Page 51 of The Sin Binder's Chains

Elias

Lucien is a traitor. A cold-blooded, heartless traitor who abandoned me to my doom, which, in this case, is a very awake and very bored Luna Evernight. He’d barely finished setting up camp before he took off into the night, probably off to brood in some shadowy corner like the tortured king of pride he is, leaving me alone with her.

And she’s back to herself. Snarky. Sharp. Unrelentingly playful.

The firelight flickers across her face, her eyes locked on me with an expectant glint, like she’s waiting for something.

I shift, feigning nonchalance. “What?”

She raises a brow. “Entertain me.”

I blink. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” She stretches out on the ground, arms behind her head like she’s settling in, fully prepared to be entertained. “Lucien’s gone, and I’m bored.”

I rub the back of my neck, panic simmering under my skin. This is my nightmare.

This is the opposite of what I need right now.

When Lucien is here, he absorbs her attention, makes her focus on him, keeps her from staring at me like I’m some kind of one-man circus act.

Now it’s just me.

And I don’t know what to do with her.

“You can, I don’t know, entertain yourself?” I suggest weakly. “You seem like a strong, independent woman.”

She smirks. “I am. That’s why I’m making you do it.”

My stomach twists in a way I do not want to acknowledge.

Think, Elias. Think.

I could play dead. Just flop over and let Sloth take the wheel, she wouldn’t mess with a corpse, right?

Wait. No, she absolutely would.

My throat bobs. “Fine,” I mutter, holding up a hand. “You wanna see something cool?”

She doesn’t move, just tilts her head slightly. “Depends.”

I flex my fingers, summoning the languid pull of my power, and with a slow, sweeping motion, I drag the weight of exhaustion through the air, pressing it into the space between us.

Her limbs go lax, her breathing slows, not enough to put her to sleep, just enough to make her floaty, the world around her hazy.

Her lips part slightly. “That’s… weird.”

I grin. “It gets weirder.”

I shift the power again, rippling it like waves lapping at the shore, sending gentle pulses of fatigue that roll through her in warm, lazy currents.

Her eyes flutter for a second before she shakes herself, sitting up abruptly.

“Okay, okay.” She points a finger at me, blinking away the fog. “That feels too good. Stop it.”

I laugh. “I thought you wanted to be entertained?”

“Not like that.” She scowls, shoving a hand through her hair. “It felt like…like I was melting.”

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