by Sadie Moss
“Oh.” She blinks. “So you can use your lust as a defense?”
“I can use it for a lot of things.” Unable to help myself, I smirk at her.
She gets that little flush I love, but before she can say anything back, there’s a crackling sound in the air, and then Myron’s voice booms out over the arena.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the seventh annual Blackfire Tournament! The first challenge will take place in the wilds of Scotland, outside the arena. It will be difficult and fraught with danger, and some of you may die. But by the end, one of you will be a step closer to having your greatest wish fulfilled!”
Beside me, Trinity’s back stiffens. Her hands clench into fists as she mutters under her breath.
“Here we go.”
Chapter Fifteen
TRINITY
I really don’t know what to expect from these challenges, so I’m trying to be ready for anything. But when we hear the challenge announced, I can’t help but cringe.
“Each contestant must attempt to retrieve a gem that’s being protected by a nest of serpencias,” Myron booms out. “The first person to return with the gem wins.”
“Serpencias? What are those?” I whisper to Sawyer, my overactive imagination already conjuring up dozens of deadly possibilities.
“Magically created serpents.”
“Oh.”
Goodness only knows what that means. I’m sure it can’t be anything good. It probably means that these snakes, whatever they are, are going to be much more deadly than your average viper—as if a viper is at all harmless. It’s not, but compared to whatever magical creatures we’re about to run up against… hoo boy.
Myron lays out the guidelines and restrictions of the challenge, and I focus in on every word he says, trying to commit each rule to memory.
There aren’t many.
From the way it sounds, this whole competition is basically a free-for-all, the magical games equivalent of the bareknuckle boxing Ford does back in New York.
Great.
By the time Myron finishes laying out the terms of the challenge and blows a whistle to signal the start of the challenge, my stomach has twisted itself into a tight knot.
“While you do get the most attractive pout when you think, beautiful,” Sawyer drawls, interrupting my spiraling thoughts, “we can’t just stand around all day pondering the secrets of the universe. We have to get to that gem first.”
Right. Okay. Eyes on the prize.
Whatever the issue is, we’ll figure it out when we get there.
Sawyer looks around, contemplating. “Now, I’m no expert on reptiles, but I can imagine they’ll have put the gem somewhere snakes will like. In some kind of cave or burrow?”
We are in a very remote area, with lots of caves around and areas for animals to burrow down into. I nod. “Yeah, that makes sense. We should look for something like that. It’ll be faster if I fly.”
“But you might miss them from high up,” Sawyer counters before I can pop out my wings.
I frown at him. “We have to be faster than our competitors.”
A hot, tingly feeling slides through me—one I recognize by now.
Lust.
I shiver. Sawyer stares at me like he’s starving for me, his amber eyes going dark, and I suppose it’s a small mercy that I’m not the only one who’s affected.
“I think,” he murmurs, his voice dipping down low into an almost-purr, “that our competitors will be a little busy.”
I don’t look around or try to find any of our competitors, but then, I don’t need to. I’ve seen Sawyer at work and I know what he’s doing—he’s making everyone crazy with lust, more focused on sleeping with each other than winning the competition.
Well, that was easy.
I was kind of wondering why Sawyer, out of all the brothers, was so quick to volunteer as my partner in the challenge today, but I can see now why he wanted to. He knew he could distract the other contestants without causing any violence the way Ford or Remington might.
Not that I’ve ever seen Gluttony be violent, but I can’t quite forget what Beckett told me when I first met Remi at his restaurant—that his particular sin has started wars.
Sawyer offers me his arm, the scars on his face shifting as he lifts an eyebrow. “Shall we?”
I laugh in spite of myself. The gesture is so old-fashioned and gentlemanly, two things that this man is definitely not. Then I loop my arm through his like we’re in Victorian times and we’re headed out for an afternoon stroll. Sawyer shoots me a pleased look out of the corner of his eye—although whether it’s because he made me laugh or because I actually let myself touch him, I’m not sure.
