The Serpent Trio

Part 22- The Killing Curse

Sebastian POV

I woke up to cold sheets in the bed next to me. I reached out but couldn't feel the presence of anyone else there. They must have woken and left already. I rolled onto my back and stretched out. Today I would return to the crypt and figure out how to use the relic, then I'd save Anne. That would make everything alright, Cress would have to forgive me for casting imperio on her and my uncle would have to let Anne return to Hogwarts and then we could all be together again. It was going to work out. I knew it would, it had to. I got up and dressed, noticing a letter on the table in the lower half of the room. It was in Cressida's handwriting. I picked it up and read over it. 'Sebastian, We cannot allow you to continue on this path. It is dangerous and someone is going to get hurt or worse; killed. I told Ominis everything, we will find a way to help Anne but you cannot use that relic, do the right thing and hand it over to Solomon to be destroyed. I am speaking with the keepers and Ominis is going to see Anne. We will see you back here later. We love you. Cress & Omi xx' 

I was infuriated. How could she do this to me? She would have made out to Ominis that I was being selfish and betraying them all somehow, when all I was doing is finding ways to save Anne. I was the only one that ever did this and I would be the only one to cure her. Just wait. They'll see and then they'll be sorry. If they weren't so closed off to using their powers to remove Anne's pain like we saw that woman do in the pensive, then I wouldn't need to go this far. But they aren't willing, so I have to be. I'm Anne's only chance. I set fire to the note with incendio and grabbed a handful of floo powder; time to return to the crypt and finish what I started.

As soon as I arrived in Feldcroft I enchanted a note into an origami crane, it would fly straight to Anne and tell her that I was about to heal her. She would be so overjoyed and then she could tell Ominis not to worry and once she was healed we could go back to how things were. Cressida would have to admit she had been wrong and then I might consider letting her stay. She was hell bent on ruining things right now and I just cannot allow that to happen. I ran off towards the crypt and found it to be much like we had left it the day prior. The spiders hadn't returned and the puzzles were left unlocked. I had the book and the relic. Now all I needed was time to figure it out.

I laid out the book as well as all of my notes. Turning the relic around in my hands as I did so. According to what I was reading. The inferni were cursed and as cursed creatures, they wander attacking all those who come near. The relic was made by someone who understood the curse placed on the inferni well enough to find a way of channeling magic into a compressed gem structure which could then amplify the control of that curse. So all I had to do was figure out how to activate the relic and then use it to control the curse and stop it from hurting Anne! That must be how it works. Surely the curses couldn't be to dissimilar? 

I lifted my wand and practiced the motions outlined in the diagrams from the tome. As I did so the relic began to pulse with an eerie purple light and the sarcophagi in the room began to explode open, inferni rising from within and stalking towards me. I grabbed the relic with my free hand and made a motion for them to stop with my wand. The ones in the room obeyed as the relic released a wave of power. There was some sort of range on it though as some inferni had left the part of the tomb I was in and were wandering around not listening to my command. I placed the relic down and began to study the book once more, there must be a command to take pain away, or remove the curse entirely. 

Cressida POV

I woke early to find both Ominis and Sebastian still asleep next to me. I shook Ominis awake and linked my mind with his using the ancient magic connection. 

"Omi..." I said softly into his mind, feeling him stir in response. "We need to leave, quietly and talk. It's urgent and about Sebastian. Please don't wake him." I watched as confusion spread across Omi's face, but to my relief he sat up and silently crawled out the bed with me. I grabbed our clothes off the rail where Deek always hangs them and practically shoved Ominis out of the room of requirement.