Conjuring Wrath (Seven Deadly Book 3)

by Michelle Gross

  What was going on? Why were they trying so hard to keep me away from the very thing that gave me a heart? I couldn’t just watch anymore. My legs shook as I screamed, “Stop!”

  Barron heard me. He stopped chasing his sister and came for me.

  Oh, God!

  “He wanted you, anyway!” Maureen yelled.

  I froze as the menacing skeleton came closer.

  In a flash, dark hair fell over my face. Just as rapidly, I smelled a feminine fragrance and sensed her hands on me. I knew it was another sister. She faded us to the woods. I looked up and saw Prudence. Barron’s skeletal form stood at a distance. My stomach churned. It was like he was tracking me. He wanted me while his sisters were trying to keep me away from him.

  Why?

  What was wrong with him? Earlier, they wanted me close to him. “Why are you guys keeping me from Barron?”

  Prudence never had time to respond.

  I flinched as a bony hand latched onto her throat. “You big fool!” she spat. “You’ll regret it if you hurt her.”

  Seeing the veins protrude on Prudence’s forehead and her pale skin turn purple, I had to say something. “Let go of her!”

  He did and then scooped me into his arms. His eyeless red sockets peered down at me before we faded.

  _______

  I didn’t dare speak as he carried me. I didn’t even look beyond his cloak to see where we were until he bent down gently and placed me on a huge rock. Still on one knee before me, his eyeless gaze was level with mine. Cautiously, I stared back.

  The longer I watched Barron’s swirling essence, the harder it was not to squirm.

  What was going on?

  Gradually, the red haze softened and no longer looked like a tornado. He twisted around and pointed a bony finger behind him. Recognition sparked a warm glow of happiness inside me. It was the pond Barron had taken me to before. His fingers went down to my boots. Instantly, I wore ice skates. He gestured toward the water again.

  I clutched my stomach. Did he want me to skate?

  Was that the reason he was on the verge of killing his siblings? It was bizarre, but I would not complain. Far from it. Was it wrong of me to be happy that someone—or something—had thought of me.

  He wasn’t hurting me, and he was still waiting on one knee. That version of Barron seemed to know exactly what I needed—what relaxed me and made me joyful.

  Standing, my skates thumped awkwardly through the grass. When I finally reached the water, I hesitantly lowered one skate and watched as the ice expanded on contact. Excitement burst through me. He was doing what he did before. Well, what Barron had done for me. Were they the same?

  How weird. One actively sought me while the other tried to avoid me.

  Still, a part of Barron came to me. Warmth flooded my stomach.

  Stranger still was how calm I was as I skated around the pond, laying ice as I moved. I was faster than ever before. Minutes stretched along with my muscles, yet my heart didn’t hurt or smother me. I was a little winded, but I think that was normal.

  It was amazing!

  I loved it!

  My troubles disappeared as the wind roared in my ear. I kept going faster, the scratching of the ice was music to my ears. I knew the skeletal creature watched me, but I paid him no attention.

  My smile waned as August faded right in front of me. I didn’t have time to stop and collided into him. His large hands squeezed my biceps and held me steady. “You’re skating?” he mused. “I came to save you from Barron’s wrath, and you’re skating?” he said again surprised.

  My eyes landed on the red swirling storm stalking across the ice toward us. “Um,” I whispered, pointing to Barron behind August.

  “Hmm.” August rubbed his chin as he glanced at Barron, then to me again. “Sorry, I’m a little thrown off. This isn’t how his sin usually reacts.” There was a dangerous gleam on August’s devilishly handsome face. “Let’s test him out, shall we?”

  I had a bad feeling. That gut instinct grew worse as August scooped me up and jumped in the air with me. Barron followed us. “What are you doing?” I yelled. My stomach lurched when I looked down.

  We were high. Too high. The pond appeared like a tiny dot. What the hell? I hated that those Reapers could all fly. Or hover? Or float?

  “Kidnapping you,” he said easily.

  I gaped at him. “I thought you were the rescue?”

