The King's Obsession ✔️

FOUR

Word Count: 1625

~Akara

It feels strange, returning here.

The Blue Glass Inn, where it first started. I met Marek here, and part of me hopes we can be reunited here, also. It's unlikely, but it's a place to start, even if the memories are stained with the thought of Jessa. At least she won't have the courage to come back here and try to find me.

And this weather helps keep anyone tracking us far in the distance...

Nakoa seems reluctant to step out into the snow once we reached the Inn, eyeing it as I jump into it, reaching out my hand for her to follow. It's evening, like the first night I arrived. The lights from the village below help lure her out, pulling her coat closer against her body.

Kicking out boots at the door, we wander inside the inn, which only a few temperatures warmer than outside.

"Akara...This is a surprise," Ms Grier exclaims as she appears from around a corner.

"It's good to see you, Ms Grier," I admit honestly. A peace of my past that doesn't haunt me...Even though she wasn't always the nicest, she never lied to me, never betrayed me. "Would we be able to book a room?"

Ms Grier's curious gaze shifts to Nakoa. Here, the flaming red hair and pretty face isn't all that common. Despite the fact that her life as a Noble has been torn down around her, she still looks has that air about her. It's graceful, sophisticated in a way I'm still intimidated by. Ms Grier is likely wondering how I came across someone like Nakoa.

"Of course," she says, leading us into her office. "How have you been?"

"I've been okay. My friend and I have decided to return to the Azure Province for a break," I tell her, shrugging off my thick fur coat, draping it on one of the hooks. Nakoa follows suit, daintily brushing the snow off the expensive fabric of her jacket.

Ms Grier fidgets with the hem of her blouse. "You disappeared."

"I apologise about that-"

"She was kidnapped, by one of your visitors," Nakoa cuts in, destroying any chance for me to make up an excuse about how I had to leave early, or maybe I fell in love with Marek over night, and we ran away together. Anything to not come off like a burden. "Have you seen him around, he's apparently returned here."

"Oh...Marek, isn't it? The Hunter?" She asks it like she doesn't know. I know that she knows.

A girl doesn't just randomly disappear the same night as a notoriously dangerous hunter does. Even though I feel no resentment toward her anymore, it's obvious she knew what happened to me, and instead of calling attention to it, swept it under the rug to not lose business.

"Yes, that's the one." I swallow tightly, glancing at Nakoa, who looks far from impressed.

"I've heard rumours that he has returned, but he is not here. If you wish to find him, I recommend asking around. Maybe it will come back to him that people are asking for his whereabouts," she offers. She speaks so much kinder to me, now that I'm a client and not a staff member.

I smile, tense. "Thank you, Ms Grier."

"Your room is down the hall," she steps around the corner, motioning to one of the three rooms here. And of course, it's Marek's old one. Where we first met.

Nakoa meets my gaze, her own icy, but says nothing, as we settle in for the night.

***

Nakoa wasn't so impressed when I woke her at the crack of dawn the next morning.