Passion | | Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Fifteen

Sebastian blatantly ignored Astoria for the entire week after that, he just couldn't look her in the eyes. Astoria was getting worried, in her mind, Ominis had been alone when he walked in, no way Sebastian could've seen her and Leander, so what on earth was making him avoid her? Especially before they walked into "hell-world" to find Rookwood. This was not the time for miscommunication!

He avoided Leander too, but Astoria's mind just told her that was because he never really did like him. The only person he talked to for the entire week was Ominis, and whenever Astoria entered the room he would immediately fall silent. He was giving her the silent treatment and she had no idea why– or at least it didn't make sense in her mind why he was.

Leander didn't mind it, it just meant he could get in more flirty banter with Astoria without Sebastian pressing on his throat like he was trying to kill him or something. Astoria seemed less than engaged in it now after Sebastian had stopped talking to her, all she was doing was working and not talking much as he did so.

"Are you unhappy that we kissed?" Leander asked randomly one day while they were working on the map again. Astoria's head shot up, looking up at him in confusion.

"W-What? No, why on earth would you ask me that? It was fine." She said, looking at him with a puzzled expression. It was so out of the blue it caught her off guard. They were fine ever since the day they had kissed over the table, so why on earth was he asking now of all times?

"Because you've stopped talking nearly as much after we did, and I thought maybe it had something to do with that?" Leander asked. "It was the only conclusion I could come to."

Astoria sighed, shaking her head. "No, no, Leander. I'm not upset about that at all, really– I mean, it was nice. I'm just... worried, you could say. Sebastian has stopped talking to me entirely and I have no idea why. He just goes quiet whenever I enter the room and he barely even looks at me anymore." She said with a small frown.

"Sounds like he's just being a git," Leander said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Okay but why is he being a git?" Astoria asked. "It all happened so suddenly after he came back from disappearing for those six hours. I wonder if something happened to him then, I'm just worried, especially since we leave tomorrow. We need to talk and communicate and he doesn't exactly seem to want to do that."

Leander shrugged. "Force him to talk or something, I dunno. Are you good at Legilimency? Maybe you can find out something from that day that could've made him stop talking to you?"

Astoria was a bit shocked. "What? No! I'm not gonna use Legilimency on him! First of all– he wouldn't consent to that in any circumstance, two– isn't that a bit far-fetched? I mean, maybe I can just get him to say at least something, I'm just more focused on why he stopped talking to me in the first place."

"Just a suggestion," Leander chuckled. "Maybe you should talk to Ominis. That Gaunt always knows what's going on with him."

Astoria sighed. "Maybe you're right, I'll talk to Ominis soon. He's sure to know at least something." She'd make a mental note to speak to Ominis later about it. Hopefully, Sebastian had at least mentioned something to him as to why he wasn't speaking to Astoria.

***

"Ominis?" Astoria asked, popping her head into his room. Ominis' raised his head towards the sound of her voice, at the doorway.

"What is it, Astoria?" He asked, getting up from where he was seated on the bed. Astoria sighed and took a few steps into the room, how did she explain this to him without coming off as super paranoid? Although she did kinda have a reason to be like this– in fact, she didn't even know where Sebastian was right now. All she knew was that he wasn't at the study. He hadn't spent much time in the study for the past week actually.