Chapter 46: Old Maid
There are high places in this world meant for gods and gamblers.
I stood at one now, on the topmost balcony of Greed’s grand temple—an open precipice of cut stone and windless heat. The floor beneath me whispered with dust and faded grandeur, crushed gemstones glittering like the remains of lost kingdoms.
Below, the casino writhed like a creature with too many hands—dealing, stacking, scheming. The pit at the center—the true pit—glowed like the mouth of an ancient forge, surrounded by players who didn’t flinch when losing fingers, fortunes, or futures.
And beside me?
She leaned.
A stretch of shadow, perfume, and gold.
Her name hadn’t been offered yet, but her body spoke volumes.
Tall, lean, and dangerous, her dark jackal ears flicked as if catching every secret wafting through the room. Her lips were slick with something that tasted like smoke and confidence, her chain-draped silhouette reflecting torchlight with sin-soaked precision.
She was going to eat me alive.
I knew it.
And yet I still hadn’t decided whether I’d let her.
