Chapter One
CASSIA
I JOLT UPRIGHT in bed, my chest heaving as I take in the familiar sights of my bedroom.
Sweat drips down the back of my neck, and I’m mildly aware that I’ve soaked through my pajamas. It’s not the first time I’ve done this. That day haunts me, even twenty-two years later. I wipe my face, eyeing my furniture.
My chestnut dresser is directly across from my bed. The top is empty, free of any clutter or junk. Just the way I like it. The closet door is beside my dresser. It’s left open a crack, one of my bags in the way of the latch.
My breath hitches, and I squeeze my eyes shut before continuing my grounding.
An overpriced, sleek leather chair is to the right of my bed. It’s black. As black as my soul feels during long nights like this. There’s a handful of clothing, also all black, thrown over the cushion.
Beside it, tucked in the corner, is my vanity.
I make eye contact with my reflection in the mirror.
My sleep thrashing has turned my long, black hair into one giant knot.
It will take forever to brush through tomorrow morning.
I’m hoping the dark bags under my eyes will be fixed with another few hours of sleep.
I turn away from the mirror before my wrath gets the best of me.
My nightmares always put me in a foul mood.
I lie back in bed, staring at my ceiling. There’s a small water spot in the corner, but I don’t mind.
Aziel just about had a heart attack when I informed him of my plans to rent this apartment, but I love it. It’s located in the heart of Wrath, only a ten-minute walk from quick food and alcohol-filled establishments. I take advantage of both quite frequently.
I should at least try to fall back to sleep. I have a busy day tomorrow and need all the rest I can get, but it would be a waste of time. I’m never able to return to sleep after dreaming about Luca. I was only five when he was murdered, but the memory of that day still haunts me.
I slip out of bed, the creaky, wooden floor cold against my bare feet. It’s a welcome shock to my system. My nightmares put me on edge, and I should settle my emotions before meeting with Valeria later. My older sister gets on my nerves, and I don’t care to lose control today.
It’s better I lose it with Valeria than David, though. My older brother is an incubus through and through, and it’s infuriating. He can’t go ten minutes without making some sort of innuendo or joke, and he takes almost nothing seriously.
Valeria is the opposite. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen my older sister smile, and she spends most of her time wandering through the fated world.
I’m going to use that to my benefit today.
More faint memories of Luca flash through my mind, and I shake my head as I dress and teleport outside the front door of my family home. The files I need are in Aziel’s office, which is practically impenetrable.
I’m hoping the household is still sleeping, and I suppose that’s one benefit to waking up at such an ungodly hour.
I’d teleport directly inside Aziel’s office if it wouldn’t alert Silas.
He somehow always knows when somebody materializes inside the manor, leaving me no choice but to sneak through the house like a teenage human.
If my parents catch wind of what I’m planning, they’ll lock me up within Wrath. It’s a risk I’m more than willing to take.
Mammon murdered my baby brother, and I will be taking my revenge. The Queen of Greed will pay for what she did. I’m going to kill her and her entire fucking bloodline. I’ll leave her kingdom in ruins.
I don’t care if it goes against fate. I don’t care if it damns me to an eternity of misery.
I’m as quiet as a shadow as I slink through the manor and into Aziel’s office. Photos of the family—photos of me—line the walls. They’re constantly rotating, but I don’t take the time to see what new ones have been added as I begin sifting through my father’s files.
I need every bit of information he has on Mammon’s kingdom.
Mammon captured Luca, plucked him from Wrath the first moment he had ever been separated from my fathers, and let her worthless soldiers murder him like the animalistic little heathens they are. Then she had him deposited in our backyard for us to find—for me to find. I’ll never forget.
I believe she was attempting to send a message. She wanted to prove that the kingdom of Greed still held power, that she and her people aren’t afraid of my fathers.
And she lives to tell the tale. It’s despicable, and I refuse to tolerate it a minute longer.
