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“Tragic,” Envy added, rounding the island with a stolen peach in hand. “He’s flushed too. You think he finally realized he has emotions?”

I turned slowly, one brow raised. “Don’t you two have graveyards to rob?”

“Not today,” Greed said, sliding onto a stool. “What’s got your gold-plated knickers twisted?”

“He talked to Lust,” Envy said with sudden clarity, eyes narrowing. “That’s it, isn’t it? You finally had The Talk.”

Greed straightened. “Oh gods, did he suggest the thing?”

I narrowed my eyes. “If you mean the absolute madness he proposed over brandy this morning, then yes.”

“He wants us all to take her,” Greed whispered, clearly delighted. “Together.”

Envy laughed, dark and sharp. “And you didn’t combust?”

“I considered it,” I muttered, too tired to lie.

Greed leaned forward, chin in hand, smug. “You’re thinking about it now.”

“I am not.”

“You are.”

Envy grinned. “He’s thinking about her between all of us, isn’t he? Bare, flushed, begging?—”

I lunged.

The stool clattered as I tackled Envy clean off of it. We rolled across the tile in a mess of limbs and cursing. He landed a glancing hit to my ribs. I returned the favor with one to his jaw. It wasn’t real rage. If it had been, the manor would already be on fire.

“You want her like that,” I snapped, pinning him beneath me. “Just admit it.”

“I want her every way,” Envy snarled back. “Doesn’t mean I want to share .”

“Neither do I!”

“Sounds like you do,” Greed said lightly, sipping from a stolen bottle of wine. “Sounds like you both really, really do.”

We froze at the sound of a small gasp.

Sloth stood in the doorway, expression unreadable. Kiva was perched on his hip, blinking wide violet eyes.

Sloth calmly reached up, clapped a hand over her ears, and said dryly,

“Please tell me you weren’t all arguing about a group marriage to the witch.”

Greed snorted. “That’s one word for it.”

“ Why is everyone horny in my kitchen?” Gluttony’s voice boomed as he entered, eyebrows raised. “Did someone spike the cinnamon rolls?”

“It’s her,” Envy said, now upright and unrepentant. “She’s in our heads.”

“She’s in your pants,” Greed added.

The door opened again.

Wrath stepped in, hair damp from a shower, cheeks flushed from the heat of the manor, Diana trailing just behind her with the knowing smirk of someone who’d orchestrated everything.

The room went silent. All of us turned.

She blinked. “Did I miss something?”

Every eye devoured her. Even Kiva peeked from under Sloth’s hand, blinking like she could sense the shift.

Diana patted Wrath’s shoulder and whispered something in her ear—something that made her eyes widen slightly. Then Diana took Kiva from Sloth’s arms.

“Come, darling. Have you picked strawberries before?” She turned and left the room, humming.

Wrath cleared her throat. “You’re all...staring.”

“I’m deciding whether or not to kneel,” Lust said from somewhere behind me, having slipped in unseen.

Her lips parted, stunned. And that was all it took.

I crossed the room first.

“Wrath,” I said, low and strained. “We need to talk.”

She tilted her head. “All of you?”

“No,” I said, voice dropping. “But you should decide who stays.”

Her eyes lit with something dangerously curious. “What if I say everyone?”

The air grew thick. Magick stirred.

Greed grinned. Envy stepped forward. Lust leaned against the doorframe like a shadow with teeth.

She took one step back, just enough to let the hem of her robe slide higher over one thigh.

“Close the door.”

Greed closed it without a sound.

“All of you,” she muttered, a slight inflection at the end as though she were questioning it, but now.

And just like that—everything shifted.

The air in the room vibrated with unspent magick, thick with something ancient and hungry. I felt it in my bones—in the way my hands trembled a bit when they never did, in the way my chest ached with something I wasn’t ready to name.

She looked at each of us like she saw us. Not the sins or the monsters, but simple men buried under centuries of indulgence and denial.

And still...she chose.

I was the first to move.

Of course I was. I’d touched her before any of them, tasted the edges of her rage and tenderness, known from the moment she walked into Diana’s office that she was going to unravel me. But I hadn’t known it would feel like this.

I reached for her slowly, brushing my knuckles along the curve of her cheek. Her breath hitched—not in fear, never fear—but anticipation.

“You have no idea what you’re inviting,” I murmured.

“Let’s find out,” she whispered.

Behind me, I felt the others stir.

Pride stepped in close, silent and burning, jaw tight with restraint.

Envy hovered just behind her, eyes molten green.

Greed made a low sound in his throat, hungry in a way that had nothing to do with gold.

Sloth, slow and deliberate, ran his gaze down her body like he was memorizing her.

Even Gluttony, usually so composed, looked half undone.

We didn’t deserve her.

But she wanted us anyway.

And for once, that want didn’t feel carnal—it felt divine.

Wrath untied the robe and shrugged it off, letting it fall to the stone floor. Her skin caught the candlelight. Her eyes held fire.

Gods.

She stepped into us like a queen walking into her court. And we—six immortal embodiments of humanity’s most selfish urges—stood still, reverent, as she chose every one of us at once.

I kissed her first.

Pride’s hand found her hip.

