No Choice But You // Ominis Gaunt x Reader

Chapter 38

Ominis's POV//

My heart sank when I pulled away from the kiss, knowing that how she was feeling was all my fault. I hadn't been able to make up my mind before, and I was seeing the outcomes from that. 

She didn't have to tell me how she felt--I could just tell. She wasn't kissing or touching me like before, and even if I couldn't tell from that, she was wearing the locket. 

I knew exactly how she was feeling, as I wore my necklace under my shirt as well. I had started to feel guilty as of late, wearing the necklace, when she had no idea the properties of the locket she wore, or that it was me that gave it to her. I knew I needed to tell her at some point, but there just never seemed to be a right time. 

As she clung to my chest, I wrapped my arms around her and held her close. I needed to tell her. I shouldn't be letting it go unsaid any longer. It wasn't fair that I knew exactly how she felt, but she had to guess or ask me. And Merlin knows I'm not the best at sharing my feelings.

"I need to tell you something," I started. "And you might not like it." She tensed up against me, and I could feel her uncertainty. It came off her in waves, crashing over me like a melancholy sea. 

"What is it?" Her voice was muffled against my clothing, as she had yet to pull away. 

"That locket you wear, you don't know where it came from, do you?" I was beating around the answer, I knew that. But I didn't want to just come out and say it. She finally pulled away, and I could tell she already knew where I was taking the conversation. 

"You," she breathed. "It was you all along?" Her fingers fumbled against my chest, and I knew she was fidgeting with the locket when I heard the paper note I'd folded inside it opening up in her fingers. "What would you have to apologize for? I'm sorry, what does that mean?"

Really, it meant a lot of things. 

It was my apology for looking inside her heart without her permission. It was also my apology for kissing her when I'd yet to figure out how I really felt. 

I ran my hands up her back, feeling her still close to me while I still could. I didn't know how she would react when I told her the second part of the locket. I wanted to soak in as much of her as I could before it was too late. 

I hastily placed a kiss on her jaw, then her nose, then her lips. She exhaled against my lips. 

"That's not all I need to tell you about it, though," I started in. My stomach dropped, and I held on tightly to her waist, savoring the way she felt in my hands. 

"Just tell me." Her voice was as stern as the emotions running through her. "It's the charm, isn't it? I know it's charmed, I just haven't been able to figure it out." 

"It's the charm," I told her. "It- it's a total invasion of your privacy, I know, and I shouldn't have done this, but-"

"Just tell me, Ominis." She climbed off my lap and set herself down beside me. I instantly felt the cold loss of her body against mine. I only hoped that this wouldn't drive her away for good. 

I pulled the necklace I wore from my shirt and let it rest where she could see it. "When you wear your locket, and I wear this necklace, it gives me access to how you're feeling. Your emotions." 

She didn't say anything for a long while, but she carefully removed the locket, making almost no noise. I only knew when the connection between her necklace and mine disappeared. She grabbed my palm and put the locken in my hand, and she closed my fingers over the cool silver. 

"That is a complete invasion of my privacy." She scooted farther away from me. "Why would you give me something like that and not tell me?"

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," I defended. "With your... condition. I wanted to make sure you weren't hurting, and I wanted to be there for you when you were." 

"That's not a good excuse. It's still completely invasive to do something like that." Telling by her tone, she was more than upset with me. 

She started gathering up her texts and parchment. 

"Please don't go," I pleaded. "I didn't mean to use it like that, I truly was only worried about your well-being."

"You're the last person I ever expected to be concerned with my well-being, Ominis, especially given how you've treated me these past weeks!"

She was biting back hard, and it took everything in me not to come back with equal force, but I knew I was in the wrong. There was a reason I didn't want to tell her about this in the first place. I knew it wasn't right, and that she'd react like this. 

"Please don't go." My voice cracked, and I reached out toward her, catching the hem of her robe. I gripped it tightly, and she paused. 

"I'm going to need some space to think about this." She shuffled her feet and let out a long breath. "You of all people should know how I am about my feelings. Those aren't things I share willingly. Taking what you want like that isn't the way to go about things if you want a good relationship between the two of us. How can I trust you now? What other secrets are you hiding?"

"That's it, I swear." I let go of her robe when she yanked at it, and she stormed from The Undercroft. I pulled my knees to my chest and rested my face in my hands. 

I'd managed to wreck this before it even started.