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

Bonus Chapter: The Archer

 Sebastian had been standing at the bottom of the staircase that led to the Astrology Tower for nearly an hour.

It was utterly stupid that he could not take another step up the damn stairs, and they just sat there, mocking him in his silence. His mind had urged him to walk forward, if not just completely bolting up the staircase.

But his legs had remained grounded in the floor and the stairs had successfully intimidated him.

They had given in against what they knew sat at the top of those stairs, no doubt simmering in her own kind of silence on the railing of the tower.

Hattie.

She was the reason Sebastian could not get himself to take another inch upwards. He knew that she was going to be quite upset with him after his display in Feldcroft earlier that day.

An argument, it was just a bloody argument, he tried to tell himself.

The stairs only continued to laugh at him.

He had nearly exploded on her right outside of his family home and she had cried. It was more than just an argument, it was an intolerable act he'd committed against her.

And all she had tried to do was help.

They had gone to visit Anne that morning after receiving a letter from her that she wanted some company for the afternoon. Hattie had been all too happy to tag along with Sebastian, given that the two of them had grown closer over the past several months.

And it wasn't just Anne that Hattie had gotten close to.

Sebastian was finding it more difficult with each day that passed not to think about her - so when she insisted on going with him, he couldn't refuse.

It was supposed to be a day of relaxing with the important women in his life and it had gone so terribly wrong.

He had brought up the subject of another lead he had for a cure and Anne naturally shrunk away from it. Hattie hadn't said anything as she watched the twins squabble with each other but he knew something was going on inside that head of hers, he knew the signs of when those wheels were turning.

Bright violet eyes would darken like the night and it almost seemed as if her mind jumped into that endless void.

She'd asked if they could speak outside, and in his state he hadn't understood what he could possibly have done wrong.

You're smothering her, Sebastian. Give her some room to breathe.

What do you know, eh? That's MY sister, not yours.

Hattie had stared at him for a moment before blinking away several tears.

Then help her on your own - I am done. And when you've severed the last nerve with her, don't come crying to me.

Sebastian had watched her with a frown as she bolted upwards onto her broom without so much as a backwards glance. He had been so angry with her for assuming things about his own twin that he had nearly burst into a fit of rage in front of her.

And it had not been fair to her.

He only realized that hours later after he'd sat out on the coast for the rest of the afternoon. Anne had been too tired to stay awake to chat, Hattie wanted nothing to do with him, and Ominis well... Ominis avoided him when it was time for him to stew in his own mess.

So now Sebastian was standing at the bottom of the last set of stairs beneath the Astrology Tower. With a frown on his face, and a heart that was beating a little too fast inside of his chest.