Chapter 3
THREE
sinner
Did she really think she could wander off without me? That she could take two steps away from that bed and I wouldn’t notice?
Athena could not even breathe without my mind betraying me and picturing the way her chest gently rose and fell when she was nervous. Or the way she squinted when she was angry—which was a lot of the time. Especially around me.
Maybe it was because we were partially claimed now, if that was a thing. We weren’t officially claimed like every other claimed pair here. But Director didn’t know that. The Ministry didn’t know that. And we’d keep the truth to ourselves.
Two people had to physically unite under the blood moon in order to complete the claiming ritual. Athena and I hadn’t, even if we’d made it look like it.
Still, our connection had changed that day. A lingering tether between us alerted me of her every move—her every thought.
And she’d controlled my phantoms by herself. That was unheard of. Impossible.
As impossible as being a tier four. Tier fours didn’t fucking exist. But here she was, existing.
I crept along the outdoor path behind her, keeping my distance. Even when she spun around, making sure she was alone, she didn’t see me.
Oh, Athena. She would never fucking be alone again. She must not have realized how utterly obsessed with her I was now—against my will, of course.
Outside the bathhouse, she tilted her head back and stared at the moon. Even dirty and bruised, her skin glowed beneath it.
The sound of two sets of footsteps caught my attention, and I ducked into the shadows around the corner. The place was communal. It could be a simple coincidence that she wasn’t alone at this hour.
My chest tightened anyway.
“And where, exactly, do you think you’re sneaking off to?” The female voice made my hackles rise.
If I wasn’t mistaken, it belonged to the fire-haired woman who’d made me want to commit murder the second the cadets showed up. Dammit. I was really trying not to kill any of them on our first day.
I stayed hidden anyway, ears pricked for Athena’s response. As my breaths sawed in and out of my lungs, making it a challenge to hear her, I bit my lip and clenched my hands into tight fists.
I should have known. Athena wasn’t someone easily intimidated.
“I’m sorry,” Athena said, her voice anything but. “I didn’t realize I had an entourage."
“So,” the woman tsked. “You’re the new girl here.”
New girl. Irritation ignited in my veins. I was the only one allowed to call her that.
“So,” Athena snapped back. “You’re the observant one here.”
The man accompanying the sharp-edged woman choked. Probably surprised that such a tiny woman came with that much attitude. I understood the shock. Not all that long ago, I was the one who expected Athena to be meek and silent.
The woman laughed under her breath. It was an ugly laugh. Nothing like Athena’s. Though, I’d never really noticed laughs until I met her. Fucking hell, thinking about her laugh? My sick obsession with her disgusted me further every damn day.
“Funny,” she sneered. “That’s adorable. I’m sure that’s how you got that brute of a man to claim with you, huh?” I pictured her cocking her head to the side and looking Athena up and down. “It certainly wasn’t your looks.”
“And how did you trick your claimed into the ritual?” Athena retorted. “Because they sure as hell weren’t interested in your attitude.”
The man accompanying our new friend let out a primal growl. Fuck. That was a sound I recognized.
It escaped him because his claimed was being threatened.
He had no damned choice but to be possessive of her.
“Say one more word,” the woman hissed, “and you’re going to learn real quickly who’s in charge around here.”
That sure sounded like a threat.
Yeah. This bitch was dead.
I took two steps around the corner and took in the scene, picking up on detail after detail.
While all three sets of eyes landed on me, I stalked to the space beside Athena, positioning my shoulder slightly in front of hers.
The claimed pair still wore those confident, dumb-as-fuck expressions. But I could smell their fear in the air. I’d gotten pretty good at that over the last few years—at knowing when an adversary was putting on a show.
These two were full of shit.
The cavernous space was quiet for a few seconds. Awkward? Yes. Satisfying as hell? Definitely yes.
“What were you saying?” I asked, keeping my tone deadly calm. “About teaching us who’s in charge around here?”
