Page 54 of The Sin-Binder’s Fate (The Seven Sins Academy #1)

The house is too fucking quiet. Which, let’s be honest, is never a good thing. It’s unnatural, really. Like the walls themselves are holding their breath, like someone died and we’re all meant to mourn instead of live.

And yeah, okay, technically, there’s a war coming. Technically, the Sub-Sins are gathering an army. Technically, we’re all supposed to be preparing for inevitable destruction or whatever grim, broody shit Lucien won’t shut up about.

But do you know what I hate more than impending doom? A fucking buzzkill.

So when Silas finds me sprawled across the common room couch, staring at the ceiling like an existentially depressed housecat, and says, “I think we should fuck with Caspian.”

I don’t even hesitate.

I sit up immediately. “Go on.”

Silas grins. Sharp, devious. “Payback.”

I nod, because obviously. Caspian had the audacity to put Luna in his room, without warning, without discussion, and without a goddamn care for the way it sent Silas into a fucking spiral.

And not just any spiral. A full cringe-fest meltdown.

I’m talking stuttering, sweating, voice-cracking nonsense.

It was disgusting. I’ve never seen secondhand embarrassment actually manifest as a physical illness before, but Silas looked like he had the flu for a full twenty-four hours.

So, yeah. We’re doing this.

I stretch, cracking my knuckles. “What are we thinking?”

Silas starts pacing, muttering under his breath, scheming. “Something big. Something dramatic.”

“Something that ruins his life.”

Silas snaps his fingers. “Exactly.”

We stare at each other for a moment, both of us serious as hell, because this is important.

“His room.” We say it at the same time.

Silas grins. “We fuck with his room.”

I nod. “Make it unlivable.”

Silas spins on his heel, pointing at me. “But not in a normal way.”

“Never in a normal way.”

We start pacing now, the way true masterminds do when they’re plotting absolute catastrophe.

“We could fill it with spiders.”

Silas makes a face. “Too predictable.”

I snap my fingers. “Turn his bed into a sentient, man-eating monster.”

Silas pauses. “That’s… a little ambitious.”

I narrow my eyes. “It’s not if we steal a little of Orin’s magic. ”

Silas grins. “I love where your head’s at.”

We keep walking, keep planning, the ideas getting more unhinged as we go.

“Swap everything he owns with replicas that are slightly off.”

“Make his mirrors whisper cryptic shit at him.”

“Cursed furniture.”

“Replace his clothes with outfits that make him look like a fucking Victorian child.”

Silas stops dead in his tracks. Turns slowly. Eyes wide.

“Elias.”

I grin. “I know.”

Silas grips my shoulders. Hard. “We dress him like a haunted orphan.”

I nod. “Like something out of a tragic ghost story.”

Silas inhales sharply. “Suspenders.”

“Shorts that go too high up his thighs.”

Silas grabs my face. “A fucking bonnet.”

We cackle.

We are brilliant.

We are gods.

We are, Absolutely about to fuck this up in ways we haven’t even considered yet.

What we decide on though, without a doubt, our greatest idea yet. No haunted furniture. No weird, whispering mirrors. No Caspian waking up dressed like a Victorian ghost child in mourning attire.

Just pure, concentrated chaos.

A love spell, one that lasts exactly twenty-four hours and makes you fall hopelessly, disgustingly in love with the first thing you lay eyes on.

Silas and I stand over our masterpiece, a cup of tea so perfectly ordinary-looking that it’s almost sinister .

I tap the rim. "You think it needs sugar?"

Silas scowls. “The fuck do I look like, a chef?”

I shrug. "Just saying, if we’re making Caspian fall head over dick for the first thing he sees, we should at least make sure it tastes good."

Silas waves me off, lifting the cup carefully. "He’s Lust. He drinks weirder shit than this. It’ll be fine."

I nod, satisfied. The plan is flawless. The execution? Even better.

Silas holds the tea like it’s the Holy Grail, and we set off, already vibrating with contained excitement. We’re just steps away from our target, prepared to alter Caspian’s entire fucking reality for the next twenty-four hours, when,

Luna steps into our path. And before either of us can react, She takes the cup right out of Silas’s hands.

Silas makes a noise that can only be described as pure, unfiltered existential horror.

Luna doesn’t notice. She just raises it to her lips, takes a slow, unbothered sip, and swallows.

Silas and I both freeze.

And then, she lowers the cup. And looks at Silas. Dead in the eyes. For three full seconds.

Silas doesn’t breathe.

Neither do I.

And then, he makes the worst fucking sound I’ve ever heard. It’s somewhere between a gasp, a choke, and a silent scream, like his body is trying to do everything at once and failing miserably. His face goes pale. Then red. Then some horrifying in-between color that shouldn’t exist on human skin .

