Shadow of a Grave ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter twenty-two ✧ sweet like sugar

Fail You by Movements

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Trigger Warning: This chapter includes sensitive conduct - please see the comment for a full description of conduct.

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The bloodmagic wards of the Gaunt Manor had been the same for generations. There were set rules and requirements for anyone entering the property. Bloodmagic was complex and the price was heavy, but the wards of the home were sacred. Formed with Salazar Slytherin's blood and maintained with every pureblood male of the family line since.

Ominis Gaunt had learned how much he hated the house at a very young age. The Manor had always been more than a mansion for the pureblood family. The enchanted blood always made it feel more alive and sentient than just bricks piled high. There was always a cold sense of eyes digging into his back in every room and most nights he wouldn't be able to sleep because it would sound like there was a heartbeat coming from the walls. 

Many considered bloodmagic wards to be sacred because of the cost of maintaining them. All magic had a price and this one had been of blood. After learning of the price his family had been likely to pay, he had always thought of the wards as more of a curse over the family. 

Vampire Rules was the term that the family had used when jokingly referring to the conditions of the wards. When arriving at the manor, a person is not allowed through the front door and into the building, unless invited by someone carrying the Gaunt name. The only people who were allowed to freely enter and leave of their own will were anyone with the family name, whether it be blood or marriage. 

The name was almost a cruel joke. Every quarter of a century there would be a sacrifice by the male line to maintain the strength of the property. It felt like the souls of the family still haunt the walls for eternity. It was those sacrifices whose hearts beat under the wallpaper and whose blood caused the smell of rotting floorboards. Ominis had always hated the liveness of the building as a child. 

"Are you sure this will work?" Robert Gaunt asked his uncle as they rounded the corner to the Manor.

There was an issue in the house however, as expected, Marvolo Gaunt had made a change to the ancient ward. An accommodation for a lie that he was willing to play along with, although his brother was still trying to figure out why he had decided to break the family tradition for a little girl. Ominis had thought about the ward over and over again, attempting to understand his reasoning, and praying that he had been correct in his assumptions. 

If the vial that he had given days ago to Robert had worked, then they should be able to get in and get Annabel Sallow out without a problem. If he was correct about the source.

He was still nervous about the plan, but he didn't want that to spread to the young boy with him. Instead, he kept his composure and promised him, "We will be in and out with Bella before your Father realizes that we are here."

Annabel wasn't a true Gaunt, it wasn't her real name and the rules shouldn't apply to her. Despite how much Marvolo claimed her as his daughter. She was born and always will remain a Sallow. The ward wouldn't have recognized her by name or by blood because both were a lie.

Ominis had correctly suspected that this had been a case when he sent his nephew into the house days before. Based on the stories he had collected from Amelia, the little girl had her own rules, not Vampire Rules, meaning something very important.