Page 96 of A Sin So Pure

Silas leans forward, eyes glinting with delight.

“Those,” Silas drawls. “Are your new gloves. Right?”

He looks up at Wrath, to which Wrath nods.

“Try them on,” Silas commands. There’s a wicked edge to his excitement.

I quickly shuck off my leather gloves. Then I pick up one of Wrath’s, and it unfurls, hanging long and glossy between my fingers. I pull it on, though it scrunches around my forearm, fighting for space with my blouse. These sleeves were not made to pair with elbow-length gloves.

I rub the fabric between my fingertips; they’re like no fiber I’ve touched before, as if air and silk were woven together.

“They’ll appear and feel like real gloves, but there isn’t any actual separation between your skin and who you touch. So be careful,” Wrath says, a glint of pride in his eyes as he explains.

My brows knit together as I examine the dark fabric.

“How?” I ask.

“Shadows. It took a while to realize the answer was simple.” He holds his hand up and a twirl of inky black dances between his fingers. “If they can be corporeal one moment and not the next, if I can mold them into barriers and use them to travel across great distances, then why can’t we apply the same logic to something more mundane?”

I flex my fingers, and the fabric shifts over my skin. It’s subtle, but one minute they’re real and the next they don’t exist at all. As if they’re merely a shadow on my skin.

“I have to admit, it’s quite genius,” I say.

“Thank you.” Wrath bristles under the praise. “They’re connected to my magic, so I’ll know when to phase them in and out.”

The gloves vanish, dissipating into fading tendrils of shadow around my fingers.

“Will you teach me how to do it too, Robbie?” Silas asks, staring up at Wrath with wide puppy-dog eyes.

Silas has developed a habit of using both our given names. And while it still makes me uncomfortable, I can’t help but chuckle at how I’m not the lone victim of his larks.

Wrath’s frown deepens. “Fine.”

“Oh, we also need more people to test these out on,” Silas adds.

“You ran out of prisoners already?”

“Mhm.”

Wrath levels me with a glare. “You’re going through them too fast. At this rate, the Royal prisons will be empty, and we’ll have to go catch Seelie exiles.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. We should test it on some Seelie,” Silas says.

“It wasn’t meant to be a suggestion. That’s a huge security risk, bringing one here.”

“I don’t think it matters.” I cut the two of them off as I stand, tucking my book under my arm. “The next test will work.”

Wrath held up his part of this plan. Now it was my turn to prove myself. Between the knowledge tucked in this book and the power simmering in my gut, I have everything I need.

25

NORA

That night, I’m plagued by dreams.

They’re nightmares that could be memories or memories that could be nightmares; they all blur together. Even when they’re smattered with inconsistencies, they’re too close to the truth.

I’m carried across the house, one arm banded around my back and another under my bum. I latch onto my mother’s waist with both legs.

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