Page 101
Story: The Sin Binder's Descent
Caspian sighs without looking up, thumb running over the spine of one of the thick tomes like he’s trying to rub the answers out of it. “Depends. Do you count centuries of headmaster paranoia and very bad poetry?”
Luna shifts, her fingers trailing across the margin of the page she’s reading. “Some of it’s useful,” she says quietly, but there’s something brittle in her voice too—something sharp beneath the softness. “The early ones… they knew about the Pillar. Not all of it, but enough. There’s references. And something about sacrifices.”
My gut coils tight. “Sacrifices?”
She nods once, the movement small but certain. “We’re piecing it together. Slowly.”
I drag a hand down my face, teeth grinding becauseslowlyisn’t good enough. Not when the Council is breathing down our necks and Lucien and Orin are still out there, and I’m stuck trying to hold this fractured thing together before it splinters beyond repair.
“You shouldn’t be the ones doing this,” I mutter before I can stop myself.
Luna’s eyes lift to mine, and something in them softens—infuriating and gentle all at once. “Then who should?”
I don’t answer. Because I don’t have one.
The candlelight flickers across her face, and gods, she’s so much more dangerous than she knows. Than any of themrealize. She’s the gravity keeping all of us here, whether we admit it or not.
I exhale slow, dragging my gaze away before the bond burns straight through me. I start to turn, already thinking about how the hell I’m supposed to keep this house, this group, this war from crumbling beneath me—
“Riven,” Luna says softly, and I glance back over my shoulder.
Her eyes meet mine like she can see straight through me. Like she knows exactly what I’m holding together just to keep breathing.
“We’ll find them.”
She stretches like a cat when she stands, arms high above her head, her shirt lifting just enough to show a sliver of skin. Like she doesn’t know what that does to me. Or maybe she does. Maybe she always does.
She doesn’t ask if she can follow—I hear her bare feet against the hardwood, soft as a heartbeat behind me, and I don’t stop her. Won’t. I could pretend I’m surprised, but Luna never needs permission, not with me.
The door clicks shut behind us, and the house seems to hold its breath, the sound of the others muffled beyond the heavy wood. My room is as stripped down as I am—no softness here, nothing to suggest comfort. Just the sharp edges I keep around me like armor.
She lingers near the door, watching me with that look she reserves only for me—like she’s seeing something I’ve spent centuries hiding and doesn’t think it’s ugly. Like I’m not ugly.
I pull my shirt over my head, tossing it toward the chair in the corner, and I catch her eyes dragging over me before she flicks them away like she wasn’t looking. Like I didn’t see the heat flash in them.
“You coming to stand there all night?” I ask, voice low, pulling open one of the dresser drawers without looking at her.
She huffs, but there’s a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth when she pads forward. “Maybe I like watching you undress.”
That pulse inside me flares, the bond twisting sharp beneath my skin, but I keep my expression neutral, rolling my eyes like I’m unaffected, even as every muscle in me hums for her.
“You’re shameless,” I murmur, dragging a black shirt out of the drawer.
Her fingers brush my back before I even hear her move—barely a touch, featherlight, but it burns through me anyway. I stiffen, jaw tightening against how easily she can do this to me without even trying.
“I like this version of you,” she says quietly, and when I glance over my shoulder, she’s closer than I expected, eyes pinned to mine, something open and devastating in them. “The one who doesn’t pretend he’s made of stone.”
I swallow around the heat curling up my throat, dropping the shirt without thinking.
“Yeah?” My voice scrapes like gravel. “You like me soft, sweetheart?”
She smiles, but it’s not sharp this time. It’s quiet. Honest. “I like you real.”
I don’t move when she reaches for me, slipping her fingers around my wrist, her thumb grazing that spot inside my arm where the bond thrums the strongest. She’s the only thing that’s ever felt like home and ruin at the same time.
“Riven,” she says softly, and fuck, I hate how she says my name—like it’s a tether and a promise all at once.
“I’m here,” I rasp, like I mean it.
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
- Page 101 (Reading here)
- 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