Something else forgotten from the past?

“Weighing of the soul,” I murmur. Judgment. There are plenty of customs that deal with using the weight of a heart to determine the purity of the soul. Egypt is one of the most notable. Envy spent considerable years there in the past, studying them and even helping guide some of their customs. His fascination with how they handle the dead led him to hope they could help him carry his burdens.

A futile effort. He carries them alone.

There must be some significance to the gift. A reason. Deacon alone can activate the original orb, and I alone can open this one. What’s the difference? How are they created?

The melody is so familiar to me that despite having never heard it before, I know it. It reaches deep inside me, a hand squeezing my chest and sending an unfamiliar thrill through me.

Holding tightly to it, I move to stand at the window that he’d used to escape. And enter? It’s an ingrained habit in me to leave the window open. Between the protections we place on the grounds and the gargoyles guarding from above, there’s no danger.

Yet the stranger made it this far. The estate is quiet and calm, the rest of the world asleep. Except for one thief in the night, trespassing where he doesn’t belong.

Why didn’t I turn on the light?

The sweet sound abruptly cuts off when I close the music orb. The urge to open it again almost forces me to do just that. What about it compels me? Why do I know it?

Putting it on my bedside table instead of a shelf, I find a blue silk cloth to use as a makeshift nest for it. Something about it makes me want to keep it close, have it beside me while I sleep. Pulling off my clothes, I leave them hanging on the end of the bed and slide into the sheets.

Flipping to the side, I turn my back on the orb. I’m not so weak that I need to be facing it. It takes less than a minute before I turn over and stare for a long time. The lightning strikes coming from within are soothing, a live snow globe showcasing my magic. A single zap from me opens it again, and the music drifts through the quiet room. A soothing calm.

I fall asleep to the sound of it.

It can’t be more than an hour later when Lust interrupts, sweeping into my room without knocking. His attention locks onto my orb straightaway.

“You have another one,” he says, with interest in his gaze.

I close it, the sound cutting off. The music is for me alone. Lust has no right to hear it.

“Do you want something?” It takes me a few seconds to get myself sorted and properly awake, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. I need way more fucking sleep than this to be functional.

“Deacon thinks he might have figured out how to use the orb. At least… enough to give us a direction. I imagine it can do more than we think it can. For example, yours plays music.” Lust leans against the bedpost, crossing his arms over his chest. “Who did you say you got it from, again?”

“I told you I don’t know.” Uncaring of my state of undress, I grab my clothes from the end of the bed, tugging on my jeans. “How did he figure it out?”

“Intense focus. I think with time, he could use it with more ease, but he doesn’t know how to reliably tap into his Fae magic. I’m afraid we don’t have enough knowledge to help him with it.”

What little we know of the Dark fades over time, and we didn’t know much to begin with. They’re secretive and hold traditions centuries old.

I drop down onto the bed and grab my boots, shoving my feet into them. “And what direction is it telling us to go?”

“East.”

That makes me look up incredulously. “East? That’s it, that’s all you’ve got?”

Lust’s lips slant in amusement. “For now. Hopefully it will tell us more as we get closer.”

Hopefully. Maybe. We think. Too many unknowns. I’m not convinced this stranger’s objective is to help us. He knows more than he’s saying. This could all be a guise to send us on a hunt with no end, to keep us chasing our tails. Keep us busy… while they do what?

The man refuses to show his face. Secrecy doesn’t sit well with me, and there’s no way I’m blindly trusting him. If this doesn’t work, I’ll track him down and make him regret wasting our time.

The shirt needs a wash, so I grab a fresh white button-down and a navy-blue vest, flicking the collar up. “What the fuck are we waiting for, then? Let’s go.”

I almost grab the orb to put in my pocket. For safekeeping. It’s silent on my bedside table, waiting for me to make it sing. A ridiculous fucking urge. I slam the door shut in annoyance, shoving it to the back of my mind.

Lust glances at me but doesn’t say a word. Wise decision.

Envy, Wrath, Deacon, and Lazarus are waiting for us in the garage, standing beside one of our standard SUVs. Not quite as flashy as the other cars, but one that’s big enough to transport us all, and it has protections the others don’t. More discreet as well, not easily identified as one of ours. A preference when we’re operating under the radar.

