Saints and Sinners

One:

One

There's an old Ravkaan legend that the world is broken up into saints and sinners. For every good person, there must be a terrible one. The old stories say that the saints put bad people in the world to watch out for the good ones. If a saint truly cared about you, they would bless you with a soulmate. The universe would ink their name onto their skin once you met them, binding you forever to your path and they to yours. And if you didn't abide by the saints wishes, and cherish your soulmate, their wrath would come down on you tenfold.

At the orphanage, this was Ana Kuya's favorite tale to tell. Alina suspected the old woman did it because she thought that it would keep them in line. But something about the old tale had resonated with her. Particularly because the bit about soulmates, at least, was true. She didn't know about the saints and sinner's part. That part she thought was hogwash.

But year after year, Alina attended her friend's soulmate parties. First, there was Inej and Kaz. That had startled everyone, as the boy who did nothing but glare had become bound to the girl who lit up every room that she walked into.

Then, there had been Jesper and Wylan. That had been less surprising. Well, unless you asked Wylan, who had no idea how the flirty bartender had wound up liking the shy, reserved accounting major that played violin. Hint: it was violin that did it for Jesper, though he'd only admitted that once to Alina while drunk.

The tattoos seemed to have a mind of their own. They didn't appear at the first meeting always. Sometimes, the couples would know each other for ages before they were marked, their names inked on each other. A personal brand from the universe declaring the other as theirs. Or, if you were Nina and Matthias, it happened right away but you denied it because you were both stubborn idiots. Well, Matthias was the stubborn idiot and Nina tried to seduce the prudish theology major into bed. Matthias, saints forgive him, lasted for as long as he could but Nina apparently did 'very nice things with her tongue'.

This, of course, had been told to Alina on one of their drinking nights. Which had been far too much information for her. Now, Alina was twenty-six, nearly finished with law school, and her soul mate had yet to appear. It was perfectly okay not to have one. But Alina had grown up on the legend, and she liked to believe that the saints had watched over the lost little orphan girl from Keramzin.

That said, she was at her fifth soulmate celebration of the year where she was drinking alone off to the corner again. Her best friend and roommate Mal was supposed to be there, but he had texted her some excuse about working late. He had recently reconnected with his birth family, some distant cousin, and had been working for him. Since then, Alina barely saw him.

Usually, she could stomach these events filled with gushing, happy people if he was there with her. But tonight, Alina leaned up against the back wall, drinking. "Starkov, are you seriously hiding out by yourself, moping?" this came from Genya, her old college friend.

Genya was a pretty, young woman with red hair and amber eyes. It was her soulmate celebration that Alina was at. "Easy for you to say, Safin," Alina said, "you have your soulmate. David's a prince. I, however, am starting a law school internship tomorrow and haven't even been on a date in like three years."

Genya smirked at her. "That is because you are pining."

Alina took a swig of her champagne. "I am not pining."

"You most definitely are." Genya poked her on the shoulder. "And you give off sad, pining girl vibes and that is why no one wants to approach you because they know that you are totally in love with someone else so they don't even try. Alina, Mal Oretsev isn't worth all of this wallowing."

Alina scoffed. "I am not wallowing over Mal."

Genya grinned. "You most definitely are. You've known each other since you were kids. Don't you think that if the saints were going to give you their blessing, and make you soulmates, it would have happened by now?"

Alina grimaced. "I know. I know I'm being an idiot about it. But. I can't help it. He's one of my oldest friends, and the closest people that I have to family."

"Look, you what to know how I found David?"

"I know how you found David. You stalked him at the engineering school until you managed to seduce him on his drafting table in his dorm, and then the soulmate mark appeared five seconds after you orgasmed. I've heard this story a million times."

Genya grinned. "Hey, it's a great story."

"Alina!" she jumped at the sound of her name and turned to see Mal standing there with a broad smile on his face. He was wearing a suit, and his tie was loose. "I'm so sorry I'm late----but something amazing happened."

Mal wrapped her up in a hug, and Alina smiled at him.

"Something amazing happened?" Alina said.

He showed her his wrist, where, inked on his skin, was the last name Alina expected to see. Eva Belsky. "It's that girl I told you about. The one that works at the café that we always go to for breakfast?" Mal said. "We were flirting, and my hand grazed across hers, and then our tattoos appeared at the same time."

Alina forced a smile on her face. "Wow. Wow. Wow. That's.... amazing."

"Yeah, isn't it?" said Mal. "All of this time, and she was right there."

Genya coughed. "That's marvelous, Oretsev. Really wonderful."

"Thanks," said Mal, and he nudged Alina, "now we've just got to find yours, eh, Lina? Then we'll have a complete set. Won't that be great?"

"Yeah, really.... really great." Alina took a breath, and then she downed the rest of her champagne.