Page 237 of The Sin Binder's Destiny
Like—stops. Lucien Virelius, First Sin of Dominion, walking talking embodiment of power-will-command-subjugate,kneels. And not in a ceremonial, overly dramatic, "kiss my ring" sort of way. No. He’s just... there. Both knees hitting the earth like the universe finally broke its spine and gave in.
My first instinct is panic.What the hell is happening?Has he lost his mind? Is this some obscure magic side effect no one warned me about? Did Silas spike his tea? My brain spins through every possible reason Lucien would put his knees to the ground in broad daylight, in front of me—until it lands on the one reason I can’t explain away.
He’s not kneeling because he’sweak.He’s kneeling because I’m standing.
“Lucien?” My voice comes out thinner than I want it to, hushed, like I’m scared of cracking the moment in half.
He just… looks at me. Up at me. Like I’m something sacred and dangerous, and he’s both reverent and resigned to the fact that I might destroy him.
“What—what are you doing?” I ask, half whisper, half breathless accusation.
His jaw clenches once, the way it always does when he’s trying to force words through emotion he hates admitting he has.
“I don’t know how to ask you,” he says finally, voice low, rough-edged like gravel under velvet. “Not without it sounding like I’m taking something. I’ve taken enough from you.”
The wind lifts strands of my hair, and I can’t move. Can’t breathe right. He hasn’t touched me, but it feels like he has.
“Then say it,” I whisper. “Say what you want.”
He exhales. Shaky. Controlled.
“I want what they have.” His eyes flick toward the house, toward the others. “I want the bond.”
I flinch. I don’t mean to. But it’s instinct. Not out of fear—never that—but out of shock.Lucienwants to bond.
He swallows hard, and the sound of it makes my stomach twist.
“You were meant for all of us. I’ve known that since the moment I saw you.” His gaze burns into mine. “But I didn’t want fate to decide for me. I didn’t want to beforcedinto loving someone just because magic said so.”
That word—love—hangs there, a loaded weapon.
“But I do,” he says. “Not because of what you are. Not because you were made for me. I want to bond because you’reyou.And I’m done pretending that doesn’t destroy me.”
My knees threaten to give. My fingers tremble. Lucien kneeling. Not demanding. Not commanding. Justoffering. And it’s the most terrifying, beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
“Lucien,” I murmur. “You’re a terrifying man.”
He smirks faintly. “And you’re the only thing that’s ever scared me.”
I smile—small, broken, real. “Then I guess we’re even.”
His lips part like he wants to say more. But I don’t let him.
“I’m not afraid of you,” I whisper. “Not anymore.”
And I’m not.
Because this—whatever we’re becoming—thisis what I want too.
I kneel in front of him because he’s Pride. Because I know what itcosthim. Lucien Virelius doesn’t bend, doesn’t bow, doesn’t yield—not to gods, not to death, and certainly not to anyone with a heart still beating.
But he did. For me.
And I can’t let him stay there—on his knees like I’m something holy when I’m just a girl who bleeds too easily and loves too recklessly. So I lower myself, dirt staining the knees of my pants,the earth grounding me even as everything else tilts sideways beneath the weight of what this is becoming.
“You don’t have to kneel for me,” I murmur, reaching out to brush a wind-wild strand of hair from his forehead. “That’s your kink, not mine.”
His mouth twitches. Just enough for me to see the hint of a smirk. “You sure?” he asks, low and wicked. “Because I’m having very conflicting feelings about it now.”
