Page 86 of Saint

“What was the sin?”

“Pride.” He sighs, relaxing behind me for the first time since we started whatever this is. “The preoccupation with individual importance over the greater being.”

I take the opening—the rare moment of vulnerability—and seize it.

“What was the trial?”

Kole hums against the back of my head, breathing me in. His fingers toy with the hem of the T-shirt I’m wearing. And he pauses so long I’m not sure that he’ll answer. But then he wraps his arm around me to hold me to him and tips his forehead to my hair again.

“It was one of the more difficult trials.” His body tenses at the reminder. “They chained us up for four days in the room you asked about earlier. No food. Just enough water so they wouldn’t kill us. Lights on the brightest setting and music so loud your ears hurt. Anything to make it hard to sleep, much less think.”

“They tortured you?”

“They needed to break us.”

“Us?I thought the trials were different for everyone?”

Kole presses his palm flat on my belly, letting out an exhale. “Usually, yes. But in this case, they wanted something in particular… from me, Liam, Declan, and Alex.”

My stomach sinks at the mention of Patience’s brother. I don’t know exactly what happened in that room, but I know what came of it.

“What did they want from you?”

“We were all friends growing up. And in Sigma House, your bond to the brotherhood is more important than individual friendships. They needed to make sure we’d be loyal to them—not each other.”

“Isn’t it the same if you’re all here?”

He shakes his head. “No.”

“But you passed. So, you all broke then?”

“Some more than others.”

I roll in his arms, and he lets me, so I’m lying in the bed facing him. “What does all this have to do with you being able to trust Declan if the whole point was to turn you against each other?”

“Because he didn’t break for me, and I didn’t break for him. Regardless of what they think.”

“How do you know?”

“Because if either of us did, neither of us would be here.” Kole’s jaw clenches. “There are very few reasons Sigma House won’t let you join after you’re accepted into the initiation. One reason is failing the trials. The other is turning on a fellow member, unprovoked.”

“By what? Hurting them?”

“Or killing them.” Kole exhales.

Every muscle in his body is tense, and my gaze moves to the scar that cuts across his cheekbone, wondering if that’s where it came from.

“Who?”

“That’s not important right now.”

Maybe not to him, but it plants deep inside me, and it takes everything in me not to demand an answer. There’s so much blood on his hands, and I’m still learning how deep his sins go.

“Then why are we here?” I ask, planting my hand on his chest and grazing my finger over the marks that live there. “You said Liam’s death isn’t the real issue. That the problem is whatever was supposed to happen in the forest that night. What was it?”

Kole’s dark gaze locks on mine. “Liam asked me to meet him on the side of the road that night.”

“I figured.”

---