Invisible String - Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Twenty-Five: In the Shadow of Sin

"I can't- what did we- we're so stupid!"

"Calm down," he said, his voice steady, soothing me. "I need you to focus, Abbi. Don't think about what I did to you. Think about what your magic wants."

"Seb, I- I couldn't do it last time! I couldn't hurt you-"

"I agreed to this, Abbi. Just one more, remember?"

Listen to him, the magic roared. He wants it. He wants you.

I nodded, to Sebastian or the voice I didn't know, but I tried to focus again. My mind wandered to how I'd gotten to focus on this magic this morning, and I had an idea how I was to access it again.

"Teach me again," I said to him, nervous. "Like you did earlier today."

Sebastian obliged instantly, standing behind me and taking my hand into his. I relished the sensation of his skin on mine, of his breath fanning over the back of my neck.

"Like this," he said with a movement of my wand, jagged and intense. The magic in me was not satisfied with its instruction though I could feel it rising inside me.

Ask him for more.

"No, teach me exactly how you taught me earlier today," I said, turning to face him. He was so close to me I could damn near brush my lips across his without straining.

He licked his lips, eyes darker than I'd seen them in years and locked on my face before he grabbed my arms and pushed me into the stone wall. His lips were by my ear, breathing heavy, right hand sliding down to meet mine as it clutched my wand. He held my still with his other hand as our bodies pressed closer together and he began once again to move my hand in the jagged motion the spell required.

"You need to mean it," he said in a dark voice. "A powerful witch such as yourself won't have any problem with that."

He tilted his head and I felt my magic start to move faster through my body as the anticipation built. My eyes slid closed as his lips made contact with my neck, and instantly any clarity or doubts I'd had since talking to Poppy were gone from my mind. Sebastian was dancing along my neck, his lips gentle and slow as he continued to move our hands. His scent was intoxicating as I breathed him in.

I could feel my magic start to burn in my veins.

"Tell me what it felt like," I gasp out at the same moment the voice said it to me.

"It was exhilarating. The feeling of power is like nothing I've ever felt, rushing through you," he says between kisses. A small graze of his teeth against the scar makes my breathing hitch.

I tilted my head to the side to allow Sebastian better access to my throat. He responded beautifully by shifting from gentle kisses, his free hand suddenly grabbing a fistful of hair, his lips pressing more roughly against my throat, kissing and grazing his teeth hungrily against the skin.

A moan escaped my lips as he did this, causing him to shiver as he continued to place his lips everywhere they could reach; up and down the scar, the soft spot below my ear, down to my clavicle and back up again. Fog settled over my brain, relishing the pleasure of Sebastian's kisses mixed with the increasingly painful pulling of my magic inside of me, begging to be released.

He's not afraid of you, it coaxed. See how he craves you.

"Let me see your power," he groaned deeply, my magic responded rapidly in delight, as though it had been waiting for his permission. In Feldcroft, it had been like lightning escaping me. Here, it instead came out in coils, wrapping around Sebastian and I, pressing us impossibly closer together. He gasped against my throat as the magic wrapped around us, snakelike. Sebastian's gasp went from startled to a delighted moan as my magic pressed against him, the evidence of my power flowing over him again and again as he placed another kiss on the infernal scar.