The Devil Doesn't Bargain (MatD part 2)

Chapter TWENTY EIGHT - Freezing Heat

My heart gasped in relief and my palms heated in one final magic crack though the warmth didn't fade. I drank in his easy smile and freckled, reddened cheeks. His tousled hair hanging limply over his eyes and I could have sworn the sound of his laughter alone carried over the crowd and music. 

My chest ached as I watched in wonder of how truly alive Sebastian looked.

Under the guise of alcohol glazed thoughts, nothing was important and everything was possible. An ephemeral peace I wished he might never loose even in sobriety.

Yet, despite the solace of seeing him safe and carefree, my insides tore at my lungs. Sucking in any breath became unbearable as the curse latched its greedy talons around my happiness. I grasped at my chest, feeling the tips of my fingers burning in familiar warmth but having no strength to pull them away. Chills leapt down my spine as I stood frozen in my pain.

It was of course at this moment that Sebastian's eyes landed on mine and a pang of guilt stretched between us. The relaxed innocence of his features snapped frighteningly back into place. His smile fell and even in his wavering step, he brushed past the others, leaving the kids to dance alone. His desperate stride pausing only momentarily to clumsily scoot around the bench Ominis was sat and crush the distance between us.

Sebastian hissed as his hands wound around to cradle me, jerking back from my touch a moment before pulling me to his chest, obscuring the crowd's view of my crumbling bones.

My fear pounded louder than the music, begging the words past my lips - to tell him to let me go, to tell him not to get burnt. Yet, he peppered little kisses to the top of my head, chest still heaving in frantic terror.

"Shit, Atley you're freezing. What- Is it the curse? What can I do? I'm here. I'm here." I could hear the tremble in his voice, for the first time unable to recognize my bought of pain as his sisters curse. I wondered if it was the warped perception of alcohol.

"What is it?" Anne's smooth voice barely audible below the thrum in my ears and the instruments behind us. She and Ominis had taken up either side of Sebastian, huddling around me - shell to fragile muscle.

Managing to squeak out the smallest fragment of noise, I once again pulled at my own chest, fearing the smoldering flesh beneath my fingertips would singe any of them. "B-Back up. Burning." I winced at the effort.

Sebastian's nose immediately tilted down to my hands, raising one of his own to examine them.

Anne pulled the back of hers to my forehead.

The warmth of Ominis' body seemed to inch closer too.

Could these three ever listen?

"Merlin, Sebastian. Her skin is so cold."

Ominis tugged off a jacket I hadn't noticed him wearing before and thrust it in my direction. Anne wrapped it swiftly around my shoulders, nodding somewhere over Sebastian's shoulder. 

Confusion outweighed terror.

Cold?

----

By the final bought of freezing heat, my fear had been collectively decided upon as a strained fever. The curse's heavy hand winding up from the inside.

We'd holed up in an alleyway stairwell, backs pressed against a cool stone wall and bodies covered by the branches of a rather large bush. Anne and Ominis were chatting quietly aside us while my head rested in Sebastian's lap, his fingers brushing gently through my hair as he coed over and over.

"You're here. I'm here. We're here."

I could feel the smallest of my hairs, plastered to my forehead in sweat, my fingertips numb and lungs returning in tattered rhythm slowly.

Sebastian traced the edges of my cheeks, only glancing away for moments at a time to check the glinting gold pocket-watch that had been tucked into his pant pocket, no doubt timing the bought of pain.

His attention would always flick back to mine promptly, his once red, drunken eyes hanging heavy over my face - he had sobered up quite quickly.

I was thankful for his gentle hands, the rough pads of his fingers caressing my skin, tethering my body to my soul again. Over and over his hands touched my cheeks, threaded through my hair and flattened out a rather unkempt wrinkle in my clothing. The warmth of his touch slow and reassuring as he ghosted the side of my neck, thumbing over the little silver chain of the necklace there. I relaxed into his chest, listening to the quiet shift of metal as he pulled the necklace from beneath my shirt and twisted the pendant between his fingers.

It was subtle, but there was no mistaking the shift in his breathing.

"How is she?" Ominis hummed, not too far behind my head.

"I think it's passed. She's warming- cooling..." He stumbled over words as if his brain weren't quite there to hold them steady. 

"I'm fine." My voice sounded harsh and raspy, something similar to what I imagined it would sound like after having being brutally choked.

"We know-" Ominis started but Sebastian spoke over him simultaneously.

"No you're not."

"Sebastian." Anne chided. 

"I can't pretend anymore Anne." Even from below his chin, I could feel the way his eyes lit like fire. "I told you- I won't-"

I raised an aching arm up to wrap my hand around his, his fingers still wound tight around Isidora's pendant.

Sebastian's eyes flitted down to mine, the burn and ache still curling around his irises. "We can't wait anymore. There's too many- This curse-" He clenched his jaw, swallowed, reset. "You were strong enough to take it once."

He raised the silver metal up until I could see the arched center clearly, the chain kissing my neck. 

"You can do it again."