The Forsaken Keeper

Chapter 27

"but i ignore things, and I move sideways. 'til i forget how i felt in the first place." ~ Growing Sideways by Noah Kahan

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Sebastian met Odette's eyes and saw the concerned look she gave him. She gave a slight head shake before her eyes moved to Adelaide. He understood what she meant. Something was off with Adelaide's aura and they shouldn't trust her.

"Actually, Adelaide, could you do something for me?" Adelaide looked eager to do anything Sebastian asked. "Can you go make us some tea? I'd ask Poppy but I don't want her to get up in her condition."

Adelaide looked around the room, hesitant to leave. "Well, are you sure? I'm not very good at making tea..."

"Of course you are!" He flashed her a smile, and he could see Odette holding back a laugh behind Adelaide. "We won't start till your back, promise."

The smile seemed to work on her, and she quickly left the study to go make some tea. Sebastian looked at everyone before they could speak.

"We can't trust Adelaide." he whispered. "I promise I will properly explain everything later but what I'm about to tell you will not be the whole truth. Please, trust me on this." He made eye contact with everyone in the room.

"We will come back later after we leave so she doesn't suspect anything." Everyone was a mix of confused and concerned, but each one gave him a nod. He could hear Adelaide struggling with the tea, curse words slipping down the hall at her attempts.

"I'll go help her." Natty stood up and went to help Adelaide. Sebastian looked to Odette.

"Just her?" Odette nodded. Sebastian looked back to his friends with a soft smile. "I did miss you guys." Imelda let out a scoff.

"You have so much explaining to do, Sallow." As Imelda finished her sentence Natty and Adelaide came back in with trays of teacups. They passed them out while everyone got settled into the chairs and couches around the room.

"Everyone, this is Odette," he gestered towards her as she gave a small curtesy. "And this is Julian." Julian gave a slight bow. "They're who helped me escape the Dark Angel, along with Anne and Ominis."

"How did they help you escape after being gone for over a month?" Adelaide asked. Sebastian hadn't thought this far into his lie. He went to speak what would probably be some utter nonsense when Odette spoke up.

"We live near the woods in which we found him. You see, my Julian here is a historian, and I'm a cartographer." Sebastian looked back at Odette's use of 'My Julian' to see she had her hand in his.

"The woods near us is relatively uncharted so we were surveying the area when we stumbled upon this abandoned estate." Odette looked up to Julian with loving eyes. Sebastian had to hold back a laugh at how tense Julian seemed, before he finally relaxed.

"When we started searching the place is when we came to realize there were cells on the lower level," Julian spoke this time, finally joining in on the lie. "That's where we found Sebastian."

"And that's where we found them." Anne cut in, adding more of the actual truth to the story. "We were there investigating an incident that was reported. That's when we found Sebastian and these two attempting to free him from the cell."

"I thought you said you were attacked?" Adelaide cut in.

"We were." Anne continued. "After we got Sebastian out, the Dark Angel showed up. We were able to hold them off long enough to get us all out but not without some damage." Anne flinched as so spoke, Sebastian assumed the memory of the cruciatus curse.