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

Chapter Thirty Seven: Ascensionism

When I woke up, I was alone.

Sebastian was nowhere to be found in the dimly lit room, and for that I was both thankful and sad of. I was not sure if being left alone with my emptiness was for the best.

I rolled over in the sheets, burying my face into a pillow that smelled strongly of his spicy, sweet scent. As I inhaled it and let its warmth flood me, its comfort made me want to live in this bed for a little longer.

It made me want to hide from the truth of what I'd done. In this bed, where it was warm and potentially safe, it was easy to remain tucked away from everything else.

It was a place where I could forget that I'd almost killed Poppy because of my arrogance. A place where I could...

Fuck.

I sighed against the fabric of the pillow, and instead of letting it comfort me, I let that spicy flavor invade my nose until it flooded through me. It was more than comfort and excitement, though it boiled inside various places inside me all the same.

It was enough to keep me distracted.

But my bladder suddenly became more pressing than the need to engrain his scent into my nose.

I rose up in his bed, shrugging off the blankets before blinking a few times.

We were in a decently sized bed chamber, and the bed in question was settled into an alcove of the wall. I was surprised how large it was, though he was a tall man, I imagined he did little sleeping here.

How could such a Prince have time to sleep when he had a Court to run and a school girl to stalk?

I hoped and prayed that there was a bathroom room close by as I got out of the bed. There were two doors on either side of the spacious room, and even for all my curiosities, I ignored everything else in the room. The first door, which was to the left of the alcove, was locked when I tried it.

That must've been the exit and Sebastian surely didn't want me escaping, and to test that theory I tried to appareate out of this room and back to Hogwarts.

I sighed when no such thing happened. Sebastian knew that I was a danger to myself in this state, that I had begged him to end my life and had meant it.

If he wasn't going to do it, I would find other ways to make it happen.

Holding back the grief in my heart, I strode to the otherside of the room to the next door but something red caught my eye.

The roses, the ones that had been scattered in my room and left for me like gifts were sitting on his desk. Though these ones were fresh, unharmed, and sitting happily in a vase full of water. I didn't stop myself from letting my fingers brush over the petals of them, and I wondered if all of those deliveries had been Ominis or if Sebastian himself had done most of them.

I never got any more of those roses lately, I thought with a frown, as I pressed my nose against them. As I sniffed their sweet scent, I scanned the rest of his cluttered desk.

There sat a journal that looked exactly identical to the one I had in my possession. As I flipped it open, I was surprised to find all of our conversations still inside of them.

How had he preserved them in this, I wondered as I thumbed through it. Nothing had been altered, no word smudged or missing.

Did he reread these?

I was already being a little snoop, so I decided that perhaps I would take a longer look around Sebastian's room and ignore the pain in my bladder for just a little longer. This was probably the most I would ever get to see into his life, this would be my own personal bit of him that I got to take with me.