Legacy Disowned - Book 2

Chapter 17 - At the Top of the Stairs

Sebastian paced the Room of Requirement with an urgency that was only outpaced by the frantic beat of his heart. There had to be a solution. He couldn't allow Darling to take part in the ritual under any circumstance. The room's walls, despite existing to provide him with the exact space he needed, felt as if they were closing in on him.

"Come on, think," he muttered to himself, his fingers running aggressively through his already messy hair. He couldn't give up on Anne, not when they were this close. But he also couldn't let Darling face the curse. This was all too familiar. Yet another impossible problem, posed to him with far too little time to solve it. There had to be another way.

Sebastian's pacing came to an abrupt halt and a chill ran down his spine as the echo of Anne's voice from his dream reverberated through his mind:

"How can you trust yourself to make the right decisions when you've never answered for your wrong ones."

Sebastian's gaze snapped to the artefact's manual left haphazardly open on the cluttered table. Its instructions had been very clear. The champion wouldn't have to win— their survival wasn't necessary for the curse to be lifted.

It didn't have to be Darling.

"Uncle..." he whispered to the empty room. There was no doubt in his mind what form the curse would take, should he be the one to face it. It seemed oddly fitting. To throw himself at the mercy of his Uncle, to accept divine retribution for his actions in exchange for Anne's life and freedom.

But selflessness had never been his strong suit. He wasn't a Gryffindor, happy to throw away all sense of self preservation for the greater good.

No, Sebastian Sallow wasn't a hero— he never had been. And if there was one thing he knew in this moment, it was that he didn't want to die.

But what was the alternative?

To allow Darling to fight his battles, yet again—? Darling, whose most challenging foe was someone she may not even be able to bring herself to fight—

Would he be able to live with himself?

As melodramatic as it felt to think that he "couldn't live without her," some part of him knew there was truth to it. If he lost Darling, what would he have left? Anne being healed didn't mean she would forgive him, and if Darling died, it may very well be the last straw for Ominis.

What would the point be, if after all was said and done he was left with nothing. Nothing but the knowledge that he'd let her do this. That after everything Darling had been through, everything that she'd survived, it would be he —Sebastian— that had sent her to the other side of that archway, on a pond with no ripples... alone.

Never.

A single tear slid down his cheek. This would hurt her— hurt all of them. They might never forgive him, but it was the only choice that made sense. It had been he who had dragged them all down in the first place, and now, they would finally be free and safe. Darling would get to keep building her new life.

A lump grew in his throat as he tried to picture what that life might look like without him. Visions of the things they might've one day done together danced before his eyes— laughter shared under the canopy of his favourite tree, stolen moments in the hush of the library, new exciting challenges faced with their backs together and wands drawn. The tapestry of the life he'd imagined for them slowly unravelled before his eyes. The piles of books and notes around him blurred into a whirlwind of colours and shapes as Darling's future was woven into a new design without him... until his gaze fell upon the ledger. Fuck.