Chapters (58)
- About the Author
- Title Page
- Imprint Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Map
- Contents
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Acknowledgments
- Endmatter page 1
“She told me she was.”
Wrath watched me closely. “It’s impossible to know what her intentions were. She very well might have wanted to summon him, but changed her mind along the way. Or, if she did attempt to summon him, she didn’t do that here.”
I collected my growing frustration. If she didn’t summon Pride, that meant Greed was to blame. He had to be. I thought about the attack on Nonna, and his desire to have the Horn of Hades. It made sense that Greed wouldn’t be content being a prince of Hell when he could become the king of demons. Part of his sin included never being satisfied, always wanting more. Not caring who or what was destroyed in the pursuit of his goals.
Unexpected fury rose in me, and coiled around every inch of the room. It was so powerful, my knees almost buckled from it.
“I vow on my blood that I’ll destroy the demon who did this to Vittoria, and take pleasure in doing it.” Wrath glanced at me sharply and, judging from his flash of surprise, I imagined my gaze went nearly black. My emotions were getting stronger, darker. I blamed proximity to the warrior prince. If Envy inspired feelings of jealousy in me, it made sense that Wrath—intentionally or not—stoked my anger. “You will help me interrogate Greed again. And if I can’t kill him, you will.”
My sister’s amulet glowed an unearthly purple. Wrath’s focus drifted to it, then back to my face. I’d put it on after I’d stolen it from the Viperidae. So far, the gates of Hell hadn’t sprung open, and Wrath hadn’t tried cutting it off my neck.
“Impressive as your rousing speech and temper is, I won’t be bringing war to anyone. And neither will you. At least not without irrefutable proof. The likelihood of it being Greed is very slim.”
“Then how did he get here? Someone summoned him.” I tossed an arm around the chamber. “From the looks of it, he was summoned in this room.”
“Not necessarily. Aside from Pride, princes of Hell can travel here on their own. Plus, there is no trace of Greed’s power in this chamber. Unless your sister had a personal object belonging to him, it’s far more likely she—or whoever else may have set up this particular circle—summoned one of his subjects. And there are thousands of them.”
“But there’s only one demon prince from that House who’s currently in Palermo. I don’t see thousands of other demons running around here, do you?”
“Are you asking rhetorically or do you expect an answer?”
I opened my mouth and shut it. I had so many more questions about the demon realm, but could almost see Wrath begging me to ask them. I decided today wasn’t so lucky for him.