I stood at least two feet above the pale woman and had a solid foot on her claimed.
She swallowed audibly. The man stood frozen—silent. Like the coward he was.
“No-nothing.” Her words were stuttered, though she quickly recovered and lifted her chin. “Just that you should be careful. You both should. This place isn’t safe.”
“Right,” Athena said beside me. “That was obvious when I was followed into the bathhouse in the middle of the night.”
The thought alone sent a flare of anger through my body. “What do you want with her?” I asked. “If you felt the need to discuss it at this hour, it must be important.”
“Watch it,” the man spit. “We’re just as welcome here as you are. You don’t want to start a fight you can’t finish.”
Athena laughed quietly beside me, arms crossed over her chest, shaking her head like this was the most ridiculous confrontation she’d ever been part of.
I didn’t blame her.
These fuckers had no idea who they were messing with. They had no idea Athena wasn’t a tier three. That the two of us together were stronger than any other pair, even without the complete claiming ritual.
If the damn shields weren’t blocking our powers, they would never look down on us—on her—again.
“Let’s move on from this ego trip,” Athena said.
“You want to make yourselves known as top dogs around here. Message received loud and clear.” She stepped forward, brushing my shoulder as she came just inches from the woman’s face.
“You don’t scare me. And you sure as hell will never scare my claimed.
So save your energy. And I’d think twice about following me around in the middle of the night again unless you want to see just how possessive my claimed can get. ”
The ghosts of the silent phantoms in my chest purred.
Fear flashed through the woman’s features. And then anger.
She was clearly used to bullying people into submission. So whatever power they had, it must have been strong.
“Let’s go, Florence,” the man said, voice booming. “It’s not worth our time. We need rest before training tomorrow.”
Before they walked away, I considered letting go of the tight grasp I had on my temper and showing them exactly how powerful I could be without magic. But I held myself together.
There would be plenty of time to pummel their faces into the ground later. Especially if these war games were real.
“Fine,” Florence said. “You’re right. They’re not worth it.”
The woman stared Athena down for another second, and beside me, agitation rolled off Athena. She was ready to pounce.
She never went looking for conflict, but she wasn’t going to back down, either.
“Sweet dreams,” she said with a wink.
I kept my fists clenched tight as they sauntered off out of the bathhouse, and I only exhaled once they were out of sight.
Athena did the same. The moment we were alone, she sagged and ran her hands through her messy hair. “Holy shit,” she mumbled, turning in a slow circle. “I thought my sister was mean. But this bitch has it out for us.”
“What the hell were you thinking?” I snapped, that anger inside me rearing up again.
She faced me with those wide, deep eyes. “Excuse me?”
“You can’t go sneaking off into the night like that. You could have seriously been hurt.”
The pain lancing my chest at the idea faded as our surroundings registered. The way the steam hovered over the baths was entrancing, the low lighting emphasizing it as it crept over the carved stone—like it didn’t belong in here, surrounded by steel and darkness, and was searching for a way out.
“By who?” she snapped. “That redheaded brat and her fucking statue of a partner? I’m not afraid of them.”
This fucking woman. I huffed out a hot breath. “You don’t have to be afraid of them to have some common sense, Athena. Fuck. Why are you even out this late? You should be asleep after all the shit we’ve been through over the last two days!”
Her eyes sharpened into daggers. “You really think I could sleep in there?” She scoffed. “You think I can relax for two seconds knowing we’re trapped here while Margaret, and Katherine, and everyone else is god knows where?”
“Getting yourself into trouble won’t help anything.” I forced myself to calm down. I couldn’t blame her for being worried about them. I worried, too. But they had an entire fucking crew of mystics with them. They had Benedict. They would be okay.
The two of us had to focus on getting out of here alive for now.
“God,” she sighed. “You can’t intimidate me like you did in those dungeons, Sinner, so just back off.”
My defensive little new girl. At least she was no longer numb and lifeless like she was in the van ride over here.
