Page 46

Chapter

Thirty-One

WRATH

T he wards cracked like bones as they burned away with the cabin.

I felt it before I saw it—an itch beneath my skin, a pressure drop in the air. The shockwave came quicker than I could react.

But Lust was faster than me.

He grabbed my elbow and pulled me and the goblin child down, shielding us with his body. His teeth were bared, eyes blazing gold, his power vibrating just beneath the surface of his skin like a dam about to break.

The world exploded.

A soundless boom rippled out from the collapsing wards. It hit us like a wall—hot, thick, and burning with the residue of every crime committed inside that place. I tried to move. The goblin child cried out. Lust screamed, but kept us down.

“No!” he roared, and I watched the shockwave slam into him.

The air shimmered as Lust absorbed it—his body drinking the destructive magic like a sponge, blood and power pulsing at his temples. His knees buckled. Then he dropped like a felled tree, crashing into the dirt beside me.

“Lust!” I crawled to him, fingers pressed to his neck. He was breathing—barely—but he wasn’t waking.

The child whimpered in my lap, their oversized eyes filled with terror. Smoke curled from Lust’s jacket. His skin glowed faintly, like something too full of fire.

“Shhh, I’ve got you both.” My voice cracked as I reached for control. I couldn’t fall apart. Not now.

That’s when the forest shifted.

The shadows stretched unnaturally. Trees leaned in. Birds went silent.

From the tree line, a figure emerged. Not one of the traffickers, but something older. The way he moved, with that ethereal grace...I’d only ever seen one other person pull it off. Diana.

A God.

He wasn’t tall. Not godlike in stature. In fact, he looked like a man you'd pass in a crowd—all muted colors and timeless features—but the weight behind his eyes bent the air around him.

“A minor god,” I murmured, heart hammering. I motioned for the goblin child to stay behind me. I hung over Lust’s body, unsure of what to do. I was powerful compared to a human, but a god?!

Fear squeezed my heart.

“I’d prefer ‘lesser deity,’ ” he said mildly, stepping closer. His eyes swept over the smoldering wreckage, the collapsed wards, and the unconscious sin at my side. They lingered on the child, one light eyebrow raised.

“Interesting little mess you’ve made.”

I didn’t recognize this god. Then again, it wasn’t like I truly knew any of them. Adonis himself could proposition me and I wouldn’t know.

Maybe.

“Stay back,” I growled, shifting my stance over Lust’s body. Panic raced through my veins–would the others get worried when Lust and I didn’t return to the manor? Would they come looking for us?

Yes. Likely soon. Just had to hold on until then.

“I’m not here to fight,” the god replied.

“I am,” I shot back.

He chuckled. “Oh ho, a new sin. Wrath, probably. We haven’t had a Wrath in a while.”

His head tilted to the side, eyes sparking with interest.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“My cabin,” he said simply. “I got an alert that something had … happened.” His eyes flicked to the growing flames and back.

My sin burned my skin.

“And did you have anything to do with...what was going on in there?” I asked, incredulous that a god of all beings would have a run-down cabin in the woods.

He shrugged, and waved a hand lazily. “Humans will be humans. What they do to each other is beneath me. I’m more pissed off about what lay under the cabin.”

“They weren’t humans!” I protested. “They were–wait, under?”

He sneered. “The cabin was a marker, you idiot. My trinket lay below the cabin! Now I have to sift through all the rubble to find it, and if you’ve broken it–”

He stopped suddenly, head whipping around to stare at the trees. “Perfect timing. Good luck.”

He disappeared in front of my eyes, reappearing amidst the rubble of the cabin. But I didn’t have another moment to spare them, because someone was coming.

Many someones.

I heard them before I saw them—padding feet, fast and familiar. Fur brushing bark. Breath steaming in the cold air.

My heart sank into my feet. The goblin hissed, sensing it as well.

More werewolves.

“Lust. Lust. Please wake up.”

I knelt down and shook him, wiping his dark hair out of his eyes. His head lolled to the side. Where was Greed and Envy? Hell, even Sloth?

I stood again as the werewolves emerged from the tree line in formation, wary but determined.

No fucking way.

Could this day get any worse?

They weren’t just any werewolves. I knew them.

Xavier’s pack advanced toward me. One figure shifted as he stepped forward—dark-haired, scar across one eye, muscles thick with command: Kabe, Xavier’s Beta.

“H-Hazel?” he asked, confused. “What the fuck are you doing here? The wards said there were trespassers, but … “ His eyes swept over Lust’s form. “Is that a Sin?”

My mind came to a screeching halt.

They hadn’t tracked me here?

The wards said there were trespassers.

