Page 4 of The Sin-Binder’s Fate (The Seven Sins Academy #1)

She’s here. I don’t know what I expected to feel, but it isn’t this.

The pull is grating, clawing beneath my skin, threading through my ribs like a hook dragging me toward something I want no part of. And I’m not the only one who feels it.

The room is thick with it, resentment, disbelief, the slow burn of something none of us will name.

She’s an anomaly. A mistake. And yet, she exists.

I stand near the window, watching the storm that refuses to break over the academy, my hands braced on the cool marble of the sill. Behind me, the others are sprawled across the room, their moods ranging from cold disinterest to barely-restrained rage.

“She shouldn’t be here,” Riven mutters darkly, pacing near the fireplace, his boots scuffing against the black stone floor. His whole body is wired tight, barely contained violence lurking beneath his skin. “How the fuck is this possible?”

“An excellent question.” Ambrose’s voice is smooth, but cut with something sharper, something dangerous.

He’s lounging in one of the armchairs, his gloved fingers tapping against his knee, the only sign that he’s as unsettled as the rest of us.

“One, we won’t get an answer to until someone tells us what, exactly, she’s doing here. ”

Caspian stretches his arms behind his head, slouching against the far wall like this is all immensely entertaining. “Does it matter?” he drawls. “We all felt it. She’s ours.”

Ours.

The word slithers through me, sharp and unwelcome.

“She is not ours,” Silas says flatly, his voice low, simmering. He’s barely moved since we started talking, his arms crossed, his face unreadable. But there’s an edge to his posture, a tightness in the way his fingers curl against his sleeves.

Caspian smirks, tilting his head toward him. “Say that again when you’re not thinking about her.”

Silas goes still. Just for a second. Then his gaze snaps toward Caspian, something black and vicious flickering in his eyes.

I exhale sharply. “Enough.”

Caspian flicks his golden gaze toward me, too amused. “Touched a nerve?”

I level him with a look. “You’re enjoying this.”

“Maybe a little.”

Riven stops pacing long enough to glare at him. “You think this is funny?”

“Not funny,” Caspian says, slow and measured. “Interesting.”

The word lingers, taunting.

Riven’s teeth grind audibly. “She’s a fucking Sin Binder.” His voice is pure venom, filled with something dark, something sharp enough to wound. “She’s meant to control us.”

That word twists something in me.

I glance at Elias, who hasn’t spoken yet, his head resting against the back of the sofa, his body slack. He’s watching the conversation through half-lidded eyes, like he’s somewhere between bored and distant.

Finally, he exhales. “It’s not unheard of.”

Riven snaps toward him. “That doesn’t mean we have to accept it.”

Elias shrugs, unfazed. “Didn’t say we did.”

Orin shifts in the corner, his body too still, like he’s listening to something the rest of us can’t hear. He hasn’t spoken either, but his jaw is tight, his hands flexing against his knees.

Riven runs a hand through his hair, frustration bleeding through every sharp movement. “She’s going to try.”

The words settle over us.

A statement, not a question.

We all know what happens next. She’ll have to bind us. One by one.

She’ll have to make us hers.

My jaw tightens.

Not fucking likely.

“We’ll see,” I say.

“She didn’t just show up,” Ambrose muses from his chair, fingers tapping against the leather armrest. “Someone brought her here.”

“Fate brought her here,” Elias corrects lazily, his head tipped back against the couch, silver lashes low over mercury eyes. “That’s how these things go, isn’t it?”

“Fate?” Riven scoffs, arms crossed over his chest, his whole body wired, a weapon begging to be unsheathed. “Fate isn’t what dropped a Sin Binder on our doorstep. Someone knew what she was before she ever stepped foot in this school.”

He’s right.

Daemon Academy doesn’t operate by accident. If she’s here, it’s because someone wanted her here.

“Maybe Blackwell?” Silas finally speaks, slow and measured, like he’s only half-invested in the conversation. “He’s the only one with enough authority to bring in a student without anyone knowing.”

Ambrose tilts his head, considering. “And that’s the part that doesn’t make sense.”

“The part where he doesn’t tell us?” I murmur.

“The part where she doesn’t know.”

I glance at him, my grip tightening against the window frame.

“She has no idea what she is,” Ambrose continues, voice smooth but weighted. “She doesn’t understand the pull. She doesn’t even know why she’s here.”

“She will,” Elias murmurs.

Silas leans forward, elbows on his knees, sharp gaze flicking between us. “The moment she starts feeling it, the bond, the draw, she’ll figure it out.”

