Page 27 of The Sin-Binder’s Fate (The Seven Sins Academy #1)

I stand outside my room, staring at the door like it personally betrayed me.

Because it did. Because she’s in there. Because fucking Caspian put Luna in my bed. And now I have to deal with it.

I inhale deeply, exhale through my nose, and calmly, very calmly, march off to find that smug asshole.

I find him in the common room, draped over one of the couches, a book in one hand, a glass of something expensive in the other.

The very picture of a man who does not care that he has just disrespected me in the most personal way possible.

I cross my arms. “Why the fuck did you put Luna in my room?”

Caspian doesn’t even look up. “You’re welcome.”

I gape. “That wasn’t a thank you.”

He hums, flipping a page. “Sure sounded like one.”

I stalk closer, dragging a hand through my hair. “No, see, a thank you would imply gratitude, and I am feeling a lot of things right now, but none of them are that. ”

Caspian finally glances up, and his lips twitch like he’s holding back a laugh. “Why are you upset? It’s not like you sleep in there.”

I freeze.

Then squint. “What?”

He smirks. “You’re always in Elias’s room.”

My brain short-circuits.

I blink. “And?”

He raises a brow. “And you two are a thing.”

I stare at him. He stares back, completely fucking serious. It takes me a solid five seconds to register what he just said. And then I burst out laughing.

“Oh, my god.” I clutch my stomach. “You think, ” I have to breathe through it. “You think Elias and I are together?”

Caspian shrugs. “Aren’t you?”

I wheeze. “What the fuck, Vael?”

He looks genuinely unbothered. “I don’t see the problem.”

I gesture wildly. “The problem is that you have built an entire fantasy in your head while casually giving my fucking bed away.”

He leans back, swirling his drink. “Would you prefer she sleep in mine?”

I snap my mouth shut. Because fuck now I’m picturing it.

Caspian’s grin sharpens. “Oh? Not so eager now, are we?”

I groan, rubbing my hands down my face. “This is the worst conversation I’ve ever had.”

Caspian just smirks. “Glad we had this talk.”

I flip him off and storm away. Because now I have to figure out how the fuck I’m supposed to go back to my room, with Luna in it, and not make this even weirder.

Which, knowing me, is impossible.

Elias is sprawled across his bed when I find him, one arm draped over his face, looking like he’s about to fade into another plane of existence.

I kick his mattress. “Get up, lover boy.”

He groans. “Fuck off.”

“No, really, get up. We have important things to discuss.”

He peeks out from under his arm, scowling. “If this is about you stealing my socks again, ”

I flop down beside him, ignoring his immediate grunt of annoyance. “This is so much worse.”

He exhales sharply. “What now?”

I grin. “Caspian thinks we’re fucking.”

Elias bolts upright.

I wheeze.

He stares at me, brows furrowed like his brain is lagging. “He what?”

I slap a hand against his shoulder. “Congratulations, babe, we’re canon.”

Elias shoves me so hard I almost fall off the bed. “What the fuck, Silas?”

I’m cackling. “I know! It’s so fucking funny.”

Elias is still frowning, rubbing a hand down his face like he’s in pain. “Why the fuck would he think that?”

I flop back dramatically. “Because we spend so much time together, obviously.” I bat my lashes. “Because we share a deep and powerful connection.”

Elias looks at me. “Because you keep sneaking into my bed?”

I gasp, hand on my heart. “Wow, victim-blaming.”

He shoves me again .

I collapse against him, still laughing. “It’s just so fucking good.”

Elias groans. “And you corrected him, right?”

I blink up at him. “Why the fuck would I do that?”

His whole face goes flat. “Silas.”

“Elias.”

He glares. “What are you planning?”

I grin. “Oh, wouldn’t you like to know.”

He exhales sharply, already exhausted. “Whatever it is, don’t.”

“Babe,” I croon, reaching up to pat his face. “Have you met me?”

Elias shoves me off the bed entirely. And as I hit the floor, I can’t stop laughing. Because I am going to make this so much worse.

Elias and I march straight to Lucien’s office like two men on a mission. Well, I march. Elias drags his feet like he wants to be anywhere else.

“Why am I here?” he mutters as we reach the door.

I clap a hand on his shoulder. “For moral support.”

“You don’t have morals.”

“Exactly.”

Before he can run, I shove the door open dramatically. Lucien doesn’t even look up. He’s seated at his desk, flipping through paperwork, all polished restraint and overwhelming disappointment just radiating off of him.

