Cause & Effect | Ominis Gaunt Love Story

Chapter 43: Stranger Danger

"You believe you've seen worse? Tell me then."

His gaze darkened. "Absolutely not. You're too..."

"Naive?"

"Good." Ominis glanced away, having seen her perk up at the unexpected compliment. "What I've told you about Gaunt Manor has barely scratched the surface, princess. There's no reason for you to be made aware of what horrors lurk in the shadows."

"You're taking me to a sex club tonight, I'm quite sure I can handle even your darkness." Stella pointed out, tilting her chin up slightly in a defiant manner. "I'm not so weak as to break that easily."

"You're not." He agreed, surprising her once again. "But I also don't want to ruin your view of the world with mine."

She'd been right earlier then. Light and dark. Stella took a moment to answer while he continued to eat. "In order to know what's good in the world, someone has to also know evil. You understand that don't you? For you to recognize your own brand of darkness, it means that light also has to exist in you."

"Are you trying to say there's hope for me, princess?" Another wry smile played on his lips, like he couldn't believe for a moment that she was saying he was the slightest bit good.

Stella could say there was hope for everyone, but that wasn't true. Marvolo would always be extremely deprave and a stain on the earth. Before she could reply, there was another tap on the glass behind him. Ominis popped a blueberry into his mouth and turned around. She noticed his shoulders sag slightly and then realized there was a black barn owl.

When Ominis retrieved the letter, he didn't turn back towards her. Instead, he summoned his quill, read the contents of the letter, and scrawled something across the page before returning it to the owl.

It was too far away to read most of the letter, but she recognized a summoning when a date and time were listed at the top of the page.

Ominis was being forced to have another supper at his family's Manor.

Tomorrow.

Chapter 43: Stranger Danger

Ominis had finished the tray earlier without saying much and looked...tired. She could handle him when he was being snarky and preferred it when he had that coy smirk on his face like he was enjoying life. They were signs that he was present and alive.

When he was tired, it was as if all the colors in the world had faded for him and he was barely breathing. He'd instructed her to order a dress from a catalogue at Gladrags and Tobbs would pick it up before supper.

She's spent most of the day like that, flipping through the catalogue while chatting to Tobbs. Ominis had slept after being threatened within an inch of his life by both Stella and Eden. The snake had joined her in picking a dress, but only after she'd helped him fall asleep with a lullaby. Ominis had wanted to continue going through his notes, but Stella could see the purplish marks beginning to form under his eyes. There was always a haunted look on his face when he looked up at the board in his study.

He might not have appreciated Stella's threat to set his entire study on fire, but it'd at least worked. Ominis had walked by her and tapped her chin with his index finger, calling her a worse busybody than Eden. She'd subsequently blamed the cold leather for the reason why she shivered and not because his smirk could charm a nundu into being domesticated.