A muscle ticks in my jaw. The idea of her feeling that pull, the way it’s already burning beneath my skin,

No.

She won’t bind us.

“She’s lucky,” Caspian says suddenly, a grin in his voice.

I don’t turn, but I feel him relaxed, always amused, always entertained.

“Lucky?” Riven’s voice is a growl. “Explain to me how the fuck she’s lucky.”

“She gets all of us,” Caspian says simply, golden eyes gleaming. “One girl. Seven of us. Doesn’t sound like the worst fate.”

The air shifts.

Riven moves fast. A step, then another, his entire body a crackling fuse, ready to ignite.

Caspian just smiles, slow and lazy, like he’s been waiting for it .

I turn from the window, leveling them both with a look. “Enough.”

Riven stops, but his chest rises and falls, fists clenched at his sides. “She’s not going to bind me.”

A beat.

Then, Caspian laughs.

“Not yet.”

Riven doesn’t move, but his whole body hums with barely restrained violence. Caspian is pushing him, and they both know it.

Riven’s fingers flex, his breath coming sharp through his nose. A second longer and he’ll snap.

Good.

Let him be pissed. Let him burn it out now before he makes a mess of things later.

Elias shifts on the couch, stretching his long legs out in front of him. His voice is lazy, disinterested. A lie.

“So,” he murmurs, “are we talking about how to get rid of her, or are we just pretending she’s not a problem?”

Caspian stops grinning. Riven stops breathing.

I don’t turn from the window. “She’s a problem.”

A fact. A certainty.

“She’s an inconvenience,” Ambrose corrects, flicking his gloved fingers like he’s swatting the thought away. “A problem would imply we don’t have options.”

“Do we?” Silas’s voice is quiet, but sharp.

Ambrose’s lips curl, just slightly. “Everyone is disposable.”

That earns a low, dark laugh from the other side of the room. Orin.

He’s been quiet. But now, he’s watching us, his head tilted, eyes dark with something unreadable.

“I’d like to see you try,” Orin says, and it should sound like amusement. It doesn’t .

Ambrose doesn’t flinch, doesn’t react. He just smiles. The kind of smile that says he doesn’t have to try.

Riven turns toward me, his voice cutting through the weight of it all. “If we do something now, before she figures it out, before she binds any of us, ”

“She’s not leaving,” I say.

His nostrils flare. “You don’t know that.”

I do.

“She hasn’t bound anyone,” Elias points out, scratching the back of his head, silver strands falling over his forehead. “And I don’t see her figuring it out anytime soon.”

“She doesn’t need to.” Caspian’s voice is a slow drag of honey. Amused. Tempted. Dangerous. “She’ll feel it eventually. She’ll feel us.”

Riven’s jaw locks.

“She’ll try to bind one of us first,” Silas murmurs. His gaze flicks over each of us, assessing. “She won’t be able to resist.”

I know exactly who she’ll try.

And I won’t let her.

Ambrose stands smoothly, brushing nonexistent dust from his sleeve. “Then it’s simple.” He glances at me. “We make sure she never gets the chance.”

I lift a brow. “You volunteering?”

His smirk is slow, unbothered. “I’ll consider it.”

Elias exhales, shaking his head. “You’re all dramatic as hell.”

The conversation should have ended by now.

And yet, it lingers.

Unspoken, unwelcome.

Like her presence .

Like the weight of her existence.

“Well,” Caspian exhales, dragging the word out like a slow stretch, “at least she’s hot.”

Riven’s head snaps toward him, murder in his eyes. “Are you fucking serious?”

Caspian grins, all white teeth and amusement. “What? I’m just saying, if we’re all doomed to be dragged down by some mystical bullshit, at least she’s nice to look at.”

Elias snorts from the couch, half-laughing, half-exhausted. “You would say that.”

Ambrose doesn’t bother looking up from his seat. “You could be staring death in the face and still be wondering if you could fuck it.”

Caspian tilts his head, considering. “I mean…”

Riven lunges.

It’s so fast that for half a second, I think Caspian is about to eat the floor. But at the last possible moment, Caspian sidesteps smoothly, laughing as Riven’s fist misses him by inches.

“Relax,” he teases, slipping just out of reach. “No need to get jealous.”

Riven rounds on him, shoulders tight, body vibrating with barely restrained violence. “You think this is a joke? That this girl, this thing, just showing up here is something to make a fucking joke about?”

Caspian’s smirk doesn’t fade, but his golden eyes glint, dark and unreadable.

“I think you’re mad because you noticed it too,” he says simply.

A muscle ticks in Riven’s jaw.

