by Lola Gabriel
Osric began to slowly pace around him in a wide circle, his hands clasped behind his back. “You’re telling me that you’re afraid of power. I must say, that’s a first in our bloodline.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed, watching his grandfather closely. “Why would I feel the desire to lord over others? Do you think it’s that I find my own life so mundane and boring that I need toys to play with? Or, maybe you think there’s something I’m secretly very self-conscious about, and I have overcompensated my way into a narcissistic personality. Do you think power and wealth make me feel superior to everyone else?” He was trying to make a dig at Osric, wanting to get him riled up.
“Power doesn’t need a reason, it needs a practical purpose. What you must understand is that you have been gifted. When the universe gives you such a strong and powerful blessing, you don’t just waste it away. You must put it to use, son! Don’t you see what virtues this could have for you? We could expand the Kingdom and build our network to ensure the safety of our people and keep them safe from witches!”
Sebastian’s face was completely screwed into something beyond bewilderment.
“Expanding the Kingdom? Witches? What millennia do you think we’re living in, old man?” he barked at him, squaring his shoulders and heading for Osric.
“Watch your tongue. You’re still my grandson,” Osric warned him.
Looking away out of annoyance, Sebastian reflected on everything his grandfather had just said. In every sense of the matter, Osric was right. He allowed himself to stay hidden away in his room to protect others. Why didn’t they just get out of his way, with the way his grandfather was reasoning? Sebastian, the best fighter in the Kingdom, had allowed himself to be restricted and made into a husk of a man. Realizing that he could use this as an advantage, he smirked.
“You know what, why don’t you remember who you’re talking to? What was all that you were just saying about the strongest dragon?” Sebastian was in Osric’s face. His eyes were no longer pools of Caribbean blue, but furnaces of blue fire. He had at least two inches on his grandfather, his frame nearly double in size. “If strength and power are so important, then I’m in charge. Isn’t that right, Osric?”
Whispers already coursed throughout the men, and Osric looked around wildly before narrowing his eyes at Sebastian. “You make this right, right now.”
“Strange, I hear authority in your voice. Didn’t you just hear what I said? I’m in charge now. So… kneel.”
Osric spat at Sebastian’s feet. “I may have allowed my son to rise to power, but that’s because we all know who is really in charge. I’ll be damned if one of my grandchildren try and run amuck in our Kingdom. I won’t kneel for Carlyle, I won’t kneel for you. Trust me, grandson, you do not want to challenge me.”
Sebastian purposefully bent his knees a touch to get on eye level with Osric. “Trust me,” he growled, murder gleaming in his eyes, “I do.”
12
Winter couldn’t take it anymore.
It had been days since she had last heard from Sebastian at all. When they had spoken, he hadn’t said much, except that he was going to be busy. She had tried to take the opportunity to organize and work on herself. The past couple of weeks had been rough on Sebastian, and she had probably tried to smother him too much, all the while trying to get to the bottom of why she felt the way she did. It hadn’t been the time, and Winter knew that. When he was finally around and she was feeling the way she did even when they just lay on her couch together, it ate away at her. It was so comfortable and familiar that Winter was dying to find out why they clicked so perfectly into place.
By the time she had learned to stop asking questions and just be there for him during the difficult period of his life, Sebastian was distant. Winter tried to fill her time with as much studying as possible, knowing that she was losing at least two hours every time she saw him. To help her keep a balance, though, sometimes they would just lounge around her apartment. She would do homework while he relaxed, though a few times he helped her with her assignments. The distance and Sebastian’s unwillingness to share his private life hurt. Winter’s natural instinct was to assume it was something she did, or that maybe he had lost feelings for her, and that was that.
However, especially when she was in his presence, Winter knew that it was deeper. The more she thought about it and had the time to process, the more she came to understand and wanted so badly to talk to Sebastian about it. Yet he wouldn’t acknowledge her existence anymore. One day he was there, and the next, he was gone. For some reason or another, Sebastian had decided to remove Winter from his life. Just as her life had been before him, the days after him remained the same. Just her normal routine: same classes, same restaurant, same walk to work.
