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

30

Of all the ideas we could have come up with, that one was probably the worst. Flagrantly defying Sarina's authority by going where I shouldn't. Disrespecting her generous hospitality, when she could have thrown us out upon deducing that I had an unethical relationship with a demon. Deceiving her, too, since if I had legitimate concerns about the safety of the temple, I should have brought it to her immediately instead of holding back that information. After all, this was about an incredible danger under her very home, a strong demonic presence caught in the trapping wards engineered into the temple.

But simultaneously, it was the best idea of all. What if it was his Shard, as Lust suspected? Then we needed to go get it, post-haste, without giving Sarina any heads-up, period. If Sarina already knew exactly what lay trapped under her temple and that it was some mysterious portion of a Prince of demons, then our cover would be blown. She would react accordingly like any sensible Grand Master would, and then we were toast.

So we had to move first, and secretly. Then, Lust had explained, he could teleport us away. Reclaiming his Shard would give him a temporary empowerment, and it should be enough to at least get us out of the mountains and close to the next Shard buried somewhere in the realms.

The total risk was lower if we went to investigate on our own. We would never get permission from her anyway. What would I say? Oh, I just want to check out the bowels of your temple for no reason. I mean, you might have a demon prisoner down there, just wanted to see for myself, that's all.

Even though Sarina believed I was a witch and not a mundane little magic-less human, she would still never allow it. Who would?

Which was why I was now back in my room with Lust pulling up the wooden floorboards one by one. I grasped a wooden hand mirror in one white-knuckled fist. If this really worked and we found the Shard down there, the prison seals were guaranteed to alert the Grand Master as soon as they broke. This mirror would be our way out, with Lust teleporting us through our reflections to safety.

"Be careful!" I dropped to my knees and smacked Lust's hand away from the board he had just tried to curl up from the floor like a damn pool noodle. What was he thinking! The noise of the wood snapping would give us away. He had already pried loose the nails with his ridiculously strong fingers-turned-claws, so I jimmied the last floorboard up with both hands, careful and quiet. Lust hovered right next to me to my annoyance — did he think I was so weak I couldn't even manage this much? — so I elbowed him back until I had enough room.

"There. That's a big enough hole for us to slide down through." I placed the last piece by the neat stack I had made, even though it was obviously futile. What was I going to do, put everything back? It was going to be so obvious. "The floor joists are wide, too. We can slip in between them to the foundation... oh. Holy shit." I groped for the lantern I had placed by my knee before shining it downward into the dimness. The flame wasn't strong enough to illuminate everything, but it revealed enough.

Lust also leaned over, though he chose to half-drape himself over me and look over my shoulder. I wriggled away so he couldn't run his lips over my hair. "Hm... Yes. There's an entire lower level down there. I imagine it would lead us to the trap if we follow the right path."

"Would you be able to sense where to go? Can your Shard lead you to it?"

"No. At best, I might manage it in a straight line, but this close, it feels as if it's everywhere around me. We'll have to go in blindly, I'm afraid."

"Shit." I angled the lantern down farther. "It's at least a fifteen-foot drop. That's solid ground though, right? It won't give when we get down there?"

He pulled me back with gentle hands wrapping around both my upper arms. The tenderness of the touch was so startling that I failed to react in time, and Lust moved around me to slip down below the thick wooden floor joists, graceful as a panther.