Page 36 of The Sin-Binder’s Fate (The Seven Sins Academy #1)

The time around me drops, compressing into something thick and slow for her, stretching every movement I make into something she can barely track.

She sees me coming. But she can’t do anything about it.

I close the distance in an instant, catching her wrist before she can react. The shift in gravity sends her stumbling, her balance tilting as I twist behind her, forcing her to feel how much control I actually have.

Her breath comes short, sharp, and I feel it against my skin. Too close.

I exhale, pressing my lips together, trying to ignore the way my pulse is wrong.

“You think you’re making progress?” I murmur, my breath just against her ear. “You think you’re learning?” I smirk, tilting my head. “You’re still losing.”

She stills against me, her pulse racing beneath my fingers .

And then, she does something stupid. She shifts. Not with strength. Not with speed. But with instinct. She turns her head, just slightly, just enough that when I look down,

Her mouth is right there.

Fuck.

I shove myself back like I’ve been burned, putting more space between us than I probably need to. My skin hums where she touched me, and it’s fucking annoying.

Luna watches me, dark eyes unreadable. “What?”

I scowl, exhaling sharply. “Nothing.”

She tilts her head. “Didn’t like that?”

Nope. Not answering that.

I roll my shoulders, trying to shake the wrongness in my veins. “If you think distracting me is gonna win you this fight, ”

She smirks. Smirks.

“I think it almost worked,” she says.

I should’ve called in sick. Not that I can get sick, but I should’ve faked it. Faked unconsciousness. Faked my own death if it meant getting out of this.

Okay.

This is fine.

I can handle this. Sure, my abilities are technically impossible to counter. Sure, I’ve spent centuries fine-tuning the delicate balance between moving through time like a god and passing out on the nearest flat surface afterward.

And sure, maybe Luna is figuring out how to use that against me.

But I’ve got this. Totally.

Except she’s smiling. And that? That’s a problem.

She’s not supposed to look like that, like she knows something I don’t. Like she’s learning.

I exhale sharply, forcing my body to stay relaxed, rolling out my shoulders as I put some distance between us. “Alright, Binder,” I murmur, smirking as I tilt my head. “I’ll give you credit for the effort, but you’re still not, ”

She moves.

Fast.

Too fast.

I slip into my ability on instinct, forcing the world to slow around me, but something fucks up.

Because she’s still moving. Not as fast as me, not yet, but enough that she shouldn’t be. Enough that my body hesitates, muscles locking for the barest second, brain scrambling to understand what’s happening.

No one should be able to move like this when I’m pulling time down around me like a weighted net.

And yet, She adapts. She leans into the slow drag of my power, shifting her movements mid-step, catching onto the unnatural flow of time like she’s felt it before.

I’ve barely registered what she’s doing before she’s on me.

Shit.

I twist, trying to disengage, trying to shove more power into my ability so I can outrun her,

But something pulls at me. It’s subtle, almost imperceptible, like an invisible weight tethering me to the same time stream she’s using .

She’s pulling me in.

I stumble, actually stumble, as time stutters around me, my ability misfiring for the first time in centuries.

Luna lunges forward, throwing her weight into me, using my brief moment of disorientation against me. She shouldn’t be able to. But she does. And before I can fully recover, her body collides with mine, knocking me back against the pillar.

My head barely misses the stone. My breath leaves in a sharp exhale.

I stare down at her, hands gripping her arms on instinct, already reaching for my ability to,

And then, she fucking smirks. Something slow and sharp unfurls in my gut. She knew what she was doing. She felt my ability. Read it. Turned it back on me. And she enjoyed it.

I inhale, dragging my gaze over her face, trying to calculate what this means.

That’s my first mistake. Because I’m too focused when she moves again. Her fingers skim up my arm, trailing lightly over my wrist before curling into my jacket, tugging me down, just slightly, just enough, so her mouth brushes the corner of mine.

It’s not a kiss. Not really. Just the ghost of one, just the threat of something more. My stomach drops. My breath catches before I can stop it.And then she leans back, dark eyes gleaming with something I do not trust.

I stare at her, something flickering dangerously behind my ribs. “What the fuck was that?”

Luna tilts her head, pretending to think. “Strategy. ”

I blink. And then, I laugh.

Because, holy shit.

I shove her back, gentle enough that she doesn’t stumble, rough enough that she knows I let her get away with that.

I shake my head, exhaling. “Oh, no. Nope. We are not doing that.”

She shrugs. “Seemed effective.”

“Effective?” I drag a hand through my hair, trying to shake off the wrongness she just put into my bloodstream. “That was the worst strategy I have ever seen in my entire fucking existence.”

She grins. “But it worked.”

I scowl, pointing at her. “If you ever do that again, I swear to, ”

“What?” She lifts a brow, gaze flicking to my mouth. “You gonna put me in stasis?”

I narrow my eyes. “Don’t tempt me.”

She steps back, arms crossing. “I just beat you.”

I exhale through my nose. “You distracted me.”

“Same thing.”

“No, it’s not.”

She smirks. “Seems like it is.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “That was cheating.”

She arches a brow. “You said to use what I’ve learned.”

My stomach plummets.

Oh.

Oh, fuck.

This is my fault .