Sinners' Kingdom #1: The Book of Lust (Complete)

64

"You don't know what you're asking for, Asmodeus. Looks like you've forgotten you almost didn't walk away last time, while I didn't even have a scratch. Let's see how long you last now, broken into so many pieces."

"Someone else has forgotten that it took three of you to ambush me at once. And you don't call that lovely paper cut I left across your entire snout a scratch, at least? Your memory is worse every time we cross paths."

"And soon you won't even be a memory at all. No need to remember a dead demon. Come. We'll settle this, Shard or no Shard."

Lust's muscles coiled and tensed against me like a serpent rearing to strike. A flash of heat jabbed into my wrist, a dull but searing heat pressing against the tender skin as Lust answered Mammon's taunt with a low chuckle. "As you wish. It was bound to end like this anyway. A shame you'll die so far from home, brother."

"I warned you what I'd do to you if you called me brother again."

Mammon's voice was already changing, halfway to a beast's snarl by the end of his threat. Shit. Shit! Lust's arm tightened around my waist as he began to lower me, murmuring—

"It'll only be a moment, love. I'll make sure of it."

"A moment's more than I need to end you, Asmodeus."

My feet were spared the coldness of the wet grass by the dragging folds of my borrowed robes, but rain chill was the last thing on my mind. I scrambled to anchor Lust in place before he could withdraw, hooking my arms around his neck all the way to my elbows. No doubt he could still pry me loose without batting an eye, but he paused, hands resting on my hips.

"Both of you need to calm down," I snapped. "I don't care what your real beef is with each other, but don't use me as your convenient excuse to screw us out of getting off this island. Settle your old grudges on your own time. Because, don't forget. Maybe I'm the only one in mortal danger, but you two could get stuck here with your immortal selves for who knows how long? Seeing as how our chances of finding a nice, peaceful, civilized human settlement and transportation are a lot lower, now that we know there are man-preying sirens around. I'm getting dead tired of reminding you two what we're really here for, so you both need to get it through your heads that you have bigger problems than catfighting over ancient history. Okay?"

The words came out in a hurry, tumbling out with all the haste of growing panic, but somehow it sounded like thorny confidence instead. It wasn't a State of the Union address, but I sounded like I knew exactly what I was talking about, and I was proud of it. So long as it worked.

Lust was still leaning into me, holding me steady while I kept my arms locked around his neck. He hadn't said a word throughout my venting, but now he spoke, and with a lot more softness than when he had been threatening Mammon and vice versa. Good sign, right? "You're nothing so trivial as an excuse, love," he said, soothing. "You're the pinnacle of my concerns. He's doubting my capacity to protect you, so I have no choice but to remove his nonsense. You have to understand me, Sable. He'll only hold us back."

"Oh, really. So it's because the human bait must be kept alive at all costs. I get it. But you know, I have to be alive and not a corpse if you want to Thrall me and consume my soul, so my point stands. For both of you. I don't know how demons like you meet your needs, Mammon, but I'm assuming you and Lust have at least one thing in common. That I'm more useful alive than dead. So for the last time, can we cooperate? For a little longer? Instead of me having to break up these pointless fights when all three of us know we need each other to get out of here while keeping me in one piece?"

I hoped I sounded like I knew what I was talking about. I hoped I sounded like I was telling the truth. Because to be honest, I had more than a lurking suspicion that I was the only one in any meaningful danger. What did anything matter to either of them? They were functionally immortal Princes. They couldn't starve or dehydrate to death, andd even lower class demons could get by for a long, long time without feeding on soul energy. I was just one morsel. If I died, they could wait out their lives here until eventually they found a way off of it, and there would be plenty of humans to entrap once they returned to civilization on their own.