Page 37

“Holy shit–” I think it was Pride. I dismissed it.

Everything narrowed down to Xavier, who whined like the little bitch he was while Envy and Greed held him down.

It wasn’t fire, not yet. But the heat crawled up my spine like someone had uncorked the sun. My mom made a strangled sound in her throat as my feet lifted slightly off the ground, hair twisting in an invisible wind.

“Her eyes–” Gluttony whispered, entrances.

“You followed me,” I said to Xavier. My voice was two tones layered over each other—mine own, and something deeper. “You stalked me. You lied to me. You fucking killed me.”

Xavier stuttered. “I—mean I clearly didn’t. I just wanted?—”

“You wanted control,” I snapped. “And you lost it.”

All other noises ceased to exist.

“Juniper, please. Get control or you might take out the city block.”

Gluttony’s voice was calm, tinged with vampiric persuasion that I’d never been able to physically see before, but now I could–a teal spark that carried out of his voice toward me.

It enraged me.

How dare anyone try to control me.

Everything burned.

The sky cracked overhead like a snapped bone, golden lightning veining through clouds swollen with power.

My veins sizzled with it—too much, too wild.

The world throbbed in red. My feet hovered above the ground, and I couldn’t hear anything but my heartbeat and the hum of something ancient clawing its way free.

Until a soft growl cleaved through the chaos.

It wasn’t threatening. It was low and guttural, a sound that vibrated in the space between worlds. The shadows behind me twisted, coiled, and then sprang to life.

Was that...was that Damon?

The shadowcat emerged from nothing, eyes gleaming violet and endless. The moment I looked into them, the fury inside me hiccupped. Not stopped—never stopped—but caught for just a breath.

He pounced.

A black mist unfurled, racing along my body like silk soaked in ice water. It didn’t smother the power—it redirected it. Contained it. Absorbed it into his abyssal form, his body rippling with blood-red lightning as he snarled and arched like a great cat caught between dimensions.

I dropped like a stone.

But I didn’t hit the ground.

Damon caught me in that breathless void between heartbeats, and with a final pulse of dark energy, the world blinked out—park, Pride, Lust, Xavier, my mother —gone.

Replaced by cold marble, warm firelight, and the echoing silence of Gluttony’s manor.

I collapsed onto the velvet rug, gasping, body drenched in sweat and trembling. My skin felt too tight. My magick had no skin.

The other Sins stumbled in beside me, each one deposited like cargo in varying states of disarray.

Lust hit the nearest armchair with a groan.

Greed cursed as Envy tripped and nearly fell on his face.

Pride landed on his feet, naturally. Gluttony emerged last, cloak swaying behind him, pale and grim.

“I’m going to kill Xavier,” I rasped, voice raw from screaming.

“You already tried,” Pride said carefully, eyes scanning me like I was a new species.

“No.” I stood. “I mean really kill him.”

Damon slithered around me in a figure eight, purring low. His presence steadied me. Focused me. He had eaten my fire, but not all of it.

Not enough.

Because the minute I remembered Xavier's face—his smirk, his entitlement, his fucking hand around my wrist—it was back.

The fury.

The Wrath.

“He ran when Damon jumped in,” Envy muttered. “Coward.”

“He won't get far,” Gluttony said. “But before we go storming into another confrontation, maybe we need to talk about what just happened.”

“I awoke,” I said simply.

Seven pairs of eyes locked on me.

They knew. They felt it.

My chest rose and fell with ragged breaths. I reached up and touched my cheek—and for a moment, I saw not skin, but molten lines, glowing like cracked obsidian.

Wrath.

The seventh sin.

The missing one.

Me.

A howl cut through the air.

Xavier.

Damon tensed. So did I.

“Get out of my way,” I said to no one in particular.

Pride stepped aside first. Then Lust. Gluttony lingered, something unreadable in his eyes. I stepped through the hall, Damon a shadow at my heel, and threw open the manor doors.

He was there in the backyard, out by the edge of the tree line leading into the woods, bruised and bleeding. He leaned on a tree, eyes lighting up with panic when he saw me.

“You’re like a fucking roach,” I growled.

“I–”

And then I was there, in front of Xavier. My hand slammed into his chest. Not with magic. Not with fire. Just rage.

Damon howled.

I grabbed his heart. Literally. Pulled it out. I thought it would have been harder, but it was like pulling a toy I’d buried in playdoh as a child.

He gasped once. Then collapsed on himself, eyes wide in disbelief. His body crumpled like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

As I held his still beating heart in my hand, something clicked into place in the universe. A slot was filled that I hadn’t even realized was empty; a circle completed.

“I am Wrath,” I said aloud.

The air shivered.

And for the first time in a long, long time …

I felt whole.