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)
So many theories, but no answers. If I wanted to know the secret to harnessing my blood magic... I’d have to ask the mother who murdered my sister right in front of my eyes.
I left the kitchen, my bad mood returning. Across the hall, Nik claimed a seat at a table farthest from the Sins Gang. In this case, distance indicated social status, and Nik was considered the bottom rung.
Thinking of the Sins Gang dragged my attention to the left. Ronin was exactly where I expected him to be, but shockingly, he wasn’t asleep. Even more shockingly, he was deep in conversation with Raven and Sauda, instead of barely acknowledging their existence while they humped and slobbered all over him.
All of a sudden he looked up and locked eyes with me. In that moment, memories of the night before flooded my mind and heated my face and neck. Ronin did things to me that no one had ever done. Positions I never tried before. Kinks I’d long ago decided weren’t for me. And as ridiculously, mind-blowingly amazing as it felt—
Rage burned in my chest, feeding the heat spreading through my body.
Every “stop” was ignored. Every “no” was discarded. Every boundary I put up was knocked down. The whole night, as Belphe had his way with me, Raven’s words taunted me—telling me his remark about making me his queen was a silly joke. Laughing at me for thinking it meant something when Ronin said he belonged to me. Over and over, Raven’s voice drove the point home—I was nothing to Ronin. No more than a cum bucket in a long line of cum buckets, and I’d be discarded just like all the rest.
I tore away from Ronin, fixing on Nik. That’s why I can’t afford to put it off any longer. Ronin and his twisted brand of protection will be over the second he gets tired of playing with the new, shiny mortal. I’ll need my and Dora’s ride out of hell booked by then.
I headed in Nik’s direction.
“Oi, listen up, you ignorant empty-headed fucks,” Ronin called out. “I’ve got something to say.”
I was wrong. Sabrina wasn’t the top graduate of charm school. This guy was.
Ronin stood up, towering over us all. Amazingly, all the chatter, scuffling, and flirting ceased immediately.
“All right, so here it is,” Ronin began. “By now, you’ve all heard word of a new alliance between Houses Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, and Greed that will become the empire of sin. You all want this,” he told them, not asked them. “You’ve pledged to your different Houses...” He gestured at the puffed-up, proud ladies behind him. “To make it happen.
“But it never will.”
The puff went out of those proud peacocks in a blink.
“What?” Raven screeched. “What are you talking about it won’t happen?! Why—!”
Ronin held up a staying hand, still grinning away. “It’s not that it won’t happen. It’s that it can’t happen because there’s one thing standing in our way—the exclusion of the House of pride.”
Whispers instantly broke out.
“What?”
“The House of pride?”
“Pomaris?”
“What’s Lucifer got to do with this?”
“Lucifer’s got everything to do with this,” Ronin announced, making the pig demon who said that jerk upright. “House Lucifer already has the best trade deals with the fae and the wolves, and he has almost every vampire coven working for him as his personal spies. Because of him and his blasted deals, the Others go to him first to bargain for everything—gold, land, goods. It’s endless.”
“Why should we care what the fucking mutts, leeches, and Others do?” Eris demanded. “What’s that got to do with us building our new empire?”
“It’s got everything to do with it,” Ronin said gravely. He looked so serious, his expression held me fast, gluing me to the spot—stealing all of my attention for himself. “Consider what will happen if we build our empire and cut House Lucifer out. Will he take it lying down? Will he fall in line and kneel at our feet?
“No,” Ronin stated. “What that slippery, tricky bastard will do is collect on every deal, and tug on the string attached to every trade and negotiation, and stand opposed to us. What he’ll do... is create the empire of the Others.”
Ursula gasped.
“He wouldn’t!” Raven cried.
“He would.”
Maybe it was because I’d gotten to know Ronin more intimately than I’d ever wanted over the last few days, but looking into his eyes then I could tell... he was full of shit.
“The clue is in the sin,” Ronin went on. “Lucifer is too proud to remain a lord while we rise up and take our destiny as emperor and empresses. So if we are to stop him from lifting up the lower creatures so he can build his own empire on top of their backs, we must unite the House of pride under our banner. All seven sins as one.”