7 Deadly Instincts (The Sinfire Chronicles Book 1)

That night, Settie announced that she was going to give them a week off of training to rest after Soulshred Week. She also told them she was leaving, muttering something about “taking care of some things.”

From the little she’d say, Gray had the feeling it had something to do with Princess Lilian’s arrival coming, which would be in two weeks. He also had to wonder if her absence had something to do with what happened between the three of them in Emerilia’s workshop. She’d turned so bitter. It hadn’t been that bad of a fight—he and the dragon woman had had much worse battles. Still, it seemed to have broken something inside of her.

Then again, maybe it was good she was leaving, so they could have some time apart.

Settie wasn’t the only fallout from Emerilia’s kisses and more.

Rynn and Ames had attacked him when he’d returned, dragging him up to their room. They’d been out for a walk in the snow when both of them had felt Gray’s lust. His vision of Rynn and Ames in the doorway had come true, but it hadn’t been enough.

In the end, Rynn was so loud in their room that Ames ended up having to stick her fingers into the elf girl’s mouth to silence her. Ames hadn’t been gentle, and it seemed to turn Rynn on even more. Gray noticed that the more cruel Ames was in their love games, the more mana she got. Her resonance had two sides—cruelty and kindness, which was a bit troubling but could come in useful.

Gray was grateful that when he finally came, deep inside his lovely Rynn, that he didn’t vent his core. No, it was only around an unbonded core that that happened. It was a relief.

That night, Gray woke up from a dream. He’d been back in the place of water and stars. He’d been on the island—standing on the rock at the edge of the water, which lapped gently against the shore. It felt so good to be there, talking with Oma, and listening to the women inside the shack. The air felt so good. He felt so good—it was this perfect feeling. He wondered if it felt like how normal people with parents felt, at night, when everyone was safe, happy, and warm. He’d only had that every now and again, with Old Agatha.

Then the shack’s door had opened—Settie was there, in the same robe that Emerilia had been wearing, opened to show the dragon woman’s cleavage, her belly button, and the triangle of dark hair between her legs. She had three mana marks above her pubic hair. She shouldered off the robe, so he could see all of her.

Seeing her naked put a shock in him. But even more, the smile on her face. She was happy. When had Captain Sette Sevanya ever been happy. She danced across the dirt, laughing. Settie laughing? That was another shock. She spun, so he could see the mana marks on her hips and the one on the small of her back.

The minute she touched him—with that dazzling smile on her face—he was jerked awake.

He awoke to Ames, looking at him. He wasn’t the only awake.

Rynn was turned away from them, on her side, sleeping peacefully.

Ames smiled and got him out of bed, leading him away. The house was cold—the snow had stopped falling, but the temperatures had plummeted.

Gray had to wonder where Ames was taking him.

They went down into the living room, where the Quelling girl coaxed a fire out of the lust rocks burning in the fireplace. She then pulled up Settie’s favorite chair, which she gave to him, and pulled up an old rickety chair for herself. Before sitting down, she got them heated mulled wine, just a little in two earthen mugs.

“What are we doing up?” Gray asked.

Ames sipped her wine, her feet near the fire to keep them warm. “We need to talk.”

Gray had to laugh. “The four most chilling words in any language.”

Ames was about to say more when Rynn came down, her hair mussed, still half-asleep. She padded over and curled up in Gray’s lap. “This is why bonding with insomniacs is a problem. We should all be sleeping.”

Ames reached out and gave Rynn’s messy hair a few caresses. “Gray had a dream about Settie. It was somewhat erotic.”

Rynn sighed. “This is why bonding with someone with a lust resonance is a problem. It’s all erotic all the time.”

Ames giggled softly.

Gray hugged the elf girl tight. “We don’t talk about such things.” He paused. “It wasn’t erotic. Yes, the captain was naked, but that wasn’t surprising part. She was happy…not just happy, but smiling and dancing.”

“The captain?” Rynn asked.

“The captain,” Gray affirmed. He then told them all about his encounter with Emerilia, how he’d vented his core, and what would happen if they tried to bond with anyone else. But he couldn’t stop thinking about what the Widow had told him—that his power could be used to create as well as destroy. His third mana mark was itching him, horribly, but he ignored it.

Ames listened carefully. Maybe she didn’t want to talk about what was troubling her in front of Rynn, but Gray didn’t think so. He’d get to her topic conversation eventually.

Ames shook her head. “But there’s more than two of us in the shack. The laughter, the happy chatter, the dancing and singing, there are more than two. This will change, Gray. We’ll add to our harem, I know it.”

Rynn laughed. “It was easier with Ames around. We both felt your lust, and then we started kissing, and one thing led to another, and you know the rest. I’m just glad there weren’t any demons around.”

“It was exciting doing it outside and standing up,” Ames said with a giggle. “Let the demons look. They will turn to ash in the fire of our lust.”

“So much lust,” Rynn agreed.

“I’m glad you both aren’t mad,” Gray said. “I didn’t choose this. I was worried. I know Rynn has been dealing with my…situation for a while now. I didn’t know how you’d feel about it, Ames.”

The Quelling girl smiled at him, looking straight into his eyes. “You are the boy with the sea and stars inside of him. There’s room enough for a whole party of women. I’m not alone anymore. We are a family, one that deals in happiness and pleasure rather than sorrow and pain. It’s a better currency, and it will buy more for all of us. In truth, think it will buy us the whole world.”

