Chapter 39 Sinner's Vigil
Ryker’s POV
I stood on the slanted roof of the armory, the cold wind of Requiem whipping my hair across my face and carrying the scent of impending rain. Below me, the courtyard was finally clearing out, the lingering scent of Lumin and expensive silks fading into the damp earth. I didn't need a scrying pool or Malik’s high-altitude voyeurism to see what was happening in the outskirts dorms. My senses were tuned to a different frequency—one of blood, bone, and the raw, electric hum of a soul waking up.
Amaya and the she-wolf. It was a stroke of genius on my part, even if Juda thought he was being 'punitive' by putting them together. The wolf, Scarlet, was a survivor. She’d been kicked, bruised, and told she was nothing because she couldn't grow a tail and howl at the moon on command. She had a chip on her shoulder the size of Acheron, and that was exactly what Amaya needed. A mirror. A reminder that being 'broken' by someone else's standards usually meant you were just too powerful for their rules.
Malik wanted to wrap Amaya in cotton wool and prayers. He wanted to bleach the darkness out of her until she was as boring and sterile as a hospital wing in Celeste. He didn't understand that her power didn't come from her purity; it came from her pain. It came from the messy, bloody, beautiful reality of being human. He saw a relic. I saw a riot.
I thought back to the way she’d looked in the Great Hall—eyes wide, jaw set in that bratty little tilt she did when she was overwhelmed but refused to show it. She’d saluted Seraphina. I grinned, the expression feeling sharp and jagged on my face. Most humans would have been trembling under the ice-cold gaze of a pure-blood angel, their knees knocking together at the weight of all that 'perfection.' But Amaya? She’d just given the ice-queen the finger in spirit.
She had teeth. She didn't know how to bite yet. And God, I was looking forward to the moment she finally drew blood.
I shifted my weight, my senses picking up the faint, rhythmic pulse of her heartbeat from across the campus. It was faster than it should have been. Agitated. Thrumming with the memory of the ozone and the heat I’d left in her room. I knew exactly why. I’d left my mark on her skin tonight—not a physical one, not yet, but a brand on her mind. I’d pushed the boundaries, whispered the truths she wasn't ready to hear, and watched her pupils dilate with a hunger she was trying so hard to deny. She was a little pharmacist who liked the taste of the fire I’d poured down her throat, and it was driving her crazy.
Malik was worried about her 'ascension,' the poor, delusional bastard. I was worried about her survival. Juda was sharpening his knives in the dark, and Seraphina was already weaving her webs of social poison. Amaya was a lamb in a den of ancient, starving wolves, and she only had two mentors who were more interested in fighting over her than actually training her.
I wasn't going to apologize for it. I wanted her. I wanted to see that defiance turn into desire. I wanted to hear her scream my name in the dark of Acheron while the world burned around us. But more than that, I wanted her to be strong enough to stand beside me when the Trinity Prophecy finally tore this place apart. If she was the one to unite the warring flames, I was going to make damn sure I was the flame she couldn't live without.
"Keep watching, Saint," I muttered, looking up at the high balcony where Malik’s golden aura was still visible, a lonely lighthouse in a sea of shadow. "Watch her until your eyes bleed. But while you’re busy guarding her soul and reciting your litanies, I’m going to be the one who owns her heart. And her body. And every single wicked thought she hasn't had the guts to say out loud yet. You can have the goddess, Malik. I’ll take the woman."
I dropped from the roof, landing silently in the shadows. The hunt was on, and for the first time in an eternity, I had found something—someone—truly worth catching. And I wasn't planning on letting anyone else have the first bite.
"You look like you just successfully argued with a dying constellation, Reyes."
Ryker's voice cut through the stillness, sharp as splintered obsidian. I stopped short, pivoting instantly toward the sound. Standing near the shadowed archway leading to the main quad was Scarlet, her fiery hair a low, smoldering ember in the dim light. She held a chipped ceramic mug, steam curling from it in thin, lazy spirals.
"The Saint is probably at it again," I shot back, keeping my tone deliberately casual, though my guard remained high. "Preaching the gospel of restraint while smelling faintly of jasmine and fear."
Scarlet took a slow, deliberate sip of her drink, her amber eyes narrow and assessing. She didn't flinch at the mention of Malik, which meant she hadn't been hiding under her covers waiting for him to finish his nightly vigil.
"The Saint thinks he's guarding a diamond," Scarlet said, tilting her head so the low light caught the curve of her cheekbone. "He's just polishing a bomb."
"And you?" I pushed, stepping fully into the faint light, letting her study me. "What do you think he's polishing?"
"I think he's polishing the pedestal he plans to stick her on," she countered, taking another loud sip. "You, however, look like you just won a very important, very dirty fight."
"Just confirming the inventory," I replied, a harsh edge to the words. "Malik wants her pristine; I prefer my weapons sharpened by reality."
"Reality is where she lives," Scarlet countered, setting her mug down on the stone ledge with a sharp clink.
"She tastes the fire, Scarlet. That's the only reality that matters."
"Fire needs oxygen, Reyes," Scarlet leaned in, her gaze locking onto mine, a flicker of something knowing in her amber depths. "And Malik has enough piety tucked away to suffocate a volcano."
"Then we just have to make sure Amaya breathes deeper when I'm around," I growled, a promise hanging heavy in the cold air between us.
She looks at me. "I won't help either of you. My loyalty is to Amaya. She's not a prize to be won by the Saint or the Sinner."
"Good," I spat, turning away. "Then stay out of my way while I teach her how to survive the next round of heavenly idiocy."
Scarlet's expression hardened, the playful mockery draining away to reveal the protective core I'd glimpsed before.
"I'll be the wall she hides behind when your lessons get too dark, Ryker," she stated flatly.
"I expect nothing less," I give her a nod before I disappear into the shadows.