Page 13 of The Sin-Binder’s Fate (The Seven Sins Academy #1)

I’ve been walking for what feels like hours, though it’s probably only minutes, the sharp scent of aged parchment and burning candles lingering in the halls. Everything looks the same: dark stone archways, gothic chandeliers dripping with wax, long corridors that stretch too far, leading nowhere.

Caspian had left me to “figure things out,” his version of a test, no doubt. And now, I’m hopelessly lost.

I exhale, pressing my fingers to my temple. The air hums with something unnatural, the academy itself alive, shifting, rearranging. I don’t belong here.

A flicker of movement catches my eye.

At the far end of the hallway, a shadow leans against the wall, half-draped in darkness. Watching me.

I know who it is before he steps into the dim light.

Silas. Envy.

His gaze drags over me, slow, dissecting. Something is unsettling about the way he looks at people, like he’s already figured them out, already decided what parts of them he wants to steal.

“You look lost.” His voice is smooth, edged with something taunting.

I lift my chin. “Maybe. ”

He cocks his head, studying me like a puzzle he hasn’t quite solved. “No, maybe about it, Sin-Binder. You don’t know where the fuck you are.”

I cross my arms. “And you do?”

The smirk that curls his lips is almost lazy, but there’s an undercurrent of something sharper.

“I make it my business to know everything that happens in this place.” He steps closer, movements fluid, effortless.

“For example…” His gaze dips, the corner of his mouth twitching. “You keep touching your wrist.”

I freeze.

I have been. My fingers ghosting over the skin, over the place where it happened. Where the mark appeared.

His smirk widens. “Nervous habit?”

I drop my hand. “You’re observant.”

“I’m Envy.” He says it like a statement, like it’s supposed to explain everything. Maybe it does.

Because Envy watches. He studies. He wants. And right now, I get the feeling he wants to get under my skin.

I force myself to hold his gaze. “Are you going to help me or just stand there and be cryptic?”

He hums, considering. “Depends.”

“On?”

His head tilts, amusement flickering in his emerald eyes. “How badly you want it.”

I frown. “Want what?”

He steps closer, just enough to invade my space. “An answer.”

The air shifts, something sharp and charged passing between us.

It’s then that I realize Silas doesn’t just envy. He collects. And right now, I have no idea if he wants to help me… or take something for himself .

He flicks his wrist, and a gold coin spins through his fingers, glinting against the dim candlelight. It moves so smoothly, effortlessly, that I almost don’t register the motion at first. As if it’s an extension of him, something he’s done so many times that it’s second nature.

My gaze follows the coin as it dances between his knuckles, the metal catching the light at every turn. A distraction. A habit. A tell.

He watches me watch him, lips quirking as he flicks the coin high, catching it between two fingers without ever looking away. “You like it?”

I blink, forcing my gaze back to his face.

His features are sharp, angular, too sharp.

Like he was carved from something beautiful, something jagged and unfinished.

Dark hair that always looks a little disheveled, like he ran his hands through it one too many times in frustration.

Eyes that shift between a deep, jealous green and something darker, something that devours.

His uniform is looser than the others, the jacket unbuttoned, shirt untucked at the bottom, like he doesn’t give a damn about rules, or knows he can get away with breaking them.

He flicks the coin again, and it spins in the air between us before vanishing into his palm. A sleight of hand trick. Or maybe something else entirely.

I cross my arms. “Cute trick.”

Silas hums. “Cute girl.”

My jaw tightens, but he just grins, tilting his head. “You don’t like compliments?”

“I don’t like you.”

His grin only widens. He leans in just enough that I catch the scent of him, something rich, expensive, but off. Like cologne mixed with something metallic, something stolen. “Funny thing about Envy, sweetheart,” he murmurs. “Even when you don’t want something… it still wants you.”

I swallow, pulse stuttering.

I think I just made a mistake.

He watches me like he’s already stolen something, but I haven’t figured out what yet. He doesn’t blink. Doesn’t fidget. Just flips that damn coin between his fingers, like he has all the time in the world to unnerve me.

And it’s working.

Not that I’d let him know.

“Even when you don’t want something… it still wants you,” he said. The words coil around me, slow and deliberate. I should be creeped out, unnerved, but there’s something else beneath it, something that prickles at my skin like static before a storm.

I shift my weight, crossing my arms. “That supposed to scare me?”

Silas grins, slow and sharp. “I don’t know, sweetheart.” He flicks the coin again, catching it between his knuckles before making it disappear. “Does it?”

