Page 158 of The Sin Binder's Chains

“You’re lucky I’m not the jealous type,” I say dryly. “Otherwise, I might be tempted to throw her into a portal and see if you follow.”

Silas barks out a laugh, and it’s not the same, not entirely, but it’s enough.

“I’d follow her,” Silas says, his grin crooked and annoying as ever, but there’s weight behind it. Then he adds, eyebrows wagging like a damn idiot, “But I’d follow you too, if you were thrown into a lava pit.”

I glare at him. “Wow. Romance isn’t dead after all.”

He just shrugs, like his declaration of idiotic devotion is normal. Like we didn’t just crack something open between us again. Because that’s what Silas does, he makes you feel like you’re bleeding and laughing at the same time.

“Would you?” I ask because I hate myself enough to want to know. “Follow me, I mean.”

He tilts his head, pretending to think, but I can already see the answer in his eyes. There’s no calculation there, no delay in loyalty.

“In a heartbeat,” he says, and the humor is gone. Just like that. “I’d cannonball in after you. Arms wide. Middle fingers up.”

It’s stupid. It’s reckless. It’s so Silas, it makes my throat tighten.

“I’d haunt you,” I tell him. “If you died for me. I’d come back just to scratch your records and hide your socks.”

“Worth it.”

I look away, because if I don’t, I’m going to say something I can’t take back. Something like I missed you. Or I don’t want to share you. Or worse, that I’m scared you’re already hers in a way you were never mine.

And maybe that’s what this is. The root of the rot I can’t cut out. Not that I want Luna. Not even that I can’t stand her,though sometimes I swear she breathes just to piss me off. It’s that she’s changing everything. That she’s peeling him away from me, one soft look at a time.

“I hope she’s worth it,” I mutter.

“She is,” Silas says quietly. “But so are you.”

I hate how easily he says it. Like it’s just a fact. Like it doesn’t make something deep in my chest crawl with grief. Like I haven’t spent centuries pretending I don’t need anyone, so I wouldn’t feel this exact thing.

“She’s not even that cute,” I mutter, mostly to myself, but Silas is close enough to hear it, of course, he is. “She has… terrible eyelashes. Way too long. It’s unnatural. Like they’re plotting something.”

He doesn’t say anything at first, just gives me this side-eye smirk like he knows exactly what I’m doing. Because he does. And that makes it worse.

“They flutter when she lies,” I add, arms crossed as I glare in the general direction of the campfire. “It’s not charming. It’s manipulative. They should be declared weapons. I bet they have their own shadow.”

Silas hums in mock sympathy. “It must be so hard for you.”

“I’m suffering,” I deadpan. “Truly. And no one cares.”

He chuckles, the traitorous bastard.

“She’s not even my type,” I mutter. “Too… bossy. Too loud. Too, ”

“Too much like someone who keeps you up at night?” Silas supplies, teeth flashing.

I groan, dragging a hand down my face. “Do you want me to throw myself into the fire, or are you just hoping I’ll combust from emotional repression?”

Silas shrugs. “I’d pay to see either.”

He’s trying to make it easier, I know that. Trying to ease the twist of something raw in my chest that I can’t name, because ifI do, it becomes real. Becomes something I can’t ignore or joke away. It’s not about love. It’s about gravity. She pulls at me like she’s made of stars, and my bones forgot how to orbit anything else.

“I’m not jealous,” I say, even though no one asked. “I just don’t like her stupid face. Or the way she laughs like it means something. Or how she smells like blood and something sweet, and I, ”

“Elias.”

I glance up. Luna’s voice. Not loud, but sharp enough to pierce right through me.

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