There was only one woman I wanted to sleep with, and she just left me out here on my fucking knees. I looked over each of my siblings and couldn’t help but think that maybe the stars were right to tie us to Hell.
Seven gods of sin. Seven gods of hell. My eyes flickered to Gareth, and I rolled my eyes at the excessive clothing he wore. I was in a pissy mood because of Della and Sam. I wanted to pick a damn fight.
“Nice outfit; you look ridiculous.” I glared. His dark eyes narrowed on me. I wanted to fight, and he knew it. Gareth had never been much of a fighter, just a collector of ridiculous and extravagant things—like the stupid golden robes he was in right now. Gluttony had no taste, and that was unfortunate for him. He ran his hand through his dark hair, and I saw all of his rings.
For fuck’s sake, did he spend the last nine years finding the ugliest shit to keep just to piss me off?
“At least we look presentable,” my brother, Mateo, said. He always took pride in his appearance, which made sense as the God of Pride, but he was such a smug prick about it. He thought he was the best of us. My sister, Daya, Goddess of Greed, stared at me oddly.
Her light brown hair and green eyes watched me like she could see that I was being pissy in order to throw them off the fact that I was distracted by Storm. She was the observant one among the bunch.
“Your title of God of Wrath is really shining through today.” Sydra, Goddess of Sloth, smiled.
“Nice of you to catch up with the conversation,sloth.” I taunted her because I knew it pissed her off. “How did you spend your last nine years? Wait, let me guess. You did nothing.”
Her dark eyes turned red, and I smiled smugly at her. Sloth was the sin I found absolutely stupid. Like, really, we couldn’t come up with, like, chaos, destruction, or something else?
“Gods above, you are still such a fucking asshole,” Sydra sneered.
“Can’t change me by burying me for nine years.”
I stared at my siblings and sighed heavily.
“You have a few minutes before you are pulled back to Hell, so you better hurry up with whatever message you have.”
My siblings were not able to stay out of Hell for extended periods of time. They would be forced to go back until I broke the curse the heavens and old gods put on us—even if my curse was broken because of what Della did. Being mated to her and her giving up part of her soul to me would make it so I never went back to Hell. But it also meant my turn was never ending. I was the only one that could break the curse for my siblings since I could not die and allow them a turn.
They had been pissed when I found a way out of the curse and did not share it with them. There was no way I would have told them before I declared I was using my turn. I knew my siblings well enough that one of them would have tried to do it before me. I guess they should have been smarter.
Avesh, God of Knowledge, had no idea what he told me that day I visited him. It had been easy to manipulate him into telling the story of our parents—Diath and Malamay, but what he told me about the curse changed everything.
Curses can always be broken.
Every curse has a key to freedom. Ours was pretty simple. All we had to do to be freed was prove to the stars that anyone could become bad, and we did this by corrupting a god. That godwas Della, their favorite. Guilt began clawing at me because it had been my fucking plan. As soon as I met her, I knew I could corrupt her, but that was before I fell in love with her.
“Our trifecta died.”
“I know, I witnessed it firsthand.” I glared. Watching Luren, Jesper, and Gwyn get their shit rocked by Thea was a fucking beautiful sight to see. “I told you that Thea may not be inherently bad.”
“She is the Goddess of Blood and Vengeance,” Mateo said, like that meant anything. “She could have easily become one of us. She would have been such an asset to have on our side.”
Cassius would never let her lose herself to that extent. Thea was kindhearted, and that was the difference between her and us.
“It was a stupid idea anyway.” I smiled at Elra because it had been her plan to try and start destroying the realm by corrupting those in power. They were already corrupt though, and got their asses handed to them.
“It was not stupid,” Elra hissed. “We corrupted most of Cerithia to hate the gods. We could have created a rebellion and brought hell to Elloryon without even being there.”
“Like I said, stupid.”
“You are just pissed off because your whore is upset with you.” Elra smiled. She wanted a reaction, and I wouldn’t give it to her. “Nine years is a long time. I wonder if she found comfort in another man during that time. She was pretty cozy with that dark-haired man over there.”
“What are you doing?” I asked. Wrath instantly simmered under my skin at the thought of Della touching another man. Storm didn’t actually want Sam. I could tell by how she had looked at me. Besides, I did not share what was mine, and she was mine, even if she didn’t trust me right now. But my sister’s taunt got to me.
“I’m just saying, a goddess crawled into your bed as a poor, classless fae. She has low standards and probably spreads her legs for anyone. Maybe she left you out here so she could find that man who she was obviously smitten by.”
Well, that would get a reaction from me. I shot my frost out at her feet, and she was stuck to the ground for a second long enough for me to punch her in the mouth. My other siblings jumped in to help her. One of them ripped me off of her, and I smiled when I saw it was Mateo, my least favorite sibling. Although, Elra was quickly taking over that title.
I swung and punched him too; my wrath was pumping through me so violently that it would take most of them to stop me. Gareth used his weight to his advantage as he tossed me to the ground and sat on one of my arms while Daya, Sydra, and Mateo grabbed the other, pinning me so I couldn’t get away.
