Everyone freezes like I just announced I’ve cut off my arm.
Holly leans forward, eyes wide. “Wait. You get to rotate through all the sin lessons?”
Sly whistles low and shakes his shaggy blonde hair out of his eyes. “That’s nuts. I don’t think anyone has sat in on a training outside of their own sin. Like... ever.”
“Seriously,” Brix says. “They don’t even let us read about the other factions in the library back home, and you’re getting a full-on behind-the-scenes tour of their powers and training? Badass.”
Tabby raises her eyebrows. “Kinda hot, not gonna lie. All that power variety. I’d kill to sneak into a Lust training. Or get tied up by accident in a Wrath training. Whichever would be fine with me.”
“Consent matters, Tabby.” Cleo mumbles, flipping through her book.
“Details.”
I give a weak laugh and shake my head. At least they’re supportive.
“Yeah, well, I don’t even have a sin power yet, so unless something snaps into place, I’m just the weird sinless girl awkwardly guest-starring in everyone else’s training sessions. I wouldn’t be too jealous.”
“You’re not weird,” Holly says. “You’re just… a late bloomer.”
I roll my eyes and take out my phone. “Let’s see what fresh hell has in store today.”
I pull up my schedule and momentarily forget to breathe.
History of Factions–9:00 AM–Professor Gabriel
No. No, no, no, no.
Nope. Absolutely not. Not yet. I’m not ready for another encounter; I’ve barely emotionally recovered from the first.
“Oh, universe.”
Holly peeks over my shoulder. “What? Who’d they stick you with first?”
I spin the phone around and flash the screen at her.
She gasps. “Gabriel?! The hot professor?! The one with the arms and the voice and the... sexy ass? What’s wrong with that?
“Girl,” Tabby says, eyes wide. “I would force a bond with him on purpose.”
“Consent,” Cleo deadpans. If only she knew..
“That’s first up for me too!” Cleo says after chastising Tabby and hitting her with a piece of bacon.
At least I will have Cleo there for moral support… even if she doesn’t know what she’s supporting.
Everyone continues talking and laughing around me as I die a little more inside. I resist the urge to bang my head against the table. Instead, I take a shaky breath and check the time.
Ten minutes until I have to walk into class with a man whose jawline could cut glass and who may or may not be mystically tethered to my soul.
No pressure.
I adjust the strap on my bag for the fifth time as I leave breakfast. It’s a nervous tick, very anti-wrath behavior, and I hate that I’m doing it — but here we are. Cleo walks beside me, talking a mile a minute between bites of a cinnamon roll she stole on the way.
“I heard Professor Gabriel used to sit on the small Sloth Sin Council,” she says, waving the pastry around like a pointer. “Like, the actual. Fucking. Sin. Council. I heard he practically pioneered the Sloth expansion treaty. Wild, right?”
“Mmm,” I hum… so he’s a big deal and I’m barely old enough to attend this school.
It’s not like I’m scared of him. I’m just… highly aware of how weird this could get. He hasn’t turned me in for the bond — which is comforting. But why?
