The Seven Sins - Joslinne Morgan (unputdownable books txt) 📗

were even hot to the touch. The loose dirt on the floor turned to ash, and the air smelled stale with smoke.
“Is the Drüel Mountain a volcano?” Pike asked.
“No,” Phantom answered tersely. “I have a feeling we are approaching the Sixth Sin.”
“And which sin would that be?”
“Wrath,”
“My least favorite of the Seven.” Pike’s clothes were beginning to stink from the mixture of sweat and precious metal against his skin.
“Don’t worry, it won’t be any worse than the others.”
Yeah, thought Pike. That’s what you think.

The cave smelled slightly of sulfur. It caused Phantom’s eyes to water and his vision to blur. He irritably blinked the moisture away, he had to remain as focused as possible.
He had some time ago lost track of where they were headed. Of course, when they started he knew they were headed straight for the top, but the whole thing with the secret cavern and the slides that took them downward through him off course. He wasn’t sure they were even in the World of Form anymore. And even if they were, was it possible that they were going down in the mountain, instead of up? And what if they were in the Realm of Spirits? Where were they then?
He shook the thoughts away. He was familiar with both places, it was the in-between he hated.
The cave did not get smaller but it did get smellier. Pike had pinched his nostrils together and was complaining non-stop about the acrid smell. Which, as he put it, smelled like a troll fart. Phantom pursed his lips, wholly agreeing. The cave did possess a certain…odor.
“And the worst thing is that it will be rubbing off on us.” Pike said as he tried not to touch the wall. “Blood of the gods, a person would have to have his nose amputated before moving here!”
“Would you stop concentrating on the smell and help me out for one bloody second?” Phantom asked, irritated. The cave was getting warmer, and beads of sweat were glistening on his forehead and on his bare chest. “Lud, you are a waste of life!”
Pike looked truly offended.
“I’m sorry…” he began slowly. Phantom silenced him with a dismissive wave of his hand.
“Whatever,” he said. “Just help me look for the exit.”
For the next few moments, both concentrated fully on an escape from the tunnel. Phantom found it first. He placed his hand on a rock and it moved, taking a good chunk of the wall away with it and revealing a way out. Phantom bowed, indicating Pike should be the first to enter.
“No way am I going in there without any foreknowledge on whether or not it is safe.” The man protested, hugging his leather bag still bulging with the bulk of heavy jewels close to his chest. Phantom rubbed his chin.
“And what is your definition of ‘safe’ exactly?” he wanted to know.
“Free from all things lethal,” Pike explained.
“Such as…?” Phantom pressed.
“Bats, spiders, and venomous snakes,” Pike said, shieding away from an uncommonly large and hairy beetle that crossed his path. “Beetles, too.”
“You are being ridiculous. Go in.” Phantom commanded. “Or do I have to push you in?”
Pike glared and stepped into the dark hole. It was so dark he could not see his own fingers although he put them directly in front of his eyes and wiggled them. Heat immediately brushed against his cheeks, turning them a shade brighter of red. Blood of the gods, it was like stepping into an oven. Pike turned around to warn Phantom, but his companion had already stepped in and shut the door behind them.
Lovely, we’re trapped. Pike thought sarcastically. What convinced me to tag along with this odd chappy I’ll never know. But if I survive this I swear I shall never again move from in front of the tele. I prefer to watch other people have adventures, now that I come to really think on it. Too bad I didn’t happen upon that conclusion earlier, it would have saved me a lot of pain and humiliation.
“What are you thinking about?” Phantom’s finger jabbed him in the small of the back, prodding him forward. “Get a move on.”
Pike shot Phantom a dark look – mainly because he knew it was too dark to see.
“Pike, I can feel the heat of your glare.” Phantom said impatiently.
“That’s not the heat of my glare, that is the heat of this cave,” Pike said. “I am going to die of heatstroke.” He pulled off his white shirt and set it on the ground. The pearls that he had stuffed down his neckline scattered all over the place, making a noise that sounded somewhat like mini hailstones rapidly barraging the cave, which reverted the sound back to them only upped about a thousand octaves. When it was all over, Phantom was glaring at Pike, whom he could just barely see only by the bare white skin of his naked chest. “Thank you,” he said, his voice dripping sarcasm. “For announcing our presence so elegantly to anyone and everyone nearby.”
“I’m sorry!” Pike exclaimed, tired of apologizing.
“Whatever.” Phantom said wearily.
“Cad,” Pike said venomously.
“Moron,” Phantom replied evenly.
Pike sighed and sat down, putting his face into his hands.
“There has to be some spell at work here,” he said, his voice slightly muffled.
“Pike darling, I’d still be mad at you even if there wasn’t a spell working its way into my brain.” Phantom assured him. Pike looked at him from between his fingers.
“So someone is putting a spell over us?” he asked.
Phantom nodded an affirmitive.
“Lovely.”
A light ahead of them broke through the awkward silence that followed. It was not a warm, welcoming light as one might expect, but rather it was orange and fierce, with tongues of flame casting shadows on the wall. It sort of made you just want to turn around and run the other way.
“I think we’ve found her,” Phantom announced. Pike rolled his eyes heavenward but made no reply.
They continued forward, and Phantom brought their progress to a halt by extending one arm and preventing Pike from falling over an edge. This snapped the little fellow back into reality and he looked around, eyes wide.
They had walked straight into a fire pit.