Deacon holds my glowing orb in his palm, and I look away with a sneer. When we’re done here, I want it back. They’re all mine. Does the stranger have more of them tucked away? Does he give them out like candy? To others? The visceral no tears through me. I want them all. Every single one that exists, I’ll add them to my hoard. Fill every room in my suite with them. Do others have different tricks?

They’re touching a piece of me deep down that not even I can reach, and I need them. Answers are sitting there just out of reach, and if I can gather enough of the orbs, maybe I can find those answers.

My hand clenches into a fist at my side. “Let’s get this over with.” The sooner we find our brothers, the sooner I can get to ripping Conor into pieces. And getting my orb back. “I’m driving.”

Since Nero isn’t here, I’m the next best thing. He’s our best driver and has the skills to outmaneuver anyone on the road, no matter what he’s driving. Too bad he isn’t here, because some fucking psycho that Wrath chose to save and then fuck has kidnapped him for who-the-fuck-knows-what reason.

None of us are lab rats, and I’ll shed blood for every second they aren’t here where they should be.

We set out without another word. An unsettling uneasiness cloaks the city like a heavy weight. On the surface nothing has changed. The humans move about as normal, living their boring lives and doing the same thing on repeat like a broken record. No purpose other than the ones we give them.

They don’t know any Sins are missing or the danger lurking under the surface. Ignorant as always. The war fought in Asia has been erased from existence, twisted into the reality we want them to know. The new threat isn’t coming from the Light Fae. They’re not subtle enough for this. And they’d never work with a Dark, no matter who he’s working with or for.

There have always been pockets of dissent, and we deal with them when we feel like it. They aren’t a threat, more an annoyance. Conor’s group is too organized, too hidden. It rubs me the wrong way. I want them all dead.

“Left,” Deacon says. Just as I’m about to turn that way, he changes it to, “No, right.”

Fucking hell. I stop in the middle of the road and force traffic to go around me. The honks and swearing are easy to ignore. If we weren’t trying to be at least somewhat subtle, I’d fry them all. “Left or right?” I bark, resisting the urge to lean over and strangle him. He’s using my orb; the least he can do is use it properly. “Fucking work it out, Deacon.”

“It’s not an exact science! You want to try?”

I bite back the yes, I fucking do. It won’t work, because it doesn’t respond to me. But it would mean having it back in my possession. I’m taking it back the second Deacon is done with it.

“It’s difficult to see where the strand leads from in here. It’s not going through the metal.”

Sounds like a lot of excuses to me. “Why don’t you just admin you don’t know what you’re doing?” I say snidely.

“It didn’t come with a manual,” Deacon shoots back angrily.

“Should we walk?” Envy asks, leaning through the gap between the two front seats and glancing between me and Deacon. “Would that make it easier?”

“No one is walking.” I take the corner sharply and force Envy back in his seat, pushing him against Lazarus, who grasps his nape to keep him still.

All of us in an unmarked car won’t attract attention. All of us walking the streets together, following a magical glowing strand? People are bound to notice. We prefer to keep most of what we can do out of sight. The humans know only what we want them to. Only an idiot shows all their cards. There are things we can do that they could never imagine. Things we can use to our advantage when we need to. I suppose I could use a glamour to keep us hidden if we’re forced to abandon the car. It’s not my first choice, considering we have no idea where we’re going. I’ll use it when we get there and not before.

The orb leads us to a six-story building deep in the heart of the city. Not tucked away or hidden like the places the others had been ambushed when our brothers and demon were taken.

“Burks I have better things to worry about. If there’s Fae magic here, I’ll find it; in this proximity it’s impossible to mask. Even Conor gave himself away once we were on the right level of the building. It seeps into everything eventually, too strong to keep hidden.

We search every office on the first floor, moving everyone to the front reception area so we can pull everything apart. I’d prefer to just kill them all; Lust vetoes it. I’d have thought regular sex would make him more agreeable.

We don’t bother going up. If something’s hidden here, we need to go underground.

Lazarus approaches us, a scowl on his face.

“Well?” He better have some answers. If there’s another dead end, I’m killing every person in this building, regardless of what Lust says. To make myself feel better and keep anyone from talking.

Lazarus glances at Envy, his mask falling for a frozen moment in time before his cold, red eyes return to me. “There’s another door, hidden behind a bookshelf, that leads downstairs.”

“How cooperative of them.” A shame. I could do with a little torture. Feels like a lifetime since I had those idiots that Deacon let onto the estate under my thumb.

