He stepped towards me again, removing the space I just gave myself.
Sebastian threw his arm between us, using it to push Sawyer away from me. “This is not on her,” he hissed, backing his friend into the wall.
“Are you that fucking oblivious?” Sawyer argued. “That whole damn battle was because of her! The war that Draemor’s going to start any day now, is because ofher.”
I opened my mouth, but then closed it tightly. I didn't know what to say. The more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. In a way, thiswasall my fault. The woman he loved was dead. More people would die, and their deaths would be in my name.
“Oh fuck off, Sawyer.” Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Maeve didn't cause this. You're just trying to find someone to blame.”
Sawyer stood his ground, crossing his arms over his chest as he fought a losing battle with his eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me the second you walked into this room?” he demanded an answer. “Better yet, why didn't you tell me the moment you got back?”
“I didn’t even know that you and her were serious. You never told anyone anything!” Sebastian shouted back in defense.
There was some truth to that. Sawyer never told anyone except for me about his feelings towards Jocelyn. Even then he didn’t say much, but I could tell by the way he looked at her that she was more than just a friend to him—or at least he wanted her to be.
Sawyer's face relaxed for a brief second, panning between Sebastian and myself before settling in a scowl. “You’re my best friend…my brother. I shouldn’t have had to,” he spat. Then, his anger took over and he swiped at Sebastian, knocking him in the side of his face.
Sebastian clutched his crimson jaw, slowly panning his furrowed brows back towards Sawyer. He restrained himself from hitting back?—
Never mind.
Sebastian decked Sawyer in the nose. I heard bone crack and my eyes widened as a gush of blood dripped onto the rug.
Sawyer growled animalistically. His body shuddered as he harnessed his magic, blasting Sebastian with a heavy stream of water from his fingers. The pressure of the blast knocked Sebastian backwards, and he hit the ground with a thud. Sawyer attacked him with power, increasing the intensity of his magic and aiming the stream directly at Sebastian’s face. Sebastian fought back with his own magic, wielding a frost to freeze Sawyer's water as soon as it came shooting from his hand.
“Stop it, you two!” Pia wailed. Her and I made brief eye contact, and the gleam in her eyes crushed me. Her and Jocelyn had been close.
The water wasn't the only thing turned to ice as Sebastian harnessed his powers. Sawyer’s hand froze as well, resulting in his skin turning stiff and white.
Sebastian jumped to his feet while Sawyer agonized over his hand. He released the hold on his magic as he stomped towards Sawyer, shoving him in the chest when he was close enough to reach.
Sawyer fell back and I heard another crack as he caught himself with his icy wrist. Despite the additional broken bone, Sawyer rose to his feet, pulling his other fist back to throw another punch.
Sebastian raised his arm to block the blow, but before Sawyer could even throw the punch, the whole room was shrouded by darkness as a loud boom of thunder shook us.
Kohen positioned himself between them, his hands raised in the air as he wielded a storm in the middle of the room. Wind swirled around us. Thunder crashed and papers flew as onyx magic quite literally put us in the eye of the storm.
Sebastian and Sawyer dropped their arms, and Kohen released his powers when they no longer looked like they were going to kill each other.
Kohen tended to keep to himself, so I was not expecting him to have much to say, however he surprised me. “You two are acting like assholes,” he huffed, turning to Sawyer. “It's no one's fault that Jocelyn is dead, except for the Draemornians. I'm sorry that she's gone, I truly am. But stop being a dick and blaming everyone else because you're hurting.”
He then turned to Sebastian. “And what's your problem? A girl your friend cared about is dead, and instead of saying your condolences, you're getting defensive about it. I don't know why you did, but you shouldn't have waited to say something.”
Sawyer scoffed. “I know why he waited,” he gestured his neck at me. “He was too busyfuckinghisproblemto say anything.”
My mouth dropped in shock at Sawyer’s claim, and Sebastian lunged for him, knocking him so hard that it took his breath away when he hit the floor. Sawyer gasped from the ground, clutching his chest with his good hand as he scrunched his face up at Sebastian.
“Don't youevertalk about her like that again.” Sebastian spat next to him, then turned his back and stormed out of theroom. He gave me a sideways glance as he passed, his face pale and showcasing obvious nausea.
I had a feeling that this would be the cause of Sebastian's inevitable breakdown. Delivering the news of death would do that to a person, I imagined.
My feet were cemented to the floor in distress. I wanted to go after him, but needed a moment to process what the fuck just happened.
“So much for a welcome home party,” Kohen quipped under his breath. He reached a hand down to Sawyer, helping him to his feet.
I looked at Pia, her eyes wide as she glanced around all of us. “Wait.” She pointed to the door where Sebastian just left from, then looked at me. “You two finally had sex?”
I couldn't tell if she was trying to distract everyone from the news we’d just received, or if she was really just shocked.