That bitch would’ve been dead years ago if my parents weren’t so afraid of taking revenge. They fear war. They fear angering fate. They won’t risk losing another child.
They’re cowards.
I’m taking matters into my own hands.
Greed’s file is in the back of Aziel’s desk drawer, the paper worn thin from years and years of handling. I take off the moment they’re in my hand, hurrying through the dark, quiet corridors and out the front door of the manor. I’m sure several shadows have spotted me, but they know who I am.
They won’t feel the need to wake my parents and alert them of my intrusion.
I disappear the second I’m outside, teleporting to my cabin on the outskirts of Lust. It’s a small property, and I paid in cash so the sale couldn’t be traced back to me. Only Valeria knows about this place.
I’m giddy with nerves, and I shake out my limbs before getting to work.
The file is large, and I’m hoping to learn something valuable from it.
Mammon shut down her kingdom almost immediately after Luca’s murder, and the bitch even managed to access enough magic to prohibit any teleportation within her borders. It’s ironclad, too.
Nobody goes in. Nobody comes out.
We’ve had practically no insight into Greed’s dealings for almost twenty-two years. I suspect my fathers know more than they let on, though. My gaze drops to the paperwork I stole from Aziel. I’m about to find out.
Several hours pass, the cabin silent minus the occasional scratchy flutter when I flip the page.
Valeria appears quietly, her calming scent enveloping me a moment after the air ripples with her arrival.
She’s in blood red, her signature color this year, and her black hair has been carefully braided down the center of her head. She looks good.
“Morning,” she says.
I grunt.
She walks around my desk, her movements unnaturally lithe. I can practically feel her gaze roaming my face, but I ignore it.
“Have you slept?” she eventually asks.
“A bit.”
A quiet sigh. “Cassia. You need—”
“Have the fates told you anything?” I interrupt. “About Greed? Or about my plans?”
I know Valeria’s answer before she even begins to speak. It’s always the same. “No. I’m too invested. The fates won’t show me anything regarding you or Greed.”
I should’ve never pulled her into my plans.
She hasn’t been helpful, and her knowledge of them is a liability.
Our parents have explicitly told us to stay out of their dealings with Mammon.
Several times. They’ll kill me when they learn what I’ve done.
Mom will fry me alive. For a human, she sure knows how to make it hurt.
Her ire is my favorite thing about her, but only when it’s not directed at me.
There’s another ripple, and David appears.
Valeria refuses to look me in the eye.
I chew at the inside of my cheek, trying and failing to rein in my explosive anger. My brown-haired, brown-eyed brother is much too human for his own good, and he carries too many of their sensitive traits. He can’t keep a secret to save his life.
I rise from my chair, eyeing his baby-blue silk shirt with poorly concealed disgust. He’s so…colorful. I hate it, and I openly sneer as I meet his gaze.
“What are you doing here?” I bite out.
David cocks his head to the side, a smile toying at the corners of his lips. “That’s no way to talk to the King of Lust.”
I blink. “Being the King of Lust isn’t nearly as impressive as you believe it to be.”
Lust is filled with weak, sex-fueled demons. They offer no benefits to the larger demon population. Gray stepped down, handing his title over to David four months ago. My brother has been unbearable since.
“Says the woman who still can’t secure herself the title of Queen,” David quips. “Don’t think I didn’t overhear you begging Daddy A. to step down when you heard of my promotion. You reek of jealousy.”
I smack away Valeria’s outstretched hand. I don’t need her fucking peace offering.
“Lust is nothing more than a midsized kingdom of useless, horny demons and cheap brothels,” I say.
“Wrath has millions of citizens, political relationships far too complex for your limited intelligence, and an entire fucking army. Leading Wrath is a huge responsibility, so of course I won’t take over at twenty-seven.
That would be foolish, and Aziel is far from foolish. ”
David laughs. Fucking laughs. “I don’t think calling Daddy A. by his given name will make him see you as the adult you so desperately wish to be.”
