Risk // Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 42: Realm

I barely managed a wink of sleep despite the dazed state Sebastian left me in. Firstly, I was worried he'd bust more of his stitches, but secondly I was absolutely petrified that Marvolo would come bursting through the door at any moment looking for the ring. Or even worse, Ominis' father.

While Marvolo had shown me mercy before, if what he said about Sebastian's parents was true, Mr. Gaunt wouldn't show us the same. I'm not sure Marvolo would this time either.

Dawn approached quickly and Sebastian woke up just as I was about to finally drift off to sleep.

Wonderful.

"Did you not sleep well?" He asked me, stretching his arms above his head before inhaling sharply realising he'd tugged on his stitches.

"None at all. How could you tell?"

"You just look very sleep deprived." He said.

I simply scowled at Sebastian.

"But- uh. Still very gorgeous." He quickly said, planting delicate kisses across my forehead.

"Uh huh..." I said with an eye roll.

"Do you want coffee?" He offered, inhaling a sharp, deep breath as he dragged himself out of bed.

"Yes, but I'll make it, you're in pain." I said, trying to push him back down.

"Nope. I did this to myself. Probably best I don't make myself bed-ridden all day anyway."

I clicked my tongue at him knowing the only thing that was his fault was bursting a few of his stitches due to his own stubbornness, the same stubbornness that had me not bothering to argue with him right now.

"After, please let me wash you. You're still covered in blood." I said, throwing on a nightgown from one of the drawers.

"Fine. But only because I love it when you take such good care of me." He smirked, pouring the boiling water into the cups and handing me the brew.

I hated coffee. But today was the day I desperately needed it. I pretended to enjoy it as we sat in front of the fire to stay warm.

"Seb, you told me you would talk to me about what Marvolo said today." I reminded him.

He groaned as he took a sip of his own coffee that he was drinking just because I was.

"What is there to say?" He said plainly.

"I don't know, Sebastian. He's told you that your best friends father killed your parents. You don't feel anything about that?"

"Why? Why should I? It's not Ominis' fault and it's not going to bring them back. So why dwell on it? He could have been bluffing anyway to get under my skin."

I furrowed my brows but I was glad he decided to use his optimism to move past it for now.

"Fine." I said.

"Besides, you told me you'd tell me why you fell for me and you haven't done that yet." He smirked.

"Wrong. I told you I'd tell you if the night went well and I would debate that it definitely didn't go well." I said, pointing at the stitches across his bare abdomen.

"We're alive, aren't we?" He asked, "That's a win to me."

"You're insufferably positive today, you know that?" I said.

"I know. But seriously," he said, his playful tone fading, "I want to know why you fell for me."

"If you insist," I began, "It wasn't immediate. But I knew pretty quickly you'd be someone special to me. The way you copped your first duelling loss in years on the chin... you could have whined about it, but you didn't. And you're probably going to think I'm mad... but after everything that happened in our fifth year, I saw you at your lowest and the fact you let me see you so vulnerable, so exposed and still accepted me as your friend... that's when I fell for you. Because you purely didn't care what I thought about you, you just let me see the real you."