Adeline and the Ovunque's Key || Ongoing

040

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒𝟎 — 𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐦

I can't lift my eyes off the ground. Looking intensely at the gravel as if it had forsaken me. I stomped along the brown path, not caring how others see me as I do.

I don't know how to describe it. With Nicholas, I always ended up feeling weird. I would find myself reacting to him in almost every way. I would get turned on for no apparent reason, my cheeks would heat up when he was in close proximity. He made me an odd bod just by purely existing around me.

But this time, he was different. I don't know how to explain it, but he feels off. Maybe I was just finding excuses to push him away but a part of me, find his actions so foreign that I couldn't help but feel that it was weird.

If I stayed in that same room, my will to fight and be suspicious of him would surely fade. His eyes always work in alluring me. His voice would always make my knee weak.

Why, oh why, must he have that much power over me?

The gravel crunches under my feet as I dragged myself along the path, bumping shoulders with the crowds as I went through the growing mobs. The townspeople are all very diligent folks, starting their day early with a smile already on their face each time their eyes meet a possible customer. The servants were already on their hot tails, doing one chore after another. It was a busy day for everyone. Just as it is every other day for them.

From the note I received a few days ago, Bernard had chosen to stay in a different inn, not the inn that Gerald owns. For once, I think that was a wise choice, considering what Martha had done to Feiya. The inn was a bit far from the open surroundings. The path was almost familiar to me. As if I'd walked there before, but I could only vaguely remember it.

It was discreet, with not a lot of activity going on in the area. The sounds of the lively townspeople died down as I dive deeper into the path. All I heard now was silence and very low or almost none at all chattering.

Passing from one store to another, I stopped when I reached a two-story building, towering over me, standing as tall as a double-decker bus, with a sign that read "Drunken Serpent Inn". At one glance at the surroundings, it finally came to me why the path felt familiar.

I've walked here with Aeron before. On that night he pledged to keep my secret to himself. I saw the tavern that very night.

I still have no clue if Aeron was indeed trustworthy. I haven't got the time to truly figure him out. Not when he and the rest of the paladins would be going all out on a fight with Odell's townspeople. It was tearing me apart from both sides, as I couldn't choose between them.

I walked into the inn, craning my neck to look for him. Then I saw his shiny sandy blonde hair from a distance. His back faced me as he sat on a stool, drinking whatever it was in his hand.

I walked up to him, plopping down right next to him, making my presence known. "Are you already drinking, Bern?"

He scoffed, placing the cup down as he turned to gaze my way. "You're surely here early, Addie."

"Better early than late," I shrugged.

He nods and calls the bartender to give us another bottle. Yellow-brown alcohol in a fancy glass bottle was placed in front of us. Bernard took it in his hand and poured a cup for both him and me. Then he looked at me, putting the bottle down as he grabbed onto his cup, propping me to drink. And I did.

The alcohol swirled inside my stomach, circling around along with the breakfast Nicholas had given me this morning. Early intoxication.

"Did you wait long?"