It's not like any other love | Sebastian Sallow x Reader

Chapter 3

They were alone in the Undercfort again, where candles flickered around them, and the air was cold and stale. But it was quiet, even in the middle of the day with the whole castle bustling around them. They had about an hour until everyone was done with lunch and they had to go to their next classes, but neither she nor Sebastian could keep from experimenting with this new forbidden magic.

Sebastian first taught her the motion of the spell, coming up behind her to correct it a few times — completely unnecessarily, but he pretended to be a perfectionist about it when it came to her. After all, what other excuses did he have to hold her hand, and feel her against his chest, and nuzzle his cheek against her hair? He thought she didn't notice, but it was hard to tell whether she was smiling at his veiled attempts at closeness or just focusing on perfecting the cast.

"And the incantation is Imperio," he whispered in her ear.

"Imperio," she recited.

"Do you think you can do it?" asked Sebastian as he stepped in front of her.

"I... I guess I could."

"It's not the sort of spell you can practice with on a dummy. You need a living target. And as with the curse before, you have to mean it."

"I understand," she nodded, but he could hear a tremble in her voice.

He wondered who she ever would want to control, then he thought how lucky her victim would be — to be under the power of her spell, to service her, to be the only creature with whom she shared that side of her, who knew her deepest desires, all those the shameful and illicit things she would only ask for under the compromising and desperate secrecy of an Imperious curse... What would she ask for, he wondered. He'd only ever thought of using it against enemies and turning them against each other, but Sebastian would kill her enemies for her for nothing. So what would she ask for from a friend?

"Do you think you can cast it on me?" said Sebastian without giving it another thought. He was excited at the possibilities the spell now opened up between them — with her shy and reluctant and him desperately in love.

"What!?"

"You can lift the spell at any time... It would be safe," he said.

She looked doubtfully at him and, although her lips were parted, she said nothing. He hadn't given it a thought before today, but the sudden idea of her using it on him, of being under the leash of her control, of getting to know her in this way that nobody else could — even for an instant, even without remembering it afterwards although he would definitely try — was far too tempting to let pass.

Would she simply test the limits of the curse? Ask him to move around, to tell her things, to submit completely? Would she ask for secrets she was curious about but didn't dare admit to? Would she ask him to kiss her? Would she ask him to kneel? Would she...

"Would you cast it on me?" he asked now in earnest, grinning ear to ear. "Come on, I want to see you do it."

"Alright," she chuckled, lifting her wand and practising the motion a few times before saying, with her eyes fixed on him, "Imperio!"

Strange, thought Sebastian. He didn't feel any different.

"Did it work?" she asked, staring at him as he stared back.

"I don't think so," he said. "Tell me to do something."

"J-jump?" He stayed firmly on the ground. "Damn," she muttered, looking down at her wand as if it could be broken.

"Try again," he said.

But the best she could muster from her wand were muted sparkles, and saying the spell louder didn't work.