And then, in a hoarse whisper, barely able to form words,

“…No.”

I blink. "Oh, this is so much better."

Silas spins to me, eyes wild.

“Fix it.”

I snort. “Why would I fix perfection?”

Luna frowns, looking between us. “What, ”

Silas grabs my collar. “Elias. Fix it.”

I grin, wide, delighted. “Absolutely the fuck not.”

Luna sighs. “What the hell did you two do?”

Silas makes another strangled noise and fucking bolts.

Just turns and runs.

And Luna follows.

And I? I laugh so hard I almost throw up. Because this? This is so much better than Caspian.

And I follow, because obviously I do. This is the greatest thing that has ever happened. Silas, dumbass mastermind that he is, spent way too long plotting the perfect revenge on Caspian, and now?

Now he’s the target.

Silas is booking it, practically tripping over his own feet as he barrels through the halls, shoulders tense, panicked, like he can physically outrun magic.

Luna follows, calm, determined, focused, like a predator stalking prey, except instead of hunting him to kill him, she’s hunting him to love him.

Which, honestly, might be worse.

I jog along behind them, trying to keep up through my absolute wheezing laughter, because I can already see it happening, the spell taking effect, the shift in Luna’s entire fucking demeanor.

Her rage is gone. Her frustration? Gone. Every sharp edge of her personality has melted into something dreamy, something soft, something devoted.

It’s fucking horrifying.

She sighs happily as she watches Silas flee for his life like she’s never seen anything more beautiful.

"God, Silas," she breathes. "You’re so fast."

Silas trips over his own feet. Slams into the nearest wall. Then pushes off it like nothing happened and keeps running.

I wheeze . "Silas, buddy. She thinks you're majestic."

"Elias, shut the fuck up!" Silas shrieks, throwing a desperate look over his shoulder.

But Luna is undeterred. She’s catching up, her gaze locked onto him with the intensity of a thousand dying suns.

“I love the way you run,” she says dreamily, actually sighing. “Like a frantic, terrified deer.”

Silas lets out a noise that sounds like a dying animal.

“Oh my god,” I whisper, in awe. “Luna’s into prey animals.”

Silas whips around mid-sprint. “Do something!”

I grin. “Absolutely not.”

Luna tilts her head at me, eyes shining, her expression warm, delighted, devoted in a way that is completely unnatural for her.

“Elias,” she says sweetly.

And fuck me, I swear I feel the wind shift.

I lift my hands, instinctively defensive. “Oh, no. Don’t look at me like that.”

“You’re Silas’s best friend, right?”

I squint. "I mean, debatable."

She sighs again, smiling softly. “You’ll be our best man.”

Silas lets out another scream .

I collapse against the wall, gasping for breath. “Oh, this is better than sex.”

Silas grabs me by the collar as he sprints past, dragging me with him. “I will fucking kill you!”

“You won’t,” I gasp, grinning so hard my face hurts.

And then, right behind us, Luna murmurs, “Silas, baby, why are you running?”

And Silas? He runs faster.

This is it. This is the moment I was put on this earth for.

Silas is fucked. And not in the way he wants to be by her. He’s cornered, looking like a man staring down his own inevitable doom, except instead of a blade at his throat, it’s Luna, and instead of impending death, it’s the absolute horror of being aggressively hit on by his own fucking crush.

Luna stands too close, eyes dark with devotion, and for once, she’s not pissed at him. She’s all in. Which is so much worse.

“God,” she sighs, dragging her fingers slowly down his arm, feeling him up like she’s appreciating a fine piece of art. “I never realized how muscular you are.”

Silas stares at her, wide-eyed, face cycling through about twelve different colors of mortification.

“Uh, uh, ” His mouth opens. Closes. Opens again. “WELL, HAHA, YOU KNOW, UH, I LIFT THINGS SOMETIMES.”

Luna gasps. “You do?”

Silas nods rapidly, like a panicked bird. “YES, I AM VERY STRONG.”

Luna tilts her head, delighted, fingers tracing up his bicep. “I can feel that,” she whispers. “Gods, Silas. Have you always been this strong?”

Silas wheezes, body physically shaking .

I lose my fucking mind. I cackle, slapping a hand over my mouth, because if I laugh any louder, I might die.

Silas flails, still being felt up, his whole body stiff like he’s trying not to combust on the spot.

“Well, you see, Luna, I, I, I don’t want to brag, but, ” His voice cracks violently, and I collapse to my knees.

Luna sighs, staring up at him with literal fucking hearts in her eyes. “You don’t have to brag, Silas. I can just… feel it.”