It had been three days since Winter had last heard from Sebastian, and to her, it felt like months. The nonstop worrying and constant awareness of her phone in the hopes he would for some reason decide to reach out to her was accompanied by relentless fever dreams. Always in Rome and with Sebastian. The man with clay eyes would appear from time to time, and it would startle her awake with only panic and sweat to remember it by. Others made appearances, too: a woman with dark blue eyes and auburn hair, twisted into intricate braids, and two men with honey eyes, one slightly older than the next. Each night, she found out more of the dreamy Roman world, and she would wake up aching to hear from Sebastian.
By the end of the third day, Winter was ready to crawl out of her skin. She didn’t care about why they had a strong attraction to one another, she just cared that she did. All night, she lay awake staring at her ceiling and focusing on the sensation inside her that, Winter noticed, was always humming in the center of her chest. Like a small motor that powered the indescribable connection that only she and Sebastian had.
Winter’s life had gone from a stressful cycle with a modest goal in mind to a lovesick fantasy in the course of a single day. At times since meeting Sebastian, she wished they hadn’t met yet. She wished she could have been done with school and he could have been in a more stable family situation. Since she’d had a taste of him, of the celestial magnetism her body had to his, she knew she couldn’t let him disappear without a word. She had respected his distance enough, and it was time she had some answers. Even then, Winter had no desire to make him talk about things that he didn’t want to. The thing she cared most about was that he was all right.
For the first time in her time of employment, Winter called in sick to work and planned to skip her class if it took that long. After a long, hot shower to wash away the restless night, she slid on the same maroon dress, black tights, and boots she had worn the night they had gone to the theatre. As Winter fussed over the tiny details of her appearance, she tried to mentally prepare herself for the absurdity of what she was hoping to pull off. Once she had her essentials with her, she hurried outside and hailed a taxi.
The city buildings passed by in a blur before all traffic slowed down into a near halt. Winter anxiously gazed up at the skyscrapers, wondering which one would be her location. The gray and black steel and glass all disappeared halfway up, thick fog hiding the tops of the buildings. Her eyes stayed fixated on them, trying to spot any lights. The car must have been at a complete stop for a minute or so by the time Winter realized she had found the one she was looking for. Paying her cab fare, she emerged from the car with widened eyes focused on the lettering above the door.
TALLANT.
No indicator as to what the business was or anything except the building number was displayed on the front of the skyscraper. Standing at its base and gazing straight up, trying to see through the condensation, Winter felt as though the entire building was sitting on her shoulders. She was going to go into Sebastian’s family business, and it was a disorienting step to already be taking.
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been together, Winter coached herself. She knew how she felt, and she needed to stand by that until someone would talk to her about Sebastian. Stepping i
nto the lobby, she was breathless by its openness. The only people in there were a receptionist and a few people waiting at different elevators. Only one man stood at the elevator next to reception, its door golden rather than silver as the others. Winter absentmindedly wondered what the difference between the lifts was. Her boots echoed in such volume that she broke out into a light nervous sweat. She wished to find the restroom and freshen up first, but the receptionist had locked her sights onto her.
Giving a forced smile, Winter’s main focus was on not covering the immaculate, polished flooring with her breakfast. She wasn’t sure why she was so nervous; the worst they could tell her was that she couldn’t see Sebastian. Then again, that was nerve-wracking. Winter had no plan greater than checking if he was at his family business. If he wasn’t there and they would not give him a message, what was her next step?
With her heartbeat pounding in her ears, Winter did her best to give the impression of confidence.
“Hi, I’m not sure how to do this, but I’m here to see Sebastian Tallant,” she kindly explained to the receptionist.
