Legacy Disowned - Book 2

Chapter 21 - Back on the Path

Sebastian was losing his mind.

Any notion he'd had that the remainder of the Christmas break would be spent quietly resting and recovering in the Hospital Wing with Darling had been a naïve fantasy.

The stubborn girl seemed adamant to do anything but rest. In fact, the moment he'd returned from the Room of Requirement, Sebastian had found her pulling on her boots to go "out for fresh air." He'd counted himself lucky that Ominis had still been there to verbally lash her back into bed, but since then she'd only grown more restless.

Every day had been spent forcing her to just sit and watching the stubborn pout of her lips grow more and more pronounced every time he told her not to remove her bandages. All while trying to alert her to the danger Burke posed to her and the repository— something that was proving much more difficult than he had anticipated.

After much begging and pleading Imelda and Ominis had agreed to let Sebastian be honest with Darling in his own time, on the sole condition that it did not interfere with her safety. At the time Sebastian had thought this criteria would be easy enough to meet, but he hadn't counted on Darling... being Darling.

"I don't see why you are determined to be so stressed out about this Sebastian," Darling said as she idly started peeling at the bandage on her arm. "Anne is healed, that is our most pressing concern out of the way. It's like you are looking for reasons to get worked up."

"We still need to be on our guard," he insisted. "If I am right, then Burke may pose a very serious danger to you —and quit messing with your bandages. Nurse Blainey will be here to remove them any minute."

"So no need to keep them on—"

"Darling—"

"Quit nagging me," she finally snapped, but upon seeing the worried look on his face she sighed. "Look, I have given this a lot of thought... and every time I start thinking too much about the repository and all that ancient magic business I just start to feel very overwhelmed.... So I think maybe it's best if we don't worry ourselves over it too much for right now."

Sebastian ran his fingers through his hair so aggressively, he thought he might tear it all out.

This was so typical. Darling had happily skipped into that catacomb and gotten herself sliced to ribbons for Anne's sake, but now it was time to turn their attention to her well-being, she felt it was too much to be bothered with.

"Darling please," Sebastian said seriously. "It's not just about dealing with the repository, we might be having all these very dangerous people coming after you very soon. What need does Burke have for the repository if he has the only person alive who can extract strands of emotion? If the Gaunts had been funding Isadora in some way and have a repository of their own and have been selling that stuff to Burke for hundreds of years, who knows how much they have left. That makes you a target for them as well— for anyone who knows that stuff exists."

"Yeah so what's new?" she quipped and Sebastian met her smirk with a pleading look. He knew he did not need to explain yet again how the Burke's and the Gaunts were a far more serious threat than Ranrok and Rookwood who hadn't even understood what it was that they were unearthing. But Darling just rolled her eyes sceptically.

"Sebastian, don't take this the wrong way, but I just don't think there is nearly enough evidence to support this grand theory of yours," she said waving her hands as if gesturing to the idea floating in the air. "You have been stressed about Anne for so long that now that is taken care of, maybe you are looking for something to fill that void and making connections where there is none."