The Devil Doesn't Bargain (MatD part 2)

Chapter FOURTEEN - Nothing Dear

There is something to be said about having friends who will be there for you through the good times and the bad... it is something else entirely when those friends will also fight alongside you despite it all.

It wasn't our first time locked in peril, spells crashing and hearts thumping, but it felt the first time we were truly united since the destruction in the catacombs. Here, amidst the chaos and the danger, our souls were entangled, minds pulled together, backs pressed to one another's and all thoughts of tortured pasts tossed to the wind. Here, we weren't tormented by curses and murder, we weren't divided by past intentions or crushing guilt...

No. Here, we were a family.

Again.

As messed up a thought as that was, it hit me hard. My spells wavered a moment despite the adrenaline of the battle and only Anne's quick work of the fast approaching goblin saved my bones from the impending axe. 

Her worried eyes curled over my skin, anxiously noting the way my wand hand shook and the frantic inhales at my chest. She tucked my body behind hers, warm hands pushing deliberate and attentive, leaving no room for contention.

I hadn't much time to protest in any case as Sebastian dispatched the last of our attackers with a disheartened sigh. 

"And the fun is over."

Ominis smoothed back a few strands of his hair that had fallen over his brow. "Fun is a relative term."

Sebastian chortled. "It is. And that was relatively fun!"

Anne's attention was back on me, warm fingertips pressed delicately on either of my cheeks. The action an entirely intimate sort of concern I'd only seen from her brother. Perhaps it was a Sallow trait.

"Where does it hurt?" Her voice calm despite her furrowed brow.

I hadn't even realized the familiar pain of the curse had slithered back through my veins until her words tugged my mind back to my body. I was shivering and clenching my jaw to hold it all in.

"I'm fine. No. Just- I'm fine." I smiled softly, wishing her attention away.

Sebastian's grin dropped and he stood quickly behind his sister's shoulder, brows pulled inward much like hers. 

"Don't lie to me Barlowe."

Her use of my last name pulled an involuntary smirk to my lips, the little similarities among the twins tugging on my already sappy mind.

Who knew fighting blood-thirsty goblins could make me so effusively sentimental?

Sebastian's worry seemed to melt a bit at my response though confusion twitched his brows.

"Really, I'm fine." I tapped her hands, adjusting them back to her sides. 

"Wonderful. Now, can we please get out of the open before another hoard of Ranrok's ruffians descends?" Ominis, looking particularly disheveled, was inching his way toward the mine entrance.

The three of us followed suit but not before I caught the siblings sharing a pointed look.

I silently hoped it was a good thing.

Wall hung lanterns sparsely lit the dark expanse of stone and wood beams that littered the entrance down into the mine. The light of their candles bounced and caressed our shadows as we descended further and further in. Wispy, wiry branches nestled between the rocks and reached out like long fingertips, pulling at our clothes in silent resentment. Even the air felt entirely unwelcoming.

"For better or for worse, we're in." 

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