The unnervingly gorgeous blonde blinked at her as if Winter had misspoken. “I’m sorry, you’re here to see whom?”
“Sebastian Tallant,” Winter repeated firmly.
A breathy scoff got away from the receptionist, whose nametag read Aimee. “Unless you are a board member, you cannot meet with a board member without going through the proper channels.”
“What? I don’t need a meeting; I just need a word with him.”
“No matter the duration, it is a meeting,” Aimee explained to her with the fakest smile Winter had ever seen.
Winter deflated a little but looked to her with her brows pushed together and a pleading glint in her eyes. “Could you at least pass a message along to him for me? I’ll even write it down on—”
Aimee cut her off with a shake of her head. “Board members do not receive personal correspondence. Once again, you’d have to go through the proper channels.”
“Oh… kay… How do I do that?”
Aimee’s professionalism wavered, and she shot her a look of, Are you really going to push this that far? “Listen, ma’am, I’m not sure who you are, but—”
“I’m Winter, Winter Michel. Sebastian and I have been seeing one another, and…” Her voice trailed off, but her temper flared. “What’s so funny about that?” she questioned. The woman couldn’t stop laughing, causing an enormous ruckus for a nearly empty lobby. Winter huffed, turning back to the employee. “Listen, can you stop laughing and just keep a little sticky note back here to hand him next time he comes in? Anything.”
“What’s going on here?” Winter looked up to see the man from the golden elevator towering over her.
“I need this woman to leave,” Aimee said. “She’s asking to speak to Sebastian.”
Winter was staring at the man, studying the details of his face. Why did he look familiar? His attention turned back to Winter and examined her, like she was vaguely familiar to him as well, but he couldn’t seem to place her.
“How do you know Bash?” he asked inquisitively.
“We’ve been seeing one another for a few weeks, and I haven’t heard from him in days.” She had more to say, but Aimee broke out into giggles, as though it was so unbelievable that she was with Sebastian. A flustered flourish of red spread across Winter’s cheeks as she tried to elaborate. “I just want to know if he’s all right. He doesn’t have to see me if he doesn’t want to.”
As though a light bulb had gone off in his head, the man’s eyes widened at her words. “What’s your name?”
“Winter.”
The man reached out his hand to introduce himself. Hesitantly, Winter shook it to be polite. The moment their skin touched, flashes like her dreams were cast upon her eyelids. She could feel the same heat that she always did when visiting her dream world. The flashes began to overlay her reality as she traced her eyes up his arm and back to his face. Images laying over one another, Winter paired those honey eyes with a name.
“Theo,” she breathed, saying it before he had uttered a syllable. It all connected, the snippets of the story from her dream weaving with the context clues in front of her. She was shaking hands with Theo Tallant, the cocky and determined little brother of Sebastian.
Once they dropped one another’s hands, Winter snapped back into reality and stared at Theo with wide eyes. There was no longer any doubt in her mind. She was absolutely insane and was so tired of fighting it that she was embracing it until someone threw her in a padded room. She waited for Theo to ask how she knew his name, but he never did.
“Would you like to come with me to see Sebastian? I’m going there right now,” he offered. Winter nodded excitedly.
“Yes, thank you so much!” Wasting not even a moment, Theo led her away from the then dumbfounded and silent receptionist, outside, and to a car that was waiting for him at the curb with a driver inside. They slid into the backseat, and before they could buckle in, Winter blurted out, “Is he okay?”
Theo eyed her before strapping in his seatbelt and fidgeting with anything to keep his eyes off of her. “He’s alive and well, if you mean physically okay.”
“Emotionally, then?” She frowned. Theo said nothing. Winter was overwhelmed that her plan was working, and then by knowing that he was okay but still didn’t want to speak to her. “I don’t know why he doesn’t open up to me about things… If he doesn’t want to see me, then I should just mind my business,” she verbalized. Why was Sebastian’s brother offering to take her to see him if Theo knew Sebastian didn’t want to?
