A Man Has Horns // Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 36 - Your Dog

"I don't understand..?" I replied to him, feeling the increasingly colder breeze blow against me. Autumn had taken a full breath with this wind. 

My anxiety grew.

"A Horcrux. But I don't know specifics yet," Sebastian's hair shuffled in the breeze. "I know it allows for my sister to live - beyond the pain. You said Isadora should have never removed the pain from her father. This could allow her to live with it. After it..." Sebastian's words poured. "I don't know how. I don't even known where my sister is. I just found out that there was something after...after succumbing... succumbing to its fate."

He looked expectedly. 

The way he spoke with his words ringing in the air full of pain and hope made me want to never step away from his side.

And yet, I winced thinking I once again found myself in the same situation. Sebastian could whistle and I would jump, and although he had mocked me for that substantiality outside Hogsmeade - I think I was the only one who knew how true it was. 

He was the one that wielded Ancient Magic. 

Because he wielded me.

My heart sank realising that there was real danger from him finding this out and perhaps in some way he sensed it to be so.

"Why did you not speak to me?" I asked before even exiting my inner monologue. "You did not say anything for to me for a week."

What in god's name was I doing. 

Sebastian's eyes changed as if he suddenly got reminded that I still stood in front of him.

I hated it. I hated him for how he could morph me. 

"I need apologise to you again," he replied solemn. 

He wanted to speak more but stopped himself. 

And I waited like a fool. 

He looked into my eyes, 

"I..."

He stopped again. 

I wanted anything to help with the reality of being subservient to him. 

I once again stood and waited.

His arms was at the side of him and he tightened his knuckle exposing white bones before releasing his hands, shaking them, inhaling and reaching for me. 

But he did not touch me. He dropped them at his sides before making contact. 

"Anne is my sister," he finally said, which made me question the nature of the meaning with his sentence.

"My motivations have never been to compete against your sister," I replied more frustrated. 

"I know. But it may be that you inadvertently took the lead. That is my..."

"Mistake?" I interrupted him.  

He sighed which made my heart stop and I knew that a part of him did believe it was a mistake that he chose to spend time with me outside seeking a cure, no matter what he was going to say. 

"There is life beyond my sister," he finally replied. "But not one without her."

I did not understand how one could be so close to a family member. 

I brushed my hand through my hair and let the strands fall over my face and shoulders. I inhaled the air and could smell the slow composition of leaves. My hands were cold. My cheeks were cold and I felt a shiver pass through. 

We both stood in silence and I looked around to see nothing but a few gentle streams of smoke in the distance. Hogsmeade. 

I looked to the village, thinking it would take an hour to get there. 

"Your words do mean something to me. And I don't dislike you. In reality, I have found it quite difficult to have distance between us," he finally spoke. 

"Not too difficult," I retorted. He had done it successfully for a week. 

"It was quite difficult," he repeated himself, looking back at me intently. "I will not ask you to help me. But I will continue to search for an answer for how to save her."

I inhaled and felt a burn in my throat. 

"Lilith, I am not asking you to join," Sebastian once again repeated after himself. "And I would like to continue seeing you. But I will have absences."

"I AM NOT A DOG YOU ENTERTAIN WHEN YOU WANT TO PLAY," I finally yelled at him, feeling with every sentence he spoke a deeper hurt. My strands of hair gently rubbed my cheek. 

My hair started levitating. Sebastian looked at the halo of hair around me with caution.

I felt a cold energy circulate me, the tips of my fingers tingling with electricity.

He was not scared or worried.

He took a few steps closer to me, now inches away. I looked at him with a racing heart and before I could say anything he leaned to kiss me. 

I felt the energy flow into a crescendo as it disappeared. I felt my hair fall down and I felt the cold firm lips of his mouth. 

He withdrew and looked up at me again, at the hair and noticed everything returning to normal. 

"I will be your dog then," he said still looking at my face as if it hid answers. "But allow me to do this."

"I don't think this is right," I repeated before saying, "But I will not stand in your way."