Exported [Book 3 in the Expiring Series]

61 The Seven Deadly Sins

Playlist order for this chapter if you want to listen to the music how I did when I wrote the chapter:

Kokopelli by Mild High Club

When you get to "He crouches down before me," listen to The Point of No Return the French version (because this is set in France) from The Phantom of the Opera

When you get to "When I open my eyes again," listen to All I Ask of You the French version from The Phantom of the Opera

When you get to "And then another thousand," listen to Roan.mp3's cover on TikTok of Homage.

And then when you get to "My world comes to a halt," listen to The Point of No Return again.

I've included the French versions of the songs from The Phantom of the Opera. I highly recommend the Italian versions as well.

Iris~~

I follow Odette through the empty passages of the catacombs, guards keeping at a distance. The light from the flames ensconced in the walls casts a honey glow over her purple dress that tonight is in the style of a toga. Instead of draping over one of her shoulders, the fabric is connected at her neck where a gold appliqué is sewn. The fabric then drapes down the middle of her back. A gold belt to match the appliqué cinches only the front, leaving the tops of her hips exposed. Her black hair falls down her back, a gold laurel wreath crown resting on top of her head.

She could be a goddess straight out of Greek mythology.

The Goddess of Vanity sounds fitting. Or of the Kill.

I still wear the dress that marks me as hers, though its torn and dirty now, appropriate for a prisoner.

Odette said she wanted to play. That could mean a multitude of things.

"Where's the Digamma?"

She looks back at me and lifts her shoulder in a delicate shrug though a knowing smile slips across her lips.

As we walk—the stone cold against my bare feet—I begin to hear strands of music. Slow. Wicked. Haunting.

My breath catches. "I know this song."

"It is from Amoria."

As more of it hits me, I brace my hand against the wall. It's the song to which Colton and I first danced together. At my first Society ball. Before I knew anything about Amoria or Amoris.

As the music shifts into a new song, something dark and beautiful, the sounds of laughter come with it.

"Where are we going?"

"My court would like to see the Raggioet who was to be Preeminence Blackwood's queen," she says just as we round the corner. There's a clamor as if metal has crashed to the floor.

She wishes to humiliate me then, for them to see me broken, as their prisoner. A would-be queen now dressed in this torn fabric and marked with an ancient symbol of possession. I haven't seen my face in days, but I imagine its drained of color, my dark circles stark against my face. I must look like the ghost they believe I should be.