Page 28
Story: The Sin Binder's Descent
I could lie to her. Tell her he’s healing. That he’s quiet. That he’s eating and sleeping and not curled up in his bed like a child who’s lost more than his dignity. But the truth is a different beast entirely, one I don’t know how to deliver without it baring its teeth.
I step inside. She looks up immediately, those stormy eyes locking on me with the kind of focus that makes a man feel dissected.
“Is he okay?” she asks again, softer this time.
I sit on the edge of her bed, ignoring the way Riven’s hackles raise across the room. He stays silent, because we both know Luna will decide, not him. I study her face—no tears, no cracks. But something flickers behind her gaze. Guilt, maybe. Or something more dangerous.
“Physically, yes,” I say carefully. “He’s not bleeding. Not unconscious. Not dying.”
Her shoulders ease, just slightly.
“But his mind?” I continue, and my voice sharpens around the edges. “That’s a different matter. He’s unraveling.”
Her lips part, but no words come.
I lean in, resting my forearms on my knees. “Branwen didn’t just use him. She broke him. Every command. Every time she pulled the strings. Every time she made him touch her, made him smile through it. It’s not just guilt for stabbing you, Luna. It’s the shame of waking up and realizing he’s been hollowed out and filled with someone else’s will.”
She exhales shakily, and I see it—the moment the empathy strikes. Her fingers curl into the sheets. Her gaze drops.
“He thinks he doesn’t deserve you,” I add. “And honestly? He might be right. But that doesn’t stop the bond from pulling him toward you anyhow.”
Her voice is barely above a whisper. “Did she… command him to stab me?”
“Yes,” I say finally. “She told him to finish you. But that moment… the hesitation? That was his. He flinched, Luna. He didn’t stab you in the heart because somewhere in that fucked-up wreckage of his mind, he still chose you.”
She nods, once. Then again, slower.
“And now,” I finish, “you have to decide if you’re going to let that bond complete itself. Or let him break all over again.”
And I wonder—how many more of us she’ll have to save before she realizes she’s the one bleeding dry.
Elias
The stone leaves my hand with a flick of my wrist, skips once on the cobblestone before vanishing into the shadows of the courtyard. Normally, Silas would’ve made some stupid sound effect—something that echoed through the Hollow like a cartoon echo—but tonight he just watches the rock disappear like it might take all this damn heaviness with it.
Caspian’s still crying upstairs.
It’s not loud, not like the sobbing you’d expect from someone that pretty and composed when he’s destroying you in bed or with a whip. No, this is quieter. Stifled. Like he’s trying not to let anyone hear, which only makes it worse. Makes it feel like something’s broken in the foundation of this place, like we’re sitting on top of a grief that doesn’t belong to any one of us but still lives in all of us now.
“Do you think it’s, like... a permanent thing?” Silas asks, pitching a rock so hard it actually cracks a statue’s wing across the courtyard. “The crying. I don’t know if I can handle Cas being the emotional one now. It’s throwing off my whole dynamic.”
I snort, because he’s trying. This is him trying. Joking to make the silence bearable, to fill the space Caspian’s sobs hollow out in all of us.
“Maybe he just needed to get it out,” I say. “Like a trauma cleanse. Real crystal-girl vibes. I’ll buy him incense and a sage stick.”
Silas doesn’t laugh. Just drops his next rock into the dirt without throwing it. That says more than anything else could.
The Hollow’s quiet in a way that makes you feel like the walls are listening. The kind of quiet where you can hear someone’s heartbeat from the other room if you try hard enough. I know Luna’s inside. I can feel her, even when I don’t want to. The bond thrums with the knowledge of her. Awake. Tired. Sad.
“I hate this,” I mutter.
Silas glances at me. “The crying?”
“The guilt.” I exhale and lean back on my elbows, staring at the stars that don’t really twinkle here, just shimmer like they know this place doesn’t deserve anything that pretty. “He’s already punishing himself more than any of us ever could. And I don’t even know if he wants forgiveness. I think he just wants it to stop.”
“Yeah,” Silas says softly, nodding. “And none of us can make it stop.”
A beat of silence.
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 (Reading here)
- 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
- 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