Page 115

She blinks, but I see the flash of something raw in her eyes, something desperate and sharp and hungry for truth.
I tip my head slightly, watching her. “But she did not bind us as you have bound yours. She took.”
Layla shifts beside her. “Took?”
I nod. “Branwen was not like you, Luna. She did not allow us to keep our will, our thoughts, our purpose. We were not bound as yours are. We were owned.”
Lucien exhales through his nose, gaze dark, unreadable. “And you believe that bond remains?”
I glance back toward the fire. “I believe,” I say carefully, “that Caspian could not fight her.”
Luna stills. “And Ambrose?”
I inhale slowly. “Ambrose was the one who fought.”
Silence.
“The drag marks,” I murmur, half to myself, half to them. “One was dragged. The other walked.” I look at Luna, at the quiet rage pooling behind her eyes. “If Branwen has them, it was Caspian who followed her. And Ambrose who tried to stop it.”
The fire is little more than embers now, the glow casting long, flickering shadows over the Hollow. But no one moves. No one speaks.
Because Luna is waiting. And I, the last one who should ever speak of this, owe her the truth. So I tell her.
"Branwen was not always a monster."
Luna's gaze locks onto mine, dark and steady, holding me there as if she can pull the answers from me with sheer will alone.
I exhale, tilting my head back slightly, searching the sky for something that does not exist anymore.
"At first, she was a decent person. A good person, even."
A flicker of movement. Riven shifts, but says nothing. Lucien watches, unreadable, as always.
"She was the first of her kind. A Sin-Binder before anyone understood what that truly meant. She had no guide, no warnings, no one to tell her that what she was doing would lead to her ruin."
Silas mutters something under his breath. Probably some smart-ass comment about how that should have been his first clue that this all was a bad idea.
I ignore him.
"At first, it was… symbiotic." I choose the word carefully, because it was never love, not truly. Not the way Luna is bound to hers. "She gave, and we gave in return. But power like that- " I shake my head. "Power like that is not meant to exist in a single body."
Luna's brows knit slightly. She understands. Of course she does.
"The world does not allow Sin-Binders like Branwen to live long." My voice is quieter now. This part matters. "She grew… unstable. Slowly, at first. The weight of it changed her, rewrote her, warped her. And before any of us realized what was happening, she was not the woman we had once followed."
Lucien exhales sharply. “She was a sickness.”
I nod. "The balance demanded correction. It always does."
Layla’s voice is quieter than I expect when she speaks. “How did it end?”
I hesitate. Because this is the part that matters most.
"Branwen knew the world would not let her live." I study Luna carefully. “And she refused to let it take us with her.”
Luna tilts her head slightly. Waiting.
"She sealed us."