“You’re trafficking supernatural children,” I whispered. “That’s why Xavier was keeping track of things, that’s why he kept bringing back the flyers. What the fuck?” I demanded, my sin building and building until the pressure was so heavy I could barely breath.

Kabe advanced. “Easy, there. It’s a business. The kids aren’t hurt.” He shrugged, unconcerned.

“Back off,” I snapped, ready to murder all of them where they stood.

“Hey now, you want to call the kettle black? You killed Xavier, didn’t you?” The pack leader’s voice was low, dangerous. “He’d been railing about finding you the last time he left camp. But there’s no blood trail, no scent, no corpse. So where is he?”

The wolves behind him growled and pawed at the dirt.

I grinned viciously. “And how would I know? I’m just a girl.”

Kabe snarled, but sniffed the air around me tentatively.

“You smell wrong. Dangerous,” he growled.

I couldn’t help the feral smirk that stretched across my face.

What he saw didn’t match what he smelled, and it was fucking with him.

His inner wolf was fighting with his human mind, the two unable to come to an understanding.

Before them was just a helpless witch, but in reality, I was something they couldn’t even comprehend.

I longed to show them, but tamped it down.

We couldn’t always indulge our sins, after all.

Where the fuck were my Sins?

“I’ll ask one more time,” Kabe said, stalking forward slowly. “Where is our Alpha?”

I laughed. “And I’ll ask one more time; is your pack responsible for kidnapping the kids?”

He growled.

“Maybe.”

I dropped all my pretenses.

“Xavier is gone,” I said. “Where he belongs.”

The wolves pressed in closer, vibrating with the need to attack me and avenge their Alpha.

Oh Gods, please try it.

“Careful,” the minor god warned, startling all of us as he popped in between our standstill, a cracked mirror in his hands.

“You’re not the only predators here,” he cautioned the wolves, smiling widely.

Kabe sneered. “Stay out of this, old man.”

Lightning flickered behind the god’s eyes. “Careful. I was pulling thrones from giants before your bloodline learned how to crawl.”

That bought me a breath as Kabe’s eyes widened. Clearly he was ignoring the scent of power emanating off the god, because it smelled similar to me, and clearly I wasn’t a threat, so why would this old man be?

What a fucking moron.

One of the wolves came up behind Kabe and bravely nudged his side, shifting back to his human form and whispering something into his ear.

Kabe’s eyes bulged out of his head.

“Apophis?” he said, voice rising an octave.

“Bless you,” I said without thinking.

The god laughed but Kabe snarled, shifting back into his wolf form and lunging.

“Bad dog!” Apophis grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted the fully grown werewolf like it was nothing more than a large, errant puppy. He threw Kabe to the ground, where he stayed down, quivering.

He pointed at the werewolf who had whispered his name in Kabe’s ear.

“You. You seem like less of a dunderhead.” He waved his arms dismissively at the rest of the pack. “Go on. Educate them.”

Lust groaned at my feet.

The werewolf (I didn’t know him) rubbed his face, clearly uncomfortable. “Uh...Apophis. God of...uh, darkness and disorder, chaos and misconduct.”

Well. That didn’t sound promising. And I didn’t like the shit-eating grin on his face either.

I stepped in front of him, rage and protective instinct boiling under my skin. The goblin child gripped my leg like a barnacle, his tiny claws digging into my boot.

“Are you involved with these human traffickers or not?” I demanded.

Apophis rolled his eyes.

“Doesn’t matter, does it? I pay them to keep the cabin up and my trinkets safe. The rest is immaterial.” He leveled a glare at me. “You destroyed my cabin, and broke my mirror.”

He held up the broken shards, fury building in his gaze.

“You all have beef with her?” Apophis asked the werewolves. “Kill her and I’ll be the patron of your pack.”

Every werewolf responded by immediately shifting into wolf form, nearly salivating at the prospect. Not that I blamed them; gods never involved themselves in anyone’s doing these days. To have one protect your pack? Invaluable.

“Try me,” I snarled, my magick soaking through my skin and surrounding me in a red glow. I tried to put on as tough a face as I could to scare them off, but a god’s offer was likely too good to resist.

They’d attack, and I’d probably kill many of them, but it wouldn’t be enough. I’d be overrun quickly.

I felt it building again—the same red energy that had broken the sky open when Xavier tried to drag me back. Only now, it wasn’t grief or trauma or helplessness feeding it.

It was fury.

Real, clean wrath.

The wolves paused. Their noses twitched. They felt it too.

“Get on with it. I’m bored,” Apophis declared, then stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest, grinning as he settled in to watch the show.

“What a dick,” I grumbled.

“Ass,” chirped the goblin child from behind me.