Page 110 of The Sin Binder's Chains

Layla wipes at her eyes, still laughing. “You two are ridiculous.”

I lean back, stretching out my arms, my gaze flicking between them.

Luna. My bond. The one person in the entire world I could never let go of, even if she never felt the weight of it like I did.

And Layla. The wild card, the unexpected storm, the only other person here who could match Luna’s sharp tongue and make her laugh.

I study them for a moment, the smallest hint of something warm curling in my ribs.

Then I smirk, slouching deeper against Luna’s side.

“So, anyway,” I say, casually draping an arm across the back of the rock. “You two wanna talk about my many admirable qualities? Or should we get into my stunning good looks first?”

Luna groans. Layla cackles. I win.

I’ve been without her for weeks.

Weeks of fighting, of bleeding, of clawing my way through the rotting abyss of Severin’s hellhole with nothing but the bond’s dull pull in my ribs to remind me she was still out there. Weeks of waiting, of knowing she was beyond my reach, of aching for something I couldn’t have.

And now she’s here.

Close enough to touch. Close enough that I can feel the heat radiating from her skin, close enough that if I just leaned in, gods, if I just took what I wanted.

But we’re not alone. And I can’t go feral on her. Which is so unfortunate, because Land Above, I want to go feral on her.

My grand, well-thought-out plan of scooping her up in my arms and spinning her around like some devastatingly romantic, entirely insufferable menace didn’t quite pan out. Andhonestly? It’s probably for the best. Because if I got my hands on her, I don’t know if I’d have let go.

Instead, I sit next to her, watching the fire flicker over the sharp planes of her face, and pretending, just barely, that I’m not losing my mind over the fact that she’s right fucking there.

She hasn’t touched me since she wrecked my entire existence earlier. Not even a brush of fingers, not even some casual torment just to make me suffer. But she hasn’t left either.

And that’s the thing.

Maybe it’s just hope, but I think, I think, she missed me too.

I glance at her out of the corner of my eye. She’s focused on something across the camp, but I see the way her jaw tightens, the way her fingers curl slightly, the way she knows I’m watching her.

I lean in a little, just enough to test her, just enough to see if she’ll turn.

And then, A thump lands between us. A stick.

I blink.

Luna and I both look down at it. Then up.

Elias is standing there, arms crossed, staring at me like I’ve personally offended him in ways he cannot verbalize.

I raise a brow. “Uh.”

Elias clears his throat, expression dead serious. “Since you’re a dog now, I figured you’d want something to chew on.”

Layla chokes on her drink.

Luna snorts, covering her mouth with the back of her hand.

I squint at him. “What?”

Elias gestures vaguely. “You’re over here vibrating with suppressed animal urges, so I figured I’d help.”

---