Tempest // Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 62

Sebastian needed to compose himself. Stressing wasn't going to get him anywhere.

He knew he'd left the Feldcroft cottage to Ominis and remembered from Anne's letters he'd lived there for a while, so that's where he decided to go first.

He reached his old home, squashing down the thoughts of simply running away and frantically banged on the door.

"What in Merlin's name?"

He breathed a sigh of relief, Sebastian never thought he'd be so happy to hear Ominis' frustrated voice.

The door flung open and there stood Ominis. Face angry, chest rising and falling.

But Sebastian simply flung himself into his best friends arms and let the tears fall.

"Sebastian? What on Earth is wrong with you? You were supposed to be leaving with Rosie today, did you change your mind?"

"No, I—"

"What the hell are you wearing?" Tadgh's voice called out from inside.

"I've... I've been. I was gone for months, Ominis." Sebastian choked out, letting his best friend out of his grasps.

"What? You went and now you're back? What happened?" Ominis said, pulling Sebastian into the cottage and shutting the door behind him.

Sebastian struggled to find any way to put into words everything that had happened that wouldn't make him sound absolutely insane.

How would he tell Ominis that he'd been to the future, become a curse-breaker, been cursed, been cured, found the potential cure for Anne, stolen his girlfriend's time turner and then broken it so he was now stuck back in his original timeline?

"I–uh..." He mumbled, fiddling with the seam of his pants.

"Come and sit," Tadgh said softly, with the world's kindest smile, "Have some tea first, okay?"

Sebastian nodded and sank into the new lounge they'd procured, absorbing how familiar yet oddly different his old home felt. Tadgh bustled around the kitchen, preparing tea and biscuits and laid them out delicately for everyone.

Sebastian sipped the hot tea, finding it didn't really help his predicament, but managed to stem his pounding heart enough to try and compose something that made sense.

"I... I don't know where to start," Sebastian finally admitted. "It's... it's a very long story."

"Just start from where feels best," Tadgh said with a smile.

And Sebastian gave him one back. His first smile since he'd arrived.

He realised that Tadgh was truly the person Ominis was meant to be with in that moment. Not that Sebastian was ever going to reciprocate Ominis' feelings, but he knew he could be reckless and act without thinking, much like he had just done, and that was not what Ominis needed.

Tadgh was. He was calm. He was the voice of reason. He even had Sebastian feeling calm and relaxed enough to start to explain things.

"Well, I went. I've been living with Rosie in our own place for months." Sebastian began.

Ominis leaned forward with a scowl, "So why are you here now? Did you break up again?"

"What? No! I just... well, maybe we will be breaking up because I fucked up, Ominis."

"Shocking..." Ominis scoffed.

Sebastian went to bite back and stopped himself.

He wasn't wrong.