The Legacy of Our Love

Chapter 34

OMINIS

"Should we be worried?" Anne questioned as I sat beside her, placing her cup of tea on the table in front of her. We couldn't even go an hour without bringing up the matter of Sebastian's mental health.

"I think we should be very worried." I sighed, staring at the golden liquid in my cup as it steamed in front of me with a knotted brow. "He isn't sleeping, I can't get him to sit down long enough to finish an actual meal, and he spends every spare moment searching for answers about that bloody relic."

"Then we must convince him to abandon it." Anne offered, and I shook my head with a dry laugh.

"We're well past the point of that." I replied, taking a small sip of tea before placing it back on the table.

"There must be something else that we could convince him is worth researching. What about Asra's Ancient Magic? She's been incredibly cryptic about the healing magic she's discovered she can wield." Anne questioned gently, and I shook my head.

"That's because she hasn't found a safe way of removing magical injury. Physical wounds have proved easy enough, but the curse affecting you is far more powerful than she could hope to manage without unwanted side effects. It's too risky right now." I answered with a frown, knowing we had debated the topic several times between Seb, Asra and I. Each time it ended with the same conclusion. It was too risky until we knew more about the results of Isadora's methods.

"Ominis... if the curse takes me—"

"It won't!" I interrupted her sharply, my emotion getting the better of me as another frustrated sigh escaped me. "It won't." I repeated in a gentler tone as Anne placed a comforting hand atop mine.

"Ominis." She whispered, a desperateness in her tone I'd never heard tearing my heart to pieces as she pleaded with me. I knew what she was going to ask. I had known this was coming, but that didn't make the conversation anymore tolerable. "If it takes me, he needs to move on. We both know... he won't... unless." She attempted to continue, stumbling through the request.

"Anne." I warned, pushing my seat back and running a frustrated hand through my hair as the unfairness of it all became too much. "The two of you have been inseparable since birth. You are two halves of a whole. I cannot simply erase such a significant part of him if you..."

"He loses me either way." Her voice cracked, forcing the words through her tightening throat as her tears threatened to fall.

Oh Anne...please don't make me agree to this.

"Anne I can't." I hissed through clenched teeth.

I can't do it. I won't do it.

"If he can come to terms with my death on his own, then there will be no need. But we both know he won't, Ominis." Anne continued, holding firm in her decision.

I wanted to argue, to tell her she was wrong.

But I couldn't

Seeing what her illness has done to him, having to spend so much time away from her while at school, he's been different. If she doesn't survive this...

"I can't take you away from him—"

"Ominis Gaunt you will do as I ask!" Anne shrieked, cutting me off as she leapt to her feet. I sat in silence, shocked at the severity of her tone as she took several calming breaths. "I'm dying, Ominis. I can feel it. If what Sebastian has planned with the relic doesn't work, I'm out of options." She continued softer, the tears evident in her tone as she sniffled. "I need to know he isn't going to spend his life in misery. You and Asra will be enough for him—"