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

Chapter Forty Four: Me and the Devil

((TW: Attempted rape, assault, gore, blood, muggle violence, bondage, and light exhibitionism.))

This Court lived to its name, I realized that now as I tried to play out the different ways I could escape it.

There were too many serpents, though, every step of the way I would be forced to step on one. They all seemed to be the same, true to their colors and scales, and completely unashamed of what they were. They were up front about how venomous their bite was.

However, I had been too careless. I had trusted one that looked different from the others, one that implied if I was bitten I would be left unharmed. When I turned my back it revealed its large fangs, showed me how hungry it was, and now I feared for what happened when the poison took its course.

Unlike the bite of Sebastian, this one did not excite me. It terrified me.

I thought I had seen something decent in the impossibly blue eyes of August, hypnotized under good intentions and a charming smile. The honey laced accent had been too potent, and I had ignored any sign of danger.

If I believed that any of these people were not monsters, I was fucking wrong.

Those eyes had darkened as they glowered down at me with such coldness that the winter air felt like a warm breeze. His lips were turned up in a vicious smile as he pressed his wand a little harder into my sternum.

"Awe, what's wrong?" He chuckled softly as I thrashed against the vines. The thorns dug into my skin the more I struggled, and I had to suck back a sob.

My stomach dropped as I saw his grin widened, pleased with how he'd chosen to trap me. He leaned forward, pressing his nose into my cheek.

"Poor little mouse," He said softly, his breath fanning too close to my nose. August smelled of cigarette smoke and sweet pine, and I'd never smelt something more repulsing. I wretched against the vine, but he ignored my disgust, and instead sunk his wand lower.

"You must be so scared," He feigned a pout, his wand now pressing against the top of my bodice. He wiggled it into the fabric, separating it from my breast until he could tug it down. A tear rolled down my cheek as a breast fell free from the dress and his wand brushed over the nipple that peaked against the night's cold air.

"Trapped and nowhere to go." It wasn't a question, or an accusation. There was only absolute finality in that statement. I wasn't going to get out of here alive, and August was going to take his time in making sure it hurt.

And I was inclined that it would not be in the way I had become accustomed to thanks to my shadow.

His nose found its way into my hair, and I shuddered as he inhaled deeply against my hair.

"Don't you worry, my mouse, you won't suffer for long." I cried as I felt his fingers on my breast, his nails digging slightly into the skin.

"Once I swallow you whole, you won't have to feel pain anymore." He said into my ear, his mouth now at my neck as his tongue dragged against my skin.

I thrashed against the vines again, because I would rather bleed out all over the garden's grounds than let another man take from me. That's all anyone seemed to want from me, was what my body had to offer.

Sebastian, Ominis, and now August. The way that Erebus' eyes had roamed over me had made me inclined to believe that he wouldn't have been opposed to it either.

I was no man's toy, no man's object to play with.

My Ancient Magic sparked in my hands as August's mouth sucked at my collar bone, and I was ready to fry these vines to a crisp. I wondered what charred snake would taste like, because he would be next on the things to set on fire.