It does take some searching, but Sawyer knows a lot more about magic than I do, and he’s able to pick up on some telltale clues that I never would’ve noticed if I was out here on my own.
“How do you know so much about witches?” I whisper as Sawyer leads me down to a cave entrance.
“I’ve had my fair share of witches in my bed, sweetheart.” His chuckle bounces off the walls around us. “I learned a lot from them.”
“They seem dangerous to me.”
He shrugs, glancing over his shoulder. “Most of them are all right, but yes, some of them are dangerous as fuck. You mix an angry person with the ability to cast huge and powerful magical spells, and it can be a recipe for disaster.”
He reaches up and touches one of the scars on his face as he speaks. I’m not sure he even realizes he’s doing it.
I don’t ask, because I’ve got a feeling he’d just be pissed at me for prying, but I wonder—did a witch give him those scars?
Why? When?
Sawyer freezes, and for a second, I think he’s read my thoughts and is about to get pissed at me anyway. Then he reaches out and shoves me roughly behind him.
“There, look,” he hisses.
I peer around his broad frame, trying to see into the darkness of the cave. I hear some hissing noises, and the longer I stare into the shadows, the more I’m able to make out forms in the darkness.
A writhing, terrifying mass churns in the center of the cave, and I swear I see corrupted eyes staring out at me from the tangle of scaled, coiled limbs.
“Holy shit,” I breathe, because that’s really the only appropriate thing to say in a moment like this.
I try to always be honest with myself. And if I’m being honest right now, I’m scared out of my mind. I don’t want to go anywhere near those things.
“I don’t suppose your powers could, um… help in this situation?” I whisper, nudging Sawyer with my shoulder as I stare at the snakes.
“Sorry. Afraid not, sweetness,” Sawyer replies. “Snakes mate by writhing around each other in a great big ball, the males all trying to get to the female and mate with her first.”
Huh. Wouldn’t have taken Sawyer for a nature documentary lover.
Or maybe he just knows everything there is to know about sex in all its forms.
Probably that one.
I chew on my lip, considering what he just told me. “So if you make them want to mate with each other, they’ll just stay in that big ball around the crystal. And it won’t help us at all.”
“Exactly. We need to lure them away from the crystal. Any ideas?”
Well, there is something I could attempt. I’m not sure if I can make it work though. But I do have my wings back, and my angel blade, so maybe it’s worth a shot?
“Let me see if I can try something.”
My wings unfurl again, and I try very hard to concentrate, breathe deeply, and center myself. I focus on feeling like a proper angel again. Not like I’m fallen, not like I’m getting emotionally entangled with all seven of the deadly sins, but like I’m back home. Like I’m Upstairs where I belong, surrounded by color and light—and I’m part of the light, shining bright, the way we look when we descend to mortals to give them prophecies and instructions. The kind of creature that really does look holy.
> For a minute or two, I don’t think anything is happening. Despite all the deep breathing, I don’t feel any different. But then I hear Sawyer inhale sharply, and he whispers some expletive I don’t quite catch.
I open my eyes, and sure enough, my wings are glowing. My whole being is glowing, just like I hoped.
“We call it… well, we don’t really have halos in the sense of this glowing band around our heads,” I explain, feeling my cheeks heat up with embarrassment. Sawyer is outright gaping at me, and given his usual jaded attitude, I wouldn’t have expected him to be impressed with me at all. Or with anyone. But he’s really, truly staring at me, like he’s never seen anything like me before.
It’s flattering. It makes me feel warm, but not in the usual lustful way that I’ve come to expect around him. This warmth spreads through my chest instead of my lower parts, my heart giving a little skip the way it does when I notice Remi looking out for me or Nix grinning at me.
“So we don’t have a halo,” I blurt quickly, realizing I’ve stopped talking and have been just staring back at Sawyer like an idiot as he stares at me. Sheesh. What is wrong with me? Get it together, Trinity! “But we do have our, um, light, I guess you could call it. This glow. I’m not always very good at activating it.”
