Chapter Twenty-Seven

                                    

                                          
~~~Sebastian
Fuck.
Ominis was going to kill me. 
Once again my fat mouth worked faster than my brain and I said something stupid. 
Aria hadn't deserved that, and now I couldn't find her.
Fuck.
I thought maybe she'd have run off to find him, but I spotted Nat speaking to him quietly, off to the side of the grand staircase and knew that hadn't happened. She saw me and her face contorted a little into...anger? Confusion?
It was going to be bad enough that as far as I was concerned, she was missing, whether or not that was actually true. 
But...What had I done? And in fifth year? That year was a terrible blur, and honestly, after everything involving my uncle, and Anne, everything that had transpired between the three of us, what hadn't already been said? What hadn't already been fought over?
I shook my head, trying to clear out the cobwebs, then tried to think harder about where she might be.
I saw her face start to twitch. I saw her wipe her eyes...which were becoming the incorrect color. 
She was incredibly stressed out about something.
She was about to have a breakdown.
A bad one.
Alone.
~~~
I continued my search for a little while longer, but it was already dark as the void outside and no one had seen her. 
"Michael, have you seen Aria?"
"Ominis's odd little girlfriend? No, I haven't."
"Emma, is Aria in your dorm room?"
"I haven't seen Birdy since Herbology this morning."
Every single time I asked, I got a similar answer.
I didn't dare ask Natty or Poppy.
But I was going to have to swallow my pride and say something to Ominis. Whatever he was pissed at me for, It would be even worse if something happened to her and I stayed silent.
"Ominis."
"I don't want to speak to you right now, Sebastian."
"Well, you have to. I...might have lost Aria."
"What on earth are you talking about? What do you mean you lost Aria?"
"We...had a bit of an argument after potions class and I might have said something that hurt her feelings and she ran away from me and now I can't find her and no one else has seen her either and I think she's about to have an episode and I'm sorry."

I rambled like it was me who was the mad one, though truly I was just bracing myself for the inevitable.

Ominis was out of his seat like a shot, racing out of the Great Hall. I followed on his heels.
FUCK.

~~~Ominis
Come on, little songbird...where are you?
The undercroft was the first place I checked, but it was empty. I ran upstairs, all the way to the seventh floor and paced in front of the wall until the door appeared. 
"How do you know it's going to be the right one?"
"I don't. But for as much as I'm in here with her I can hope."