Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 168: Stay

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Eight: Stay

That night was one of the hardest in Ella's memory.

Gus and Bruno had gone back to their respective rooms, Xaphile had left to go soak in the hot springs to try and sober up, and Adariel was asleep. She stared up at the ceiling, still very drunk, but already feeling the beginnings of what would probably be the worst headache of her life.

She was exhausted from throwing up, but she couldn't fall asleep.

Her whole body was pulsing with strange heat, and it made her sweat profusely; she'd gone as far as stripping down to her underwear and putting on her favorite silk camisole since it was sleeveless, airy, retained cold air, and hung down far enough to conceal anything indecent.

She'd drunk almost a galleon of water as well, since she was strangely thirsty.

It was perhaps around three in the morning when she finally decided to get up and head down to the front counter to see if the chef had anything good to eat.

She was craving something sweet and was also thirsty for more water again.

Aside from slipping on her stockings to keep her feet warm against the cold stone floors of the inn, she didn't bother getting dressed. The camisole itself was more like a small nightgown than an undershirt since the hem hung freely just above her knees.

She cast a glance back at Adariel's softly snoring form, then walked into the hall, running a hand through her disheveled white hair. Slinking toward the stairs on feet that made no sound, she paused before the room they'd used during their previous visit,

For a moment, she relived the events that had taken place in that room a few weeks and an eternity ago, realizing that this inn was probably the start of where she'd realized she actually wanted to pursue Xaphile Heseroph.

That room was where she'd given him her second kiss.

She offhandedly wondered if Martin had somehow managed to fix the crater in the floor that had been created by his magic, then wondered if people had been seriously troubled by the earthquake he'd caused.

No bridges had collapsed, but she'd heard that an old building that had been around for hundreds of years had crumbled.

She shook her head clear and continued walking, traipsing right down the stairs.

The tavern area was completely empty aside from a shirtless figure with enormous black wings jutting out of his back leaning over a table in the corner of the room.

It was Xaphile.

In front of him was a mug of some sort of drink, but he looked just as frazzled and drunk as she still felt.

Rubbing the back of her neck, she made her way over and sat down opposite him, folding her arms on the table so she could pillow her head on them.

He glanced up with a start when she sighed, pupils little more than catlike slits before the tension left his shoulders.

"You're still awake?" he glumly asked. "I thought you'd have been out by now."

"I couldn't sleep," she admitted, wincing. "It's such a waste, too, since we leave at noon today. I'm almost ashamed of myself since we're foolishly missing our last opportunity to sleep lying down until we reach Nimika."

"Yup," he muttered, and when he sighed, a wave of painful emotion crested into her body from his with a familiar blue tingle. "Can't be helped though. I have too much on my mind."