Gray listened carefully to her words. When she was finished, he realized the truth of the situation. “We’re together because life brought us together. And Rynn was open-minded enough to let it happen.”

The elf girl snorted and then went on a ramble. “Let it happen? It was fate that brought us Ames, and it just felt so right, especially after we lost her. In the end, it’s like what Aunt Florence said. For a bond to be happy, there has to be not just trust but faith, faith in your bonded, that they won’t go around doing stupid stuff. Granted, we’ve done most of the stupid stuff together, like poaching sloth squid in Old Town. Or breaking into Ruin Manor when it was sure to piss off the captain. Today, when I felt that lust, I had faith in you, Gray, that you wouldn’t do anything stupid, like bonding with someone. We have to all feel it, right? We all have to want it. Like what happened with you, Amaranthis. Sure, right now, it seems like adding someone else to her family…in that way…feels impossible. But we all know it’s going to happen. Tomi would say that Gray is just like Akazel the Bound. I figure we’ll get five more of us. It kind of makes me happy.”

“Just kind of?” Gray asked.

Rynn rose up off his lips and looked into his eyes. “I never thought I’d be bonded, not really, and when I did think about it, I thought it would be to just one man. Me and him, him and me, the two of us against the world. Never in a million years did I think I’d have to share you. Then, today, it hit me. I’m not sharing you, you’re sharing me. With Ames and with whoever else. Life is long…for all of us…as we grow in power. I’m not just open-mineded. I want it. I want to explore the world with you, Gray. I want explore what life has to offer, everything that life has to offer, including the lives and souls and bodies of the women we meet. Like with Amaranthis. We all have worlds upon worlds inside of us. That those worlds can come together is a miracle.”

“We just need to be careful. I don’t want to include anyone that might not fit well with us.”

Rynn laughed. “Like Amaranthis and I would let that happen.”

“Rynnanatha is right,” the Quelling girl said. “She’s right about everything.”

Rynn giggled. “That’s what I like to hear.”

Gray hugged her. She’d taken over drinking the warm spiced wine. “But Ames, you wanted to talk to me about something.”

The Quelling girl frowned, brow furrowed. “Princess Lilian is coming. In two weeks. It won’t be easy. And Settie…you saw the truth of her, and not just her mana marks, but her long life and who she was before. You saw her withered hand. And we have to get stronger, to use our powers, because we have to win. It’s important. But there will be an empty house. Hidden assassins. Demons who walk on two legs. The Wrath Tower fell, and a few, maybe ten, maybe three, of hell’s royalty escaped. They are waiting. They have to be careful. They aren’t as powerful as they were before. They have to stop the Wrath Tower from being rebuilt. Freek is dead but his desires live on. Don’t you see? The murder grew roots. Things don’t die, not always. I see all this, but it’s the empty house that makes me so sad. And afraid. Because the house is there but isn’t. It disappeared because of a promise.”

Ames smiled at Gray and Rynn because it was clear she had stopped making sense. “Does that make sense?”

“Not a bit,” Gray said. “Can you translate that for us?”

Ames thought for a moment. “I see the empty house. I see men but they aren’t men, they’re demons.”

“Hell’s royalty,” Rynn said quietly. “Like the Troublemaker.”

Ames nodded. “It’s the empty house. It’s not like our shack, Gray. It’s dead inside. And so, so sad. If we rebuilt the Wrath Tower, we could seal off hell. No more mana. The magic in the world would fade, but we wouldn’t have to worry about demons. I think about hell and the Troublemaker. So many people died when the demons poured out of the Weeping Well, before Old Town became Old Town. And the Hellbinder Barrier will only hold for so long. Then what would we do?”

They sat in silence for a long time.

It was Rynn who spoke first, and she couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, compared to facing hell’s royalty, Princess Lilian is coming just doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, right? I was worried about her. I know it’s not like she can steal you away from us, Gray, but you did have a relationship with her.”

“Which I ended by stealing from her.”

“The necklace,” Rynn murmured.

“The necklace.” He was going to give it back to her, but not before he figured out what its sad magic was. He’d have to drop it off at Softie’s the next time he was in the market.

“She hates me,” Gray said.

Ames drank the rest of her wine. “Her hate doesn’t matter. Our love adds up. She’s one. We’re two. It’s mathematical. Her house is pink but it’s dark inside. In the basement. There’s a cellar. It’s scary there. You wouldn’t think it’s scary, but it is. Because the rest of the house is so pink and happy.”

“Better than the empty house, right?” Gray asked.

“Anything is better than the empty house,” Ames said with no expression on her face.

They’d talked about everything but Settie’s past.

Maybe that didn’t matter, but Gray couldn’t help but feeling that Settie’s past could tell them a lot if they could get her to talk about.

But that seemed as impossible as rebuilding the Wrath Tower.

Right then, Gray knew they weren’t going to take a week off. He wanted to train, to work on his mana, to figure out his core. Because the stronger he was, the better he could handle what the world was going to throw at him.

Rynn was right. Compared to demons and death, Princess Lilian’s anger and hurt meant nothing.

But what was the darkness inside of her?

And did he really want to know?

It was the next day when the demons attacked.

Blind John did used to say—stay out of the sunshine if you don’t like the heat.

Master Kreef was blunter. If you live in a shitter, you bound to shit.

Not sure what that meant, but they were living on hell’s doorstep. It was only a matter of time before demons came knocking.