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“He … didn’t say anything,” I reply.
Amelia grabs my hands. “You’re shaking. Come. Sit.” She guides me to the couch and then walks to the kitchen to make some coffee, which I’ll happily chug down right now.
Eli sits down opposite me, and the air suddenly feels thick with the same kind of tension I used to feel with Soren. “Why would he give this to you?”
“I don’t know. I think he wanted me to … find you. If I ever needed it,” I reply, feeling intimidated by him.
“Eli, don’t hound her,” Amelia says, sitting down next to me. “She’s been through enough.” She smiles at me and puts a hand on my arm. “What happened to you?”
Eli shifts in his seat. “Soren was supposed to take her—”
“To the cult,” I fill in, staring him down. “A hellhole I never wished to return to. But Soren made the right decision.”
Amelia gasps. “He let you go.”
When I nod, I look at Eli, who seems mildly intrigued.
Then a smile appears on his cheeks. “I figured he’d do something like that.”
I frown. “So you knew?”
He sighs and grabs his cup of coffee to take a sip. “Yes and no. I knew something was going on, but he never told me what. But I saw him look at you over and over again. He seemed infatuated. And that was before I asked him to take you back.”
It’s hard to fight the blush from creeping onto my cheeks. “Why would you ask him that if you knew how much it would hurt him?”
His nostrils flare. “I couldn’t risk it. You were the most volatile of all our sinners.”
“I was innocent,” I say through gritted teeth. “And you knew it.”
“We do not deny those sent to us,” Eli says, glancing at Amelia for a second. “Even if they are … innocent.”
“It’s despicable,” I respond.
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “It took me a long time to realize that not everyone needed to be punished for their sins.” He looks me directly in the eyes. “And I want to apologize for keeping you captive.”
I suck in a breath too, and let it sink in.
It’s not often I hear an apology for all that happened to me.
“Did anyone touch you … at the House?” Amelia asks, gripping my hand and squeezing gently.
“No,” Eli answers for me. “We did not.”
I look away. “I was just … forced to eat with them all. Nothing else. Not yet, anyway.”
I don’t know what they eventually had in mind for me, but it couldn’t have been good.
“She was supposed to be handled by Tobias, but he had his mind … occupied.” Eli raises his brow, and Amelia giggles for some reason. Like it’s a joke, but it’s not funny to me at all.
“But that’s all in the past now, isn’t it?” Amelia says to Eli.
Eli nods. “I’ve given up my position at the House.”
I frown. “Didn’t know that was possible.”
“I’ve learned there are some things that are more important than even life itself,” Eli says, and he winks at Amelia, who blushes from his response.
“Guess you two found each other,” I say, rolling my eyes.
Amelia tucks her hair behind her ear. “I was the one who asked him to release everyone. To let them go back.”
I pull my hand away from hers. “So you’re the reason I was almost forced to go back to that cult?”
“I didn’t know he was going to do that.” She gives Eli the stink eye. “I thought he was going to set everyone free.”
“It was a risk to the House. If she’d been free, she would’ve—”
“Told everyone?” I interject, raising a brow. “Because I’m free now, and I still could if I wanted to.”
The silence in the room is chilling.
“But you didn’t,” Eli says after a while. “Because …” It’s almost as if a light switch goes on in his head. “Soren.”
I can’t fight the blush from appearing on my cheeks now.
“I guess that explains why he gave you Amelia’s address,” he says. “I only gave it to him to protect her in case Tobias went after her. But I guess he wanted you to have a way back if you wanted to.”
A way back?
“You have feelings for Soren?” Amelia gasps. “Really?”
I try to hide the shame by picking up my coffee and taking a sip. “It’s not like that. It’s just that—”
“You want to protect him.” Eli folds his arms, smirking. “All three of the men from the House of Sin … fallen to sin. Ironic.”
“What he did was not a sin,” I retort, clutching my coffee to stop myself from shivering. “He was trying to protect me all the way and then freed me even though it would mean he’d be punished for it.”
Eli waves it off. “I’m sure Tobias will be lenient. After all, I was the one who sent Soren on his way. Tobias won’t blame him for trying to do the right thing.”