The bookcase is laughably easy to find now that we know what we’re looking for. Before we’d looked right past it. An ordinary piece of furniture, filled with boring law textbooks and disgustingly happy family photos.

Once it’s out of the way and the secret door’s open, I peer down. Nothing to see except a set of stone steps leading into darkness. Jackpot.

“These digs are nicer than the last one,” Wrath says. He lights up a ball of flame and steers it down, giving us a light to follow.

“Should I try the orb again?” Deacon asks, holding it up.

“No,” Lust answers, kissing his temple, “We don’t know whether it only has a certain level of magic in it. We’ve found the entrance, and we’ll explore. No use wasting it if we don’t need to.”

If Deacon gives it back to me empty, his head will roll. Who takes something off someone, essentially breaks it, and then gives it back? Disrespectful assholes, that’s who.

The steps lead to an actual room this time instead of the open space where Pride and the others went missing. From Lust’s accounting of their own situation, they’d been identical spaces. Not like this.

The bright lights in the room mean we have no more need of Wrath’s fire. The small space is completely white. Clinical. Also empty. Three doors lead in three different directions. It means splitting up or taking longer to search everywhere. Fantastic.

“Definitely a distinct Fae smell down here,” Wrath says. “Not as strong as last time, but it’s here.”

“At least we know the orb works.” Lust slips a hand into Deacon’s pocket, aligning their hips. “Which direction should we go?”

“Pick a random door.” As if any of us know the layout of this place.

“Close our eyes and point?” Envy suggests.

“Wait,” Deacon says, holding up a hand to halt us. He clenches around the orb, and strands dance around it. One drifts away toward the middle door. “It’s singing.”

It’s in my hands before I realize I moved. The orb instantly closes, the strands disappearing.

“What did you do that for?” Deacon snaps.

“What singing?” I ask in a low, dangerous voice. Like my music box? Better not be. I’ll kill anyone who hears it that isn’t me. They’ll never hear anything again once I’m done with them.

“You didn’t give me a chance to find out!”

“Are you alright?” Lust asks, staring curiously at me. I turn away before he can see too much.

I’m fucking fine. I toss the orb back to Deacon without looking his way. The sense of loss is a physical ache in my gut, and I want to slit his throat and take it back. Completely irrational. The Dark artifact means nothing to me. Nothing.

I know the instant Deacon opens it again, like I’m connected to it on a deeper level. Why can I feel it if I can’t activate it myself? Something to do with the stranger who’d gifted it to me? Maybe it really is mine, no matter whether it speaks to me or not.

“This way,” Deacon says, going through the door straight ahead of us. It leads into another room, not a hallway. One as empty as the last. Except for the full wall of glass.

“What the fuck?” Envy looks through it. And then down. His lips part, eyes widening. “It’s an observation deck. Look.”

The glass gives an overview onto some kind of medical room. As if we’re in a hospital, watching a surgery, or a university lecture hall.

“That’s fucked up.” Envy’s face twists in anger. “What the hell were they watching? Are they dissecting our brothers?”

“We need to get down there,” Lust says. Deacon’s already moving to where there’s another door, a set of stairs leading further down. We’re being herded like rats in a maze.

The smell of Fae gets stronger as we go down. Enough for me to wonder if Conor is nearby. Are other Dark Fae helping them? We still consider them our allies, but we also thought they were all dead. Times have changed, and our alliances may have as well. Why else wouldn’t they have come to us?

The smell abruptly cuts off, and I pause, one foot on the bottom step. We all glance at each other in confusion. The fuck just happened?

“Well, that was weird,” Envy says. “We all smelled that, right?”

“Yes.” Lust peers around the corner, squinting. “Even if there was a Fae, and they were killed, that scent would linger. For it to just stop like that?”

Unheard of. Like a vault sealed shut. “Let’s keep moving.” I’m at the end of my patience for gathering questions and no answers.

The first room we go into is the same one we saw from above. A glance up confirms where we are. There’s the glass opening. What were they watching from up there? Chimeras aren’t made in here; there’s not enough damage. If anyone dissected my brothers, I’ll be doing a lot worse to them in return.

The next room holds a different surprise. Greed, unconscious and strapped to a gurney. Along with two figures bending over him. What the hell are they doing to him?

“Hey!” Wrath yells.

I burst forward, lightning crackling around my fist. “Get the fuck away from him!”