A Ballad of Snakes and Shadows // A Dark Sebastian Sallow Romance

Chapter Seventeen: Descending

((CW: extreme sexuality, degredation, humiliation, edging, orgasm denial, s&m))

I hoped that sleep would've taken me under its wing until I never needed to wake up again. I would've been glad of it, that eternal sleep. In it there would be no pain, no suffering.

Somehow Isadora's ideals seemed appealing to me right now. Maybe she had been right.

The hope that I could rest endlessly was short-lived, as I caught the sounds of my cauldrons stirring, a variation of potions undoubtedly eager to be collected from their pots. I found it rather odd that I could hear them so well, considering that they were in the adjacent hall.

I could even hear the air whipping at my plants and the soft growls of my cabbages as they grew.

My eyes snapped open to find that I was staring up at the skylights of the side hall, far from where I remembered collapsing. Much time hadn't passed either, as I watched the faux moon hovering in the sky just past the glass of the ceiling.

Something shifted just underneath my legs, confirming that it was indeed not the cold tile that I was resting on any longer. Underneath my body I felt the firmness of one of the chaise lounges I kept in this part of the hall.

What I laid my head on wasn't the softness of the pillow I kept on the lounge, either.

No, there was no mistake that it was a set of muscular thighs that I rested my head upon as a hand idly ran its fingers through my knotted hair.

Merlin, I could not deal with this right now.

"Get out." I barely recognized the voice that croaked out of my mouth, it was completely hoarse. No doubt the scratchy sound was courtesy of all of the screaming I'd done earlier, mixed with that bile that had coated the inside of my throat.

"Did your sweet little boyfriend dump you?" Sebastian responded, acting as if I hadn't spoken. His fingers kept lovingly tending to my hair, like he was here to comfort me rather than torment.

I mentally snorted.

Sebastian knew exactly what he was doing by turning up here. He was here to rub my nose in the rubble of what he'd fucking destroyed in one night.

"He wasn't..." I'd never gotten the opportunity to have that relationship with Ominis. My heart cracked as I tried to turn my head away, so that I could hide that hurt from Sebastian.

"This is your fault." I whispered.

Though I would try to hide my emotions from him, there was nothing I could do to get away from him right now. My body felt too heavy, so exhausted from everything that had happened over such a short course of time. I didn't see a point in trying to push him away either, not with that weakness that I felt in my bones.

Sebastian would've just forced me back down onto his lap with ease, probably with a few tongue lashings on the side. I could have the Room remove him, though I wasn't sure that would even work. I had never tested it, nor did it seem like it would matter.

He would just keep finding ways to come back.

"Oh?" Sebastian seemed genuinely taken aback by my accusation.

"Are you sure it wasn't that you weren't honest with him? I think that could easily play a part in a relationship falling apart." Sebastian continued to run his fingers through my hair as he spoke, carefully unknotting my hair as he did so.

If it weren't for how he'd violated me in front of Ominis only hours ago, I would've thought the gesture sweet. I would've let him pet me until sleep took me once again.