Page 11 of The Sin Binders Ascent

“What the hell is going on?”

She isn’t asking for drama. She’s asking because something inside her already senses the shape of the answer, and she’s bracing for impact.

Blackwell folds his hands atop the old tome like he’s giving a lecture, not detonating a bomb. The glow from the tall windows slices across his desk in long, sharp bands of light. Dust dances in the air like it knows something holy just soured.

“In the beginning,” he says, “I created eight.”

“Eight sins?”

Blackwell nods. “Eight incarnations. You know seven of them. Wrath, Pride, Envy, Lust, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony.” He inclines his chin toward Theo. “And Desire.”

She doesn’t look at him. Her focus is trained entirely on Blackwell, rigid and seething. “Then why have I never heard of him?”

“Because he became a problem,” I say, before Blackwell can answer. I don’t soften the word. Iwanther to hear it raw. “He was uncontrollable. He didn’t bend, didn’t serve. He fed on want, on lack, until he started carving obsession out of everyone he touched.”

Theo hums from across the room. “You say that like it wasn’t beautiful.”

I don’t look at him. I keep my eyes on her. I need her to understand what he is, not the man, not the smile, but the hunger beneath.

Blackwell leans back slightly. “Theo was banished. His existence was sealed away. Removed from our doctrine, our design. There was no intention of releasing him.”

“Then why is he here?” Luna’s voice sharpens. Her fingers twitch at her sides like she’s holding herself back from reaching for something, me, probably, or worse,him.

“Because,” Blackwell says, eyes never leaving hers, “he’s been…rehabilitated.”

A slow beat. The word feels like ash in my mouth.

Luna exhales a hard, clipped laugh. “So you took the one sin built to twist people from the inside out, and decided, what, he deservedparole?”

Theo grins across from her. His eyes don’t shine with amusement. They burn with something older. “Good behavior’s not so hard,” he says, dragging the syllables out like smoke. “Especially when there’s something worth behaving for.”

Luna turns to him. Her gaze is a slap. “You followed me around the cheese section.”

“I’ve followed worse instincts,” he says.

“Why is he here?”

Finally, Blackwell says it. Quiet. Absolute.

“You’re to bond with him.”

Everything goes still.

Luna freezes mid-step, her mouth parted in stunned silence that cracks into disbelief. “I’m sorry?”

“You are the vessel,” he replies. “You’ve successfully anchored seven divine sins. Now, you’ll bond with the eighth. Balance requires it.”

“No.” She doesn’t scream it. She says it like a fact. Like gravity.

I step forward, voice low and final. “No.”

Theo leans back again, hands lacing behind his head like he’s listening to a symphony composed for him alone. His grin is slow andfilthy.

“Gods,” he murmurs, eyes flicking between us, “this is going to besofun.”

Luna doesn’t look at him. She’s staring straight at me. And I already know what she’s thinking. If she’s forced to bond with Desire, it won’t be Theo who burns.

It’ll beme.

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