Until You Break (The Devout and the Damned #1)

9. His Sinner

Chapter nine

His Sinner

I wake to the gentle shake of Mason’s hand on my shoulder, his voice low and soft in my ear. “Aria… hey, I have to go soon. Conference starts tonight, remember?”

I blink, squinting up at him as the morning light filters through the curtains, soft and gray. His face hovers above me, a warm smile spreads as he strokes my hair back. He’s already dressed, a bag slung over his shoulder, ready to head out for the week.

“Right,” I mumble, my voice thick with sleep. “The doctor thing.”

He chuckles, shaking his head. “Yes, the doctor thing. Five days of lectures, medical panels, networking. Try not to miss me too much, alright?”

I reach up, pulling him down to me, pressing a sleepy kiss to his lips. He tastes faintly of coffee, his breath warm against my skin.

“I’ll try not to, but you know I’m hopeless without you around,” I tease, though there’s a truth in it that I don’t say out loud. Mason is my balance, my steady ground. The one who anchors me, even when everything else feels like it’s slipping away.

“Don’t go burning down the place,” he murmurs against my lips, giving me one last kiss before he pulls back. “I’ll call you when I land, okay?”

I nod, managing a small smile as he stands, adjusting the strap of his bag over his shoulder. “Have a safe trip. Don’t get too charmed by the medical bigwigs.”

He grins, eyes crinkling at the corners. “I’ll do my best. Try to enjoy a little peace and quiet without me.”

“Bye, Mason,” I say, a faint laugh escaping despite myself.

“Bye, love,” he says, pausing at the door, giving me one last look before he’s gone.

I hear the soft click of the door closing, and then silence settles around me, the kind of quiet that seems to fill the whole cabin, making every shadow feel a little deeper. I lie there for a few minutes, letting the warmth of the blankets cocoon me, drifting back into sleep before I have the energy to get up.

When I finally drag myself out of bed, it’s past mid-morning. The light through the windows is bright now, spilling across the worn wood floors. I shuffle downstairs, yawning as I make my way to the kitchen, my mind still thick with sleep.

I reach for the coffee pot, my hand pausing mid-air when I see it—a single sunflower, sitting alone on the counter. Its bright, golden petals stretch toward the ceiling, standing out in the quiet, muted tones of the room.

I blink, rubbing my eyes, half-convinced I’m still dreaming. There’s no note, no sign of how it got there. Just the flower, leaning slightly in a small glass of water, its wide face turned toward me as if waiting.

My stomach clenches and a chill runs through me despite the warmth of the cabin. Mason wouldn’t have left this; it’s not his style. Flowers are a small, quiet gesture, not his way of saying goodbye. He’s never been one for surprises, either. It’s part of why I love him—his consistency and predictability.

And he left early, with barely a minute to spare. There’s no way he would have come back in to leave this behind. I step closer, reaching out to brush my fingers over one of the petals, soft and delicate, like it might fall apart if I press too hard.

Sunflowers. Dominic’s favorite flower.

I swallow, my mind spinning back to the memories I’ve tried so hard to push away, the words he’d whispered, the look in his eyes as he urged me to run.

“Dominic, please don’t make me do this…”

“If you ever cared about me… even just a little, you’ll go and you’ll live that life. Just… let me go out knowing I did one good thing. Okay, Little Sinner? Promise me you’ll live.”

“I… I promise.”

“Good girl. Now go. Run.”

A million questions tumble through my mind. Who would leave this? Why? There’s no one who knows that part of me, no one who would know what this flower means, except…

I pull my hand back, as if burned, my pulse quickening. It doesn’t make sense. Dominic couldn’t have left it. He’s gone—taken from me the night I escaped, his blood staining my hands, his last words urging me to live the life he couldn’t.

But here it is, unmistakable, a message in the form of a bright, beautiful sunflower. Like some cruel ghost from my past, coming back to haunt me.

I shake my head, trying to steady myself, but I can’t tear my eyes away from the flower. Who would know? No one in my life—not even Mason—knows that I kept these memories close; the little fragments of Dominic I could carry with me.

They’re secrets carefully buried beneath layers of quiet routines and new habits, buried deep in the life I’ve built here, far from the girl who escaped that cell.

The thought lingers in my mind as I move around the kitchen, my hands clumsy, distracted as I start to make coffee. I turn on the machine, the familiar gurgling sound filling the silence, but my thoughts are elsewhere, spinning over and over, circling the same question with no answer in sight.

The only other possibility is that someone is toying with me, digging up a part of my past that’s better left buried. But why? Who could know about something so personal, so intimate? It feels like a cruel joke, a taunt, something meant to unsettle me—and it’s working.

If it were my captors, they wouldn’t play these games. They would drag me back to that cell without question. So, who…?

I close my eyes, resting my forehead against the rim of the mug, the heat seeping into my skin. It’s been five years, and I should be past this by now. I have a life, a fiancé, a career, even if it’s not the one I’d planned. But none of it fills the hollow space he left behind. No one could understand what I lost that night, not even Mason.

Because while I may have walked out of that forest, part of me was left behind with Dominic.

I open my eyes, looking at the sunflower again, a bittersweet smile tugging at the corner of my lips.

“Dominic,” I whisper, the name slipping out like a secret, a confession. “What would you think if you saw me now?”