Chapter Three
CASSIA
I SPEND ALMOST an entire week researching.
I wake before sunrise and spend hours studying every known text that so much as mentions Mammon or Greed. I find little helpful information. Entry into her lands has been prohibited since Luca’s death, so everything I do find is outdated.
There are a few Wraths who spent time in Greed before the wards were put in place, but I can’t interrogate anybody without drawing suspicion. Aziel would find out. He’d hear about my inquiries, and my entire plan would crumble.
I make do with the written texts. There are dozens detailing the war in the years before I was born—the war that started all of this. It’s hard to relate to the treatment women went through. I can’t imagine being owned and treated as cattle.
The rehabilitation facilities still exist, and some women still choose to live inside them, but they’re largely unused now.
There’s been a boom in female births in the last ten years, especially within Wrath, and the shifters carefully monitor the areas slower to adjust to the changes. I’m not heavily involved. Aziel allows me to oversee many of Wrath’s affairs, but not this.
I suspect it’s out of shame.
My fathers have never told me the details—they shy away from them—but it’s common knowledge that they were aware of the issue for several years before doing anything to help. They sat on the information that condemned my gender to generations of rape and abuse.
I’m not under any pretense that my fathers are good people. Gray purchased Mom from an auction, and it doesn’t take an expert to assume the reason why. I love my fathers, but they aren’t the heroes the world makes them out to be.
They were lucky, and they did an exceptional job repairing their image during the war, but I’m no fool.
It doesn’t change anything, though. My fathers could kill millions of innocents, and I’ll still stand beside them.
I’ll always stand beside them, beside my family. It’s why I’m going to execute Mammon.
I work on my plan every morning until the sun rises, then I return to Wrath to complete my public work. I make appearances at functions. I approve budgets and contracts and read through thousands of sheets of mind-numbingly dull paperwork. I hold meetings with government officials.
I’m positioning myself to eventually take Aziel’s title, and I’m doing a damn good job at it.
At the end of each day, I return to Lust to resume my research. Sometimes Valeria joins me. Sometimes David. But most of my time is spent alone. I don’t mind. I prefer being alone. I can better concentrate that way.
All the information I find regarding Mammon and Greed is outdated, but it’s better than nothing. I scour maps of her land and accounts of those closest to her. I find details about her shifter mate—her dead shifter mate—and I smile every time.
I should visit Uncle Chev and ask him about Vont. I want to hear every detail about that man’s painful death. Every. Fucking. Detail.
I linger in Lust until my eyes are so heavy, I can’t make out the words on the page. Only then do I return to my apartment and sleep. My social life is sacrificed. My health is sacrificed. My precious sleep and sanity are sacrificed, but it’s worth it. It’s well worth it.
I do this daily without fail and without pause.
The air surrounding me ripples, and David appears beside my desk a heartbeat later. It’s too early for him to be awake, and I sigh as I set down my pen and spin around. He reeks of sex, and he’s holding a glass container filled with sludgy-looking black liquid.
He smirks, pulling off the lid. “Look what I have!”
I recoil. The scent is acrid, almost even violent. It burns my nose, and I instinctively back away. What the fuck is that? It’s vile, and I have half a mind to tip it over onto David’s crisp, white shirt.
“This is guaranteed to dull your power,” David says. “I was told to warn you not to take more than a few sips at a time. It won’t kill you or anything, but it’ll put you on your ass.”
He reaches over me, grabbing my half-empty cup off my desk and unceremoniously dumping the remains of my water out the window. Then he pours in some of the vile, black liquid and shoves the cup into my hands.
“Drink up.”
I grimace, peering into the cup. “I’m not drinking this.”
“It’s the only way to dampen your power,” David quips. “This wasn’t easy to secure, either, so you better fucking drink it.”
I lift the cup to my nose and sniff the contents. Then I promptly gag. It’s atrocious, and I’m reasonably certain that, despite what David says, one sip will most definitely kill me.
If I die, though, my fathers will split David in half. He’ll never see the light of day again.
The thought brings a smile to my face. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if this killed me. I’d happily lay down my life if it guaranteed David an eternity of being miserable. I bet Gray would even take away his title. King no more.
I bring the cup to my lips and choke down the liquid in one large gulp. It threatens to come back up several times, my chest heaving as my body disobeys my straightforward order to swallow.
David watches the entire thing, a cheery grin playing at the corners of his mouth. I bet he’s waited his whole life for this. He may be older than I am, but I’ve always been stronger than him. I’ve always held more power, and I’ve never been afraid to use it.
The tonic settles heavily in my stomach, almost like I swallowed an iron paperweight. That feeling quickly travels to every part of my body, starting with my legs and ending with my neck. Holding my head up is a chore, and my drinking glass shatters as it slips from my fingers.
David’s on me in a heartbeat, pure panic in his brown eyes as he lifts my head and scans my face.
