My attention snagged on Sebastian, who lingered halfway through the staircase, a look of utter bewilderment on his face.
He skipped down the rest of the steps and stopped directly in front of Samara. “What are you doing here?” he inquired, the assertiveness in his voice unwavering.
She batted her brown eyes, an arched brow flicking upward. “Um. You need soldiers. Do you not?”
“Yeah. We needsoldiers. Not women who are rude to my girlfriend,” he shot back with a click of his tongue.
Samara’s head tilted as she grabbed a chunk of her hair and twirled it around her finger. “Sebby?—”
“Don’t fucking call me that.”
“Sebastian…I am coming. I want to be with my brother,” she argued, her eyes spinning towards Azain briefly.
Sebastian stomped his boot into the marble. “No, you aren’t.”
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t” she challenged, rising to the tips of her toes, though her height still had nothing on him.
“I’ll give you three,” he scoffed. “Reason number one—you simply aren't needed. Reason number two—you were a raging bitch to my girlfriend. Reason number three—I don’t want you to come.”
Azain snorted.
With that, Sebastian turned towards the exit, striding away from his ex.
“What’s so special about her?” Samara demanded a response from Sebastian while pointing at me. “Aside from the disfigured gemstone placement and tacky tattoos.”
Sebastian's entire face was etched with stunned anger as he spun back to face her. He stomped towards her and took her wrist in his hand, lowering her finger. “What’s so special abouther? She is everything that we are not. She is the only one out of all of us to be considered worthy of such a gift. Of such power. I don’t know why you seem to think you have the right to be so fucking rude, but the woman you are disrespecting is the reason you will make it out of this alive. If she lets you, that is. So if I were you, I would learn to keep my mouth shut, unless it’s to say something along the lines of,Thanks for saving my life, Maeve. How can I ever repay you?”His hand turned white as he gripped hers harder. “Understood?”
Samara almost looked as though she would challenge him, but she retreated, nodding just once in confirmation.
With that, we left Samara dumbfounded in the grand foyer, and just to be polite, I waved my fingers at her in anoh-so-sweetgoodbye.
We stepped outside after Azain. The scent of fall lingered in the air as we began towards the stables.
“Thanks for waiting for me,” Sebastian mumbled into my ear when he took his stance by my side, matching my pace.
“You looked so peaceful sleeping, and I didn’t want toscareyou by waking you up.”
“Ah. I see.” He took my rucksack off my shoulder, pulling it over his own. “You're mad.”
My boots left imprints in the grassy field we walked through, which I directed my attention to instead of at him. “I’m not mad. I completely understand where you were coming from.”
“Oh. Okay. Great.” Sebastian sounded taken aback.
“It’s just that?—”
“There it is.”
I side-eyed him. “Did you know that you can be a real jerk when you are scared, or pissed off, or whatever you were last night?”
Taking a turn down a dirt path, the pristine, crimson stables came into view, the whinnying of horses flying into my ears.
“I’m pretty self-aware, yes.”
“Oh. Okay. Great,” I quoted him.
He chuckled, the sparkle of his teeth threatening to bring me to my knees. He swiped my hand from my side, pulling me to the back of the group. “I’m sorry. I may have overreacted.”
“You think?” I scoffed, trying to yank my arm free.
