Page 124 of A Sin So Pure

“Yes, Envy?” Silas says.

“What’s the dress code?”

Silas smiles like a demon about to collect a soul. “My staff will send specific requirements to each House. But, please, dress tokill.”

Nora’s quiet as she enters her bedroom ahead of me, same as she was during the car ride here and in the slow rise of the elevator. It isn’t an unpleasant kind of silence, but there is tension in her shoulders and laced through her sighs.

The rest of the Sins meeting went about as civil as it could have. Each Sin got their turn to question Silas’s motives for resuming the tradition of spending the Solstice with the Seelie Court. To everyone’s disappointment, Silas didn’t give a very specific answer—simply, that it was time.

“Time for what?”Sloth had asked.

“You’ll see,”Silas had replied.

Ominous and vague, forcing us to place our faith in him and his plans. Plans, it seemed, both Nora and Wrath were fully privy to. Part of me wants to know, while the other part of me itches to get as far away from the potential danger as I can.

I close the door, the small click of the lock engaging echoes through the room. When I turn, I lean back against the solid wood, letting my eyes trace over Nora’s familiar frame.

Broad shoulders, tapered waist, and long legs—all sharp angles compared to my round edges. Where she is carved, I am shaped; I like to think we complement each other with our differences.

She faces away from me, head tilted to the side as she stretches her neck. Her arms raise above her head, her back cracking with the movement. And when she turns back to me, her eyes darken, drinking me in.

Gooseflesh spreads across my arms.

Nora stalks forward until I’m caged in against the door with one of her hands anchored next to my head. I swallow, my mouth suddenly going dry.

“Jealousy doesn’t suit you, Imogen,” she says, running a nail down my neck to my collarbone. She’s slow, taking her time as she caresses my skin and hooks her finger under the strap of my dress. “That’s Envy’s schtick. Are you looking for a change in rank?”

She pushes the strap off my shoulder, her touch featherlight. Tracing back along my collarbone and up the center of my neck, she grips my chin between her thumb and forefinger, tilting my head up.

Our height difference has never felt so drastic.

“Use your words,” she says, voice thick as honey.

“No,” I say.

“No, what?”

“I’m not looking for a change in rank.”

Nora hums. Her hand moves from pinching my chin to cupping my jaw, her long fingers tickling the back of my neck. Her thumb skates over my cheek, and with each stroke, she kindles a fire within me. There are inches between our bodies, but her heat, her energy, soaks into my skin.

“Then what’s bothering you, love?”

Another swipe of her thumb over my cheek—another utterance of that damned moniker she’s taken a liking to since my accident—and my lashes flutter.

“I don’t like the way Silas is with you,” I say. “It’s too familiar.”

The breath of her soft laughter brushes over my skin. Her fingers tighten against the nape of my neck, gripping the base of my hair and forcing me to meet her eyes.

They’re burning.

“I’m going to ask you a few questions, and I need you to answer them honestly,” Nora says.

I nod, brows knitting together on my forehead.

“Where do I spend my nights?” she asks.

“I don’t understa?—”

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