Invisible String - Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Fourty-Four: Storm in the Offing

I didn't remember falling asleep.

I only recognized that I was asleep because of the way Sebastian's body seemed to shimmer in front of me. His hands were shaking, a wand- was it mine?- clutched tightly in his fingers, pointed at me. He looked distraught, his face showing unmistakable pain and anguish, his eyes darting all around me as he looked on.

"Abbi, come back to me, love, please," he begged, voice raw and shaky.

I turned to look at him, head tilted to the side.

"I'm here," I said, confused. "I'm right here."

"This isn't you," he pleaded. "Please, Abbi, stop listening to it."

His eyes were brighter than they'd been in months. Light and amber brown instead of dark chocolate. His freckled face was showing concern and fear, gaze dropping to my hands before flashing back up to my face. What in Merlin's name did he mean? Stop listening to what? My power had never led us wrong, had never turned us down a path we shouldn't have gone down.

"It is me, Seb. Don't you see?"

He shook his head, slowly, like he was g going to believe the words that spilled from my lips. This confused me. Sebastian had always seen me, always understood. More than anyone I had ever known.

His eyes darted down again.

I looked down, following his gaze.

Deep blood red tendrils of magic flowed freely from my hands, pulsating and shimmering. Powerful and beautiful, teeming with the life I had fed into it. I followed the tendrils lower, looking for what I held captive in them.

Two people.

One brunette. A girl.

One blonde. A boy.

Both stared unseeing, the magic binding them tightly, pouring into them through their mouth, wrapping around chest and ankle, drowning them in my power. Their eyes were blank, their expressions showing a mix of pain and pleasure as the magic I controlled filled them, slithered inside of them and worked to steal away their ability to think for themselves.

They didn't need free will.

They would only know what I wanted from this point on.

I smiled wildly as I felt the blonde one start to lose the fight, his control over himself slipping away from him.

A wave of pleasure rolled over my body, desire for more filling me.

"Oh, Seb, don't you see?" I asked, breathlessly, excitedly. "Don't you understand that this was what we needed the whole time? We needed a way to control them that they couldn't fight."

"Abbi, let them go," he begged. I snapped my head up to him, angry now.

He wanted me to release these people? These threats? They'd tried to hurt me, they'd run with their wands drawn, pointed at my chest. My eyes narrowed as I focused on Sebastian, forcing my magic to wrap tighter around my victims.

The girl squirmed uncomfortably.

Pointing a finger at him, more tendrils of blood red magic flowed from my hand. I shot them at him, watched as they wrapped around his body and pulled him towards me, delighted to see he didn't fight it. He allowed me to wrap him in my web, as he always had.

He hadn't abandoned me. He was just confused. He needed to be shown again.

"Why would I let them go?" I demanded, my voice echoing and twisting oddly, coming out in almost a hiss. I breathed in, knowing the feeling of power filling me was approaching, my magic purring in delighted anticipation.