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

Chapter Twenty Seven: Still Alive/Oxytocin

"I'm sorry - you said she did what? And where?"

Only a few more paces.

"Merlin, you've got to be joking. Certainly not her..."

Outside is only a few more steps. There's the door.

"I heard that blonde girl from Slytherin..."

My fingernails were well embedded into the skin of my palms by the time I made it to the west tower exit. I knew I'd have to heal them up with magic, I could feel their bite breaking into the flesh so tightly that my hands were slick with more than just sweat.

I'd basically walked myself on a leash of my own making throughout the castle until I'd made it to that fucking doorway. Unlike the one Sebastian had wrapped around my neck, this one was pulling tight for reasons that didn't excite me.

No, this one was the only thing keeping me from exploding at every student that whispered with amusement as I walked by, or looked at me with disdain before quickly avoiding eye contact with me.

There was fire in my finger tips, and I had been itching the entire way here to let it blaze out of control. I had to keep it in check, though, I couldn't lash out or it would be more devastating than the callous glances they cut at me.

Once that cold, winter air hit my face as I exited the castle, I finally let myself unhinge my teeth from my tongue, letting every breath I had sucked down out into the open air, becoming puffs of steam rather than tension held in my chest. I hadn't realized I'd been trembling until I leaned against the banister, comforted by the steadiness of it that I wish I'd had more of since I'd walked into the Transfiguration Courtyard only minutes ago.

It was like the instance I had walked into that chilled little space populated by other students, that a buzz began to vibrate in the air. I hadn't quite noticed it, until I watched several eyes follow me past the fountain. Still didn't truly understand it, until their voices all began to sound similar.

That buzz was of a single connected thought. A rumor.

"I heard that blonde girl from Slytherin blew a dark wizard out in Cragcroft."

I let go of that leash on my anger, letting my trembling body find some relief in releasing it as I grasped the banister. It felt so damn hot inside of my own body, so inflamed with the outrage of what I'd just heard throughout the school. I barely felt that winter air kiss my skin, which had become so slick with sweat from the thoughts that raced through my mind.

If that event had been shed light on, it meant that someone had been watching me.

Rationality might've made me consider Sebastian being the culprit, given that he was determined to pull my life apart, strand by strand. There would be some satisfaction for him in putting my reputation at risk in the one place where I felt the safest.

However, as much as he often teased me for being a perverse witch, he would never allow anyone to believe that his precious little savior was something on the table for anyone to take a bite out of. This kind of gossip would only serve to confirm what kind of deviant I'd become in my free time, and tempt others to look at what he believed belonged to him.

Knowing that it wasn't Sebastian only served to intensify that inner conflagration.

It was the kind of fire that kindled gently in my fingertips, and with each ragged breath I could feel it rising beneath my skin until it became an inferno of hateful anguish. It was something tangible, as it inflamed my body, something I could taste on my own tongue as it dried it up and replaced it with a thirst that only blood would satisfy.