Page 39 of Sinner's End

“The fuck did you do to her?” Mana roars in a whisper that rattles my bones nonetheless. His volume—or lack, thereof—is paired with the thick forearm braced across my throat.

Anyone lesser might fold before his fury.

I match him with that same dose of my own and raise his call with a perfect night I shouldhave had with our girl. Yeah, ours. Because she belongs to both of us. Which means this is both our problem.

Bonus? We both get to fix this fuckup of mother-level proportions.

“Fuck you,” I snarl, slapping him away like he’s less than tinder-ready to flame.

Mana lets me go, and I hate him a little more for his version of leniency.

“She was horny as fuck when I got to her house. We fucked around. Had a bit of fun. The sister turned up. Said boo to the goose, literally two motherfucking words, and this shit happened. The earth rocked, the house shook. Then our girl turned into the ice princess.”

“And the sister?” Mana watches me closely, not an inkling of shock or surprise written across his dark, archaic features that draws mortals to him like he’s the god he’ll never be.

“Gone. What else is there?” I snap, glaring at him.

“What else indeed.” Mana lets out a soft laugh, the sort I hate most. His liquid smile and the way he licks his lips as helooks at me reminds me forcibly of the night at the bell tower.

“Do you ever have normal fucking sex?”

“Can you not swear for once?’

“What, a rich demon underlord cussing me out for my language?” I smirk. “Losing your grip on the overworld, old pal?”

His eyes narrow. “Where did you learn that term?”

“Turns out you don’t keep the texts in your library as off limits as perhaps they should be,” I coo, knowing it will incite the beast inside him. My soul calls for blood and since his is the shit that started this calamity, his is what I want.

Mana lets out a measured purr. “Don’t try me, pup,” he warns softly.

“Or what, you’ll eat my dick?” I flip the bird for an extra visual, knowing this isn’t helping with Addi, but I can’t stop.

I don’t want to fucking stop. If he isn’t about to stake his claim, maybe my girl will be back. If he isn’t there to stake his claim, then she’s all mine.

Mana, however, puts on the brakes to our fight, overachiever that the fucker is. “What did you do?” he hisses between sharpened teeth, baring them to me.

I shrug. “I let my anger out.”

“Withher?”

“What? No.No.Man, you do you. It’s not like we can’t show our emotions with her. She’s not going anywhere, Mana. Even before this, she was…”

“Perfect,” we both whisper as Addi turns toward us, offering a benign smile that looks beyond fucking wrong spread across her face.

“What happened here?” Lethe strides past us, ignoring my growl and Mana’s hiss. His white clothing is darker, more stained than usual. More like Bowen’s, before he decided to advertise his death wish with a mantle of blood. “What did you do to her?” He whirls on us, panic written across his face. Theice-like facade of the pale man crumbles for the first time and he looks … human, though we all know he’s not. He crumples to his knees at her feet, rocking slightly and curling his hands around her calves, massaging them. “This is my fault,” he moans, a broken … well, a whatever. “My fault. I did this to you, my princess,” he whispers, looking up at her as she ignores his suffering, like she’s collecting all the pain in the room from each of us here.

My head snaps sideways as several things click at once.

“He’s an angel,” Mana murmurs. “And from what he said, it’s likely he fucked her last night, or defiled her in some way. Who were you?” he calls to Lethe.

The tormented angel stares back at both of us while a blank, soulless Addi pets his hair.

“I don’t know,” he whispers brokenly. “I was supposed to protect her.”

“Like a guardian angel.” I frown at the cliche that’s that bit too much.

“No. Nothing so mundane. I was to care for her, guide her. Love her as my own.” His pale blue eyes, almost as clear but with more color than Bowen’s, stare up at me with red rims. Tears track his dirty cheeks. “She was mine to protect. Just mine. And I ruined it.”

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