Page 30 of The Sin Binder's Chains

I take a slow sip, letting the silence settle between us before I speak.

“I know your sister.”

Layla doesn’t react at first. Just watches me carefully, searching my expression for something she doesn’t understand.

“I figured,” she says finally. “She was sent to that Academy, Daemon Academy or whatever. We haven’t spoken since she left.”

I nod. “Luna is my Sin-Binder.”

Layla blinks.

Then frowns. “She’s your what?”

I set the glass down on the coffee table, meeting her gaze evenly.

“My Sin-Binder,” I repeat. “She commands me. She is bound to me. To all of us.”

Layla stares at me like I just told her the sky is made of bone.

Then she leans back, rubbing a hand down her face.

“Okay,” she mutters. “Yeah. I don’t know what the fuck that means.”

I exhale slowly, setting the glass of orange juice down with deliberate care. Layla is still watching me like I’ve crawled out of a true crime documentary, but there’s something else beneath the wariness now.

A quiet, growing understanding. She doesn’t know what she’s understanding, not yet. But she feels it. Good. That will make this easier. And it will make this much worse.

I lean forward slightly, resting my forearms on my knees. “Let’s start with what I am.”

Layla stiffens slightly, her fingers flexing where they rest on the couch cushion. She doesn’t move away, doesn’t tell me to leave, but her entire body is coiled, waiting.

I hold her gaze. “I am not human.”

Her breath catches, just slightly.

I continue, voice measured. “I am one of the Seven Sins. We are not myths, not legends, not stories passed down to scare children into behaving. We have existed since the dawn of the world itself. We are Wrath, Pride, Lust, Envy, Greed, Sloth, and Gluttony, forces incarnate, born into flesh but never meant to be tamed.”

I can see the war in her expression, the part of her that wants to deny this, to call me insane, to pretend I’m lying. But something in her knows better.

She swallows. “And Luna?”

My jaw tightens for a fraction of a second.

Then I exhale, letting my voice lower. “Luna is our Sin-Binder.”

Layla frowns, shaking her head. “You said that before. That means what, exactly?”

“It means she is meant to command us,” I say simply. “To temper us. To bind us to her and wield our power as her own.”

Layla scoffs, leaning back. “That’s insane.”

I don’t react. “Is it?”

She starts to nod, yes, obviously, but then she stops. Because she knows. Because she felt what I did to the plant. Because something deep inside her is already whispering that this is true.

“…So what does that mean for her?” Layla asks, her voice quieter now.

And here is where I must be careful. I cannot give her everything, not yet. But she needs enough. Enough to understand who her sister has become. Enough to understand why she may soon have to make a choice that will change the shape of her world forever.

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