Chapter 21

ChapterTwenty-One

“So you’re not even going out and talking with the people in your kingdom?” Envy asked, sitting down in the chair across from Gluttony’s desk and splaying his legs wide. “Why are you not doing that?”

“Why are you still here?” Gluttony groaned.

He tilted his chair onto its back legs, dangling between falling and hovering, but he didn’t want to look at Envy right now. What he wanted was his space back. His privacy. He wanted everyone to leave his castle and by everyone, he meant his brother. He wanted Katherine to come back, which she hadn’t last night.

Logically, he knew that was probably the best circumstance for all of them. The longer Envy was here, the more likely he would be to take the young woman who had captured Gluttony’s attention. Not because Envy enjoyed her, of course, but because Envy kidnapped everyone he wanted. Any time he wanted.

And Gluttony would start a war over that. He’d do whatever it took to get his pet back, even if that meant tearing into his brother, who had never once lost a battle in his kingdom.

“I’m here because everyone wants results that you aren’t providing. Yet.” Envy leaned forward, bracing his forearms on his knees. “I still believe you can do this, brother. But I will not take the fall for you if you cannot do this because a woman distracted you.”

“You have yet to understand what this feels like.”

“You believe you are in love.” Envy’s eyes flashed bright green. “I know what it is to covet someone so thoroughly that you would do anything to keep them. And isn’t that what you’re feeling?”

He wasn’t in love with her, that much he knew. Gluttony pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Of all our brothers, don’t you think I’m the least capable of love?”

“Look at Greed and Lust.”

“They were forged under extreme pressures. Diamonds of relationships that were thrust upon them without choice or reason.” Gluttony pointed at his door, as though he were pointing to Katherine herself. “I found her in the squalor of my own kingdom. I was the one who chose her, not for any reason other than that fate thrust us together. I found her, I took her, and then I did what I wished with her.”

“And now you are falling for her.”

Gluttony rolled his eyes. “It is an obsession, and you know more than anyone else that it will end. My thirst for blood will eventually be satiated, and then I will need to search for the next person to capture my attention. It is an exhausting existence and one that I will likely end after her. But for now, I am merely enjoying myself.”

Envy’s brows furrowed. “Yet here you are, quite certain that you would do anything to keep her.”

“I agree that it’s a strange combination of feelings, but I assure you, what I feel for her is nothing out of the ordinary. I’ve felt like this for countless blood donors before.”

It was a lie.

He’d never felt like this before. In fact, every blood donor before her had made him feel dirty. Used. Like he was only good for one thing, and that was money. Like he was hiring whores to come to his home and bare themselves before him just so he could get off.

He’d never gotten off with any of the others. He’d never felt this full body experience when he drank from them.

Envy leaned back, his lips pursed and his brows drawn down. “Oh, you are in so much deeper than you’re willing to admit.”

“I’m not.”

“I can see that expression, Gluttony. You want to keep her, not for a little while, but forever. And there’s something about her that’s wriggled its way underneath your skin.”

“Shut up.” He stood from his desk. The last thing he wanted to do was sit here and be berated about his own feelings. “You can leave whenever you wish. Clearly, I am making progress on the substance and soon enough, we’ll know what it is.”

“Not soon enough for any of our brothers.” Envy didn’t stand. He didn’t even move. He just kept talking as Gluttony approached the door. “Did you hear that Sloth was attacked a few days ago?”

Gluttony froze with his hand on the door. “I had not.”

“I suppose news doesn’t travel as fast here, and that’s quite all right. But he was attacked, brother. A group of people broke into his castle. Thankfully he has loyal guards, but if he hadn’t? Sloth would be gone, and we’d all have a much larger problem on our hands.”

He hated this. He hated that his brothers’ wellbeing rested on his shoulders, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Alchemical solutions take time,” he said quietly.

“Time that you are not giving it.” Envy’s eyes were still trained on the wall behind Gluttony’s vacant desk. “That is why I am here. To ensure that you are focused, Gluttony.”

“Even without knowing she was here, you were already coming.” Gluttony sighed. “So they do not believe that I am capable of doing this.”

“They believe in you, but your attention? They do not. Pride was very quick to tell me to come here.”

A flash of anger had him whirling, claws already drawn out for battle. “What does Pride know of me?”

“Pride has eyes in every kingdom. You know this.”

“Because he wants to control everything within reach, but he is not welcome in my kingdom!” Gluttony slashed his claws through the air as though a spell was woven before him. “He knows that I see the truth. That our kingdoms would be infinitely better if we were not involved.”

“Would they?” Envy finally rose to his massive height, turning on Gluttony with anger bunching through his muscles. “Look at your kingdom, brother! It is falling apart.”

“It survives fine without me.”

“There are starving people on every street! Injuries that never seem to stop happening, no matter how many measures they take to prevent them. Even your little mortal worked at the almshouse, stitching people together. You think that’s normal, Gluttony?”

He slashed at the air directly in front of Envy’s face, provoking him to battle even though he knew it was one he could not win. “I took the worst kingdom. All the others were so clearly matched to all of you, so what was I to do? I took the swamps. I took the moors and the madness and the poison that comes with it. You should all thank me for it!”

“Thank you?” Envy burst out, the words releasing in a roar of rage. “You’ve never lived up to the potential of this kingdom nor the throne we gave you!”

The words settled between them, dust clearing enough for Envy to realize what he had said.

“So that is what you all believe,” Gluttony breathed, shaking his head in disgust. “That you handed me a kingdom I’ve never taken care of. That I squandered what was given to me.”

Of course they did. His prideful, boastful, arrogant brothers had thought that because he hadn’t had to battle to keep this kingdom, that it had been given to him. Like a gift.

