Once upon a Midnight | BOOK I

Fourteen

The guy that rescued me held me in his arms and lifted a canister to my lips. At first, I resisted. I wasn't going to take a drink from a stranger, but he urged me to drink from the canister. When the bitter liquid filled my mouth, the numbness intensified and I pushed my rescuer away to find space to empty my tummy. He didn't try to keep me in place and I found the right spot to let go of everything inside me. It smelled horrible, but I felt so much better.

"Make sure you let go of everything," my rescuer's voice said. His voice was cool and sounded bored. I raised my head up to say something to the man, but I quickly turned back to empty another load of vomit at the bottom of the unlucky tree I'd chosen. I noticed a faint silhouette of the demon ecstasy pill in the sea of vomit. The man came closer and handed me the canister again. I refused strongly this time around. There was no way that bitter liquid will touch my mouth after. "It's just water," he said with a small laugh.

I collected the canister from him and was extremely glad to see it really was water. "What happened to me?" I said after mutter a thank you.

"You, my dear, were poisoned," he answered. The man stood up and moved towards another tree.

I sniffed. "What? How?" I asked. Who could've poisoned me? My mind went to Khalil and the drug he all but forced into my mind. But I didn't ingest the pill. That had to mean something.

The man hummed absentmindedly. "How about the bartender you were flashing your eyes out at the club?!" he said. He was now in front of the tree and he began to mutter something I couldn't make out. But my mind was on his previous statement.

"My eyes widened in realisation. "No..." I was about to voice out my opinion about how I found the Indian bartender fishy when he offered us free drinks. My thoughts got stuck in my throat and my eyes widened even more when the tree in front of the man lit up like the moon tree. I wasn't at all awestricken by the magnificence of the tree he lit up, but I was appalled by the man standing before the tree. Of course, he wasn't a man, in more ways than one also. He was a boy who looked older then I was. He was a bit taller and had a strong build. A quiver full of arrows was slung across his back, with a bow in hand, and he was clad in leather armour. The boy that stood before me with a slant smile on his face was a dark elf. The very same dark elf who'd been staring at me at the club.

His skin was like polished obsidian, his snow-white hair was packed in a neat bun, and his eyes were almost inevitably blue, gleaming with malice.

I spotted my sword on the ground and after picking it up, I pointed it at the elf. "Stay away from me," I told him. I might've been excommunicated, but I wasn't oblivious to the fact that sorcerers and dark elves are sworn enemies. Though dark elves are way fewer then sorcerers in number, they were second to none in the knowledge of dark magic. After all, they were the first to discover it.

The elf held up his hand in the air. "Hey, Morgana. It's me, Khiroth," he said and moved closer.

I gripped the flaming sword tighter as I pointed it at his face. "Why do you call me Morgana?"

"I can't answer that question," said the elf.

"How convenient," I said. "Take your leave. I won't hurt you, but only because you saved my life."

"Oh my devil!" The elf rolled his eyes. "You racist sorcerers. Always acting like you're better than us."

"You're a dark elf," I reminded him with a sneer. "The embodiment of evil and dark."

"Well, some of us are evil, but–"

"Most of you are evil," I corrected him. "Just leave."

"Oh, Morgana. You're as stubborn as ever. Even without your memories," he said.