Page 10 of The Demon Prince

Icy cold dread settled hard in his belly like he’d swallowed cement. “What do you mean?”

“All the women since La—since the first—have offered themselves to you. Freely given. Blood that they wanted you to have in exchange for something else, yes?”

He nodded.

“Then perhaps the issue is that you want to take it. I understand the feeling, and trust me, I’ve had my fair share of enjoyment in taking what isn’t mine to take.” Envy’s eyes flashed before he settled. “So. Perhaps that is your problem.”

He rolled the thought around in his mind. But it wasn’t the right one. He could feel that it didn’t fit, like he was trying to thrust an explanation into the puzzle of this problem. “No, I don’t believe it’s that. My vice has never been about taking, but consuming.”

“And yet you are consuming and nothing is satisfying.” Envy tossed his hands up in the air. “Unless, perhaps, you are toying with the thought of actually eating this one? I’ve heard human flesh tastes particularly different from anything else.”

The thought was also wrong. No, he didn’t want to chew through the muscles and sinew of this woman’s body. There were parts of it he wanted to discover. He’d really only seen the general outline of her shape.

Gluttony wanted to leave bite marks between her thighs, upon her breasts, throughout her entire body. He wanted to claim and mark and ruin for her anyone else because he had consumed every part of her body, but that wasn’t the same as eating.

He could devour her whole and still leave her breathing.

Gluttony shook his head with a frustrating sigh. “I don’t know what it is about this one. Nothing has changed in my life. She is just another villager who wants nothing to do with me, and is well within her right to not want that, so I don’t understand the need. I don’t understand any of this.”

His brother shrugged again. “You will have to figure it out, though, won’t you? Wrath made it very clear. You can no longer take what isn’t freely offered, and you’ve been getting enough offerings to keep your strength up. If you snap, you know the threat.”

Yes, they all knew the threat that Wrath had barked out in angry words unlike any Gluttony had ever heard out of his brother.

If he stepped out of line again, endangering all of their brothers by provoking his own kingdom into mutiny, then Wrath would return. He had killed spirits before, though never one as strong as Gluttony. They would battle to the death and no one questioned who would win in that situation.

Gluttony didn’t think death for them was anything like the humans. For spirits like himself, it was simply extinguishing a candle. There one moment, gone the next.

He swallowed hard. He knew the risk he took in focusing on this woman. If he kept tormenting the little human, then maybe he would incite another riot. Wrath would return, even though Gluttony had yet to do anything wrong.

Fangs tingling, claws stretching as though they were ready to defend him, Gluttony nodded again. “I know, brother. The risk will always be there for me, no matter how many necks I bite.”

“Then keep everything to yourself. Find a way to get this woman to offer herself to you and slake your thirst.” Envy set his drink down hard, a gleam in his eyes. “Prove to her and yourself that you can get whatever you want. You’re the king of your kingdom, Gluttony! Command her to your castle. Woo her if you must, but get rid of this obsession and quickly.”

“You’re right.” He lied. Lied straight through his teeth while looking his brother in the eyes, as if this wasn’t a problem at all. “I’ll set this all to rights. Thank you for speaking with me this late at night.”

“Next time call when you have an answer about that damned weapon the mortals built.”

Envy disappeared and Gluttony was left alone with his thoughts and the lies that swirled around him.

He would get control of himself? He’d told his brother he could, but… he wasn’t convinced.

Gluttony didn’t know if he had that ability. If he did, he wouldn’t end up at her window every single night. Looking forlornly into her room while she quaked in her bed.

He just... needed.

Damn it, he needed, and he didn’t know what that need was or why it had suddenly appeared. But he desperately wanted to crawl underneath those covers with her and bury his face in that honey scent for just a few moments. Just enough so that this damned ache in his body would stop for two seconds so he could go back to himself.

He feared this obsession would drive him to ruin.

ChapterFive

Hunched over a glass of what tasted like wine mixed with sweat, Katherine stared into the red substance and tried very hard not to think about her day. So many people had come in with wounds. So many.

If she closed her eyes, she still saw their skin and the stitches that she wove over and over again. The parting of the flesh and red blood dripping down their sides as she tried her best to stitch them closed again.

Skin shouldn’t look like that. No one should experience standing in a line waiting for people to stitch them closed after they were attacked.

Grace sat on the opposite side of the table, breathing out a long sigh as she stretched her neck from side to side. “Never seen anything like today in all my days of working at the almshouse.”

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