Hiraeth | Sebastian Sallow Love Story

Chapter Seventy Four: Traitor

 The door opened, revealing Garreth who looked utterly defeated and distraught. His red hair was caked against his forehead with mud and a bit of dried blood. Gracie frowned, wondering if he'd fallen asleep in the cemetery near the house. Everett and Imelda's deaths had destroyed him as if those two were the last he considered friends with Natsai gone. He didn't appear to be very close with Ominis and certainly not the demon next to her.

Ominis stood up, alarmed with his wand out, but Dinah spoke first. "Merlin's beard. You look dreadful. Come wash up and join us for tea."

Sebastian's eyes narrowed, "What did you get into a fight with? You're bleeding."

Garreth's voice trembled and she realized his eyes were bloodshot from liquor. "You didn't mind the blood when it was Everett and Imelda dying on your couch."

"I thought it'd be rude to point that out on their death beds." He quipped sadistically.

All joking was pushed aside the moment he walked through the entryway. Sebastian lept to his feet, pulling Gracie up and covering her view of the front entrance. His grip was tight, but not enough to hurt her. Though it wasn't comfortable in the least and she tried to push his hand off her.

"Sebastian." She muttered, nudging him. "Let go, your grip is too tight."

He either didn't hear her or he ignored her. His back was rigid and she finally gave up, choosing to leer over his bicep to see what was happening with Garreth. Now that he was finally over the threshold, Gracie's breath caught when she saw someone holding a dagger to his back as it revealed itself from the shadows.

"Poor bastard." An evil laugh escaped him as the dagger was shoved into Garreth from behind and dragged down so that his entrails spilled down the front of his cloak, "He felt as if you all stabbed him in the back, not caring about your wee friends' death. It was my pleasure to show him what being stabbed in the back truly feels like."

Dinah's voice wavered.

"Pergit."

A goblin half the size of Garreth let out another laugh, before ripping the blade out, and pointing to Sebastian. No, not Sebastian.

Gracie.

"Ranrock has business with you." He mused whimsically, "Something about revenge is best served in cold blood."

Chapter Seventy Four: Traitor

Ominis nose scrunched, "Revenge is a dish best served cold is the original expression. If you're going to try to be intimidating, at least try harder."

Gracie looked at him incredulously. Really? Now's the time for that?

"Wrong again. That's the oft-quoted phrase. The original is 'la vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid,' an excerpt from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos in his 1782 novel." Sebastian corrected without taking his eyes off the blatantly irritated goblin.

She looked towards Dinah to see the witch was shaking her head, but had her wand drawn. All of a sudden, Gracie felt inadequate for not doing the same. She was getting lax, thinking that Sebastian could easily protect her. She had to remember that as indestructible as he made himself seem, Sebastian wasn't immortal. He could be hurt too.

"That's what you're concerned about?" Pergit watched uninterested as Garreth dropped to the floor choking on his own bodily fluids, "You're not concerned about how I know the true identity of General Azrael or the fact that Ranrock wants her head?"