Page 100
Story: The Sin Binder's Descent
Alistair shifts, clearly uncomfortable but not walking away. “You’re both idiots.”
Silas salutes him. “And yet, we’re the ones getting laid.”
The front door creaks faintly down the hall. Luna’s voice filters toward us—light, like she’s unaware of the absurdity happening in the foyer.
I push off the wall, smirking at Alistair’s grimace. “You ready to go back to the circus, or do you need more advice on how to ruin your life?”
Riven
I stare down at the glowing screen like it’s personally offended me. The council’s message blinks at the top—a cold, clinical reminder that nothing’s ever quiet for long. I miss the days when you had to send a bird if you wanted to ruin someone’s night. Hell, even a letter with wax seals and veiled threats was better than this.
Instead, I get a text. A digital summons like I’m one of their damn employees.
My thumb hovers over the group chat before I let out a breath and tap it open. The chat name, of course, isThe Seven Sins & Their Emotional Damage, because Silas renamed it one night when he was drunk and none of us have changed it back.
I type:
Riven Kain:Council meeting. Tonight. Don’t make me drag your asses.
Almost immediately, the notifications start lighting up.
BigMeatEnergy(Elias):You couldn’t have just let me rot in peace today, huh?
Waffles4Life(Silas):Do they serve snacks at these meetings? Asking for a friend. Also, can we vote to make Riven’s official title Daddy War Crimes?
Caspian:What’s the meeting about?
I ignore Silas’s bullshit because if I engage, we’ll spiral into a meme war and I’m already at my limit today. Instead, I type:
Riven Kain:No clue. If I had to guess—something we’ll all want to stab someone over.
There’s a pause.
BigMeatEnergy:That’s every day.
Waffles4Life:I vote Ambrose.
Riven Kain:Get your shit together. I’ll meet you in the foyer at eight.
I lock my phone and shove it into my pocket, rolling my shoulders back like I’m shaking the weight of it off. The council doesn’t call unless they want something—or someone.
And it’s never good.
In the distance, I can already feel Luna moving. A soft flicker against the edge of my bond, quiet but certain. Like she knows something’s shifting beneath our feet, and it won’t wait for us to catch up.
I start walking toward the house, letting the simmer of my magic bleed out into the gravel beneath my boots.
The weight of it presses against my chest, like chains coiled too tight. I was never meant to be the one at the front—never the one to lead. That was Lucien. Always Lucien. He carried the weight like it was stitched into his bones, like he could hold us all together without cracking. Me? I was made to tear the world apart when it failed us, not to keep it standing.
But here I am. Holding the pieces.
My jaw clenches as I push the door open, the familiar creak punching a hollow sound into the space. The house smells like parchment and old magic—faintly bitter, like something burning slow beneath the floorboards.
Inside, I find them exactly where I knew they’d be. Luna and Caspian, folded together on the old velvet couch like two conspirators, the soft spill of candlelight catching in Luna’s hair, casting her in gold. Caspian’s fingers skim lazily over the edges of the brittle pages spread across the coffee table, but I can seethe strain pulling at his mouth, the way he’s slouched deeper than usual, like the weight of everything is stitched between his ribs.
Luna glances up first, like she can feel me before I even speak. She always does. That damn bond humming low between us, insistent, unruly.
“You find anything yet?” My voice scrapes, rougher than I mean it to be.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100 (Reading here)
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192