Page 46 of The Demon Crown

The closer he got to his office, the more his stomach twisted. He didn’t have time for this. He needed to keep his focus on where Varya had been taken and how to find her again. If she’d even been taken. His wily little thief was too quick and too smart to get caught.

And this was what was on his mind as he strode into his office and saw the image of Gluttony waiting for him. His brother was as the little servant girl had described. Terrifying to look at and equally beautiful. Where Greed was made with blunt edges and broad strokes, the finest of artists had sketched Gluttony.

His eyebrows winged back in perfect arches. Smooth, alabaster skin that rarely saw the sun covered his form, easily visible with the open shirt he wore tucked into the tight leather leggings he called pants. Long claws tapped his sides as he stared at Greed with those all-knowing, terrifying eyes.

“Brother,” Gluttony said, his voice almost musical in quality. “It’s been a long time.”

“Almost three hundred years.” And not long enough away from this particular member of the family. “My servant said you summoned me?”

“Not just me. I wouldn’t waste my time asking for your help.” Gluttony pointed behind Greed as the door closed behind him. “You have company.”

An ice cold chill slithered down his spine and Greed knew who stood behind him. But still, he turned around even though there was no more prickle of magic. He already knew what brother had visited him.

The man who stepped out of the shadows was nothing short of a monster. Dark, leathery wings hugged close to his body, scarred and faintly dragging on the floor because their tips were too long to keep upright. His dark hair was a wild tangle halfway down his back, and hung in front of his face so no one had to see the monstrous being underneath.

Greed had seen it before. Many times. He remembered what had happened to his brother and knew the scars that circled his mouth where it had been sewn shut for years. How one eye was blinded and milky. But worse than that, he knew the darkness in those orbs and the responsibility that weighed upon his brother’s shoulders.

“Wrath,” he rasped. “You haven’t left your kingdom in centuries.”

“That you know of.” Wrath’s voice was stone striking stone, thunder rumbling in the distance, and the terrifying sound of a predator growling in his ear. “I have left my kingdom before, and I will again. In this circumstance, I thought it best to convince you in person.”

“Convince me of what? What would drag you away from the abyss and away from the monsters of the deep?”

Wrath lifted his head just slightly, dark hair sliding over his forehead as he glared at Gluttony’s shimmering mirage. “Your brother is in trouble.”

Gluttony scoffed. “I am no more in trouble than any of the others. There is no need for such theatrics.”

If they were both in his office, this was very bad indeed.

Eyes wide, he watched Gluttony’s twitching movements and strange stance. “What did you do?”

His brother had a penchant for causing trouble but also for feeding his rather unusual... desires. Whereas Greed wished to possess, Gluttony wished to consume. He had started with meager and simple pleasures such as alcohol and drugs. But from the rumors that swirled between kingdoms, Greed had heard his brother had turned toward much more specific tastes.

“Nothing,” Gluttony hissed. “Nothing I am not permitted to do. It is my kingdom! I may do what I wish within it.”

“Within reason,” Wrath replied with a growl. He lurched forward, as though he intended to wrap his fingers around Gluttony’s neck.

Greed swallowed as he saw the state of Wrath’s hands. His brother did what it took to keep the monstrous creatures of the abyss far away from the other kingdoms. But those hands were so scarred now. The knuckles swollen beyond recognition and... By all the seven kingdoms, what was his brother doing?

Apparently, neither of his brothers noticed Greed’s sharp intake of breath because they continued to glare at each other and not him.

“You were the one who said all our kingdoms were to be as we wished,” Gluttony hissed, pointing at Wrath with more confidence than he should. After all, Wrath could easily travel to his kingdom as well. “You gifted it to me wrapped in a pretty little bow and if I wish to devour it—”

“You may devour your kingdom as you wish, but you may not devour your subjects!” Wrath interrupted with a howl of rage. “You’re lucky you’re dealing with me and not Pride!”

The silence between them all was deafening. Gluttony’s eyes had widened in shock, flicking between his two brothers as his fingers started twitching on his thigh again. And Greed’s stomach turned. They’d all been afraid of it, of course. Gluttony couldn’t stop consuming whatever he wished, but they never had thought he’d... he’d...

“Ach, Gluttony,” he muttered, rubbing his forehead. “You’re not eating people now, are you?”

There was no response, and that was answer enough.

“What do you want me to do?” Greed asked, not of Gluttony, who now refused to even look at him for shame. He asked the monster who stood beside him. “You wish me to feed my own subjects to him?”

“This is bigger than you,” Wrath replied. “This is bigger than all of us. The mortals cannot know that an uprising is very possible.”

“It’s not.”

“It is.” Finally Wrath lifted his head and straightened his back, standing a good head taller than Greed, who was already well over six feet. But Wrath was unlike the rest of his brothers entirely. He was more demon than man these days. “We are immortal, yes. But we can be imprisoned, tortured, and weakened. I think you know that more than any of us.”

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