Page 94 of A Sin So Pure

With a sigh, Silas levels with me. “Look, I get it.”

“Do you?”

“You can’t fail.”

I scoff, pacing towards the door.

I need a smoke.

“Don’t scoff at the truth,” he calls. “You know that if you fail, then you may bring war on your house, your friends, and your lover.If you fail, you put everything you’ve ever worked for at risk. But worst of all,what good are you?”

I freeze, gooseflesh spreading over my forearms.

“What good are you if you’re not constantly performing well? Being the best?Succeeding?” He hisses the word like it burns his tongue. “What value do you have then?”

A beat passes where my feet are frozen to the floor; my heart is a frantic beat in my chest as his words hit their mark. I turn my head, Silas’s white hair a spec in my periphery.

“I’m done for the day,” I say, and though it comes out in more of a whisper, my words echo between us. “Meet me in the library tomorrow morning. I have an idea, but I need more information.”

My neck prickles as I leave, and as I close the door behind me, I peek over my shoulder, finding Silas staring thoughtfully in my direction. Recognition swirls in his black irises.

Does he think he’s found a kindred spirit?

If so, he’s mistaken.

It’s then that I decide I don’t like the feeling of his eyes on me.

24

NORA

“Pull everything you have on healing. I’ll grab us a table.”

“Do I at least get a ‘please, Silas?’”

My footsteps come to a halt, and I shoot Silas a glare.

“Seriously?”

I would get them myself, but it would take hours of searching through the rows of shelves. They’re ten feet tall and twenty rows deep around the entire study area. Silas, on the other hand, knows exactly where each catalog lives.

Silas shrugs, spinning so he walks backwards between the bookshelves, forcing me to follow. A playful smile tugs at his lips—I’ve quickly learned over the past week that Silas is a trickster and a brat wrapped into one. He doesn’t discriminate with his jabs, subjecting Wrath, the staff, and me to his antics.

“I’ve been bored. Wrath is holed up in his workshop until all hours of the night, and you only hang out with me when you’re killing people.”

“This isn’t sleepaway camp.”

“I mean, it could be,” he says.

Silas stuffs his hands in his pockets; his sleeves are rolled up to his elbow, putting the matching tattooed gauntlets that circle his forearms on display. Over the past week I’ve studied thedesigns. They’re a swath of black linework florals, which seemed an odd choice at first, but they fit him.

“If you’re so bored, shadow-walk back to Anwynn.”

“Security risk, going back and forth too often.”

“Then I don’t know how to help you,” I say. I stop at the fork in the bookshelves. Turning left goes deeper into the stacks, while turning right leads to the open center of the library. I heave a sigh. “Please, will you gather all the books on healing you can find?”

He beams.

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