“Lucien,” I say, throwing myself into a chair. “We need to talk about the unacceptable conditions we’re living under.”

Elias slumps down beside me. “We don’t.”

Lucien sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What the fuck do you want, Silas?”

I cross my arms. “I want my room back.”

Lucien finally glances up, unimpressed. “No.”

I gape. “You didn’t even hesitate. ”

“Because I don’t care.”

I lean forward. “Okay, but hear me out, Caspian put Luna in my room, which means I have nowhere to sleep, which means this is your problem now.”

Lucien exhales, like speaking to me is physically draining him. “You could sleep in Elias’s room.”

Elias lifts his hands. “No, he fucking can’t.”

Lucien raises a brow. “Oh? I thought you two were-”

Elias groans, dragging a hand down his face. “For the last fucking time, Silas and I are not together.”

Lucien stares at him for a long, unreadable moment. Then he turns back to me.

“You need to talk to Luna.”

I blink. “What?”

Lucien folds his hands over his desk. “If you have a problem, take it up with her.”

I narrow my eyes. “Is this a punishment?”

Lucien smirks. “Consider it an opportunity.”

I lean back, crossing my arms. “No, see, because an opportunity implies something good will come out of it, and I’m pretty sure the only thing I’ll get from this is stabbed.”

Lucien tilts his head. “Well, you do love an audience.”

I gape. “Was that a joke?”

Lucien’s smirk doesn’t fade.

Elias snorts. “Shit, you deserve this.”

Lucien nods. “I agree.”

I groan, slumping dramatically in my chair. “You people hate me.”

Lucien just gestures toward the door.

I sigh, dragging myself to my feet. “Fine. But if she kills me, I’m haunting all of you.”

Lucien waves me off. “Go.”

And with that, I’m officially on my way to get my ass handed to me by Luna. I stop outside my room, staring at the door like it’s about to explode. Because it might as well at this point. Because she is in there. In my room. In my bed. Taking up my space.

And I, I don’t know how to deal with that.

Elias claps me on the back. “Breathe, dumbass.”

I exhale sharply. “This is your fault.”

He shrugs. “Not my problem.” Then, before I can even process what’s happening, he knocks on the door, loud, quick, traitorous, and sprints around the corner like the coward he is.

I choke.

“You absolute piece of-”

The door opens. And I freeze. Luna blinks up at me, looking all soft and rumpled from where she was settling in for the night.

I might be having a stroke.

She tilts her head. “Silas?”

I clear my throat. “Hi. Hello. Yes. That is me.”

She squints. “Are you… okay?”

“Who’s to say?” I gesture vaguely at the air. “Reality is subjective.”

She blinks. “Uh…”

I push past her, pacing into the room like that will somehow help my spiraling brain. “So! Funny story, hilarious, really. You’re in my room, which, love that for us, honestly, but also, I’m experiencing a personal crisis, so, like, bear with me.”

She just watches me, arms crossed, amused. “Uh-huh.”

I whirl to face her. “It’s not that I mind you being here.” I force a very casual laugh. “I am a generous man, Luna. So giving. But Caspian threw you in here without consulting me, which means boundaries were violated. ”

Her lips twitch. “Boundaries? ”

“Yes.” I point at the bed. “That is where I sleep. Or used to. Before you.”

She snorts. “I didn’t choose this, Silas.”

I drag my hands through my hair. “I know. But now I have to decide if I sleep in here with you, which, like, ” I gesture wildly between us. “, weird, right?”

She raises a brow. “It’s just a bed.”

I gape. “It’s my bed.”

She sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Silas, do you want me to leave?”

I open my mouth. Close it. Panic.

Because, Do I?

I scowl at the floor. “No, but also yes, but also I don’t know.”

She laughs, soft and fucking sweet, and I am losing my mind.

“You’re so weird,” she says, shaking her head.

I groan, dragging my hands down my face. “You have no idea.”

She just smiles at me, like she’s not the problem, like she’s not currently hijacking my entire existence, and,

Fuck. I am so fucked. I knew this was going to get worse. I knew it the second Elias knocked on that fucking door and ran like a coward.

But this? This is so much worse than I anticipated.

Because Luna, the literal homewrecker sitting in my room, tilts her head at me and, so casually, says, “We could just share.”

I choke on air. I cough. I wheeze. I grab my fucking chest like I’ve been shot.

