Shadow of the Key | Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 33: Expect the Unexpected

Amelia's POV

"You only brought one tent?" Amelia asks Sebastian as they step out of the Keenbridge Floo flame.

He pulls his black coat around himself to shield against the chilly night air, giving her a nonchalant shrug, "I don't see what the big deal is, we've already slept together."

She crosses her arms over her chest with blushed cheeks as she walks with him towards the small hamlet, leaves crunching beneath their feet with each step. "We definitely have not, Seb."

He shoots her a teasing grin. "We have, we just haven't slept together... Yet." He jerks his thumb to a nearby abandoned shack. "Care to change that right now?"

She raises a warning brow at his bravado, "Keep that up and we never will."

He lets out a chuckle of disbelief, "I know that's an empty threat when you were practically begging for my cock two nights ago."

Her cheeks bloom a brighter red at the reminder, knowing that he was right but not wanting to grant him the satisfaction, "I'm capable of changing my mind."

"Keep telling yourself that," he winks.

She was either going to murder or fuck him before this trip was over.

Probably both.

They made their way into the quaint hamlet of Keenbridge, the twilight ambiance enveloping the small town in a soothing pink hue, with the only source of light being the faint glow of lanterns shining through the windows of the tiny homes that encircled the village.

She could distinguish Benjamin Burke's home by the small mailbox positioned beside the front wooden door, the name "Burke" engraved on it.

Amelia's heart pounded in her chest as they approached the front door of the man. This is what she had to do, but her mind couldn't stop playing the inevitability that even with the locket in their possession, she was going to wind up dead.

She felt like she was approaching Death's doorstep.

She hesitantly hovered her hand over the wooden door, unsure of the man who stood just on the other side of it. With a deep breath, she mustered up the courage to knock, the sound echoing in the silence of the night.

They waited for a few moments, but it remained silent.

Was he home?

After a few more silent moments, Sebastian, who was standing right behind her, became impatient and forcefully pounded his fist on the door with a series of loud, deliberate thuds.

Amelia exasperatingly whips her head to him. "Really, Sebastian?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," he drawls sarcastically with furrowed eyebrows, "Did you want to stay out here and freeze to death?"

"You do know that warming charms exist, correct?" She responds with drawn in brows of her own.

"I'd rather be warm inside where we get the information needed to help you than be warm out here where we're sitting puffskeins," he counters.

She rolls her eyes at his remark but creates her own counterpoint, "Harlow and his colleagues have only been able to reach us from Hogwarts because that was the only place they knew where we'd be."

He squints his chocolate eyes at her, "You've said it yourself; He has eyes and ears everywhere. For all we know, one of his cronies could be hiding in some bushes."