7 Deadly Instincts (The Sinfire Chronicles Book 1)

Gray screamed. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. He’d known anger before but nothing like this. The fae girl had sacrificed herself for him, broken her core oath never to love, and now she was a husk.

It was a fate worse than death.

The scream brought him mana, so much mana, and he healed himself without even realizing he’d done it.

The explosion from the enchanted dagger had ripped out a section of the balcony above him. He filled the meridians of his legs with and leapt up onto the balcony above him.

Varonna Magnifica was still in her dragon form, and she went to snap him in her jaws, and he threw pain into her, just like Ames had done.

Varonna shrieked, turned human, and clawed at the marble. Gray didn’t let her go. Kabe came at him with a flaming battle ax, but Kabe was the last person that Gray wanted to see. He hurled a mana blast into the orcs face.

Kabe staggered back and then grunted, looking down at his chest. A scarlet blade was sticking out of his chest. The orc slumped to the ground, dropping the ax, which flamed away.

Behind him stood a grim-faced Rynn, a gash on her face, and her core nearly empty of mana.

They had been training and fighting and playing all the First Field games since the beginning, and yes, there had been violence and bloodshed, but the point of the game had always been to win points. This fight felt completely different. These weren’t demons they were fighting and they weren’t being reward in points or medals.

The fight then spilled out onto the balcony.

Flames from a dragon—either from Deedaena Magnifica or Blythe—spewed past him while an orc—Frugg Gruntpiss—in ice armor with a long ice spear was trying to skewer Princess Lilian, who was wind-dancing her little heart out. Her bloodless blade glowed red, as she beat away the spear, but when her slashes weren’t able to penetrate the orc’s ice armor.

She had a way around that. She exploded into flames, which melted Gruntpiss’s armor enough for her to cut off his head. Blood geysered out of his neck stump as he took three steps and fell out into the Weeping Well.

Flaraminda and Limborda paused at the threshold, blades in their hands, eyes wide at the death of the two orcs—and so quickly.

“Gray!” Tomi called out. “I need mana!” She was back to being human, bleeding from any number of wounds.

Gray had to stop the pain he was inflicting on Varonna Magnifica to pivot and channel mana into Tomi, who used it to bring Blythe back crashing down onto the ground.

Midj was nearby. She made a fist and pulled mana out of Blythe, forcing her out of her dragon form. Tomi and then grabbed the woman in her claws.

“Fucking bitch!” Blythe shrieked. “You’re all as bad as she is! You kill me and—”

Tomi went from human to giant cat girl in a heartbeat. She then tossed Blythe off the balcony and the ghostly wind hands did the rest, yanking out of the air and down into hell.

Gray glanced at the archway into the bedroom. It was empty. Flaraminda and Limborda had run off rather than die. Where was Tillwick Duskdrop and the rest of the Fire Flyers?

Midj pivoted. He’d never seen her look so serious. She pulled mana out of the last dragon, who was barreling down on Gray, a look of complete madness in her eye. Deedaena unleashed her fire on him at the same time the goblin girl emptied her core.

Gray was right by the edge. There was nowhere to run.

But the flames never reached him because the dragon lost most of her magic and her fire sputtered out.

She landed on the balcony as a human.

Gray grabbed her arm, using his pain touch to drive her to her knees. “Who hired you to kill us? Was it the dragons? Who?”

But Deedaena couldn’t talk because of the pain.

Gray let go of her, but she was up in a second. Backing away toward the terrace’s edge. There was such hatred and fear on her face.

Then she threw herself off the terrace.

The spectral shadowy hands didn’t just grab her, they pulled her apart, and all of that blood, broken bone, and viscera was taken down into the darkness.

The six of them were left there.

Lilian was still on fire, breathing hard, and blinking. The flames grew more intense until it was like standing inside of a bonfire.

“I can’t…I can’t stop. They might come back and I’ll have to kill them, Gray. I’ll have to…” She was crying even as her flames grew hotter, expanding out to envelope the entire terrace.

Midj made a fist and the fires were gone and Lilian fell onto the terrace. On her hands and knees, she sobbed and sobbed.

Rynn dropped her sword and touched Gray’s arm. “Where’s Pinch?”