Power thrums through my veins, pushing at the barriers I keep it locked tightly behind. I should kill David. I should rip out his fucking throat.
“Guys…” Valeria sighs. “We should be working together.”
I shake my head. “Not with David.” I wave an arm in his direction. “He’s going to run to Gray with everything he knows.”
“I am not!”
“Of course you are! You always have, and you—”
“Guys!”
My jaw snaps shut at the rare sound of Valeria’s shout. David’s does the same, but we continue glaring at one another. Is he imagining my bloody death just as much as I’m imagining his?
“David has a contact who can create a tonic to dull your power,” Valera says.
Is that so? I’m hesitant to believe anything he says. David’s known to lie. He’ll do anything to be included. He’s a classic incubus, and he’s not to be trusted.
David smirks, brushing his hands down his shirt. “That’s right.” He’s taunting me. I clench my fists. “I’ve been…spending time with an elven woman for a few months now. She can get me some.”
I raise a brow.
David huffs. “I swear it.”
He seems genuine, and a power-dulling tonic would admittedly be helpful. I can’t enter Mammon’s kingdom like this, not with Aziel’s power roiling through me. It’s distinct, and I’m not great at controlling it. Any flares of strong emotion will put me at risk.
If it seeps out while I’m in Greed, I’m as good as dead.
Mammon must be on high alert. She has to know my family is after her, that we want her head on a fucking stake. She wouldn’t have survived this long if she hadn’t known who her enemies were.
I hope she felt agony when her shifter mate died.
I hope it felt like her soul was being ripped out of her chest. Demons don’t have mate bonds, but she was a rare exception.
Mammon sent her mate into the shifter realm to murder my mother, probably under the impression that the shifters wouldn’t kill their own, but she miscalculated.
I hope Vont’s death robbed her of every bit of enjoyment she’s ever fucking had.
I hope she burns. I’m going to make her burn.
I’m going to sneak into her kingdom under disguise, and I’m going to end this once and for all. Luca’s death will be avenged. I’ll make sure of it. It may be twenty-two years too late, but that’s nothing to the demons. Mammon alone is probably thousands of years old.
“Breathe.” It’s David who speaks, and his sweet scent fills my lungs a second later. “Calm down, Cassia. Take a breath.”
I can’t.
My anger builds, mounting and mounting until I’m pretty sure I’m going to explode. I can’t contain it, can’t contain the power I inherited from Aziel. It’s my greatest failure.
David smooths a hand down my back. He’s using his infuriating incubus scent to settle my racing thoughts. It’s effective—the only compliment I’m willing to throw his way—and I force myself to tune out my thoughts and practice my grounding.
I’m standing beside my desk, the surface cluttered with the paperwork I stole from Aziel’s office. Paperwork that’s turning out to be useless. There’s a dirty cup in the corner of the desk. It’s filled with an ale so old, I’m surprised it isn’t growing mold.
I assumed Valeria left it here. I was surprised she came here to drink ale in the first place, but now I suspect it was David. He left it here to taunt me.
I suck in a shuddering breath. He runs another hand down my back.
“Breathe.” His voice is no louder than a whisper. “Let it go.”
That’s easier said than done.
Beyond my desk is a large window that overlooks a beautiful grassy bluff. Lust is known for its stunning scenery, and I stare into the nothingness as I will my thundering heart to settle. It works, but just barely.
Several minutes pass before I’m no longer at risk of leveling my home and the surrounding quarter mile of property. I lock eyes with David and dip my chin.
It’s the closest he’ll ever get to a thank you.
“How soon can you get that tonic?” I ask.
“As soon as you need it,” David says. “Why the sudden rush, though? You’ve wanted to kill Mammon your entire life, but why now?”
I don’t have a good answer. Now’s as good a time as any, and I’m tired of sitting around waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I’ve given my parents over twenty years to deal with the situation, and as far as I’m concerned, they haven’t done shit.
I’ll see it through.