In The Shadow of Our Choices

Chapter 42 - Playing with Fire

Sebastian

He finally fell back asleep, Lizzie safe in his arms, and they stayed like that the whole day. Even with the essence of dittany, the amount of healing their bodies were both doing left them exhausted. When Aria plopped herself on the edge of his bed, he shot up, reaching for his wand before he was fully awake. Then he saw that Ominis had his wand pointed at him, so Sebastian slowly put his wand back on his bedside table.

"Sorry," he said, clearing his throat. "You scared me, Aria."

"Good," she said tartly. "We brought you both food. You missed dinner."

She held out a bundle to him, which he took, but set on his bedside table. Gingerly, he ran a hand over Lizzie's arm.

"Hey," he said softly. "Lizzie, wake up - Aria brought food."

She didn't wake with a scream this time. Rather, her eyes fluttered open, and she sat up, looking around mutely. Sebastian saw Aria watching Lizzie warily. He opened the bundle of food, and was pleasantly surprised to find a loaf of bread, some cured meats, and two apples. As he split this between himself and Lizzie, he saw her returning Aria's wary gaze. He had to press the food into Lizzie's hand before she would pay it any attention.

"Look, Sebastian," Ominis said, "You've got to tell us what happened last night. We've been worried sick."

Sebastian sighed, knowing that they wouldn't give up and knowing he was too tired to argue. So he filled them in as he ate. He told them of arriving at the bog, only to walk into Rookwood's trap and be completely outnumbered. He described his fight and their capture. He explained waking up and seeing "Yaxley," who was actually Selina Rookwood.

"Then they left me there, in the dark. And..." He hesitated here, not really sure he wanted to go on. "I could hear them torturing her. Lizzie. I... could hear her screaming. For me. And I couldn't get to her."

He had to stop talking, looking away from them, away from Ominis' stony expression and Aria's gaze that was both horrified and pitying. He looked at Lizzie next to him, who was watching him with cold eyes.

"I'm not entirely sure," he finally continued. "But I think they used my wand to... to..." He looked to Ominis. "You know what my wand does with complex spells. The Cruciatus Curse can drive people to madness on its own but..."

He stopped again. Hating the realization that this might be his fault. If he hadn't had this wand...

"What do you mean, your wand?" Aria asked quietly, breaking the silence that had filled the room since he'd started his story.

Sebastian held his wand out for her to look over, not that she could see what made it special.

"It's a double core wand Ollivander made for me using this... ancient technique we found. It makes certain spells... unpredictable."

She turned his wand over, then waved it at his mug of water, making it levitate off the bedside table.

"It seems normal to me," she said tentatively.

"It's only the complex spells it struggles with," Sebastian said, taking it back. "You can ask Ollivander -"

"How did you get out?" Ominis cut him off.

"What?"

"How did you get out of the cells? She said you saved her... this morning."

"It was her," he said, shaking his head. "I think it was her ancient magic. Blew the door right off her cell when... Well, they started torturing Mary in front of her, I think. I can't say exactly what happened, but she's convinced that Mary is dead, so I think -"