Gray couldn’t talk. He couldn’t think. The bodies of the dead were all around them. More were inside. He saw the tall, fast man from the Fire Flyers inside, burned to a crisp. That had to have been from Lilian.

But even though they’d gotten revenge, Pinch was still a husk in the room below. How could he tell them about her sacrifice? What would they do with her? The unthinkable had happened.

Rynn had to repeat herself. “Gray. Where’s Pinch?”

All the women were around him now, even Lilian, who was staring at him with wide eyes. Her tear-stained face was flecked with blood—as was her golden hair.

Ames came forward and looked him in the eye.

She had to know. Of all the women there, it was the Quelling girl who would know what had happened to Pinch and where she was.

Gray didn’t want to talk because he knew his voice would crack, and it wasn’t time for any kind of breaking. Their enemies were still on the loose. He felt so empty. He wanted the rage back, but his wrath resonance seemed to have vanished.

Ames nodded as a tear dripped down her face. “I’ll go and get her. I know the way.”

“You can’t go alone,” Gray managed to say. “Tillwick is still out there. And Flaraminda and Limborda.”

“Her brothers,” Ames whispered. “She hates us for killing her brothers. And I thought she didn’t…she didn’t. It’s more than that. We’re not done, Gray. We’re not done.”

“What does that mean?” Lilian asked in a shaky voice. “After this, it’s not a game. I don’t care about the Reckoning anymore. I just want to go home.”

Gray felt for her. There was more blood on her hands than anyone. But he’d killed Phillapalla Kech. He could see her shattered head in the bedroom on a carpet. “We have to throw the bodies over the edge. There can’t be evidence. It’s going to be their word against ours. We can just pretend nothing happened. Except for Pinch. But we can…we can…”

He closed his eyes and let one tear trickle down his face.

He got control of himself. “We can say she broke her core oath fighting demons. They won’t know. But I’ll know. I can’t talk about it, though. I can’t…”

“You don’t have to,” Rynn said. Her jaw muscles jumped. “Ames and I felt it. You were hurt…but she said she loved and then your core had mana. I’ll go with Ames. We’ll get her.”

Gray came unstuck. “I’ll go with you.”

Back with his wives, he held their hands as they made their way down to the second floor. There was another staircase near them. Pinch was in the room where he’d left her. Even with more light, he didn’t look at the dark tapestries on the wall. He didn’t want that shit in his head.

He lifted Pinch to her feet, and she slowly turned to him. “Gray,” she whispered.

“I’m here,” he said.

But the fae girl didn’t say anything more, even as Rynn and Ames held her. They then took her back up to the master bedroom above. Along the way, Gray told his wives every detail of his last kiss with the fae girl.

By the time they returned, all the bodies were gone. Tomi, Midj, and Lilian had even locked the balcony gates. They’d lit a couple candles for light. Parts of the room had been burned, but all in all, it had held up.

Tomi was trying to read the papers on the big desk, but of course, they were in a language she didn’t know.

When she saw them come in Pinch, she backed up, with a look of horror on face.

Midj did the opposite. She came and took the fae girl’s hand. “Oh, gosh, Pamalee. Oh, Mother’s Oven, I’m sorry.”

Pinch looked down at the little goblin girl but didn’t say a word. It was like she didn’t recognize Midj at all.

“What happened to her?” Lilian asked in shock.

“She broke her core oath,” Midj whispered. “We don’t need to know what it was, but that’s what happened. She’s a husk now. I’ve seen ones before. I can tell you about it later, Lil. But there’s no going back. Her core is gone.”

“It was love.” Gray’s voice broke and he had to stop talking.

Midj looked up at him and nodded. She didn’t need to say more.

Standing there, they fell quiet. The silence was complete. They heard nothing. Nothing at all, not even the wind coming up from the Weeping Well.

Lilian was the one to ask the question in a weepy voice, “What do we do now?”

NOTE: For people who have been reading along, THE SINFIRE CHRONICLES is gonna be dropping on Amazon on August 11, 2026. You can pre-order it now! I'll be stubbing the first book on August 11, so get it while it's hot.

https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Instincts-Sinfire-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B0H9P1NF4Q