Sinners' Kingdom #1: The Book of Lust (Complete)

46

"This thing has to have been farmed," I said finally. My voice was still a little thick, but no one would guess I'd been on the brink of trying to drown myself a minute ago. I hoped. Focus. Everything is normal. Nothing to see here. "This thing doesn't even feel real. Where did you find this? There must be people here. We have to fi — I have to find them." Like hell I was going to let Lust get anywhere near innocent humans again. "And when I do, someone must know how to get off the island. Maybe they have ships. Boats. And maybe someone knows something about your Shard, too. We're not going to find it on our own, unless..."

I turned my head, looking up expectantly at where I estimated his face should be.

"I'm sorry, my love. All I know is that it's somewhere on this island. It could be a hundred meters under the earth and locked in a crypt, or washed away in one of the rivers and buried in the bed. I can't feel the difference."

Damn it.

"Though if my dear Mammon surrenders my Shard so I can properly reclaim it , it could conceivably give me a sliver of insight into the location of —"

"In your dreams only, Asmodeus."

I grimaced. So Mammon was here too, just a little distance away. He must have been brooding over there by himself, but the rustling of grass a second later signaled his approach. Though... that was weird. Earlier, I could feel his Infernal aura from farther than that, I was sure, even after I went blind. Or maybe he was restraining it now?

Right. That was probably it. I just needed to stop being paranoid about everything. What would that help? It was those stupid bird calls driving me nuts, that was all. I ignored the silvery thread of unease in my gut and raised the 'fruit' in my hand to give it a tentative sniff.

A crushing grip wrapped around my wrist, forcing me to drop it.

I jerked away, both because I didn't appreciate being grabbed without warning, but even more so because that was notLust's hand. No familiar zing of energy through my wrist, and moreover, the touch itself was wholly different. Not that I wanted to think about how I was so familiar with Lust's hands that I could identify them at a touch.

"Don't eat that," Mammon growled. "And get your tail away from my neck, Asmodeus."

"You should release her. Now. Your throat's only just begun to heal, so we should let it be, no?"

Mammon sneered. "You should be thanking me. I waited to see if you would really give it to her, and you did, you idiot. Everything growing on this island is toxic to humans. One bite, and she's dead. Tell me again how you'll protect her when you don't even know how fragile humans are? I can smell every poison that would harm her. You don't even know what she can or can't consume."

The grip on my wrist never loosened. Worse, Lust had wrapped his own hand around me too, right next to Mammon's. I was fast losing sensation in my fingers as they silently battled it out, oblivious to my fierce tugging.

"Both of you, get off!" I barked. "You're hurting me!"

Nothing happened for a moment. Then, slowly, their fingers pulled away ever so slightly at the same time. They still hadn't released me, but at least it didn't feel like my bones were going to snap like toothpicks anymore.

"Just leave it alone. I wasn't going to eat it anyway without being sure of what it was." I tried to pull my arm away again to no avail. "I said it's fine! Both of you let me go, right now. At least go find shelter for me if I really can't eat anything. I need to wash myself off and get all this seawater salt gunk off of me."

"Mammon can go alone," Lust said coolly. "He has a spectacular nose. I'm sure he can sniff out somewhere for you to shelter. Though if he fails, I'll be all the shelter you need, love."