  “You don’t seem to be in danger.”

  That was true.

  So, why was he putting me in danger?

  Barron collided with us in the air. His goal, I figured, was to get me away from August. A bony hand went for August’s neck while the other landed on August’s arms.

  “Whoops.” I caught August’s amused smirk right as the jerk loosened his hold on me.

  Air filled the space around me. He dropped me! I heard nothing, but the roaring of the wind. Too fast. Too high. My arms and legs flayed. It was hard to breathe falling so fast. I didn’t know how to calm myself. I was about to splatter.

  Somehow, I slowed. I didn’t stop heading down, but I definitely wasn’t falling fast anymore. Instead, I floated to the ground. Once my feet were safely on the ground, I glanced up.

  All I could make out was Barron’s raging energy blowing around him like a windstorm. It was larger and moving faster than before. August, his golden yellow essence flowing around him slightly, fought with his brother in midair. With each collision and separation, Barron’s turbulent essence became larger.

  Soon, August was engulfed in his golden yellow essence. From where I stood, I couldn’t make out much since they were moving so fast. Barron’s essence was the only one that looked berserk. August’s seemed stable and controlled. I didn’t think Barron’s could ever be that way.

  I steadied myself on the ice as I slid backward. Barron’s wrath continued to expand.

  There was a riveting roar that came from above, and I knew it had to be Barron. Then like a heart monitor, the red around him suddenly flatlined with a thunderous echo. August charged into the storm spreading out from Barron the second it started.

  The noise was gone when August connected with Barron in the air.

  The redness that traveled down from the sky toward the woods was gone.

  August and Barron were gone too.

  I slumped to my knees.

  What would have happened if the red had reached the ground?

  Chapter 17

  Barron

  I awoke to a pounding headache and a dry mouth. Rubbing my hand over my lips, I cracked open an eye.

  The familiar high ceiling of my living room was the first thing I saw.

  Memories flooded me. Gwendolyn, Maureen, Kitty, and Prudence followed by the overwhelming vengeance of wrath the moment I saw Gwendolyn.

  No, no, no, no. I finally raged.

  I sat up quickly, seconds from fading when August grunted. “You owe me.”

  Whipping my head toward the sound, I saw him tossing dice on my wooden coffee table.

  “What did I do?” I blurted. “Gwendolyn?”

  “Is fine,” he answered.

  The weight on my heart diminished, and I sagged back into the couch cushions.

  “You weren’t hurting her, by the way.”

  I stiffened. There was no way I didn’t hurt her. I killed everything in sight when I lost control. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s a fact that you were trying to kill us.” He smirked, and I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to look at the smug bastard. “I don’t know how else to put it.”

  “Just fucking say it. You’re practically bursting at the seams you’re so excited about it.” I hissed. The satisfied look on August’s face made me want to kill him.

  “Your sin is in love with your girl, Barron. It doesn’t matter that you don’t want her, your sin does.”

  My eyes popped open, and I glared. “Say that again?”

  “If I didn’t force your sin to rage, the fuming skeleton would hav
e kept parading around with Gwendolyn in your body. It was fucking weird.” August slapped a palm over his face and exhaled. “Never have I thought of you as something or someone else when you raged. That’s why we’ve always called it raging out since we thought you just lost your damn mind and went on a killing spree when it got too bad. But this was different.” He shook his head. “It was like you knew what you wanted and went after it—or your wrath did.” He peered at me, cocking his head to the side. “If that’s the case, what if your curse doesn’t surge and return you to normal the next time? What if you don’t come out of it?”

  I’d never thought of it that way. Suddenly I remembered the harrowing laughter in my head. Had my sin cultivated enough over the years that it developed its own persona?

  “And your essence,” August’s mouth flattened as he pinned me with a scowl. “Don’t tell me you haven’t seen the fucking hands going at her every time she’s near.” I clenched my teeth. “You really feel nothing for her?”

  Despite all the things I could have said, all the truths I could have spoken out loud, I went with the most obvious one. “She’s…young.”