Luna frowns. “Are you okay? ”

I fling a hand out, stopping her. “Don’t.” I inhale sharply, exhale even sharper. “I, no. I, we, no.”

She blinks. “It’s just a room.”

I laugh. It’s unhinged. I sound deranged. “Oh, is it? Just a room? With just a bed? That we’d just be in together?” I stare at her. “Are you hearing yourself right now?”

She smirks. “Are you?”

I panic.

So I move. I grab the closest bag I can find and start shoving my shit into it, talking the entire time like that will somehow make this less awful.

“It’s not that I don’t like you,” I say, grabbing random clothes off the chair. “It’s not that I don’t find you attractive.” I pause. “Wait, ignore that last part, ”

Luna hums. “Noted.”

“Fuck.” I throw a shirt into the bag. “It’s just that if I stay here, I’ll have to think about how you’re sleeping in my bed, and then I’ll have to think about how you’re in my bed, and then I’ll have to think about how I’m on the floor like some lesser creature, ”

Luna raises a brow. “I wasn’t going to make you sleep on the floor.”

I whirl around. “Luna.”

She fights a smile. “What?”

“You can’t say things like that.”

She props her chin in her hand, looking entirely too entertained. “Why not?”

“Because my brain is fragile.” I press a hand to my temple. “I can’t be expected to survive this kind of environment. ”

She laughs. Actually laughs. And I hate how much I like it.

I grab a sock and throw it in my bag. One sock. Just to make a fucking point.

“I’ll be staying with Elias,” I announce, slinging the bag over my shoulder. “And you can live with the knowledge that you’ve ruined me.”

Luna sits up, lips twitching. “Tragic.”

“Devastating.”

She rolls her eyes. “Are you done?”

I hesitate. Then I sigh, dropping my bag just long enough to rifle through it. And when I pull out a shirt, I don’t let myself think. I just toss it onto the bed beside her.

She looks down at it. Then back at me. “What’s this?”

I shift on my feet, rubbing the back of my neck. “In case you need something to sleep in.”

Her lips curve slowly. “Oh, so you do care.”

I scowl. “Absolutely not.”

She picks up the shirt, running her fingers over the fabric. “Thanks, Silas.”

And she smiles at me. Like, really smiles.

I grab my bag and flee. I find Elias leaning against the hallway wall like he knew I’d come running. He lifts a brow as I approach, bag slung over my shoulder, looking very much like a man who just fled the scene of a crime.

“So,” Elias drawls, pushing off the wall. “How’d it go?”

I scowl. “She suggested we share the room.”

Elias snorts.

I throw a hand in the air. “Like it was nothing. Like I wouldn’t immediately combust. ”

He smirks. “And yet, here you are. Alive.”

“Barely.”

Elias starts walking toward his room, and I fall into step beside him, still reeling.

“She was so casual about it,” I continue, running a hand through my hair. “Like, ‘Oh, we could just share.’ Share, Elias. As if I wouldn’t be hyperaware of every breath she took. As if I wouldn’t lay there like a fucking corpse all night, too scared to move because what if our arms touched?”

Elias hums. “Sounds like a you problem.”

I gape. “You’re not taking this seriously.”

“Because it’s not serious.”

“It is so serious.”

Elias opens his door, stepping inside, but I block the entrance with my body.

He sighs. “Silas, move.”

“No. You need to understand the gravity of what happened.”

He crosses his arms, waiting.

I gesture wildly. “She laughed at me.”

Elias smirks. “Good.”

“She called me weird.”

His smirk widens. “Accurate.”

I groan, slumping against the doorframe. “She smiled at me, Elias.”

He stares at me, unimpressed. “And?”

“And it did something to me.” I clutch my chest dramatically. “I think I have a condition.”

Elias shoves me inside, muttering, “I fucking hate you.”

I drop onto his bed like a burden. “Why didn’t you warn me?”

Elias raises a brow. “About what?”

I level him with a look. “That she’s dangerous. ”

Elias leans against the wall, arms crossed. “She’s a girl, Silas.”

I shake my head, eyes dark. “She’s already making it hard for me.”

He laughs, shaking his head. “So let me get this straight. Luna offers to share your room, flusters you into a breakdown, and now you’re hiding in my bed instead of dealing with it?”

I lift a finger. “Correct.”

He sighs. “Pathetic.”

I roll onto my side, dragging a pillow over my head. “Let me die in peace.”

I scream into a pillow. And Elias fucking cackles .