The Serpents Hold | Ominis Gaunt

Chapter Twenty-One

Nova's nails gouged into the sterilised walls of the hospital ward as she fought to her feet. She shook her head, blinking rapidly, desperately hoping she was hallucinating – it was just a cruel figment of her exhausted mind.

A sharp ringing drilled into her ears as she cast a glance back at the bedridden Gaunt. Dark magic pulsated from his lifeless body in tangible waves, swathing itself around Nova's clothes and sinking into her skin.

She turned on her heels and ran.

Her feet were heaving through quicksand, the ground dragging her under with each despairing stride. She collided with the reception desk, the impact startling the healer behind it. The woman shouted, but her words were incomprehensible as Nova scrambled wildly for parchment and a quill.

Ominis had insisted she send for him immediately following her shift so he could escort her home. As she started to pen the note, it shook loose a realisation. Ever since her impulsive decision to pull him to her lips in the carriage, he hadn't left her side. She'd chalked it up to having missed one another but now saw the ulterior motive.

He was guarding her.

Ominis was afraid. Paranoid. Was he complicit in his father's cursing, or was he the next target?

Where the fuck is St. Mungo's owlry?

Nova made a strangled noise as she shoved the parchment aside—a sound caught between a growl and a sob. Owls were too slow; she needed him now.

Fear tightened its bind on her chest as she bolted down the corridor, shepherded by the guiding signs to the visitors' lounge. Stunned inpatients clutched their chests at the heavy doors crashing against opposing walls as Nova burst through them.

She grasped a handful of floo powder, the fine particles slipping through the cracks in her fist as she cast it into the fireplace.

"Gaunt Manor."

~

The witch touched down on the outer edge of a prodigious estate. An emerald flame fought against the wind beneath a crumbling carving of Ignatia Wildsmith.

The darkness was oppressive. Her first instinct was to strike up a lumos, but the wind's shrill cries through the undergrowth put her on edge and made her reluctant to reveal her position. Tall spires of a gate stood sentinel to her left; the eroded iron proudly emblazoned with the Gaunt crest.

It grated loudly against the gravel as Nova forced it open and squeezed through the gap.

The mansion's silhouette was just a shadow against the inky expanse of the night sky. The path stretching toward it was flanked on either side by a dense thicket of trees, their gnarled branches reaching out to snatch at wisps of her hair as she ran past. Agony ripped through the muscles in her neck as she tried to advance, but her magic spluttered under her skin as Ominis' wards impeded her every attempt to apparate.

The entrance to the Manor itself was fortified with an excessive array of shields, evidenced by the scorched and blackened ground encircling the perimeter.

An apparition materialised as Nova's foot descended onto the first step of the patio, causing her to stagger back in shock.

"Name?" The house elf asked.

"Nova Fen...."

The creature condensed into a singular point and disapparated with a faint crack.

With a hand pressed against her pounding heart, Nova fought to regain control of her breathing. She tilted her head back, scouring the tall rows of ornate windows for any sign of Ominis, but no hint of life shined through any panes.