  Actually, her age was something I’d gotten over rather quickly. It was the end approaching that fucking destroyed all the fleeting hope I had in wanting to keep Gwendolyn for myself.

  “You do realize we’re immortal, right? We’ll keep living on and on and everyone else eventually dies. In another couple of hundred years, none of the Reapers that work alongside us will be with us. They’ll all be dead. We’ll be training new demons to help with what we do now. That means everyone around us is young, brother. Find a better excuse.”

  “I have better things to do than argue with you, as do you. The festival is soon.”

  “Tell me this. Do your things to do involve checking on Gwendolyn?” I tensed as he spoke. He tilted his head slightly. “Doesn’t that say something?”

  “I wanted her gone, so damn far away from here. Her being here only means I’ll worry about every single hair on her head. I just wanted her safe in Heaven,” I mumbled, trying not to let my brother’s amusement piss me off.

  “You would have still thought about her,” August reminded me.

  True. I thought about her every second. If I slept more, I bet she’d visit me in my dreams too.

  “How would you know?”

  My question froze him in place. After a minute, his gaze lowered to the floor as his shoulders sagged. Something swept over his eyes. It was an expression I’d never seen on him before like a mourning ghost—then it was gone as quick as it came.

  “I don’t,” he blurted out. He shook his head and dropped the dice on the table. “But once you get something in your head, it stays there. Sometimes it just takes a word to remember.” His gaze became unfocused like he was in another time or place. “A simple word and that’s all. Then that word lives there. Makes a home. Boom, boom, boom.” August jabbed an index finger at his temple punctuating each word. “Why the fuck would she say boom right before she blew up the city? That’s not something I ever want to hear again. Especially like that.”

  Why did he bring up the New York incident? While I didn’t understand his obsession with a word, I shared his anger. I couldn’t wait to capture every Harvester.

  “That’s why instead of worrying about me, we need to find Harvest and stop the human trafficking for the festival,” I stated.

  August blinked rapidly a few times before his gaze finally refocused on me. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. We need you at your best.” He stood and placed his hand on my shoulder. “If you want to keep Gwendolyn close, keep her close. If your sin is acting this way around her, then maybe it’s because you’re not admitting something. I don’t want to stare at your skeletal form when you rage again and fear that I might never see you.”

  That was as real as he got between us, but I understood the meaning.

  “Your personality is as dull as fuck, and you always want to kill us. But you want to do it less when you’re not raging. Let’s keep you happy—or less mad.”

  He patted my back and smirked.

  "August,” I spoke calmly. I would destroy him if he didn’t stop.

  “Go visit your soulmate—sucks for you, by the way. Wait until the mind shit kicks in.” He kept patting me like all was well despite that little tidbit. “But go check on her and let yourself fornicate. Release some of that fury inside her. If you don’t get some, your wrath might stick a bone in her for you.”

  I clenched my fist and delivered a jab, aiming for his neck. I missed as he faded, then reappeared behind the couch. “I’m not Sebastian. I won’t let you snap my neck so easily.”

  “Go save some lives,” I muttered, disappointed that I didn’t murder him.

  “I’m going,” he tossed his hand up and left.

  I sighed and turned around. Where the fuck was my coffee table?

  “August!” I hissed.

  August and his damned sticky fingers. Who stole a damned coffee table?

  __________

  Right after August left, I did exactly what he knew I would—checked on Gwendolyn. I kept to the shadows of the castle, concealing myself from everyone. Laughter seeped into the hallway as I neared the kitchen. Gwendolyn, the dimples in her cheeks on display, was eating with Kitty. Knowing she was safe made my shoulders sag. Gwendolyn seemed fine except that her smile never quite reached her eyes. Since I didn’t have to worry about her, I left and got shit done. I ascended some souls and descended those that I caught trafficking humans.

  Fucking human festival was fast approaching.

  Fucking Gwendolyn.

  Fucking end of the world.

  Wrath could and would bury me within myself. Everything was the perfect outlet for my sin to manifest and grow.

