Chapter 29
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
DEATH
The repetitive glide of my needle in and out of the gridded fabric was the best form of meditation.
“Are you fucking serious?” Wrath growled, storming into the sitting room my sisters and I had claimed as our own.
The unexpected interruption had me pricking myself with the sharp end of my needle. “Ow, fiddlesticks!” I blurted as a bead of my blood fell onto my craft.
Pestilence snickered, looking up from where she was painting her nails some shade of putrid bile.
“Hello, Wrath. Lovely to see you . . . without an appointment.” War’s tone was laced with annoyance as she sliced the skin off an apple with a knife.
“I didn’t realize I needed one.”
I set aside my cross-stitch, the half-finished saying mocking me. It’s not the end of the world . . . yet.
Fucking tell me about it.
“What brings you by? And in such an emotional state,” Famine asked.
“Yes, it’s very rude to burst in on people, Wrath. You really need to work on getting a handle on your emotions.” His face reddened at my patronizing tone. “Use your words and tell us what has you in a tizzy.”
He looked one second away from throttling me. “I want to know why the hell we’re sitting around here with our thumbs up our arses instead of out there claiming what is ours.”
“He raises a valid point,” Sloth mused.
I glanced over to find him in the doorway, arms folded over his chest, back propped up against one side of the doorway, boot braced against the other. He could have been the centerfold of a magazine.
“Eavesdropping is an ugly habit,” Pestilence snarked.
“There’s nothing ugly about him, and you know it,” Famine countered.
She wasn’t wrong.
Sloth lifted a shoulder. “I’m bored. It’s not like there’s much here in the way of entertainment.”
Famine sauntered over, an exaggerated sway to her leather-clad hips. “If it’s entertainment you’re after, darling, all you had to do was ask.”
“Desperation doesn’t suit you, Sabine,” Pestilence said.
“Fuck off, Odette.”
Sloth’s lips twisted in a grin. “I stand corrected.”
If these two weren’t already fucking, they would be soon.
“Is anyone going to answer me?” Wrath snarled.
I rolled my eyes and let out a heavy exhale. “You are such a whiner. Seriously, give your balls a tug.”
“The fuck did you say to me?”
I stood, leveling him with a glare. “You heard me. You want answers? Fine. But you will not come in here and speak to my sisters and me with anything other than respect.”
He snarled, but didn’t goad me further. Smart man. He might be Wrath, but he had no idea what it was like to be on the receiving end of a horsewoman’s fury.
“In other words, sit down and shut up,” Minerva said before biting into her apple.
Wrath, wind taken out of his sails, sat.
“Good dog,” Odette murmured.
He gripped the arms of his chair, ready to launch himself at her, but Sloth laid a hand on the other man's shoulder. “Don’t fall into her trap so easily, mate. She’s a wily one. They all are.”
“It’s true, our progress has been thwarted by the loss of our captives and the support of the traitor, Lucifer.
But make no mistake, we haven’t been idle,” I offered, striding across the room and to the globe.
“Our armies are strong, stationed at every hellmouth, and growing. The humans are joining us with eager support now that they realize they’ve been abandoned by their god. ”
“That’s all information we already have,” Wrath said.
“Yes, but the rest of the plan has to change now that we’ve lost Lucifer. We won’t win the battle against heaven’s army without his support.”
“And whose fault is that?” Wrath demanded.
I raised a brow and continued without answering, “Unless we amplify our power to replace the loss of his. Something we were already attempting as a failsafe when we captured Sunday and Pan.”
“Sounds like we’re back to square one,” Sloth said.
“Not exactly.”
“How do you figure?” he pressed.
“Well, before we had to rely on others to hunt down their locations and bring them to us.”
“And now?” Wrath all but growled, clearly annoyed with me.
“And now we have a way to grab all of them at once, regardless of where they are hiding.”
“So what are you waiting for?”
War stalked over to my side. “Funny you should ask, actually.”
“How do you figure?”
“Because as of this morning, we have everything we need,” I answered for her, my smile causing Wrath to lift his brows in delight.
“Sounds like things are about to get interesting after all,” Sloth said with a smirk.
“Oh, darling, you have no idea,” Famine said, sliding her arm through his.
“Bring in the Siren coven,” I announced.
Pestilence looked around. “Who are you speaking to?”
“Oh, would you look at that, you just volunteered.”