“No,” said Alus.“But we can change our internal temperatures without too much fuss, so long as there’s a place to shove that heat.”
Saer frowned and took turns glancing between Alus and Arek.“You’re suggesting we weaken ourselves?To get drunk?”
Gluttony snapped and pointed a finger at Saer with his captivating grin.
Saer was too flabbergasted to speak.
“Which is why,” Arek cut in, “it’s important not to indulge unless there’s more than one of us present.”He squeezed Saer’s forearm to draw his attention.“Neyu offered to take Alus’s fire.He jumped on it like...buzzards on a gut wagon.”
Alus winced.“We need to expand your colloquialisms.”
“One of us has to work instead of read, or cook, or dance once in a while,” Arek shot back.
“Sounds like I’m doomed to have fun for the both of us.”
“Enough,” Saer sighed.
“That word has never been in our vocabulary,” Alus said.
“Alustar!” Both Arek and Saer yelled at the same time.
Alus, of course, laughed.
When Gluttony brought it down to a chuckle under the glare of the other demons, he forced his lips over his teeth into a lop-sided grin.“We’d gladly give you a demonstration, as it were.”
“Why are you so intent on showing me?”
Alus’s smile didn’t dim, but somehow grew more nostalgic.He glanced at his twin.“You wanna take this one, Ace?”
Arek inclined his head.“Neyu deserves to be remembered.”
“You think I don’t remember her every second of every day?”Saer asked, bristling.
“Let me finish.Something that helped Alus and I move past her absence has been thinking back on memories.Fond memories.There’s something extra in it when shared amongst others who cared about her.”
Saer tensed to pull his arm away from his brother, but Greed held fast to Saer’s wrist.“This memory, about the drink—it’s something worth sharing.We want to hear stories you have as well.”Saer fixed his brother with an icy glare, and Arek’s voice lowered.“You’re not the only one who lost her, Saer.”
The ice fractured.
Arek, for the first time since they’d all been brought together, smiled a genuine smile—though it carried grief around the edges.
After a long pause, Saer nodded.
Alus clapped his hands together.“Fabulous.Who’s going first?”
29
Whileheseemedmorethan happy to demonstrate the discovery himself, Gluttony succumbed to Greed’s naysaying, who convinced his twin to let Saer lead.
Coercing Saer to go first proved another feat entirely.
Yet somehow, with a skeptical glare and quiet growl, he placed his hands in Arek’s palms.Every cord in Saer’s strained with anticipation.Voices and music surrounded the trio, the crowd around them ever moving, laughing, dancing.
Giving up strength was not a simple ask.
Neyu did it,he kept reminding himself.She trusted the Twins.
But should he?Did they do this as a ploy after hearing Errshek’s side of the story?Had they evenseenErrshek?What did they know—or not know?