He staggered away from Envy, shaking his head still as if he might dislodge the reality from his mind. “No one wanted this kingdom. No one wanted the mud and the muck and the centuries of work that were thrown upon me when I took this place. The humans were living in the roots of trees when I got here. I built their homes by hand and then fled when I realized they wouldn’t even build a fire if I was near them. I tamed the creatures here, taught them how to hunt only if the humans were in the water. I was the whisper in the ear of every mortal and creature who lived here.”

“We all know that. I did not mean—”

“You meant exactly what you said.” Gluttony lifted his hand for silence. “You cannot save this, brother. You have revealed much, and for that truth, I thank you.”

“It’s not the truth, Gluttony.” His brother even stepped forward, eyes wide, as though he realized he might have broken something important. “We do not believe you are weaker than us, only that... that...”

“You cannot even come up with a lie,” Gluttony finished for him. “Whichever brother spread these rumors likely knows that I’m aware of something you all aren’t. That we are the monsters in this story, and if we wish to fix that, then we must tear apart what we are.”

“You don’t believe that.” And it looked like Envy had gone mad. His eyes were so wide that the whites showed around those dark rings of color, and he held out his hand for Gluttony to take. Why? Gluttony had no idea.

“I know this to be true.” Gluttony placed a clawed hand against his heart. “And you know it as well. What future did we steal from the humans? What kingdoms would have existed if we had not walked out of the mist and named ourselves gods?”

With that, he turned from his office. He left the room and his brother behind, walking blindly until he heard the knock at the front door. The knock that solved all his issues and turned his attention toward a darker one indeed.

The hunger flared bright and hot. More than it ever had before. His fangs ached, and his forehead suddenly spiked with a sharp pain. His nails were already out, but they were darker as he looked. Turning black with need as he descended the stairs toward the front door.

He needed her.

Oh, he needed her in his arms and his fangs in her neck. He needed to feel those strong hands holding onto his waist, or maybe smoothing down his back. She would know he was upset. She always did.

He threw open the door only to freeze when he saw her red ringed eyes, rounded shoulders, and an air of defeat.

This wasn’t his pet. This wasn’t his angry little healer who had always peered up at him with fire in her eyes and a challenge squaring her jaw. This wasn’t... her.

“Katherine?” he asked, stepping aside to let her walk past him.

It didn’t escape his notice that she wrapped her arms around her waist rather than touch him at all. She didn’t even look up at him again until she was well inside the room and could then turn.

He tilted his head to the side, watching her as he sealed them into the darkness. He flicked his wrist, lighting the candles that he’d forgotten to light before her arrival. “Tell me.”

“I was stopped on my way to the town.” She swallowed hard. “There are new men there. They wanted to ask me about you, and why I was still with you when you were slowly killing this kingdom.”

“Did they touch you?” Anger swelled. He would hunt them as Greed did, if he had to. No one would touch Katherine. No one but him.

“No.” She shuddered. “But they wanted to.”

“They would not be wrong in claiming I’ve destroyed this kingdom.” He took a step closer to her, watching her for any flinch or recoil. But she didn’t. She just stayed there, her arms firmly hugging herself, watching him. “But I will not stand by and see you harmed. I will take care of them for you and make sure they no longer bother you on your walks.”

He couldn’t stop himself. Gluttony brushed the backs of his fingers down her cheeks, his wicked claws turned in toward himself. And his heart stuttered in his chest as she tilted her face into his touch.

“There’s more,” she whispered.

“There always is.”

“A group of bodies were delivered to the almshouse today. Twelve people total, all of them injured beyond recognition. We could only save two of them.” Her troubled gaze met his. “Their throats were ripped out.”

He winced. “A sad way to die, indeed.”

“They’re blaming you.” And he saw the thought in her eyes before she took another big breath and asked, “Have you broken our deal, Gluttony?”

He dropped his hand and took a large step away from her. How could she even ask that? How could she wonder such a thing when he had practically prostrated himself before her and begged her to never leave?

Or had he?

Gluttony wracked his mind, trying to see if he’d ever really made it clear that he valued her. Perhaps he had in his actions, but never in words. What a fool he had been. She wouldn’t stay if he didn’t let her know she had become someone more than just a villager to him. So much more than any peasant who lived in that town.

Pressing the hand that had been touching her lovely face to his chest, he stared straight into her eyes as he replied. “I have not broken our vow, Kat. I never would. You offered yourself to me, and I would never, ever break that trust. You’ve come to be like a... friend. I suppose. I’d hoped that you felt the same.”

A soft, but sad, smile crossed her features. “I’d like that quite a bit. You are not what I expected, Gluttony. Not at all.”

With her words, the hunger flared bright hot again. He wanted to grab her in his arms. He wanted to taste her and wrap her up and never let her go. He wanted to hold on to her until the very world ended.

What if he never let her go? Would she complain, or would she not mind?

Katherine licked her lips, and he watched the movement with avid attention. “The people in the village believe you are a monster. The only friend I told about my time here, she said I should try to kill you in your sleep. That because I was so close to you, I should take this as the advantage the entire town has been seeking.”

“You should,” he replied, his voice guttural and low. “You really should.”

She took a step closer to him, lowering her voice as well, as though talking to a wounded animal. “Gluttony, I’m going to say this now as a friend. Are you listening to me?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

His heart raced in his chest as she came closer and closer. She was right in front of him, a temptation unlike any he’d ever suffered through. Every muscle in his body was locked tight to keep himself under control.

He wanted her.

More than he’d ever wanted anything in his life.

“I’m listening,” he said.

“Sometimes you frustrate me to no end with this self hatred.” Katherine stopped in front of him, then shifted the hair off her shoulder to bare her neck to him. “So would you tell that part of you to fuck off, sad boy? You’re a little busy with me.”