Page 99 of Antiletum
He had a point. If she had a different gift, a different upbringing, Delaney might have been a very outgoing creature.
She must have been silent too long. Let some of her jovialness briefly fly away.
“I didn’t mean to upset you,” Sebastian said softly, guiding her under an ornate stone bridge dripping with brittle, thirsty ivy, leading towards a fountain.
Barely anything flowed from the stone statues of theNocturneat its center. Only a shallow covering of water sat in the pool due to the intensity of drought plaguing the area.
Delaney plastered another smile on. “It’s not you. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be morose. Especially not with the potential for such a lovely day.” Lovely day indeed. Spring and the sun not sitting so close to the earth that it scorched the air and ground. If only it would rain.
“It’s okay,” Sebastian urged. “You can be morose and we can still have a perfect day.”
We.
Delaney very much liked the sound of the word in reference to she and him.
“I want to know you, Delaney Thornridge,” Sebastian said, encouraging her trapped words. “Everything about you.”
She found that she wanted to spill a sliver of her heart to this strange boy who she had only just met but felt like she had known all her life. “My parents keep me very sheltered. They worry I’ll tarnish the reputation they’ve built for Rainah. I’m not usually let off the estate. Nor am I allowed to mingle much when visitors come to us.”
“That’s cruel.” The bite to Sebastian’s voice spoke volumes. The rapid change in his tone gave her pause, but fondness flooded her for the way someone else felt so strongly about her situation. Especially him.
“As you’ve already deduced, I’m prone to finding and causing trouble.”
“That’s a terrible excuse—to keep you caged. How do you spend your days then?”
“I spend most of my time in thespirlinaryon our estate. Or in my rooms. Or just roaming the grounds. Swimming. Picking flowers.”Raising things from the dead.She very much wanted to tell him and only barely held herself back from doing so. Delaney blinked against the pressure behind her eyes. “I suppose your parents don’t keep you on such a short leash then?”
She knew her slip before he even responded, recalling his lack of knowledge regarding his own age.
“I don’t have parents,” Sebastian said plainly, just as she expected and before she could apologize.
Embarrassment rolled through her, furious over being so tactless. “I’m sorry. I—”
Sebastian cut her off with a gentle squeeze on her arm. “Don’t be. How could you have known? And I want you to know me just as much as I want to know you.”
They stopped at the edge of the fountain, surrounded on the other three sides by tall buildings. The courtyard, caged with a pergola, was empty other than them.
Sebastian said, “I would have brought you here, even if we hadn’t been so close. It’s practically an Omnitas right of passage.”
Delaney raised a brow. Glanced around the empty courtyard.
Sebastian chuckled. “Maybe not well known to tourists these days. But for the citizens of the city, it’s well known.” He paused. “Maybe you’ll find yourself here more—one day.”
“I hope I do.”
“As do I,” he shamelessly agreed. “The notoriety of this fountain is only still alive through local lore, its origins erased from history books, and only known around Omnitas by word of mouth.”
Sebastian came behind her, not quite touching her back. He leaned forward, talking quietly in her ear. “TheNocturnefirst settled inOmnitas after the wise barn owl hatched from his egg, nestled within the crust of the earth. The sly fox slunk from his den. And the fierce caracal prowled from between its mountain rock crevice.” Sebastian paused for drama. “Though that part is often subject to change, depending on who’s telling the story.
“TheNocturnedwelled together, constructing this city and The Citadel. No factions existed at the time, when they settled their people, living harmoniously with their eclectic shifter gifts. Because of the fresh water spring, right here.” He pointed towards the fountain, the statues at the center stained with green-blue moss. Sebastian looked down on Delaney who peered up at him, fully enraptured by his low, soothing voice, and grinned. “It’s said they sought this spring because it converges the three water sources flowing in vicinity to their respective Heartstones.”
“It doesn’t look like magical water.” On the contrary, to Delaney, the fountain appeared quite drab.
He laughed. “It isn’t. At least not anymore. Not for a long time. Probably why visitors don’t care to see it anymore. No one wants to bother with what they perceive to be mundane. Always looking for something splendid.Special.”
Sebastian turned her around to face him. Easy and smooth.
“But the wisest, the cleverest, the fiercest of us… We know that often the most extraordinary things are hidden within the mundane.” He was nearly a different person, compared to the sullen glare he initially shot at Delaney when she first clutched his arm.
