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

54

The thought that pulled me out of my daze was the most unexpected one. After I came out of the water, still stiff and embarrassingly staggered by Lust's blatant refusal, he had the audacity to tenderly drape his robes around me again and brush my hair back behind my shoulder. That was the moment it occurred to me: were these damn demons still walking around naked?

It couldn't be comfortable. Dicks and balls bounced when there was nothing to contain them, like bare tits oscillating at mach speed when running naked over a snowy mountainside, for example. Not that I'd know personally, right? Anyway, gravity was no one's friend. Not to mention that if I was the only one clothed, that meant there was only one layer of resistance between me and another out-of-control threesome that would probably end with me rupturing a kidney from too much fucking. They needed to find some clothes. Alternatively, I could wrap myself up in leaves and vines like in those old Baroque paintings of Eve, and the Princes could split this one between themselves if Lust was feeling generous.

In the middle of shaking out excess water from my sopping hair, I paused, hands stilling in my tresses. Eve... That was right. I'd meant to look in that, the cryptic stuff Lust said before about bloodlines. Adam and Eve, Lilith, the old stories that I'd never believed were real. Maybe my answers lay there. I shouldn't ask Lust; he'd proven I couldn't trust him when it came to my best interests. I'd wait until I returned to civilization, find a way to sneak around without him on my back, and dig up ancient secrets until I found one that would help me out of my predicament.

Easy. That went right on the to-do list. I'd sort that out when I got to it.

In the meantime, I had to field questions from Lust about the damn birds, of all things, though I had a feeling his real move was to distract me from the frigid confrontation we'd just had. Fair. He was a demon, in the end. His best interests came first for him. Why would he sacrifice his tastes for anything else?

"Can you describe them for me, love?" he asked earnestly as he pulled my hair back over my shoulders again, from behind this time. "When did they begin? How are they affecting you? What are they saying?"

"What. They're not saying anything. And they're annoying. They sound like birds, that's all, just really loud. Or maybe they're just really big. Didn't you say earlier that the trees on the island are bigger than normal, or something."

"... They are..."

"So maybe the animals are just bigger and louder, too. It's not a big deal. I shouldn't have said anything." I pulled away from him yet again. Didn't he get it? I didn't want to be near him right now. Well, that wasn't accurate. It felt more like I didn't care anymore. Couldn't, too heavy, so every touch from him or anything else was an irritant like a horsefly. God, I just wanted to sit on a couch and sleep in the middle of the day and not give a crap when I would wake up. How nice would that be.

"Sable, please. This is important. Neither Mammon nor I can hear them, which means the sounds you're hearing now are magical in nature. Do you understand? It could be a curse."

"A curse to hear bird calls? That's a thing?" I mulled it over as I wrung more water out of my hair. Jesus, was my sense of touch overly sensitive, or did it feel like an entire clump had fallen out? I clumsily gathered as many lost strands in my palm as I could before tossing them away. "Okay, I can see that. I've heard of stranger ones. But if it is a curse, if I'm aware of it, then its potency is already weakened. That buys me more time before it takes full effect. And maybe it's localized? Most curses have a stationary point of origin, right? Once we get out of here and move somewhere else while looking around, it might not be an issue anymore."

"But this island has other strangeness about it," Lust cautioned. "Until we know what it is, we can't move carelessly. Mammon, tell her what you told me."