Passion | | Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Twenty-One

The next morning Sebastian woke up feeling well-rested for the first time in days. He felt more sore than he felt in pain but the soreness felt horrible. He winced as he sat up on the old creaky bed, which wasn't too comfortable in itself but he was so dead tired the night before that he didn't really care.

He let out a sigh. He was extremely glad he had been reunited with Ominis and Astoria, but at the same time, he felt empty somehow. Maybe it was just his brain trying to shrug off the memories of the past few days, or maybe it was because he felt a little useless not being able to go out with Astoria and Ominis, but whichever it was, he didn't like it.

"Hey," A familiar voice broke him out of his trance. He looked over to see Astoria standing in the doorway. When he saw her, suddenly the memories from the night before rushed back into his mind, making his face heat up.

"Oh, um, hi. Good morning, Astoria." He said, giving a half smile. He gestured for her to enter in and a few moments later she did. She had a few of the items she had used to patch him up from the night earlier.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, looking at him. "Hopefully better than you did yesterday, those were some pretty nasty wounds... I also hope you slept better as well."

Sebastian nodded his head. "Oh, yes I slept pretty well. I'm more sore than I'm in pain, although the soreness is pretty annoying." He shifted into a more comfortable position to try and calm the soreness.

"There's a spring not too far from here, the water is still pretty warm." Astoria said, "It may help relax your body for a bit, you should take advantage of that when Ominis and I are gone." She gave him a warm and assuring smile, wanting to try and make him feel better.

"Ominis and I..." Sebastian thought, sighing a bit. "Wish they'd let me go."

But while Sebastian was moping in his thoughts, Astoria spoke up and her words snapped him out of his depressing thoughts. "So... um... are we going to talk about last night?" She asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. "Um, I mean, we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to but-." She cut herself off, feeling awkward.

Sebastian's face dropped, his heart rate picking up wildly. "Oh um, what about last night? Did I forget something that happened?" He asked, a bit wide-eyed, trying to play dumb since he felt embarrassed. Why wouldn't he just say how he really felt?

Astoria frowned a bit. "You almost--, never mind." She said, looking away. Merlin, she felt so embarrassed, what if he was just only giving her a kiss on the cheek to thank her? Was she making this weird? Her face felt hot and she got heat flashes of nervousness and embarrassment. Sebastian noticed this but he was feeling the same thing, neither of them speaking up about it.

Thank goodness Ominis walked in and broke the tension because it was horrible. "Good morning," He said to the both of them, fixing his hair that was falling onto his forehead. "I hope you're faring better than yesterday. Hopefully, Astoria was able to help you with your wounds, Sebastian." He looked over in Sebastian's direction.

Sebastian cleared his throat, nodding his head. "Yeah, she did. I'm feeling much better now, I actually got some sleep last night." He smiled a little bit at Astoria but didn't keep his gaze too long, still feeling embarrassed from the awkward moment earlier.

"When do you feel like going out?" Astoria asked Ominis, referring to going out and finding more camps. "There's a few more on this map that we didn't go to yesterday, they seem relatively small so I don't think it'd be too hard then."

Sebastian hated the fact that they were talking about going to take out poacher camps right in front of him. Since he couldn't go, he felt useless, or at least like he needed to do something. He let out a sharp sigh of discontentment and disappointment, almost like a child unhappy with a decision made for them.