Page 91 of The Sin Binder's Chains

She just stares.

And Orin, Orin fucking smiles.

That slow, knowing, smug as shit smile, like he just did something brilliant.

And honestly? I think he fucking did.

Because if she’s here, if she exists, that means she might be able to bind the Sub-Sins.

Lucien shifts beside me, exhaling like he’s just so fucking pleased with himself, and I resist the urge to throw something very sharp at him.

"Lucien," I say slowly, pointing at his face. "Stop that."

He lifts a brow. "Stop what?"

"The smuggness." I wave a hand at him, at Layla, at Orin still looking too goddamn happy. "The ‘I knew this would happen’ bullshit. Just fucking say it."

Lucien doesn’t.

Because of course he doesn’t.

Instead, he watches. Like a man who already knows exactly how this is going to end. And that means I should’ve been worried long before now.

But, in my defense, it’s hard to focus when Luna is still wrapped around her duplicate, murmuring something too low for me to catch, her hands gripping Layla’s arms like she’s afraid she might disappear.

It’s weird. The kind of weird that makes my skin itch, like reality isn’t sitting right anymore.

Orin, ever the serene, all-knowing bastard, steps toward us, watching them for a moment before finally speaking. "Layla is the Sin-Binder for the Sub-Sins."

I squint at him. "You say that like it’s a casual fact."

Lucien hums. "Because it is."

"Right, of course." I wave a hand, looking between them. "Totally normal thing to drop into a conversation. ‘Oh, hey, that girl over there who looks exactly like Luna? She can bind the things trying to kill us."

"She can feel them," Orin continues, ignoring me like they all love to do. "The pull of them. The way they move, the way they hunger. They know her, even if they don’t understand why."

I flick my gaze back to the girls.

Layla does look unsettled. Too still. Like she’s listening to something none of us can hear.

I don’t like it.

Lucien, however, just nods. Like this is exactly how he expected things to go. He turns away from them, facing thefortress again, his expression settling into something sharper, colder.

"Now we wait," he says simply.

I blink. "For what?"

He glances at me, and his smile returns, but this time, it’s something else. Something cruel.

"For Severin to come out and see his Sin-Binder."

A slow, sinking feeling curls in my gut. Because there’s something deeply fucked about that sentence. And I’m pretty sure Lucien knows exactly what he just set into motion.

Luna is trying to be quiet.

Layla is even quieter.

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