Page 100 of Capturing Sin

I braced to meet the same fate.

The demon snarled, but his claws hovered inches from my face. Blood dripped from their lengths, splattering the front of my shirt.

My chest heaved for air. Any breath could be my last.

The usual starlight in his eyes was gone, lost to a dark abyss.

Anguish tore apart his mask of rage. “Why?”

His fist clenched, dropping back to his side. His solid heat pressed me against the wall, trapping me in.

I opened my mouth. Unsure where to begin.

Technically, I hadn’t killed his brother.

I’d just watched while my hunter team had come back and killed him where he lay beside me.

Whatever power he’d used to save me had knocked him out. If he hadn’t spent all his energy healing me, he wouldn’t have been there, vulnerable and defenceless.

He’d saved my life, and it had cost him his.

How was I not responsible for that?

“I’m sorry,” I breathed, the broken sound like shards of glass in my mouth. “I didn’t kill him, but…it was my fault.”

Pain tightened his inhuman features. He stepped back, a new mask falling into place. Cold and unfeeling. “Go.”

I blinked, shocked my heart was still beating. “What?”

“Leave.” Stars flickered back to life in his eyes, bright enough to burn down to my blackened soul. “It’s what you wanted all along, right? To escape. You never felt a thing for me. A hunter to the core.”

“Sin… No. It’s not like that, I…”

“You lied to me!” he snarled, cutting me off with a vicious sound that raised the hairs on my nape. “Just go, hunter, before I change my mind. I want to feel your tiny neck snap under my fingers, but I can’t do it. You might be a heartless monster, but this”—he gestured a bloodied claw between us—“was real for me.”

Moisture swam through my vision as I stumbled back a step. A nauseating mix between relief and devastation struck me. My lungs wouldn’t expand.

“It’s real for me too,” I whispered, voice barely audible over Sin’s low growl.

His eyes narrowed, accusation clear on his stony features.

I took in every detail I could, crystallising this one final moment in my mind. The last time I’d ever see him.

With a last look at the demon I’d begun to care for, I turned and fled.

The front door slammed shut behind me as I escaped into the cool night. Wind blew the angry tears tracking down my cheeks, and I swiped them away from under my glasses.

Some ridiculous part of me felt betrayed. Worse than when Leo had abandoned me to die on the battlefield.

I’d hurt Sin. What right did I have to be so upset about his reaction to it?

At least I was alive. But whatever bond had been growing between us was dead.

I’d killed it.

My hands shook, but whether it was the cold or the adrenaline, I didn’t know. I started walking, leaving Sin behind, and all the confusing things he made me feel.

Hours passed as I trailed through the streets, reeling from the ache knifing my chest.

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