Page 109 of Beg the Night

Benedict tucked his chin, breathing heavily as he examined his now healed wound.

Margaret stared at me, eyes wide. “Holy. Shit.”

When I turned to look at Sinner, his irises were almost black, his expression unreadable.

“Athena,” he breathed.

I shook free of his hold and backed up. I didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t have to tell me how dangerous my gift was.

He didn’t need to say it out loud. I already knew. Fuck. I controlled minds.

And that was much worse than the ability to kill.

No longer under the hold of my magic, Katherine laughed.

And laughed.

And laughed.

“You really thought you were getting better, didn’t you? You thought you were no longer a monster?”

“Monster?” Margaret stood and stepped forward. “You’re the one who stabbed him, Katherine! What the actual hell!”

She looked from Margaret to Sinner, the manic smile returning. “Did you see that? She took away my free will!”

Margaret scoffed.“She saved his life!”

Sinner pressed a hand to my lower back. “You’re lucky she didn’t do much worse. You deserve nothing less than death.”

“Are you all insane?!” My sister flung her arms out. “You have no idea what she can really do! You have no idea what it’s like to have your free will stripped from you!”

I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t allow myself to think about what I’d done.

Sinner’s shadows spread along the ground, between our legs and around us, lapping up at Katherine’s feet like hungry dogs ready for a feed.

Sinner’s shadows.

But Sinner wasn’t controlling them.

No, they were coming from me.

He was letting me wield his shadows.

“You hurt any of us again and you’ll meet the fate you deserve.”

“Doyou think what Benedict said was true?”

Sinner and I sat alone near a shallow stream as the moon rose above us.

He turned and assessed me, his lips pressed together. “Which part?”

“The part about only being able to use Katherine’s magic if she lets him.”

He shrugged, but kept his focus set on the water. “It’s possible, but it seems unnatural. It would be very hard for me to shut my magic off from you.”

“Can you feel mine?” I asked. “I can feel your phantoms.” I held my hand up and watched them coil around my fingers. “It’s almost like they want me to wield them.”

Sinner smiled without looking up. “Yeah, they’re manic little things. They don’t like to sit still. Ever since I announced that I would claim you, they’ve been pushing their limits trying to get to you.”

---