Aftermath | Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 6

Sebastian POV

"This is certainly not what I pictured when you said 'fresh air'." I say, slightly annoyed that we're climbing all the way up the stairs to the 7th floor of the astronomy tower.

"Oh, shut up." I hear y/n say, causing me to smile behind her. I have to admit, even though I'm having to travel up all these stairs, I'm not complaining about the sight I see before me. Y/n is leading the way, and all I can look at is her body. She's curvier than she was last year, maturing. The skirt she's wearing hugs her hips tightly, her ass looks so plump and round. Bloody hell Sebastian, don't let these hormones get the best of you.

If I'm drawn to the curves of her body then other guys must be checking her out just the same. The thought angers me. I'm suddenly thinking she needs to go shopping for some new school clothes. She's not mine by any means, anyone can look at her the way I am. But I don't want them to. My hands ball into fists until she pulls me out of my protective thoughts.

She stops in the middle of the hall and sharply turns towards me, "What I'm about to show you, I haven't shared with a single soul. You cannot tell anyone. Not even Ominis, although I wouldn't mind him knowing. But that will be on my terms." She says.

"Okay, show me." I say plainly.

"I'm serious, Sebastian. No one can know about this. You'll see why." She looks up at me with pleading eyes. She could get me to do anything she wanted by looking at me like this. "Let's go." Her seriousness turns into excitement as she turns towards the stone wall to the side of us.

"A wall-" I begin to say.

"Shh." She shushes me and I meet her gaze upon the bricks, beginning to turn and pull apart, revealing a corridor with descending stairs. She enters and I follow.  I hear the stones moving back together behind us and turn my head to watch them closing.

"Sebastian." She says eagerly, I follow her down the stairs and freeze. I'm actually paralyzed. We're in a huge, open room with rows of potion tables and potting tables, more contraptions I don't even recognize. I'm scanning each wall, each decoration that looks like it's been placed with intention. My eyes travel from the floors to the open ceiling, where there are rows and rows of books going to the highest peaks of the walls. How I'd love to get my hands on those.

"I thought you'd love that part." I looked down to see y/n looking at me, grinning. She knows my obsession with reading.

"Merlin's beard..." I breathe out, taking my gaze away from her to scan my surroundings. "You've kept this all to yourself this whole time, huh?"

"Come, let's get that fresh air." She holds out her hand and I look down, slowly grabbing it. I feel a jolt of electricity running up my arm, as she starts running up to a glass door. As I look upon it, it's clearly some sort of portal. I can vaguely see sunlight and green grass on the other side. We step through, and I can feel my jaw actually drop to the ground. We stand in a massive opening of land, there are forests and bodies of water trailing along the outskirts. You can see mountains in the distance, a cave, a stream, and endless fields. Who knows what else exists in the layout of the land.

"The Vivarium." Y/n whispers. I look at her in disbelief. I reach my arm over and pinch her shoulder. "Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"I wanted to make sure this is real and I'm not dreaming."

Her face scrunches up, "you're supposed to pinch yourself, not me you imbecile." She says with a huff. Four puffskeins bounce up to us, push between us as they prance around our legs. I can't help but laugh. Until I hear a loud roar and snap my head in it's direction.

The ground is shaking as a Graphorn charges directly towards us. "Y/n!" I yell as I'm running towards the exit and she's standing there not moving, laughing- is she laughing at me?

"The look on your face! That was perfect!" She says hunched over in an uncontrollable fit of laughter, tears forming in her eyes. I have not seen her laugh like that in a long time. She straightens up and starts walking towards the beast, who is now standing perfectly still before her. She stops, bowing to it. The Graphorn kneels down, and y/n makes her way to it's side. I can't believe what is actually happening- she's mounting the beast.

"Well, are you going to stare at me all day or come along for the ride?" She says, holding out a hand for me. I hesitate, then slowly walk towards it. I grab her forearm and she grabs mine, as I climb up it's side and swing onto its back. "Your turn to hold on tight." She says smirking. Before I have a chance to respond, we take off. She wasn't kidding, I'm bouncing up and down behind her before I grip it's back with my legs and loop my arms around her waist tightly.

We're charging through the Vivarium, leaping over streams and blasting through boulders on the ground. Boulders! This beast is unreal. She speaks to the beast and it takes off charging as fast as it can through the forest. I can barely catch a breath. We come to a stop at the entrance, y/n dismounts with ease and I sort of fall off trying to catch my balance and failing. I finally straighten up and look at her.

"This was perhaps the most amazing experience I've ever had in my life. Where in the world did you find a whole Graphorn?" I'm yelling in excitement. She just laughs in response. I'm not really sure what has taken over me at this point, probably the excitement and also thinking I would die from that beast. I reach out and grab both of her shoulders. I stop for a moment, staring into her eyes as she looks at me in shock. Then I kiss her. A soft, quick kiss on her lips. We pull away from one another, her eyes search my face. For what I'm not sure. Then she throws her arms around my neck and closes the gap between us. She's kissing me back. She's actually kissing me back.

We stand there kissing for what feels like hours, but is probably only seconds. I pull away, resting my forehead against hers. My arms wrapped around her waist. "I lied." I whisper. "Hmm?" She moans in response, her eyes still closed and forehead against mine. I release my hands from her waist and reach up to grab either side of her face. In response, she opens her eyes and looks up at me. "I said I lied. That was the most amazing experience of my life."

She smiles at me softly, then says "We should probably go. I shouldn't be late for two classes now." I let go of her face, but she grabs my hand. Lacing her fingers between mine. And leads the way out of the Vivarium.