Page 89 of The Blood that Binds Us

“I’m going to wash up before turning in for the night, but thank you for a lovely evening, Mr. Langston.”

“Then I shall bid you farewell, my Lady.”

With a polite smile, I turn to leave but stop when he calls after me.

Wearing an expression more serious than I’d seen all night, he says, “Keep your ears open, Wren. You never know what threats are lurking just beneath your nose.”

Puzzled by his words and vowing to attempt to make sense of them tomorrow when I am more clear-headed, I acknowledge his warning before turning and leaving the ballroom.

Ishouldwash up and head straight to my chambers, but I can’t shake the nagging thought that I should go find Sin. It’s possible I overreacted to his note, and his apology did seem genuine, but it doesn’t excuse his behavior. He insinuated Ibelongto him, and nothing could be further from the truth.

I made sure of that when I snapped the tether.

The ballroom was beginning to clear out when I left, and I didn’t see Sin lingering about anywhere. I head down the corridor towards the staircase, expecting he may have returned to his room. He may be less than thrilled if I invite myself to his quarters, but I need to talk to—

“Little witch.”

My stomach somersaults at the sound of his voice. The massive doors of the Great Hall are propped open on my left, and Sin sits in his high-backed throne, a cup of mead in his hand and a bottle on the dais next to him. Firelight from the wall sconces casts deep shadows across the room, across his face. He watches every step I take towards him with scrutiny, a lone wolf assessing its next meal. His wrist flicks lazily to the side, and the doors slam shut behind me, the locks audibly clicking into place.

“Is sitting in the dark while you drink yourself to death and conjure up new ways to torture people a frequent hobby of yours, Your Grace?”

He smiles around the glass he brings to his lips. “Not all people—only the beautiful women who refuse my gifts.”

“Would you like to talk your way out of the scintillating note you left some more?”

Sin cocks his head in a movement almost feral. “Is that allhewanted to do with you?Talk?”

Incredulous laughter falls from my lips, and I fiddle with the comb in my hair. “Cornelius was a lovely conversationalist, actually. Why—jealous, Blackheart?”

“Why did you come with him?”

“He asked me,” I retort, as if the answer should be obvious.

With a final pull of his drink that empties his glass, he sets it on the floor next to him and rises from his throne, his height accentuated by the raised platform. “Do I need to remind you what happened the last time you found yourself alone with a Langston?”

“I wasn’t alone with him, and perhaps I need to remind you that the only reason I was in that situation with Bennett in the first place was becauseyouforced me to spend time with him.”

“It was war, Wren,” he drawls my name. “It was strategy.”

“You would have let me lie down for him if you thought for asecondI wasn’t going to kill him, risking your precious strategy. Since apparently, as your note suggested, I am only worthy when I’m warming someone’s bed.”

“That’s not true,” he snarls, stepping off the dais.

My hands ball into fists at my sides, my magic licking my veins as rage floods through them. “You were only there to keep me from exposing your little scheme.”

“I wouldn’t have cared if you killed him, Wren.”

“Then why didn’t you let me?”

“BecauseIwanted to kill him!” Sin roars. He’s directly in front of me now, his shadow casting me in darkness. When he takes one last step towards me, closing the gap between us, the torrid heat simmering in his eyes is enough to plant a fever deep inside me. “I was never going to let him eventouchyou. And when he tried, there wasn’t a force in the realm that could have caged that anger. He was dead the same second he eventhoughtabout you that way.”

“You tethered me to you against my will,” I remind him, tilting my chin up.

“Are you going to fault me for a spell you were able to break yourself?” he asks, reaching to adjust the comb I twiddled loose.

“I broke it with blood magic! Magic I gained fighting foryou.”

“And I seem to recall you liking the rush it gave you,” Sin whispers, dipping his head lower and grazing his teeth across the crown of my ear. “Fighting for me, fightingwithme.”

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