“Oh, come on,” Caspian presses, stepping closer, dropping his voice just enough to taunt. “You didn’t see it? Those pretty little lips? That, ”

Riven moves again .

Caspian dodges with an infuriating amount of ease, exhaling like this is nothing but entertainment.

“Maybe she’ll start with you, then,” Ambrose muses, drumming his fingers on the chair. “The Binder and the Beast. Poetic.”

Riven’s breathing is sharp, uneven. He runs a hand through his hair, teeth clenched. “I’d rather die.”

Caspian grins. “You sure?”

A flicker of something passes through the room. Not attraction. Not even lust. Just dread. Because we all know. We can hate her. We can plan. We can resist all we want. But one of us will fall first.

“She’s going to die anyway.”

The words drop into the room like a stone into deep water, sending slow, deliberate ripples outward.

I turn from the window, arms folding across my chest as I watch them all process it.

Because it’s true.

Someone will kill her.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but Daemon Academy isn’t a place where things like her survive. The moment the others realize what she is, what she’s meant to do, they’ll tear her apart.

And then this conversation will be irrelevant.

Riven exhales harshly, running a hand through his hair, shoulders still tight from Caspian’s taunting. “So we do nothing.”

“Exactly,” I say smoothly. “We ignore her. We let the rest of them deal with it. If she doesn’t make it past the first week, then she was never our problem to begin with.”

Elias lifts his head from the couch, silver eyes flicking to me with something distant, unreadable. “And if she does?”

“Then we’ll handle it. ”

Silas leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, watching me too closely. “You think she’ll die that easily?”

“She doesn’t belong here.” I meet his gaze evenly. “And things that don’t belong here don’t last long.”

Caspian makes a low sound, something between amusement and disbelief.

“You say that like you haven’t already thought about it.” His golden eyes flicker with something sharp. “What it would feel like.”

Riven’s fists clench. “Don’t start.”

Caspian grins, dragging a hand through his dark hair, the picture of carelessness. “I’m just saying, if she’s going to die, it’s a shame none of us get to have any fun first.”

Riven is on him again in a heartbeat.

Caspian just laughs.

I exhale slowly, tilting my head toward the ceiling.

They can fight about it all they want.

It doesn’t change the fact that this will solve itself soon enough.

And if it doesn’t… Then I’ll decide what to do with her myself.

And then, Ambrose speaks. “You’re all missing the real question.”

His voice is smooth, even, but something is cutting beneath it. Something that makes the room still.

“Why would Blackwell bring her here?”

The name settles over us like oil, thick, heavy, the kind of weight that seeps into everything it touches.

No one likes saying it. No one likes thinking about him.

Because Blackwell is not a man who does anything without a reason .

Silas exhales, rubbing his knuckles against his jaw. “You think this is about us?”

Ambrose lifts a brow, gaze sharp. “You think it’s not?”

No one answers.

Because it makes sense.

Blackwell has been trying to tighten his grip on us for years, and failing.

We don’t take orders. We don’t play by his rules. We’ve made that clear.

But this?

This isn’t a punishment.

This is something else.

“He thinks he can use her to control us.” Elias’ voice is quieter than usual, but not lazy, not detached. There’s a sharpness to it now, something thoughtful beneath the casual ease.

“And we’re just supposed to let that happen?” Riven’s voice is a snarl, hands flexing, ready to hit something, to tear something apart.

Elias shrugs, tilting his head back. “Not if we handle it first.”

“Or,” Caspian says, dragging out the word, still grinning, “we could keep playing with her. See how much she can take before she shatters.”

Riven’s glare is murderous.

Caspian just winks.

I let out a slow breath, fingers pressing into my arms. “The real question is which one of us made him desperate enough to try this.”

A pause.

Then Elias lets out a quiet laugh. “I mean, take your pick.”

He’s right .

We’ve given Blackwell plenty of reasons to try something drastic.

Riven put a student in the infirmary for three weeks after a fight in the training hall. Silas stripped one of the instructors of his power mid-lesson just to see if he could.

Ambrose has manipulated so many backdoor deals with the school’s benefactors that Blackwell has been forced to play along just to keep the academy running.

“Maybe it wasn’t one thing,” Silas muses. “Maybe he’s just finally had enough.”

“If that were the case, he would have come for us directly,” I say. “Bringing in a Binder means he’s playing the long game.”

Ambrose tilts his head. “Or he thinks he is.”

Riven exhales sharply. “Then we make sure he fails.”

I nod once.

Because he will.

Because whatever Blackwell is planning, whatever he thinks he’s going to do with this girl,

It’s not going to fucking work .