Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
I flipped to a page halfway through and landed on the section about harpies. Dozens of pages in, and she was still describing the possible options for only the first hallow.
Still, in this situation, more information was infinitely better than less.
“Although, what am I supposed to do if I need the feather of a real angel?” I muttered. “Would he return us topside so that I could get it? Does pretty please work on angels?”
I rubbed my temples, sighing as I glanced down at the five other journals resting in the bag. I’d just gotten started on my study, and I was already getting a headache.
Bang!
Ronin came into the room surrounded by his entourage. No, was parade a better word? Or maybe his court?
Either way, he had five women hanging off his arms and shoulders. Trailing the ladies were their lackeys—all gorgeous and all hostile as they argued and shoved the women from the other gangs. And yes, I was calling them gangs until I was given a better word for them. And on the tail of the pretty girl gangs were a horde of drooling, eager guys hitting on them like it’d save the world.
“That’s Kama Asmodeus,” Dora said, snapping my head up. “Princess of lust.”
I flicked to where she was looking, landing on a gorgeous pink-haired woman with plump, pouty lips and a matching, sheer pink dress that left nothing to the imagination.
“That’s Eris Leviathan,” she continued, writing that down too. She tipped her head toward a short woman with bright green, short spiky hair and a punk-style outfit with metal rings punched through her jacket to match the metal rings through her lips, nose, and eyebrows. “She’s the princess of envy.
“She’s Sauda Mammon, princess of greed.” Again I followed Dora’s gaze to an ebony-skinned beauty with her hair cut close to the scalp. She wore a deadly fierce asymmetrical black dress that was a mini in the front, and a long-train gown in the back. I assumed she chose the dress to show off her spiked boots. They stabbed the floor with every step.
“That’s Raven Zuriel, princess of wrath.” Dora wrote down the name of the copper beauty. “Daddy says she’s first in line to marry Ronin Belphe because House Zuriel and House Belphe have the least contentious history of conflict.”
I tipped my head. “Makes sense. It’s hard to provoke someone’s wrath when you never do anything.”
“Last is Ursula Beelzebub,” she finished, nodding to the woman wearing a preppy cable-knit, purple sweater and pleated skirt. “Princess of gluttony. Daddy says House Beelzebub is the only House in hell that has no treaties or trade with any other House in hell. It’s because Lord Beelzebub is incapable of compromise. He must have all, all, all for himself.”
I hummed, fascinated beside myself. “Interesting. You’d think it’d be the lord of greed who’d have trouble playing fair with others.”
“No, just the opposite,” Dora said softly. “Greed is smart, sly, calculating. It plots. It plans. While gluttony is uncontrollable. It cannot stop not even for its own good.”
I found myself nodding along. “You have a point.”
Their weird little clutch packed into the room, all of them clearly following Belphe’s every twitch and move.
The full-of-himself prince of sloth claimed a seat at the back, and then immediately dropped his head back and went to sleep.
A quick, but violent, battle broke out among the princesses for who was going to sit on either side of him. Raven and Sauda were the winners, leaving Ursula with her busted lip to sit in front of him. Eris took her bloodied nose and grabbed the seat behind him, while—bold as you pleased—Kama plopped down on Ronin’s lap and laid her head on his chest, smirking away as her hair regrew out of the bloody patch of scalp Raven left behind when she ripped her pink locks out.
Raven and Sauda both grabbed Kama’s arms, ready and willing to rip her in half, when Ronin’s arms came up in his sleep and draped around her—pulling his new body pillow in close.
“Fuck!” Raven bellowed, kicking a dent in the tabletop.
I swore, right then, Kama wasn’t the princess of lust. She was the princess of smug.
My gaze drifted down to the fingers curled around Kama’s soft, supple, and practically bare ass, and my own curled too.
“You okay, Barley?” Dora’s face blotted everything out. “You’re not happy anymore.”
“What?” I jerked back, shaking loose my clenched fists. “What are you talking about? Of course I am.” I forced a laugh. “All good here.”
Spinning away, I glared down at the journals—screaming at myself. What the hell is wrong with you? You are not jealous! It does not matter how many princesses fling themselves on Ronin’s lap, you can’t stand that guy, and you want nothing to do with him!
The door flew open again, letting in a fresh wave of students flying very close to being late.