Sin
NUMB, she internally screamed.
Their faces were haggard, with dark shadows under their eyes, and the smell of sweat and dirt clung to them like a second skin. These were not the privileged girls she remembered—they looked haunted, feral, and filled with a hatred that simmered just beneath their eyes.
“We took a page out of your book, big sister. Only we were much smarter,” Ricina sneered, her fingers fumbling with a ring in her hand. “We’ve been hunted for months—starving, hiding like rats—all because of you. You killed our parents, and now you think you can just get away with it?”
They spun her around, and the stench intensified, cloying and suffocating. There, hanging from rusted chains, was Magnolia. Her flesh hung in sickly greenish strips, eyes hollow, maggots writhing in the open wounds.
Every single bit of effort Sin took to keep herself numb was released with a scream.
The whip cracked through the silence, a streak of agony tearing through Sin’s back. She convulsed against the chains, her body jerking as blood splattered onto the stone floor, glistening like ruby droplets in the dim light.
The sisters made sure she faced Magnolia’s lifeless body, her decaying face etched into Sin’s vision with every lash. The whip’s end tore into her cheek, blood dripping down, mixing with her sweat as she screamed, her voice hoarse and broken.
* * *
Sin woke, feeling like she was still in a dream. But this room was different. A sudden, suffocating heat replaced the cool dampness. Sin blinked, disoriented—where there had been shadows, now light flickered from a torch on a nearby wall, casting distorted shapes that danced like specters.
Did they move me? she thought.
Sin?
She felt a relieving agony at the sound of Max’s voice. A wave of regret filled her, but those feelings weren’t her own. The view of the room seemed to deepen, as if the head of the body slumped further down.
Sin, Max whispered slowly, as if to savor her name.
It’s me, Max. Where are you?
Utter silence came from him, but a feeling of peace flooded her.
Max! she shouted.
He chuckled internally. Of course, in my dreams you would be yelling at me, my love.
Max’s voice was barely a whisper, brittle and weak. She could feel his exhaustion, the tremor of his pain—a pain so deep it threatened to swallow him.
This isn’t a dream!
Isn’t it? he breathed, like it was too difficult for him to even think louder, and Sin wondered if wherever he had been, after what had been done to him, that he gave up.
No, you dunderheaded asshole!
Sin? His voice and emotions perked up.
Yes! Where are you?!
His breathing quickened, and his head rose slightly as he took in the room. Only for a moment before he slumped back down. Like that took all of his energy.
Your father’s dungeon cell?
Yes.
Max, Sin said in a deeper tone. What happened to you?
The door opened with a metallic clang, and Oliver and the king stepped in—tall, broad, his very presence sucking the air out of the cell.
His eyes were cold, assessing, a predator sizing up his prey.
Sin could feel Max flinch, and her rage flared, red-hot.
For the first time, Gideon didn’t look like a piece of shit, and more like, like he was filled with dread, and it didn’t look fresh.
That was decades’ worth of pain in his eyes.
No matter. If he touched her mate, he was dead too.
Where are you, Sin? Tell me now and then get out of my head.
I don’t know where I am. The air is damp and hot. And I’m not leaving you!
Gideon is coming for you. And yes, you are. I don’t want you to see this.
Sin didn’t know how to leave his mind, even if she wanted to.
But she knew one thing: when Max lifted his head to meet his father’s gaze, she would be there.
Staring death into his eyes. Sin would remain, and give her mate strength to endure what Sin knew was coming.
She’d seen that look in her stepmother’s eyes many times.
Sin decided that when she woke, nothing would stand in her way. No matter how many she had to kill, she would reach Max. She swore to the heavens and hells: the king would die.
All I ever wanted, Sin started, right after the first outcry of Max’s pain. When I was beaten and discarded, was to turn it off.
Max’s grunts of pain tore through Sin, each sound a dagger to her heart.
She clenched her teeth, forcing herself to ignore his desperate demands for her to leave.
Sin searched through his mind, avoiding his thoughts and memories. She found the part that controlled his pain, and with a gentle touch, turned it off.
Don’t stop crying out, she instructed him.
Confusion sparked within him, and amazement for not feeling pain.
What did you do? he asked her in a floored tone.
I turned off your pain. Together we will watch his pathetic attempts at breaking what is mine.
His forced cry wasn’t entirely fake; she felt his overflowing love and happiness. She relished in it, but not once did she stop looking at the male responsible for hurting him, not even when Gideon visibly flinched in the corner, as if he were the one struck.
I love you, Max panted.
And I love you.
She meant it too, no longer afraid of it.
Sin could feel her sisters torturing her in her sleep, and Sin was able to ignore it while focusing on Max’s pain.
Their antics became more severe since she refused to leave, but then she felt a familiar click in her mind.
The only time she ever felt that was right before her life completely changed.
What was that? Max asked.
Time for me to go, she answered. Stay strong. I’m coming for you.