  Hours passed, but every few seconds my attention would go where I didn’t want it to—Gwendolyn.

  Finally, as I impaled my blade through a demon, I came to a decision. I couldn’t keep it up. Always thinking. Always worrying about her well-being. Something had to be done. I needed some relief.

  She consumed me and my curse.

  It was time to try something new. There was no point in keeping her away from me anymore. After seeing, sensing, and knowing my curse was after Gwendolyn, it became something else entirely. When I was trapped in the darkened place I went when I raged, Wrath was parading around in my Grim Reaper form. With Gwendolyn.

  No. Fuck, no. My curse wouldn’t get what I wouldn’t let myself have.

  By the time I made it back to the castle to check on her again my emotions were frayed, and I was irritated beyond reasoning.

  My essence spun around me as I stalked the hallway.

  Great.

  Fury over my sin would send me right back into its waiting clutches. As I studied the red haze around me, I contemplated whether I could deal with something more.

  That something more—Wrath—wanted my girl.

  I heard Gwendolyn and Kitty’s laughter and rushed toward the noise. I found them in the kitchen. Fucking Kitty and her appetite. I threw open the door. Their laughter and voices halted, and five pairs of eyes—my four sisters and Gwendolyn’s—landed on me.

  “Glad to see you’re back to normal,” said Maureen.

  I strode over to Gwendolyn and grabbed her wrist. Her brow furrowed as she resisted. It was a waste of energy on her part. Even demons bigger than me couldn’t push me away with their fists.

  “You could tell her what you’re doing before yanking her out of her seat,” Prudence said, long nails clicking on the table.

  “Let’s go,” I told Gwendolyn. “You’re coming with me.”

  “All right. You don’t have to pull me. You could just tell me what you want.” I released Gwendolyn’s wrist, and she rubbed it as she studied me warily. Her dark eyebrows slanted over her candy-colored eyes. “Where are we going?”

  “My place.” I turned, fully expecting her to follow.

  “What for?”

&nb
sp; “You’re staying with me now.”

  “Whoa,” Joy interrupted. “Not sure that’s a good idea.”

  “I’m afraid I agree,” Kitty piped in.

  I stopped at the door, my entire body tensing. They really wanted to keep Gwendolyn from me?

  “With everything going on, kind of not a good idea for her to be alone,” Prudence added.

  I cocked my head slowly. “She won’t be alone.”

  Maureen’s lips twitched. “Yeah, but you’re gone a lot.”

  She had a point. My mouth flattened before I scowled. “I can bring her here when I’m gone,” I said reluctantly. It was for the best. My mind really would drive me mad with thoughts of her if I left her alone at my place.

  “Well, take her then.” Maureen’s smug know-it-all grin burned a hole in my back.

  I strode out of the kitchen. Seconds later, I heard Gwendolyn’s small steps behind me. “Wait.” She grabbed my bicep forcing me to stop. She already had my attention—she’d had it. That was the problem, and why I gave in to her so easily.

  She stepped in front of me. “What’s going on? I don’t like dealing with these mood swings of yours.”

  “Mood swings?” I interrupted.

  “You wanted nothing to do with me. You loathed the fact that you couldn’t send me to Heaven and now this.” She pointed at my chest. “Now, you want me at your place? Don’t tempt me. I already want to be with you, but that doesn’t give you permission to jerk me around. I’ll understand this world one day, and I’ll show you I’m not a burden to you.” A bit of red crept over her tan complexion before she glanced down at her feet.

  Burden?

  She spoke like I’d force her to fend for herself. Foolish woman. I was trying so hard to manage my sin for her sake.

  “One of these days,” I muttered. “Do you have anything you need in the room you’ve been staying in?”

  “My scythe is in there,” she mumbled, gaze lifting and narrowing on me. “And did you even listen to a word I said?”

  I sighed. “Things are complicated. I need you close.”

  A double-edged sword I had no choice but to wield. I couldn’t let my curse come out again for her, but being around her was risky. Would my sin give me the luxury of being next to her without going berserk?