Page 115 of The Sin Binder's Vow

She just... waits.

Lets me choose.

And it’skillingme.

I watch her nail the arc I taught her. Watch the firelight flicker over her face, eyes narrowed in concentration, lower lip caught between her teeth. My name—my rage—is soaked into the hilt of that blade. And she holds it like it’s holy.

Because to her,everythingwe are is sacred.

And gods—I love herfor that.

For the way she hasn’t tried to fix me.

For the way sheseesme—ugly, brutal, snarling—and still reaches.

For the way she’s becoming something we were never supposed to have.

Not control. Not obedience. Not worship.

Freedom.

She finishes the form, lowers the blade, turns—and catches me staring. I don’t even look away.

I can’t.

Because in this moment, in the quiet hum of the bond between us, where there’s no command—onlychoice—I realize I’d follow her into the void, not because I’m bound to.

But because Iwantto.

Because she makes it safe to be myself, and dangerous to be near her, andbothof those things feel like coming home.

She doesn’t say a word. Just tilts her head, gaze steady beneath the sweep of her lashes, and lifts one finger. A crook of it. Barely there. A question, not a command.

And gods.

It wrecks me.

Because the bond—ourbond—shifts.Opens.

I feel it like a slow bleed beneath the ribs. A wound I didn’t know I’d been keeping sealed tight for centuries. It opens, and shelets me in.

No shields. No walls. No careful little partitions to keep her love for the others in one place and me in another. No conditions. No demands.

Justher.

All of her.

And she’s fucking drenched in it.

Adoration. Not the kind you earn, or steal, or tear from someone’s throat. This isn’t desperation or obligation or some sad imitation of affection.

Shelovesme.

Fully. Wildly. Inexplicably.

Shechoosesto.

Despite the snarling, the temper, the way I ruin everything I touch. She sees the sharp edges, the blood on my hands, the fury caged under my skin—and still, somehow, she opens herself like I won’t tear her apart.

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