Mostly because I couldn’t activate it at all while I was fallen, but it seems I’m not quite as fallen as I used to be. It’s possible Anderson gave me back my angelic light along with my sword and my wings when he handed me this mission. Or maybe I really am helping the sins somehow, and as I do, I’m slowly earning my powers back.
But if I were to tell Sawyer all of that, I’d have to admit that I’m trying to redeem him and his brothers. So far, the only one who knows is Ryland, and he still hasn’t told the other six men. If the rest of them find out, my mission will fail entirely—both missions, actually.
As I grow closer to the seven brothers, I’ve started to feel more and more guilty for lying and withholding the truth from them. I’m not quite sure what to do about that, but I know it’s not a can of worms I can afford to open right now.
Not when I’ve got a cave full of snakes to deal with first.
“Anyway, I thought this might help,” I finish somewhat lamely, holding my arms out to indicate my glowing body.
“You think the snakes will be afraid of the light?” Sawyer guesses.
I shrug. “They were put in a dark cave, so it’s a good bet.”
Sawyer glances at the snakes, then back at me. His brows pinch together, and he makes a noise low in his throat. He looks almost… worried? About me? But that can’t be right. More likely, he’s weighing the odds that this harebrained plan will backfire and we’ll end up losing this competition.
“Do you still have that angel blade?” he asks. “Ford said you could be quite fierce with it.”
My heart does another strange little squeeze in my chest, and my mouth drops open slightly in surprise.
Ford thinks I can be fierce? With a blade?
I’ve always assumed he thinks I’m a lying coward. He’s made it clear he doesn’t trust me, and there was that time he chased me around Beckett’s living room while my wings flapped like a terrified chicken’s. It wasn’t one of my finer moments.
But it makes me feel good to think that Ford sees me as fierce. Maybe even as a little bit of a badass.
It makes me want to live up to that perception, to prove to Sawyer that I can be a powerful force. Someone to be reckoned with.
I materialize my angel blade so that it appears in my palm, then hold it up for Sawyer to see.
He lets out a low whistle, and I feel a little spike of lust radiate from him. I guess he likes the sight of a girl wielding a sword.
“Very nice.” His gaze slides sideways again, taking in the snakes, then back to me. He shakes his head. “But you shouldn’t have to use your light and the blade at the same time. You need to concentrate on the snakes. Let me have the sword and I’ll back you up.”
Suspicion stirs in my mind, and my hand unconsciously tightens on the hilt of my blade.
Now would be the perfect opportunity for Sawyer to kill me while I’m distracted. He could get rid of the pushy, distracting angel that’s roped him and his brothers into an insane quest and then claim it was an accident later. But no matter how much the sins have sometimes seemed to dislike me, I feel like things have changed between us. Maybe it’s stupid or naïve of me, but I trust them.
And besides, he’s right. I could use some solid backup, since I’ll be concentrating on maintaining my light.
“All right.” Unclenching my fingers, I hand the blade over.
Sawyer balances the hilt in his palm, considering it, feeling the weight of it, and I know right away that he’s good with a blade. People who don’t actually know what they’re doing with swords will admire the look of them and then slash around trying to feel cool. The very first thing you want to consider about a sword is its weight. How it’s balanced. If it’s not well-balanced, then it’s not a very good blade. And no matter how it’s balanced, you have to account for that in how and where you grip it to wield it.
The sight of Sawyer so casually and competently testing out my sword is extremely attractive. In fact, it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen him do. He’s not trying to seduce me, he’s not turning on the lust, he’s focusing on the blade and just… being good at it. Good at what he does.
And it’s hot as hell.
Sawyer finally looks up at me, the blade held in a light grip as he gives me a quick nod. “All right, beautiful. Do your thing.” He thinks for a second, then adds, “And be fucking careful. Beck will kill me if I bring you back missing a limb.”
