Page 197 of The Sin Binder's Chains

Because I haven’t commanded Riven. Haven’t touched Silas’s mind. Haven’t tested how far Elias would go just to make me laugh again.

But I could.

And she will.

Finally, he breathes out, low and weighted. “There shouldn’t be two of you.”

I blink. “What?”

“Two Sin-Binders,” he clarifies, voice a shade quieter. “It’s not just rare. It’s impossible. The bond isn’t meant to split. It was designed to center around one. Singular. Irrefutable.”

I feel something cold brush down my spine. “Then why is she still here?”

He shakes his head once. “We’re in uncharted territory now. We don’t know what it means. Not really. Not yet.”

I look away. The ruined courtyard stretches out beneath us, battle-scarred and still echoing with ghosts that haven’t settled.

“Are you saying this is breaking something?” I ask. “That I’m breaking something?”

“No.” He leans in slightly, voice low and clear. “I’m saying this is bigger than you.”

I don’t flinch. But I feel it in my teeth.

“She can’t force a bond,” he says, steady now. “Not on those who haven’t already submitted. Not fully. But those who were hers once, who carry that mark buried in their bones. ”

He pauses, lets it hit.

“She could use them. Maybe not completely. Maybe not forever. But she could bend them, even if they don’t know it’s happening.”

I grit my teeth. “She won’t.”

He tilts his head. “She already took Caspian.”

“He let her.”

“No.” His voice sharpens, just a flicker. “She found him.”

That lands.

Hard.

“She knew where to look,” Orin continues. “Knew what part of him was still vulnerable. What was left unguarded.”

He turns back to me, eyes darker now. “You have to be careful, Luna.”

“Because she might try the same with you and Lucien.”

“Yes.”

“And you might go.”

“I might,” he admits. “But not because I want to.”

I exhale sharply, the words scraping their way out. “Then fight it.”

“I will,” he says, no hesitation.

But it’s what comes next that matters.

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