“No.” Clarissa shook her head adamantly. “We’re not monsters like you.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. My pride corrupts your egos, even while my envy cripples your souls. I’m the gluttonous darkness that desires to smite all else. As you see, there’s a little piece of me in every single one of you. It’s time you fully recognize that.” The beast snapped its tentacles toward its psychotic henchmen, and the four creatures pounced on Clarissa.
Fear and rage exploding within him, Logan released a ferocious growl and leapt from concealment, sprinting to his mate’s aid.
The next several seconds were a terrifying blur as he attacked each of the creatures. He managed to fling two of them off Clarissa, and she struggled to escape the other pair. Willa came running from behind as three more of the creatures jumped into the fray. They dragged Clarissa into the lake, shoving her beneath the waves.
His anguished howl renting the air, he dove in after her. She resurfaced, choking on a mouthful of the oily water. He swam toward her, his legs paddling furiously, but just as he was almost upon her, a fierce wave tossed him skyward.
For one blinding moment, he was suspended.
The next second, he crashed back into his body. Gasping and trembling, he snapped his eyes open. Constance was leaning over him, her face deathly pale as a rush of anxious questions pelted from her mouth. Tuning them out, he pushed her away and vaulted to his feet, his gaze sweeping the crowded room for Willa. She was slumped against the wall, her expression dazed. He raced to her, catching her around the arms as she started to slide toward the floor. “What the hell happened?”
“I—I don’t know. One minute I was in the lake, and now I’m here. But I still feel Clarissa. She’s alive.”
Willa’s admission swamped him with relief and prompted a tidal wave of stunned demands around the room as everyone suddenly became aware that he hadn’t been the only one to take a trip to Freaky Island. Domino asked the question that seemed to be most prominently poised on everyone’s tongue, but with her own unique, domineering twist. “Willa, I demand to know how you ended up over there.”
“I—I have no damn idea. But it’s the place from my dream. Only I guess it’s not really just a dream anymore.” She shuddered.
Desperate to get her back on track, he shook her shoulders. “You’ve dreamt about that thing? What the fuck is it?”
“I th-think it’s a levi—the word that’s kept popping in my head for the past week. As soon as I saw that disgusting…” She broke off for a moment, blinking. “Leviathan.”
A hush fell over the guild members, and Logan swerved his focus to Domino. “What? What is it?”
“They’re the seven-headed gatekeepers to hell. The most powerful of all soul collectors.” Domino’s fingers trembled as she pressed them to her lips. She shook her head, the color slowly returning to her high cheekbones. “Impossible. It’s believed they’ve been extinct for at least a century.”
“Trust me, that fuckin’ thing is alive and kickin’.” But not for long. “How is it killed?”
“I don’t think it can be.”
“Hope,” Willa whispered.
He and Domino glanced at the young witch. Willa’s eyes glazed over, as if she’d traveled to some far-off place. “It can be slain by hope. But first we must relight hers.”
Domino frowned. “Willa, what’s wrong with you?”
Shoving the pain-in-the-ass guild leader aside, Logan clasped Willa’s arm. “Whose hope? Clarissa’s?”
She nodded. “The lake extinguished her hope. Her only chance of surviving, and killing the Levi, is if we relight it.”
Domino made an impatient noise. “Willa, what—?”
Slashing his gaze in Domino’s direction, he bared his teeth. “Say one more word, and I swear to Christ I’m jamming a sock in your mouth.”
The guild leader’s eyes blazed, but at least she took his threat to heart. His attention shifted back to Willa. “How do we relight her hope?”
“We call her to us.” She bit her lip and looked around the room before staring up at him. “We call her home.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Sweet Clarissa.”
Envy’s covetous touch roamed her face, brushing over her eyelashes. “You are truly ready to become my bride now. Reborn and baptized.” The sin delicately wiped the last traces of oily ooze from her hair with the cloth it’d wrapped around her as soon as she’d been dragged from the lake. She shivered, a terrible emptiness carved deep within her belly.
“You feel it now, don’t you? The darkness that brings you closer to me. To master. We are one now. Forever.”
The creature’s cold, clammy kiss iced over her lips before the sin helped her into the black lace wedding dress that’d magically appeared beside her. “Come. It’s time to celebrate our union and make it official. The others are waiting.”
As if she were no more functional than a zombie, she followed Envy’s command. There was nothing left of her now. No struggle. No fight. Only a vast, unfillable void.
They stepped into the twilight. The darkness was denser than ever, a perfect twin to the empty abyss within her soul. As promised, the others were gathered at the lake’s edge. She and Envy joined them, and Clarissa stood motionless while the six sins danced around her and Envy. Even the bitchy Greed and the lazy Sloth seemed to be enjoying the festive atmosphere.
“For seven years I’ve patiently waited to make you mine.” Envy’s talons caressed her chin. “Did you know that I came to your coven house the day of that tiger and witch’s wedding? I watched you, sweet Clarissa, my eagerness almost overwhelming as I imagined reciting our own vows. And now here we are. It’s a dream come true.”
It occurred to her that she should feel disturbed that the sin had been anywhere near the coven house. Instead, she felt…nothing.
“I have forgiven you for doing all of those wicked things with that filthy wolf. It’s quite generous of me, no?”
Wolf?
Oh yes, Logan. She waited for the pain of his absence to fill her. But…nothing.
Lust suddenly whirled her into its arms, jerking her around like a rag doll as the sin waltzed her upon the sand. An angry hiss erupted from Envy and it leapt at Lust, knocking the creature onto its ass. The two sins began fighting, clawing at each other, while jeering laughter broke from their siblings.
Amidst the commotion, she heard the faint echo of her name. At first she paid it no mind, but then it grew louder. Enough so it drew the attention of the five sins who were not squabbling. Their features froze for a fraction of a second before twisting with ugly menace. A legion of hisses filled the air, almost drowning out the constant chanting of her name, which had grown to a deafening crescendo.
The two sins wrestling on the sand ceased beating on each other. Its expression awash with panic, Envy hurtled to its feet. The creature spun in circles, making terrible hissing and growling noises into the darkness. When that didn’t defeat the rising chorus of her name, Envy crushed her to its chest, clamping its hands over her ears. But even with everything muffled, a strange thing occurred.
The emptiness within her belly began to recede.
She felt a flicker of something. A spark. The edges of her conscience tried to grasp the meaning of it, why the tiny flame offering its meager warmth called to her.
A furious cacophony of noise clanged inside her head, competing with the voices singing her name. The sins were screeching, their shrill, discordant yowls deafening.