Chapter Twenty-Three
She didn’t know how long she slept before Envy came for her again. At first she panicked, thinking Logan was still curled beside her. But as awareness slowly crept within her drowsy brain, so did the chill of the limestone beneath her. Logan’s warmth was gone. As was he. Maybe he’d taken to heart her admonishment to stay away.
Envy sprung the shackle from her ankle and jerked her to her feet. “Come. I have a surprise for you.”
Her knees, stiff and aching from her uncomfortable bed on the hard stone, protested the rough treatment. She steadied herself before traipsing after Envy. Outside the cave, the sky remained cloaked in twilight. How could that be? She’d dozed for what’d seemed like forever. Surely dawn should have broken by now. Unless…
Perhaps this place was perpetually shrouded in darkness.
A heavy bleakness anchored in her chest at the idea of never seeing the sun again or feeling its comforting rays.
“Look. Isn’t it wonderful?”
She lifted her head at Envy’s excited shout. An enormous fountain stood in the middle of the beach. It took her a moment to realize it was an exact replica of the one in Forsyth Park. Wispy figures were frolicking beneath its spray. She drew nearer, and the three individuals came into sharper focus—Jolene and the two Tatum girls. She recoiled in shock.
“Quite realistic, aren’t they? I spent all day working to get their likenesses perfect.”
She gaped at Envy, who seemed oblivious of her reaction. But then the sin turned toward her, its zealous glee intensifying. With sickening clarity, she determined the creature’s motive for resurrecting the painful scene. “Why do you crave torturing me this way?” She hated how small her voice sounded, like she’d been transformed back into that child who’d longed for her parents’ love and affection.
“Because it gives me great joy.” The voice did not come from Envy.
She pivoted, horror crashing over her as a massive, hideous beast rose from the depths of the lake. It resembled a giant squid, but with seven heads and huge, demonic red eyes.
Each of which just so happened to be pinned on her. She stumbled backward, nearly tripping on the sand. “Dear goddess, protect us all.”
A deep booming laugh thundered from the beast. It was then that she recalled where she’d heard the sound before. In her dream.
This was Seven. The core creature comprising the sins.
“Your goddess does not exist here. I am the creator of all. And the destroyer of many. Bow before me, you worthless human.”
If her legs weren’t already too frozen to move, she still would have refused the demand. The creature’s numerous mouths yawned open, revealing a plethora of razor-sharp teeth. “Bow.”
Before she could tell Seven what it could do with that request, Envy shoved at her shoulders, forcing her to her hands and knees, until the rough scrape of silica bit into her palms.
“That’s more like it.”
“I didn’t—” She broke off with a gasp, tears stinging her eyes as Envy’s talons dug into her scalp.
“Do not test the master,” Envy rasped warningly. “He is already angry that I allowed the wolf to live.”
Greed suddenly materialized near the fountain, its dark eyes full of disdain. “Yes, that was rather a stupid move on your part. You should have fed him to the master like the others.”
Nausea rolled in the pit of Clarissa’s gut. Her focus swerved from Seven to the lake teeming with oil and fire behind the beast. “You are the evil that lives in those waves. You’re consuming the souls.”
Greed rolled her eyes at Envy. “Honestly, what do you see in this one? She’s not even that bright.”
Ignoring the sin’s bitchy sarcasm, Clarissa stared at Seven. “What are you?”
Another of those terrible laughs shook from the creature. “Don’t you know? I’m the dark at the end of the tunnel.”
Logan glared at the small crowd of spectators who’d gathered in the bedroom. If it were up to him, he would have kicked most of them out. Particularly the damn guild members, who were no doubt sitting in on the hypnosis session just because they were pains in the asses who enjoyed sticking their noses in a man’s private business.
Constance finished anointing his forehead with her charmed oil concoction before placing her fingers over his eyelids, forcing them shut. “I want you to just concentrate on your breathing for a moment.” She talked him through the process, her voice a relaxing lullaby. “Feel yourself going deeper and deeper within yourself. Your wolf is there, waiting for you. Waiting to take you to Clarissa.”
A strange spiraling sensation overtook him, but rather than panic, he allowed the ebb and flow of the currents to buffet him through the swirling vortex.
Suddenly the spinning stopped and he was inside his wolf, crouched near the cave where he’d slept with Clarissa the previous night. Keeping low to the ground, he belly-crawled to the mouth of the structure, his preternatural eyesight giving him the added boost of being able to see if anyone was hiding in the dense shadows filling the cavern. It appeared to be empty.
He was about to dart toward the opposite end of the cave when a strangely familiar scent bombarded him. Though it possessed an unquestionably female bouquet, it wasn’t Clarissa. Whirling, he growled at the trespasser.
“Down, Cujo. It’s me. Willa.”
If he’d possessed the ability to speak, he was damn certain he would have cursed every word in the book at the young witch, right before demanding she tell him how the hell she’d ended up there.
“Yeah, I can tell from your expression that you’re pretty much wondering the same thing I am. Suffice to say, I have no damn clue what I’m doing here, either.” Willa hunkered close to the rock wall, her teeth chattering loud enough to rouse the entire mountainside.
Fuck. This wasn’t good at all. How was he supposed to gather intel on Seven and keep watch over Willa at the same time? He crowded her closer to the concealment of the cave and gave her a warning look, hoping she’d get the message. He took two careful steps forward. And immediately heard the swoosh-swoosh of her feet disturbing the sand behind him. Jerking his head around, he stared her down.
“No way, buster. Wherever your furry ass is going, I’m following. This place is too creepy to hang around by myself.”
Damn stubborn women. They were going to be the death of him. Literally.
Returning his focus to the path that snaked toward the shores of the lake in the distance, he snuffled the ground. Sure enough, Clarissa’s sweet scent mingled with the grains of sand. She’d been through here recently. After a quick glance to ensure Willa was still trailing close behind, he dashed in the direction of his mate. As they neared the lake, he could make out several figures standing on the beach.
But it was the massive beast rising from the waves that turned his blood to ice. What. The. Fuck. He detected Willa’s sharp intake of breath and prayed that she wasn’t about to scream. Or do anything else that would bring attention to them both and potentially put Clarissa in danger before he could reach her.
Giving Willa an unsubtle nudge, he galloped toward the cluster of boulders that bisected the beach and the sheer curtain of rock comprising the interior of the mountain. The shelter would provide them cover, but it was also close enough to the action that if that thing moved to attack Clarissa, he’d be on top of the bastard in an instant.
The sound of raised voices carried to him, and he cocked his ears forward.
“You humans always amuse me with your constant quests for eternal enlightenment, when clearly it’s always been the darkness that consumes you most.” The smug diatribe seemed to be coming from the ugly-ass beast. “One only has to watch those news programs your kind adore to see your obsession with tragedy. Killings and muggings. Kidnappings. War and disease. Day after day, you find more ways to destroy the light. And feed me.”