I took a step forward, and the sweet scent of her filled my nostrils, making my dick instantly hard.
She swallowed as she craned her head up to assess me.
Did she think I’d suddenly be nicer now that we were “claimed”?
Did she think those few minutes in the woods with her had changed me? That I’d become a better man? I might kill anyone who touched her, but that didn’t mean I had morals.
If anything, this situation reminded me of who I really was. I wasn’t a good person. I wasn’t kind or soft or gentle.
And being that way would only get me killed.
It would get her killed. And Mags. And I couldn’t accept the idea of those deaths on my hands.
“Don’t forget who you belong to,” I told her. “I’m not some random man lusting after you, and I’m certainly not someone you can tell to back off.”
Her nostrils flared. “You have no control over me. I can do what I want.”
A shot of dark amusement coursed through me. “It’s cute that you think that.”
Her button nose scrunched and she glowered in the way that sent my dick twitching in my pants again. “Why do you have to be such an asshole?”
I leaned in until we breathed the same air.
So close that if either of us shifted, our lips would be touching.
“We’re in a cadet camp full of mystics who don’t believe level fours like you even exist. Better yet, we’re surrounded by mystics who would kill you if it meant surviving these damn war games.
So, no—you cannot ‘do what you want.’ Am I an asshole?
Sure. But that doesn’t change anything. You’re still mine. ”
My heart thundered in my ears. God, I should never let myself get this close to her. I couldn’t be fucking trusted in her proximity like this.
She sucked in a breath, her mouth parting and her chest rising, the small movements captivating me like I was a damn addict who’d just found his next fix.
“What is this?” she asked. “Is this the fake-ass protective show you put on during the claiming?”
I reeled back. “What? No, I—”
She lifted her chin. “What exactly do you want from me, then?”
I ground my teeth to stop myself from reacting. “I want us both to get out of here alive.”
She blinked a few times, her expression shifting enough to send my stomach twisting in knots.
“Is that it?” she asked quietly. “You need me to stay alive so you can get back to Margaret?” She scanned my face, searching for an answer.
But she wouldn’t find what she wanted. I locked down my thoughts and my emotions. “Is that all this is to you?”
Those emotions swelled, threatening to break free, but I reined them in. No. Of course that wasn’t all this was.
There was more here, and I’d known that for a long, long time.
But every person I cared for ended up hurt. It started the day my father forced me to kill my very first friend.
I was hanging on by a damn thread here. Every single fucking thought revolved around getting out of here—both of us—so we could get back to Mags.
If Athena got hurt because of me?
I would crumble like the pathetic sack of nothing I truly was.
So I kept my face flat. My voice bored. Empty. “That’s all this is,” I said. “If you’re looking for anything else—like a fucking romance or an ounce of reassurance—you’re going to be disappointed.”
“Right.” She huffed an angry laugh and took a step back, snapping that invisible thread tethering us. “How could I have forgotten? You don’t give a shit about anyone or anything but yourself. We’re right back to where we started.”
She stormed past me, bumping my shoulder hard.
I let her get a few steps into the night before I called out to her.
She spun around, wisps of hair fluttering across her face. Her brown eyes glistened with the vestiges of hope, like she wanted to believe I wasn’t actually the biggest asshole she’d ever seen.
This is how you protect her. This is how you keep her safe. “This was stupid,” I gritted out. “Don’t cause any more fucking trouble around here. I won’t keep coming after you.”
For a second, I could have sworn the shields had lifted and we were no longer being suppressed. Because the shake of her anger rattled through the ground and up my legs. “I never asked you to come after me. Why don’t you do us both a favor and just keep your distance?”
Then she was gone, storming back into the barracks and leaving me huffing like a damn imbecile in her wake.
I’d forgotten what was at stake. Who I was. Who she was. Tonight was the fucking reminder we both needed.
Trust nobody. Care for nobody.
And stay alive—if not for myself, then for Mags.