Page 9 of Heartless Sinner

Who the fuck had a death wish?

Every year, each Night Son chose a female student as their Fawn.

What we did with them depended on the Son. They could be a sanctuary. A possession. A Pawn. A sacrifice. Sometimes all four.

The tradition had started because Sons had become too difficult to control. Powerful men needed distractions.

The best distraction? Women.

Fawns were supposed to keep us sane. Focused. Stop us from burning the fucking world down.

And now, Cory, a Prospect Son, had selected Daphne.

My teeth ground into the gum until cinnamon burned into my tongue.

I should’ve listened to Enzo.

That had to be why he’d texted me. He’d told me for weeks that if I didn’t claim Daphne myself, someone else would.

I opened Cory’s Fawn Selection request and read it.

Then reread it.

I finally did throw my phone across the room.

No one else was allowed to choose Daphne but me.

Hunting Cory down and beating him unconscious sounded like a great fucking idea. Too bad it was strategically stupid.

Cory being from her home country, Calira, made it worse. She was their fucking princess, and he was the Prime Minister’s son. If she became his Fawn, there was a chance they’d become more.

Some Sons ended up marrying their Fawns. My parents were proof.

A knock interrupted my murderous thoughts. I answered the door to find Enzo with both hands balled into fists, like he was debating whether to put one through my face.

The Sons had rules about fighting. If we had a dispute, we each got one punch.

“You fucked up.” He stalked inside, knocking his shoulder into mine.

I slammed the door behind him. “I told you I was going to handle it.”

“I told you to do it earlier, and you didn’t fucking listen.”

Enzo had been on my ass about choosing a Fawn ever since he fell in love with his. Which was exactly why I’d dragged my feet on it. I’d already made the mistake of falling for Daphne once, and I wasn’t doing that shit twice. Especially because I planned to become president.

Falling for the daughter of a traitor to the country would ruin any chance of that. I needed a safe wife. Someone polished and boring enough that the media had nothing negative to say about her. Basically, the complete opposite of Daphne.

“You made a deal.” Enzo leaned one shoulder against the wall. The bastard’s eyes were so dark they looked like two black holes. “You broke it.”

That deal came after I’d stabbed Cory’s twin, Peter, to death in his dorm. The now-dead idiot had shown me videos of Daphne giving him a striptease, and I’d lost my fucking mind. Enzo and Emeri helped me clean up the mess and get rid of the body.

In exchange, Enzo made me promise to select Daphne as my Fawn. He’d claimed she’d calm me. He didn’t know shit. Daphne hadn’t calmed me a day in my life.

I sat on the edge of my desk. “It appears Daphne is no longer an available option for me.”

He glared at me. “Nice try, fucking idiot.”

“Rules are rules. You can’t steal a Fawn.”