A Ballad of Snakes and Shadows [Dark Sebastian Sallow x MC]

Chapter Seventeen: Descending

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

Descending - Sleep Token

"It absolutely amazes me how fucking self righteous you are, Hyacinth. Your blind arrogance has cost us more than we may ever realize. This hero complex of yours didn't save me."

"This pathetic slut belongs to me, Ominis."

Would it have been too much to ask for sleep to take me under its wing forever? I would've been glad for it - that eternal sleep. In its nothingness there would be no pain. No suffering.

Isidora's ideals appealed to me as pain and suffering swam inside my head. Maybe Isidora was right - if there was no pain in the world, what could life be like? I surely wouldn't feel like this.

The sounds of my cauldrons bubbling steered me away from any more wishful thinking. I had set the stage for my consequences and it was time to let them have the spotlight. Sebastian had won another round of our game and in his quest for victory. Ominis had been the collateral.

All the while I'd been forced to watch, exiled from the game because I cheated. I'd forgotten the most important rule to keep the game fair - being honest.

I inhaled deeply. That's odd.

I remembered passing out in the main hall but my cauldrons sounded so close. I could even hear the air whipping about the leaves of my plants and the soft growls of my cabbages.

My eyes snapped open to the skylight of the side hall. I was indeed far away from the main hall. It didn't seem like much time had passed either as the faux moon still shone brightly through the glass.

Something shifted underneath my legs. I felt the firmness of what I was sure was the chaise lounge I kept in the hall... yet my head wasn't on its pillow. No, there was no mistaking it for what it was.

It was a set of thighs that my head rested on. A hand idly ran its fingers through my knotted hair and I knew exactly who had moved me.

Merlin, I did not want to deal with Sebastian right now.

"Get out." I croaked. My voice was no more than a whisper. It'd become so raspy from all the screaming I'd done earlier and the bile that had burned the inside of my throat.

"Did your sweet little boyfriend dump you?" Sebastian asked, ignoring my demand. His fingers kept lovingly tending to my hair as if he were here to comfort me.

Comfort wasn't a part of Sebastian's nature anymore. It had been replaced with the need to torment. He'd only come here to rub my nose in the rubble of what he had destroyed tonight.

"He wasn't..." I started but couldn't process the words. Ominis and I didn't have the opportunity to experience that type of relationship. I turned my head away, trying to hide the hurt that bubbled up inside.

"This is your fault." I whispered. I wanted to walk away or have the Room banish him, but my body was too exhausted and the damned Room had seemingly given him a key to it.

Even if either of those things worked, Sebastian would find new 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 it as he did so.