The Devil Doesn't Bargain (MatD part 2)

Chapter FORTY EIGHT - Palm Kisses and Time

Somehow, I slept.

The hours twisted through my hair as gently as Anne's fingers had, a lull of her words hummed in my ears.

We still have time.

We still have time.

We still have time.

It was somehow exactly what I needed to hear. A hope tied comfort around my ribs.

Nightmares held still behind my sleep though no peaceful dreams crept in either. Darkness swelled in my lungs and tugged me into the most tranquil rest I had had in a long while. Perhaps ever. It wasn't until the warmth of the sunshine grazed my cheek and pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of my lips that I finally woke.

Hushed chatter chirped from just past my knees and, blinking away the darkness, I found a rather stiff Ominis and a perky Anne with neatly brushed hair walking a few paces past the edges of the beds. I was about to call out to them when Anne slipped her fingers around Ominis' wrist and tugged him to a stop. He swung so that he now faced her and I could see the full weight of his features.

Dark, violet tinted circles dipped below his eyes and had they been a shade darker, I would have thought them bruises. 

Evidently not all of us had slept as deeply. 

His eyes, still as misted and bright as I had ever known them, looked strained. 

Anne brushed a thumb over his wrist, drawing my attention back down. The hand that had been so deeply burned only hours before was now as pale and cool as marble. Light midnight colored veins twisted down the backs of his fingers and around pink knuckles. His fingertips a cool shade of red as mine sometimes did during the dead of winter. The underside of his hand, now held up between them, looked far too tender and fragile.

Anne's eyes watched him carefully, dipping her head down to his wrist she still held high between them. A kiss, placed carefully against the wrist, just below his palm. 

Ominis laughed silently and pressed his eyelids closed.

She placed another kiss gently higher, and another just past that. She held the final kiss at the center of his palm a moment longer than the rest before bringing her head up and tucking his fingers over his palm - over the kiss.

The action so delicate, so pure. 

Remnants of a memory I would never know.

Eyelids open and nose tipped down towards Anne, Ominis smiled - a kind, vulnerable little smile.

"Thank you." He whispered. "I appreciate you more than you know my darling."

Anne sniffed a laugh. "You better."

Ominis' smile widened.

"ANNE!" Sebastian's cracked voice ripped through the silence from my left. His jagged limbs now stiff and straight as his body tore up from sleep atop the bed aside mine.

Ominis flinched, taking a step toward the sound but moving no further, Anne's hand on his chest. Her eyes swung to me and locked on mine, nodding toward her brother. She spoke quickly to Ominis, something along the lines of "Atley is awake. She's got him."

On wobbly limbs, I cleared the space between the two beds and wrapped the crumpled, brown haired boy in my arms.

"I'm here. It's Atley. I'm here."

He crumbled into me, tucking his nose to my neck. His fingers fisted in the fabric of my shirt back, his breaths ragged and shallow.

"I've got you." Though whispered, I felt the weight of my words relax into his muscles. "It was just a nightmare."

Sebastian pulled back, smoothing the sides of his hair into place and straightening his shoulders with one deep breath. His eyes caught on mine for a fraction of a moment. Though he had presumably had enough rest thanks to the sleeping draught, his eyes were still bloodshot, worn and wild - darting around the room in frantic patterns. 

Searching. 

His head shook slowly back and forth, only pausing when his eyes landed on Anne.

"It wasn't a nightmare."

Anne tilted her head, her brows furrowed inward.

Something flickered just beneath his features, his attention snapping down beneath him. He fumbled around in the sheets below us, tossing pillows and shoving blankets from the mattress until his fingers clasped desperately around something small and pointed. After a quick once-over, he thrust it upwards so that both Anne and I had a direct eyeline.

Between his fingertips was a little glass vial with a pointed top and intricately painted white patterns around the rim. A shimmering clear liquid glinted from within.

"The fourth memory... The Keepers showed me." He grit his teeth. "Anne-"

The hand holding the vial began to tremble and I reached up cautiously to pull it down into my lap, running my thumb over his skin.

His eyes remained locked to Anne's, a glint in the corner. "Oh Anne."