Page 107 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

The scent.

It was the same infuriating scent permanently seared into Sterling’s skin.

The scent of his mate.

I had found the den of Sterling’s mate.

Now that I was looking at it more closely, I noticed a black and white polaroid of Sterling tacked to the underside of the lid, centered right where the coffin’s owner would fall asleep looking at him every night.

I felt nothing but numbness as I walked over to the painting and wrenched the sheet away to reveal the portrait beneath.

Thomas Knight’s impenetrable eyes found me through the dark, confirming the underlying fears that had slowly leached from the back of my mind like a poison.

Sterling, the prince who made my heart sing and my womanhood ache, was mated to my father.

I thought I might be sick.

Rage, confusion, and a pain so sharp that I cried ravaged my body, my mind, and my soul. I dropped the candlestick as the world around me slipped away, the flame snuffing out, plunging me into darkness similar to the one that filled me.

Spinning around, I was ready to run away from this coven. Far away from the world of Thomas Knight and his fucked-up princes.

But pale, moonstone eyes hovering in the attic’s doorway froze me where I stood. Even through the murky dark, I could make out the raw look of pain etching Sterling’s ghostly features.

“I was wondering when you’d find this room.”

Chapter fifty-one

Magic

“Don’tcomenearme.Stay back!” I hated how my voice quaked, laced with the pain of his betrayal.

I felt so stupid. I’d made a fool of myself, chasing after a man who’d been involved with my dad. It was a new level of fucked-up. My stomach heaved, and I spun around, glaring at the portrait of Thomas Knight. Looking at him was easier than looking at Sterling at that moment.

“Ruby…” The way Sterling uttered my name, with tender reverence, made my chest tight and my heart pulse.

I didn’t trust it. I didn’t want to trust it. I was sick of wearing my heart on my sleeve in front of these guys and getting it broken for the trouble.

“Keep my name out of your mouth. I don’t even want to share the same air as you, you twisted fuck.”

Silence swelled around us, and I half expected him to turn and leave me alone. He didn’t, though, and I realized I would have been disappointed if he had.

“I know this discovery is an upsetting one.”

“Upsetting?” My cadence lurched an octave. “It’s more than upsetting! It’s deplorable! I was making a freaking fool of myself trying to claim you, and you said nothing. Fuckingnothing!” My fists clenched, shaking at my sides. I dropped my gaze to my feet, unable to look at my father’s portrait for a second longer. Here I was, caught between them, and he wasn’t even alive.

I hated him.

I wanted to hate both of them. But I couldn’t bring myself to hate Sterling. Still, I hated myself for wanting him all the more now. How fucked-up was that?

Thomas Knight ruined everything. He wasn’t even alive anymore, and he still managed to come between the princes and me, crushing any hopes of a normal healthy relationship by all the hurt and pain he’d left behind.

Swallowing thickly, I tried in vain to stomp out all the hurt in my voice. But this time, it shook even harder, betraying the tears that threatened to spill. “Don’t you think it would have been nice to mention to the girl interested in you that you were lovers with her father?”

“Lovers?” the blind prince murmured on a tight whisper that was all gravel. “Is that what you think we were?”

“He has a freaking picture of you in his coffin. You have his mating mark, meaning you fucked him. What other conclusion am I supposed to arrive at?”

The blistering silence that spanned between us made me turn to look at the prince for the first time since he’d entered the attic. The expression on his face sent an invisible knife through my heart. He didn’t have to say anything for me to instantly understand. It was written all over his haunted gaze.

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