The Serpents Hold | Ominis Gaunt

Chapter Thirteen

As the night wore on, Nova and Ominis gradually sprawled onto the solid ground and fell into an uncomfortable sleep among the wreckage.

A dull sting at the nape of her neck is what ultimately hauled Nova from her nightmares. The scent of Sebastian's charred tomes clawed at the back of her throat. It had seeped into her subconscious and manifested in vivid dreams of him burning.

She stared, unmoving, at the flames crackling within the metal frames of the hanging braziers while her heartbeat thrummed on her ears. Her parched tongue flicked across her lips and met the faint tang of salt from sweat or tears.

With a heavy breath, she eased her weight off her stiff shoulder, bracing herself for Ominis' grumbling protest— It would be entirely his own fault; he was practically welded to her back, his knees snugly nestled into the crook of hers and his face buried in her mass of hair.

As anticipated, the shifting of her throbbing limbs dragged a grumbly and incoherent string of words from him, while the pain that had awakened her flared anew with his drowsy attempt to brush away wisps from his face.

"Hmm?" She tried to decipher whether he was communicating or lost in a dream.

"Stop squirming," his groggy voice arose from somewhere beneath an arm.

"I knew your whining was imminent."

"I don't whine," he whined, rubbing at his face and tugging a fistful of her hair along with him.

"And I swear to Merlin if you pull my hair one more time..."

He delivered a playful tug, and she drove her elbow back to jab him in the ribs. He then slowly, and by all accounts, painfully, began unravelling his fingers from the knotted strands, his groan mingling with a cascade of muttered syllables.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said... It's hardly my fault your hair is so unruly."

"I didn't invite you to nap in it, Gaunt."

He muttered another string of words, but this time, she could tell it was deliberately incoherent.

His body quivered as he stretched out each limb like a cat and rolled onto his back, growling as scattered rubble jabbed into his spine. Nova shivered as his body heat fell away, and she twisted round to chase it.

"How are you feeling?"

His effort to reply devolved into a weak cough, which marked the commencement of a one-handed battle with the stubbornly cinched knot of his tie.

"Do you need reinforcement?"

"I've got it."

With a twist and yank that achieved nothing but clamp the fabric tighter around his throat, he let his arms flop to the ground in defeat.

"Watching you navigate the morning is fascinating," Nova suppressed the laugh bubbling in her chest and nestled her limbs into the narrow space between them. "You're usually so poised."

"Am I?" He pushed the heel of his palms into his eyes as if denying the reality of being awake. Shards of the chipped pillars had lodged themselves along the contours of his cheekbones during the night. Nova raised a finger to scrape them from the dents and divots they'd etched into his skin.

"It could get in your eyes," she muttered defensively to preempt any potential objections.

Ominis responded with a bashful grunt, dispensing a half-hearted swipe at his face. "Oh dear. Will I go blind?"

She gave his face a playful shove and traced her fingers over the mottled pattern left behind.

"Stop examining me," he weakly protested, pulling his face away to conceal an unintentional smile.