“No, it’s not like that,” Theo tried to assure her. By the look on his face, he was searching for the words to describe what was going on but fell short. Flattening out his expression, Theo gave a pointed and stern hand gesture. “It isn’t my place to explain anything that’s been going on. It’s Sebastian’s. I know that whether he knows it or not, he needs you right now.”
Right as Theo finished talking, a sick feeling came over Winter. Nervousness, anxiety, and a tsunami wave of consternation. The feelings were deep and her own, but over a fact she did not quite know. It was as if her mind was a carbon monoxide detector, picking up on dangerous notes that her consciousness was unable to.
“Something’s wrong,” she murmured, staring out the car window, searching through the sea of cars as she tried to get a better grasp on what she was feeling. It was coming from the motor in her chest that powered and secured her bond with Sebastian. It was setting off every alarm it could, feeling the fiery nuclear core that was exploding within him.
Dense clouds rolled into Winter, once again feeling herself lift from her body. Her worry for Sebastian acted as her tether to the present. Was this feeling a panic attack? Like she couldn’t cope and was ejecting herself through disassociation?
“What do you mean, something’s wrong? Are you okay?” Theo was speaking lowly, noticing the pale and distant look on Winter’s face.
“Sebastian…” She trailed off, really focusing on how Sebastian was feeling. She could feel his feelings, even from as far away as she was from him. How? “He’s… he’s…”
“He’s what? Is he in trouble?”
Winter shook her head. That didn’t feel right. Sebastian was angry, not panicked and upset. His anger was foreign to Winter. She knew it was at a level that was supposed to cause alarm. “But if he’s as angry as I feel he is, everyone else might be.”
Theo’s eyes were the size of the moon, turning to the driver and demanding him to get to the estate as fast as he could, not caring if they needed to break the law to do it. There was no need for Theo to hound the driver, the man beginning to weave in and out of lanes as well as a professional racecar driver. He skidded around turns and cut down alleyways before finally pulling onto the main road that led out of town. The gas pedal must have been lying flat against the floorboard. They were flying down the road and soaring towards the other lane any time a car dared to be using
the same route. In the matter of no time, they were pulling up to an iron fence.
The Tallant estate was massive, looking more like a wealthy school rather than a place where people lived. With cream-colored stones and rusty red for accents, it was stunning. The grass was perfectly kept, and the driveway was so clean that it looked newly paved. It was a surreal experience to be entering the world of the rich and powerful, but Winter honestly couldn’t care if it was the Buckingham Palace or a turned over refrigerator box in a back alley. She needed to find Sebastian, and quick. The wheels of the car had barely come to a complete stop by the time Winter launched herself out. The air was dead and quiet. Across the roof of the car, she and Theo exchanged looks before the sound of roars and screams echoed somewhere in the distance.
“They must be at the arena,” Theo nervously groaned.
“Arena?” Winter repeated. She knew they were rich, but what could they possibly need an arena for?
“We don’t have time,” Theo snapped, rounding the car to come over to her. Before she could ask him to clarify what was going on, he had her on his back with her arms wrapped around his neck.
He then took off like a bullet, precise and fast. They ran past the estate, over rolling green hills, and into the woods. Panic should have been slapping her in the face, but she was relieved that they were making such progress so fast. Soon, there was a break in the trees, and in the middle of a field was a stone enclosure. A handful of men were running away from it, heading for the trees. Guttural noises and crackling fire sounded from inside the stones, an orange glow illuminating from the top.
Theo was lowering Winter to the ground when a loud howl was followed by crumbling stones. Two massive beasts crashed through one of the walls, snarling and snapping at one another while others stood back and watched with awe: razor-sharp talons and teeth, protruding horns, armored scales that looked spiky themselves, but that Winter knew were smooth like pebbles in a river; tails that were almost equal in length with their bodies, and bat-like wings that stretched twice as long.