Sloth knelt.

Greed exhaled her name like a curse.

Envy trembled.

Gluttony moved in as well like a moth to the flame. He’d offered his home, his hearth, his

hunger—as if she hadn’t already consumed us all.

When she let her eyes flutter closed and gave herself over to the moment, I knew?—

This wasn’t lust.

This was worship.

And as the first touch gave way to many, and skin met skin and magick bloomed, and Wrath herself arched into the fire we’d all carried for her?—

The world disappeared.

I kissed Wrath, her lips soft and warm against mine. She moaned into my mouth as Pride ran his hands up and down her sides, pulling her back flush against him.

Would we lay her down on the chaise and take turns? Or would I thrust into her as my brother’s hands roved over her breasts, or pumped in and out of her wet heat?—

“No. NO.” G’s voice cracked through the air like a whip, dousing the mood faster than putting my dick in a bucket of ice water.

Wrath went rigid with surprise at the venom in his voice, and I held onto her as Pride let go, already striding for G.

“Hey, easy. Breathe.”

G kept backing away from us, shaking visibly as his head whipped from side to side.

“Gluttony, it’s ok. We’re all here: your family,” Envy tried.

If anything, that made G angrier. His normally pale face flushed red; an impressive feat for a vampyre.

“YOU are my family, not some sleazy witch who thinks she can just come in and enchant you all. I won’t be taken in again, not again. Not again. I don’t care if she’s a Sin!”

Gluttony clutched at his chest, which was again telling since he didn’t need to breathe or gasp for air. Envy, Pride, and Sloth moved toward him, but he flung out his free hand toward the door. It slammed open, Juniper flinching as it banged against the walls.

It slammed shut behind him as he strode through, leaving us alone in the wake of his temper tantrum.

“I–” Wrath started.

“Well, nice of him to shut it again for us,” Greed quipped, eyes already back on Juniper.

I clutched her tightly to me, defensive of her. “Now isn’t the time–” I began.

“Is he mad at me?” Wrath’s quiet voice stopped us all, the air itself seeming to freeze, before we all let out a collective sigh. Pride ran a hand through his hair, and gestured for her to sit on the chaise.

She kept her grip on my hand as she crossed the room toward him.

I tried not to feel too smug about it, even as Greed’s eyes lingered on our entwined hands.

Feeling bold, I sat down first, and pulled her into my lap.

“Oomf,” she said, but didn’t resist and only wiggled her bum against me a bit to settle in further.

Witch.

“Sorry if I made him mad,” she said softly.

Pride sat down on her other side.

“Nothing to do with you,” he replied.

Greed snorted, Envy at his heels as they sat on the floor in front of her. Sloth rolled his eyes, standing behind them as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“Girl, it isn’t you. He was done dirty hard by some slag before you.”

Pride’s nose crinkled.

“Don’t call a muse a ‘slag,’ ” he bit out, rather indignantly.

“A muse?” Wrath asked, perking up.

Before Pride could answer, Sloth beat him to it. “The muses; daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who are all in charge of different aspects of the arts. Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Thalia, Terpsichore, and Urania.”

Wrath blinked. “And he dated–”

“Clio; the muse of history. Still a dumb bitch, though. Still won’t shut up about the Hyacinth incident.”

“Hyacinth incident?”

“Her son got involved with Apollo–an utter ass, by the way–and died, as people tend to do around the gods. She got pissy and from his blood came the Hyacinth. She’s been insufferable ever since: a loud martyr set on making everyone’s lives hell.”

Sloth finished his story with a flourish, Wrath’s lips slightly parted in shock.

“And Gluttony...?” she asked tentatively.

“Had his heart ripped out and stepped on,” I said dismissively, trying to keep the snarl out of my voice so as to not alarm her. I didn’t like how still and silent she’d become when G had his hissy fit.

Sloth sighed.

“I’ll go. He’s less likely to sink his fangs into me. Though...” His eyes slid up and down Juniper in a way that slowed clear regret. “I expect details.”

He strode through the door, but not before booping Pride on the nose.

At least he let the door close behind him with a soft click, and didn’t slam it.

“Er...” Wrath began, rubbing her palms together and fidgeting with her hair.

Before I could snap at the others to back up and give her some room, Greed took Sloth’s spot on bended knee in front of her. “So, let’s cut to the chase. You’re hot. Wanna kiss?”

"Really?"

"I want everything good that crosses my path."

"I'm still learning I'm allowed to be wanted," Wrath said.

A wicked smile spread across Greed’s face. "Learn faster. You're wasting time."

My need to crush his windpipe between my fingers for such disrespect was halted by Envy’s grip on the neck of my shirt.

Wrath’s laugh was loud and deep, pure shock and delight stretching her face and lighting a fire in her eyes.

She reached forward and took his face in both her hands, kissing him deeply.

Greed jerked in shock and relaxed in her, kissing her back.

Quickly he broke away and focused on her neck, pulling a groan of need from her throat.

I tightened in my pants.

Shit.

Her eyes flicked up and met mine in an open invitation, even while one of her hands reached out to Envy, and the other yanked Pride toward her.

We fell in a tumble over the chaise.

“All of you.”