I hold his gaze. “No.”

He hums, eyes flicking over me like he’s reading something beneath my skin. “You say that, but you haven’t moved.”

Neither has he.

His fingers twitch at his side. A small movement. Deliberate.

I notice it too late.

The next second, the coin skims through the air, straight at me.

I don’t think. Just react. My hand snaps up, fingers closing around it midair. The metal is warm from his touch, the ridged edges biting into my palm.

He goes still. A slow breath. A shift of his weight. His grin inches wider.

“Oh.” His voice is low, intrigued. “Look at you.”

Something flares in his expression, something deep and unreadable. It makes my stomach dip, my pulse stutter.

I uncurl my fingers, letting the coin rest in my palm. “Didn’t think I could catch it?”

“Didn’t think you’d dare.”

The way he says it, like it was a test. Like I just did something I shouldn’t have.

I hold up the coin, letting it glint between us. “Want it back?”

He steps closer, slow, controlled. He’s not touching me, but it feels like he is. Like something about him reaches. Like he’s in my space without being in my space.

His voice dips lower. “Keep it.”

I blink. “What?”

The grin fades from his lips, but his eyes, they don’t lose that glint. “A gift.” His gaze drags over my face, something unreadable lingering in the way he looks at me. “Something to remember me by.”

I exhale slowly. “I just met you.”

His lips twitch. “Did you?”

I don’t know what he means by that, but before I can respond, he turns.

No goodbye. No explanation. Just a lazy stride down the hall, hands in his pockets, as if he didn’t just leave something behind. Something more than the coin. Something I don’t know how to give back.

My stomach betrays me, giving a low, embarrassing growl, breaking the quiet of the hall.

Right. Lunch.

I sigh, tucking the coin into my pocket as I keep walking.

The academy is a labyrinth, each hallway identical in its eerie, gothic grandeur, arched ceilings, chandeliers that flicker with a cold, blue glow, and doors carved with symbols I don’t understand.

The air smells of aged paper and something faintly metallic, like magic woven into the very walls.

I take a left, hoping it leads somewhere familiar, when I hear them.

Laughter. Sweet, cruel. The kind that isn’t meant to be shared. The kind that means you’re the joke.

I don’t slow down, but they do. A group of girls steps out from an alcove ahead, fanning out as if they’ve been waiting.

I recognize the blonde immediately, Sarie.

Caspian told me her name last night, said it like it was something to be careful with.

She’s beautiful in that vicious, effortless way, lips painted deep red, a smirk already curling as her cold blue eyes drag over me like I’m something stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

“Well, well,” she drawls, tilting her head. “If it isn’t the new pet.”

The other girls snicker, their eyes gleaming with amusement.

I force myself to breathe, to relax my hands, even though my pulse kicks up.

“No witty response?” Sarie pouts, stepping closer. The click of her heels is sharp against the stone. “Caspian’s little charity case has nothing to say?”

I meet her gaze. “I think I was just stunned into silence by the sheer amount of desperation in that sentence.”

A beat of silence.

Then the laughter turns sharp, crueler now. One of the girls huffs, unimpressed. Another narrows her eyes.

Sarie’s smirk stretches, but there’s something colder beneath it now.

“You think you’re cute, don’t you?”

I shrug. “I mean, Caspian does.”

That does it.

Her expression darkens, and suddenly, they’re closer.

A girl with dark curls blocks my path. Another one, tall and sharp-eyed, shifts behind me.

Sarie leans in, lowering her voice to a soft, sugary venom. “You don’t belong here, little human.” She taps a manicured finger against my chest, light, deliberate. “And trust me… none of us will lose sleep when you’re gone.”

I hold her gaze, because that’s what they want, isn’t it? A reaction. A crack. Fear.

She won’t get it. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m alone.

And I just let them surround me. A sharp inhale. A flicker of movement. And then, everything stops.

I blink. My breath catches in my throat.

The world around me is wrong.

Sarie’s cruel smirk is frozen in place, the slight tilt of her head locked mid-taunt. The girl with dark curls behind me is mid-step, her boot hovering just above the stone floor. Their laughter, sharp, dripping with malice, hangs in the air like a sound cut clean from time itself.

My heart slams against my ribs.

I move slowly, turning, searching, feeling the weight of the unnatural stillness pressing in on all sides.

And then I see him.

Leaning casually against the archway behind me, arms crossed, bored amusement flickering behind half-lidded silver eyes.

Elias.