Page 19 of Magic of Sins

I feel dizzy all over.Must be the heat,I tell myself and stand up quickly.

“What now?” I ask hastily because Caden’s gaze makes me uncomfortable.

“Whatever you want, love.”

As if we are meeting here at my request. I cross my arms and feel my damp hands soak the fabric of my blouse.

“You’re the one who wants to feed on me,” I remind him.

He smirks. “Don’t worry, I got what I came here for.”

What does he mean by that? In my head I go through all seven sins, trying to guess which one he might have been feeding on. Laziness? Could you really call what we’ve been doing laziness? We just went for a walk.

“I can practically see the wheels turning in your head.” Caden laughs. “Just in case you were wondering, I don’t need to feed on you to enjoy your company.”

His words make me blush. I turn back toward the pond.

“So you like Shakespeare?” I ask, trying to steer our conversation to safer waters.

As if a conversation aboutMacbethis any less dangerous. I’ve read the verses myself. They’re full of anger, violence, and obscenities.

Caden looks up and thinks.

“I like uncensored literature,” he finally says. “Literature that shows mankind’s true nature. Not this shells that all of you aretrying to crawl into.”

Snorting, I reach for my gloves. “Thisshellsas you call it is our only protection against your kind.”

“My kind?”

Before I can react, he’s grabbed the gloves out of my hand and thrown them into the pond. Suddenly I feel his fingers on my skin. They are soft and warm and still a little damp from the water. My hand trembles in his.

“In fear of a few, you shy away from what makes life worth living. A touch, a good meal, the right to sometimes be angry.”

I am angry. Angry because he thinks it’s as simple as that.Hedoesn’t have to be afraid of losing his temper.Hismother wasn’t driven mad by sin mages.

“Let go of me!”

I try to keep my voice as composed as possible, but tears burn my eyes. When he notices, he immediately drops my hand. He almost looks a little disappointed, like he expected his words or his touch to change anything. I glance at my gloves, which are floating on the surface of the water among the lily pads, just out of reach.

“You can trust me, Kaya,” Caden says softly.

My laugh rings hollow. “How could I?”

He lowers his head and presses his lips together. I wonder if he’s just pretending to be hurt by my question or if he actually cares about my opinion of him. I clasp my hands together.

For a moment we just stand there. Then Caden suddenly nods.

“All right then.”

He doesn’t even take off his boots first. Fully clad, he climbs into the pond and wades through the water. It reaches up to his waist. Stunned, I watch as he retrieves my gloves and comes back out of the water. He holds my gloves out to me. Water drips off him and collects around his boots, forming a puddle.

“Here. Wear them if that makes you feel safer. But you won’t be able to avoid showing a little skin in the East End.”

Accepting the gloves, I nod and slip the wet fabric over my hands. I feel safer already. Not because I’m wearing the gloves again, but because he brought them back to me.

Chapter Six

The dress Caden has delivered to my apartment is outrageous. I stand on my tiptoes, looking at myself in the way-too-small bathroom mirror. The dress is knee-length and made of black silk. Thanks to an equally black, opaque pair of tights I found in my closet, it looks reasonably modest, at least from the front. My arms are uncovered except for two thin shoulder straps, but at least it doesn’t have a plunging neckline.

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