Page 111 of Beg the Night

With a squeal, I scrambled away.

He followed, his hands cupped and full of water. He tossed it at me as I pushed myself to my feet, still giggling.

I turned, ready to run, but before I’d made it a step, he caught me, spinning me around and hoisting me off my feet in one strong movement.

“Stop!” I laughed. “Stop it right now! Put me down!”

“Oh, you think this is funny?” he whispered, his breath against my neck sending a shudder down my spine.

He flexed his fingers, tickling my sides.

“No! No, it’s not funny at all!” I only laughed harder.

The clearing of a throat stopped us dead. Heart pounding, I turned. Sinner came with me, still holding me tight, though the grip had turned protective.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Margaret said. “Benedict is looking for you, Elijah.”

The breath left my lungs in one relieved whoosh.

With a nod, Sinner sidestepped me. Though he peered over his shoulder, giving me one last look that promised he would finish what he started later.

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling like an idiot. I couldn’t possibly have feelings for him. It would never work between us. I was too complicated. Too unlovable.

And he was…well, he was Sinner. A tier three. A soldier who would do anything for his sister.

“You call him Elijah?” I asked when he was out of earshot.

Margaret glanced back to where her brother disappeared into the woods. “That’s a long story. He’sSinnerto everyone else, but he’ll always only be Elijah to me. Even if it pisses him off. It’s nice to see you two getting along, though. He doesn’t get along with anyone, actually. Anyone but me.”

I fought a smile. “I noticed that. How did you end up so friendly when he’s so…”

“Antisocial?”

Another laugh escaped me. “I was going to say selective. But yes.”

She kicked at a stick, smiling. “He wasn’t always this way. He used to be as crazy as me.”

“Sinner? Crazy? I hardly believe that.”

“It’s true.” She crossed her arms and stopped, her lips tugging down in a frown. “He’s protective of me now, but only because he blames himself.”

Trepidation threaded through me at the sadness in her tone. “Blames himself for what?”

She took a breath and kicked at the dirt. “When we were kids—well, I guess he was a teenager then—our father was on one of his rampages. He usually took his anger out on Elijah, but this time, he wasn’t there. Not at first.”

My stomach dropped. Mags was usually so lighthearted and soft. Hearing the hardness in her voice felt so wrong.

“He wanted me to be strong like him. He yelled, telling me to prove myself, to show him what I could do. He looked down on me because I wasn’t a tier three.” She huffed a dark laugh. “I’m not even close. Anyway, he didn’t like what he saw. He thought if I went through the claiming, I would get stronger.”

No. No, no,no.

“He tied me up. I tried to block it all out. I was so young then, I had no idea what the claiming even was. And I was so confused.” Her hands were balled into tight fists at her sides, her knuckles white. “But Elijah showed up, thank god, and he stopped it. It was the first time he had ever killed anyone of his own free will.”

My stomach lurched. “Sinner killed your father?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “I wish he would have done it long before then. Not for me, I would have been fine. But he wasn’t.” Her voice wavered. “He hasn’t been fine for a long, longtime. You call him Sinner, because that’s the name he chose for himself after what he did. But I’ll never, ever call him that. He knows it, too. He’ll always be Elijah to me, even if he pretends Elijah is dead.”

I closed the distance between us and pulled her into a tight hug.Oh, Margaret.

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