I’m not too sure what Beckett does or doesn’t want at this point, or what he’s feeling, but I shove that emotionally confusing mess aside and focus instead on the snakes. On keeping my light shining.
As I step deeper into the cave, I amp up the power of my angelic light, letting it burn from me more brightly. I watch the ground closely, checking every footfall to make sure I don’t accidentally step on a snake and seal my fate because I was a dumbass.
The snakes hiss as I get closer, recoiling from my light. They’re freaking huge. It’s clear that magic has been used on them. No snakes I’ve ever seen in documentaries or read about in books look like this. These ones are as thick as my leg, with iridescent green and white scales and eyes like opals, glittering with an unnatural intelligence. Wicked fangs dripping with a glowing purple poison emerge from their mouths when they hiss at me.
Yikes. This is terrifying.
My heart pounds in my chest, and I struggle to keep moving forward. Each time I do, the snakes recoil a bit, moving away from the light. I’m pretty sure it scares them, but it almost seems to hurt them too. I wish I had some kind of fire with me since I think that would hurt them even more, but I don’t have anything on me to start a fire, and I’m not sure Sawyer does either.
Anyway, it’s a bit late for that. We’ve come too deep into the cave to switch strategies now.
I can feel Sawyer behind me; he growls occasionally at any snakes that get too close, and the sound bolsters my confidence.
I’m not in this alone. I have help.
The snakes keep retreating, and as they do, they start to reveal it—the gem we’re after. It’s… well, I have to admit I get a little distracted by it. It’s beautiful, big and blue, or mostly blue. In the heart of it there’s a glowing red and orange light, like an ember. Like fire in the middle of the ocean. I wonder what kind of power makes it do that.
I creep closer, entranced, my angelic light still going strong. I could bend down and pick it up at this point. It’s smaller than I expected. I was picturing something more the size of my head, and this could fit snugly into my one hand.
“Look out!” Sawyer suddenly yells, and I scream as the angel blade comes swooping down on my right side, decapitating a snake that was lunging for my leg.
Holy crap!
; I snatch up the gem and scramble back as fast as I can. The other snakes start untangling themselves from each other and slithering toward me, following the first one’s lead. I think they’ve realized that the light isn’t fire or anything else that will genuinely hurt them. And now they’re after us. Sawyer stays between the serpents and me, swinging the blade at the ones who get too close, until we get outside of the cave again. As soon as we step out into the sunlight, the snakes shudder to a halt at the cave entrance as if they’re one many-headed being.
Sawyer and I are both breathing hard. The gem is clutched tightly in my sweaty hand, its sharp edges digging into my palm.
“I don’t think they can come out past the entrance.” Sawyer squints as he gazes into the darkness of the cavern.
“That’s—that’s good.” I hold up the gem, feeling a trickle of cold sweat tease the back of my neck. “I got it.”
He nods at me. His rich brown hair is messy, and he looks rugged and masculine, right at home in this wild landscape. “That was a close call, beautiful. You’ve got to watch your six.”
He hands me back my blade like it’s nothing, like he didn’t just step between me and dozens of dangerous magical serpents. Like he didn’t put himself in danger to make sure I didn’t get hurt.
I’m not sure why I do it—although I know it has nothing to do with his lust powers this time—but I go up onto my tiptoes and kiss him on the cheek. “Thank you. Really. I appreciate that. I couldn’t have done it alone.”
I got so distracted by the beautiful gem that I would’ve been toast.
To my utter shock, Sawyer flushes. I didn’t think anything could make this man, the personification of lust, blush. But here we are.
“Yeah. Sure. Don’t mention it,” he replies.
I realize he’s still holding out my blade, so I take it back. I’m pretty sure from the warm feeling in my cheeks that I’m also blushing.
It feels like so much more, somehow, than the lust I’ve grown used to feeling for him. And whatever these emotions are, Sawyer obviously doesn’t know what to do with them either.