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Lucien exhales like he’s trying not to murder me. “That’s not what this is about.”
“No,” Orin says quietly from the other end of the room, “but it will be. If we don’t get ahead of Branwen, if we don’t figure out how she’s using the pillar… if we don’t understand what she’s trying to build.”
I spin, arms outstretched, dramatically pacing like I’m impersonating Lucien now. “Then let’s figure it out. Let’s poke the pillar with a stick. Let’s pour wine on it. Maybe Elias can do his sexy dance of summoning a demon. ”
“Okay, first of all,” Elias interrupts, hand over his chest, “that dance is private.”
“Second of all,” I say without missing a beat, “she’s not just coming for the rest of us. She’s coming for Luna, too. That bond she has with the guys she’s taken? It’s poison. It warps you. And if she touches Luna…”
I trail off, and for once, the silence isn’t awkward. It’s heavy. The idea of that first sin binder getting her claws into Luna…
No.
I won’t let that happen.
Lucien watches me. Not with surprise, that ship sailed years ago, but with a flicker of something he doesn’t want to name. Maybe suspicion. Maybe curiosity. Maybe the same dread I feel humming in my blood, even beneath all my jokes.
Luna finally speaks, her voice low but steady. “We don’t need more plans. We need to act.”
And fuck me if I don’t want to follow that voice into hell.
Elias mutters, “Bet it’s more fun than here.”
And Lucien, in all his reluctant, frustrated glory, finally nods. “Then let’s move.”
I grin, already walking toward her. Because yeah, I’ll follow her. Into hell, into war, into whatever’s coming next.
And I’ll make damn sure we survive it.
I fall into step behind Lucien with the most exaggerated stride I can muster, shoulders stiff, chin tilted up like I’m sniffing for insubordination. My hands clasp behind my back in perfect mockery of his usual self-righteous march. I even furrow my brows and mutter under my breath, “Dominion this, Dominion that, I’m too emotionally constipated to say please.”
Elias snorts behind me, and I don’t even have to look to know he’s flipping Lucien off in perfect time with my steps. It’s a dance we’ve done a thousand times, mockery in motion, chaos draped in lazy sarcasm.
Lucien doesn’t stop walking, but I see the twitch in his jaw. That’s a win in my book.
“I will shove you into the pillar and see if it spits you back out as something useful,” he mutters, deadpan.
“Oof,” I hiss dramatically, clutching my chest. “Say it slower next time. I almost felt something.”
Luna snorts. It’s small, barely more than a breath, but I hear it. Feel it. That tiny fracture in the stone-cold severity she’s been carrying all day. I’d tear the world apart for that sound.
The pillar looms ahead like a leftover bone from some ancient god. Carved in lines too sharp, etched with symbols that bite at the eyes. Old magic, heavy and raw. Even I don’t like being near it, and I like everything I’m not supposed to.
Lucien reaches it first and stops, staring up at the thing like it personally offended him. Orin joins him silently, hands tucked into the sleeves of his robe, his expression unreadable. Like always.
“Do we have a plan this time?” Elias asks, sprawling across the nearest half-collapsed wall like it’s a chaise lounge. “Or are we just going to stare at it until it opens a portal to hell?”
“It’s not hell,” Orin says calmly. “It’s worse.”
“Oh good,” I say, bouncing on my heels. “I love worse.”
Lucien rounds on me. “You’re not taking this seriously.”
I raise a brow and tilt my head. “Lucien, I take Luna seriously. The rest of this? Not so much.”
Luna, standing just behind me, doesn’t say anything, but I can feel her bond tug, warm and sharp. It curls around my ribs like a reminder: we’re connected now. I might be the clown, the chaos, the flirt who never shuts up, but when it comes to her, every nerve in my body is awake.
“We need to understand how she’s using the pillar,” Orin says, stepping forward. He places a palm against the ancient stone, and it hums, faint, nearly imperceptible, but there. “It’s tuned to the Sin Binder’s magic. Which means she’s activated it.”