“You know,” Pike said after a long pause as he adjusted his spectacles. “This is rather close to what I always thought Hell would look like.”
Phantom only nodded his head in agreement.
The ledge they were standing on was actually a raised dais on which were three steps leading up to another dais on which sat a throne. And on the throne was Wrath.
Phantom and Pike slowly rotated until they were facing the Sixth Sin. The throne upon which she sat was made of human bones. The legs were made with leg bones, the arms with arm bones, the back was like one giant ribcage that wrapped around to a point where it stopped and connected with the arms. The top was made of spinal cords that came together at a point and were held together by a grinning skull.
Wrath herself was dressed all in red, her red gown spread out like a fabulous bloodstain. Her hair was the same sparkling crimson as her dress, her eyes were like smoldering coals.
Phantom shivered at the sheer morbidity of the scene. The look behind her eyes hinted to him that she was weaving some special plans for their torture, and the way she was fingering the braided rawhide whip on her belt did nothing but support this theory.
Surrounding the entire dais was a deep pit, and the pit was lined with geisers that spouted fire every third second. The flames on the bottom leapt higher and highter until they licked the hem of Wrath’s dressed and blackened the tips of her bare toes. A cold smile twisted her cruel features.
“Why are you here?” she demmanded. Her voice was odd, almost electronic.
“I might ask you the same thing,” Phantom countered, fingering the mirror. “Although I have a hunch I already know what your reason is.”
“Dem right. Hand over the mirror.” She held out her hand commandingly.
“No,” said Phantom, looking her straight in the eye. She immediately clammed up, and withdrew her hand.
“Why not?” she asked, sounding like she might explode.
“Because, you didn’t say please.” He told her with a charming smile.
She hissed in fury and stood up, drawing her whip from her belt and allowing it to unfurl slowly, the spiked tip hovering just an inch above the ground. Without warning, she lashed out. The whip stung Phantom’s left cheek and he felt the blood well up but he didn’t move, he just continued to look at her.
This, somehow, made her even more furious and she lashed out again. This time Pike was misfortunate enough to be standing in her way, and he received a large welt on the back of his calf. He howled against the pain and tears rolled down his round red cheeks. Phantom had no time for pity, as that when she lashed out again with deadly accuracy, he had to dive out of her way.
“What a nice chair,” he said by way of distraction. “I wonder where you got the bones. Did you kill all the victims yourself?”
“I did,” Wrath said, a distinctive note of pride in her voice. “I killed them all one by one, ripping them apart painfully and mercilessly. And no amount of begging or pleading could convince me otherwise.”
“How cruel you are. Must’ve been quite a show.” He dodged another blow with the whip.
“It was,” Wrath assured him.
“Wish I could have seen it,”
“Oh, you will be experiencing it.” Wrath promised as she struck once more with her whip. Phantom caught it in mid-strike, it wrapped around his hand and down his arm, the very tip digging into the flesh just above his shoulder.He grimaced and pulled, hard, jerking the whip from her hands.
She screamed in fury and her hands plunged into the pockets of her sash as she pulled out a dried eyeball and a vile of Geni poison. She held the ingredients in one hand while she used the other to cut her wrist. Then she crushed the ingredients together, using her blood to wet and mix the ingredients, and flung the poison at Phantom.
The poison hit him full in the face, but did not have the desired effect Wrath had been hoping for. It did not burn holes into his skin or eyes, nor did it cause him to drop to the ground screaming and thrashing in the throes of death. In fact, he took the back of his hand and wiped it from his face as if it were merely water. She hissed again and dug once more into her sash for another spell.
“Pike,” Phantom began, keeping one wary eye on his attacker. “Do you have any Holy Water?”
“Right here, sir!” Pike pulled out a small bottle of it that he kept hanging from his waist.
“Thank you,” Phantom said, taking it and unstopping the cork. There was only a little left, but it would serve its purpose. Without waiting for her to come up with another spell, Phantom took the bottle and thrust its contents on the Sin.
Wrath screamed again, this time in pain, and clawed at her face and eyes, which were burning as if with acid. Phantom took advantage of her temporary blindness and rammed a fist into her chest, sending her toppling over the edge and into the fiery