Silas melts. Actually melts. Like a puddle of unhinged, barely-functioning garbage. He lets out an entirely unstable, high-pitched giggle and I nearly black out from joy.

Oh, this is peak cinema.

“I, well, you know, ah, hehe, stoppp ,” Silas twirls a piece of his own hair, twirls his own fucking hair, and my soul ascends to another plane.

Luna leans in closer, pressing a hand to his very red face, thumb dragging across his jaw, eyes soft, full of devotion, terrifying.

And then, in a final act of pure self-destruction, he fucking flirts back. Badly. So fucking badly.

He lowers his voice, tries for suave, lands in serial killer territory.

“You, ah… come here often?”

I shriek.

Silas makes the worst face I have ever seen.

And Luna?

Luna moans.

If I were a better person, I’d be concerned for his well-being. But I am not a better person. So instead, I lean against the doorframe, watching the slow-motion disaster unfold with the kind of gleeful delight usually reserved for witnessing car crashes in real-time.

Because Luna, tilts her head, eyes dreamy, hands shamelessly wandering over his arms like she’s mapping out his entire existence. He’s using the wall to hold himself upright, but at this point, it’s more of a slow collapse than actual standing.

And he’s talking.

Oh, he’s talking.

And it’s so much worse than I ever could’ve hoped.

Luna sighs, brushing a finger over his wrist. “Silas, your hands are so big.”

Silas nods rapidly, mouth moving before his brain can intervene. “Yeah, good for, good for holding things. Sometimes. Not always. One time I dropped an entire wedding cake.”

Luna gasps. “Did you really?”

Silas swallows. Hard. “Yeah, yeah, tragic day. Buttercream everywhere. People were weeping.”

Luna’s eyes soften. “You’re so strong, though. It must’ve been an accident.”

Silas inhales sharply. “Oh, yeah. A hundred percent. I am very strong. Manly, even. Lumberjack-coded. But with… you know, soft hands.”

I choke. “Lumberjack-coded?”

Silas ignores me, eyes locked on Luna’s face like he’s actively begging a higher power to smite him.

Luna hums thoughtfully, fingers tracing his jaw now, eyes dark with devotion.

“Silas, your lips are really nice.”

Silas shudders.

Then, in a voice so breathless, so genuinely unstable, he mutters, "Thanks. I use them to talk. "

I physically double over, pressing my fist against my mouth because if I laugh any harder, I might ascend to the heavens.

Luna smiles, pleased, and Silas? Silas is fully slipping into another dimension.

“Oh gods,” he whispers, eyes darting wildly. “This is how I die.”

I snort. “You wish, buddy.”

Luna leans in closer, lips just shy of his ear, and Silas physically jumps like he’s being exorcised.

“I think we’d be really happy together,” she murmurs. “Don’t you?”

Silas lets out a sound I can’t even describe. And then, in a last, desperate act of self-sabotage, he breathes,

“I mean, you’ve got a point.”

I just fall to the floor, gasping for breath, because holy fucking shit. Silas just soft-launched himself into a relationship with Luna. And she’s going to remember every second of it.

Silas is fighting for his life.

And I? I am thriving.

Luna, high on spell-induced devotion, is so far gone, it’s like watching a different person inhabit her skin.

She’s soft now, all dreamy smiles and gentle touches, like Silas is the only thing in the world that exists.

Which is hilarious, because he is actively trying to escape his own body.

It’s in his posture, in the horrified rigidity of his limbs, in the way he’s gripping the wall like it’s the only thing keeping him tethered to reality.

And then, She moves in. Lips parted. Eyes locked onto his mouth.

I suck in a breath, because oh fuck .

He freezes. Stares at her in abject terror. And then? He violently dodges to the side. Luna’s lips graze air, and she lets out a confused little sound, blinking up at him like he just did something offensive.

He looks like he’s going to throw up.

Luna pouts. “Silas?”

“Uh,” he chokes. “Haha. Wow. That was almost something, huh? Crazy.”

Luna tilts her head. “Why won’t you kiss me?”

Silas lets out a high-pitched laugh that physically hurts me.

“PFFFT, what? Me? Not kissing you? Ridiculous.”

Luna leans in again. Silas ducks like she just swung a sword at him.

Luna frowns. “Silas.”

“Luna,” he wheezes, “I need you to understand something. I am so incredibly fucked if I kiss you right now.”

Luna blinks. “But why?”

“Because, my dear, my love, my dangerously enchanted menace, you will remember this. You will remember all of this.”

Luna gasps. “You’re thinking about the future? Oh my gods, we’re already so connected.”

“I,” he chokes, “am going to fucking die.”

And me? I am on the floor. Crying. Living .