The Unraveling

Chapter XI, The Aftermath

The very moment that Davorin left, the door softly clicking in its lock, Eloise swivelled on her feet to glower at Sebastian. The gall of him to kiss her, to lay his dirty hands on her... "What in Merlin's beard were you thinking?" she snapped, giving him a forceful shove backwards. "Your intended? What the bloody hell, Sebastian? You're an imbecile, a sodding mountain troll."

She gave him another push, and Sebastian had the audacity to chuckle as he held his hands up innocently. "Listen, love—"

"No!" she bellowed, "no 'love', you're not calling me that." Her index finger jabbed into his shoulder repeatedly and her brown eyes flashed anger, a fire in them which, while impressive, he had seen too often to let it intimidate him. "You have lost all your damned wits if you believe for one second that I'm going to pretend to be in courtship with you."

He slid back easily and busied himself with his tie, strong hands working carefully to loosen the silk knot around his neck as he smiled to himself, despite her vexed stare. "Sure, darling," he started, ready for the ensuing push that sent him back even further, "I assume Ominis told you all about his family, what with you two being so close."

Eloise cocked her head in confusion; he might be acting composed, but she heard the sneer in his words. He disliked her being friends with Ominis, being close to him— and it showed, not quite as good at hiding it as he likely thought he was. She supposed that he had some entitlement to his feelings, as Ominis had been his friend long before he was hers, but he had burned that bridge himself. "He did," she said simply, awaiting whatever point he was getting to.

"Well then, you know the Gaunts are dangerous," he said as he nonchalantly threw his tie on the bed and relaxed his posture. His eyes found her again, and though the smile had not left his face for a second, she saw in them that he was serious.

She shook her head, "That doesn't matter to me, I'm not intimidated by them. I can take them." It wasn't a question to her, it was a certainty. She could take them, it might cost her all of her self control, but she would win.

"They are ambitious, insatiable in their search for power. How do you think they'd react when they'll find that you are the keeper of one of the strongest magical forces in this world?" Sebastian laughed bitterly and thought of her as naive and reckless— as she had always been, so ready to throw herself into battle that she didn't stop to think of the danger. He found himself getting increasingly irritated by her behaviour, that smug and dauntless attitude of hers. "Do you think they'll welcome you? Look up to you? Be kind?"

"No, but—"

"They will want to take it from you. They are looking for something... something old and powerful and just imagine, just think how much they'd desire your gift. They will kill you to have it, or kill you to get you out of their way," Sebastian spoke brusquely, hoping to startle some sense into her. He wasn't backing away anymore, rather stalking towards her, driving her into the corner of his room with every step he took. "No matter how you look at it, every outcome to them knowing ends with you dead."

Eloise should never have told him of her ability, or that she was keeping a repository's worth of Ancient Magic locked tightly in her bones. But how could she have known that he'd break so many promises, that he'd abandon her after all they had been through? How could she have kept it a secret when he had been there, rushing to her side when the final battle was over, cradling her broken body to his chest. If only she knew it all then, if she knew the consequences, she would never have taken it.
She swallowed the dry feeling in her throat and tried her best to appear confident in front of him. "It doesn't matter, Sebastian, none of it matters," she muttered, "they can't take it from me. It is my body, my blood that was made to be a vessel. I am the iron cage keeping it together, none of them can."