“Fuck, Cassia,” he says. “I was told the first time would be the worst. Your body isn’t used to operating without power, and it’ll take a while to adjust. The effects should only last a few days.”
A few days? He can’t be serious. That would’ve been helpful to know beforehand. I can’t walk around Wrath like this. People will take one look at me and immediately know that something is wrong.
David helps me out of my chair, one arm wrapped around my waist as he guides me to the couch pushed up against the back wall. I practically fall onto it, unable to manipulate my limbs the way I want.
Through sheer fucking will, I manage to remain upright, and I glare daggers at David as he kneels before me. He still looks panicked, but the fear softens as he takes note of my threatening stare.
“You’re okay,” he murmurs. He’s talking to himself, the nutjob. “You’re going to be just fine.”
My mind grows fuzzy, and I groan as I slump sideways.
David catches my head, preventing it from slamming against the couch’s armrest, before gently guiding it onto the cushion.
He winces. “I think I gave you too much.”
No fucking shit.
—————
My head is throbbing. I’ve never had a headache, not like this. It’s a human trait, one I’m mostly immune to. I use my hand to block the morning sunlight from hitting my eyes. What time is it? If the sun is out, it means I’m late for work.
David is sitting at my desk. He’s facing me, carefully watching my every move. Beside him is Valeria. She’s staring at me with the intensity only a fate can manage.
I attempt to sit up, but my head is too heavy and my limbs are too sore. I don’t have the energy to spare. I blink up at my siblings instead, hoping they’ve somehow learned to read minds and can hear all the nasty things I’m thinking about them.
I’m imagining David’s head on a pike, and I’m imagining Valeria tied up and tossed into one of Wrath’s famous lava pits.
“You’ve been asleep for a little over three hours,” Valeria says. “I told Dad you’re busy helping me with a private matter this morning.”
I’m not sure which of our fathers she’s referring to, but it honestly doesn’t matter. When one knows, they all know.
Mom’s the best at keeping secrets. Silas is the second most capable, followed by Aziel and then Gray. My incubus father can’t keep his mouth shut if his life depends on it. It’s how I keep tabs on my siblings.
I cuddle up to Gray—invite him somewhere private for special father-daughter bonding time.
It makes him so happy, and he spills the family drama within minutes.
He knows what he’s doing, too, but he’ll do anything to spend time with his children.
He’s desperate, and I’m not above manipulating that trait of his.
The fact that I genuinely enjoy spending time with him is a bonus.
“How are you feeling?”
I can always count on David to ask the stupid questions.
It takes me several minutes to find my voice. “I feel like shit. Obviously.”
Valeria beams. “That’s good!”
I’m not sure I’d agree with that. In fact, I strongly disagree.
I focus on my arms, willing them to move so I can push up into a sitting position. It takes several tries, and I have to lock my elbows so they don’t give out as I apply my weight to them. I’ve never felt this weak, and I wince as my shoulders burn and arms shake with the effort of sitting up.
Is this what it feels like to be a human? To have no power funneling through my veins? It’s shit, and I can’t fathom how Mom manages to survive each day. This explains all her huffing and puffing.
It takes a few minutes to get into what could be roughly considered a sitting position. I’m slouched and panting, but I’m upright. I’ll take what I can get.
“Who took my shoes off?”
“Me.” David points to himself. “You’re welcome.”
I’m not going to thank him.
I attempt to stand, but I’m unsuccessful. I try again, and something about my shaking arms and pained grunts must tug at the heartstrings of my siblings as they rush forward to help. David wraps an arm around my waist, and Valeria stands nearby with her arms outstretched as if to catch me.
David holds me steady as I adjust to the feeling of standing. I’ve never felt my weight before. My legs never registered that they were holding up my body, but they sure as hell do now.
Have I always been this heavy?
“There you go,” David says. “Let’s try to take a few steps.”
He’s trying to be encouraging, and he’s lucky I’m too tired to snap at him for it. Instead, I place a hand on his shoulder and let him guide me around the room like a show puppy.
“How much power do you sense from me?” I ask.
David beams. “Little to none. If you walked past me on the street, I’d assume you just came out of shadow form.”
That’s music to my ears.
“The tonic has essentially locked your power up inside you, but it’s still there,” Valeria explains. “You should be able to experience almost your full range of emotion without issue, but any extreme peaks will burst the dam.”
David and I take three laps of the room before I’m so tired that I need to sit and rest.
“And there are no long-term side effects?” I ask. I should’ve asked this beforehand.
David shakes his head. “No.”
“Wonderful,” I say. “I’ll need a few days to practice moving around and existing without my power.”
“We assumed as much.” Valeria checks the time, then turns toward David. “I need to leave. Can you handle making Cassia angry?”
What the fuck does that mean? Valeria’s gone before I get the opportunity to ask.
David stalks toward me, a shit-eating grin taking over his features. “We need to peak your anger so you burn through the tonic. I have a few ideas, little sister.”