Curses & Cries ; Sebastian Sallow

chapter 19: Four's A Crowd

Ominis had never kissed a girl before.

There was a moment, however, in Second Year, where Letty had given him a peck close to his lips, but not really. He thought it didn't count, and it was an instance with other students around on the frozen lake that made him like the moment a little less. He remembered turning his head at the last second without the knowledge of her next move, and, as they collided, she missed his lips and kissed his cheek instead.

Ominis remembered Garreth and the other kids skating and yelling about, but he thought nothing of it at the time. Just that a kiss was not suppose to be celebrated, so ever since that day he saw it as one that didn't count at all.

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January was so cold they were nearly running to the manor, Anne and Sebastian, where the former had forgotten her gloves, and her coat sleeves only covered so much that her fingertips were already numb from the chill.

"Ominis." Letty sat on the shore with her skates on, waiting for Sebastian and Anne's return.

Ominis startled at the sound of his name and turned quickly on his skates, as if about to run, but then saw, so incredibly, that it was Letty. He had been transfixed by his own thoughts, then by the falling snow overhead, that he'd lost the rest of his senses except sight.

"Did I scare you?" She jumped back onto the ice towards him, her hair whipping as she glided.

"Still getting use to without the wand," he said stupidly.

Ominis couldn't remember the last time he felt this way. He had spent some time mooning over Letty from a distance, which, in retrospect, was not his best move, but now that the girl was right in front of him, now that he was with this newfound ability to see the world, he took himself for a fool because he could not look at her directly.

"You've never seen the alphabet in your life," she said.

"I was still able to see words with my wand. Just never faces, until now."

Letty's cheeks were hot all of a sudden in the cold January air, and bright red no doubt. She smiled back as best she could and remembered she had a pen. Pulling up Ominis's arm and his mitten off, she held it close to her body and began writing on the palm of his hand: Letty Ominis Sebastian Anne. Back and fourth she gently rolled the tip on his skin, holding his hand and letting go too soon.

"You know, I've written you dozens of owls in our time at school," he said as Letty capped the pen.

She was excited now, and Ominis could see it flashing in her eyes, like the clusters of moths in a Merlin trial; the ones that made summer nights frantic with light.

"Ominis, can you tell me something?"

"Sure, Letty."

"What was it you had hoped for in turning Sebastian in?"

His answer came too late, which gave off suspicion, and Ominis knew he could not lie now.

"All his life he's been getting away with things, and I wanted him to face the consequences for once." Ominis shrugged, and, in part, it was true, so it was a good cover-up for the actual reason he was otherwise trying to avoid.

She hit him in the chest so hard he struggled to keep his balance and teetered onto the ice. Letty was hardly a graceful person herself and landed on her rump beside him.

They laughed and Ominis decided right then that he would be okay with dying.

"You could have turned me in, too," she said, staying there.