Empire of Eternals (Book 1 of The Eternal Series) ✔️

Chapter 15 | Trip Down Guilt Lane

A few days later, Naarden, Main Street

***Aiden Sullivan POV***

I walked down the busy street, admiring the shops as the 2 men followed closely behind me. I had planned on going into town today; buying Adriana a gift. There was no special occasion, but buying her a gift was a way of saying 'thank you' for what she did for me. If she didn't, I would have had my memory wiped and be in some other corner of the world, clueless.

I didn't have a license. I was planning on getting one after Kristopher's threat was over. So, I had called over a taxi. But, it never arrived. Amara's men outside were under strict orders to not let any one of us out of their sight. Instead, they had driven me into town, much to my discomfort.

I halted in-front of a flower shop, the bright colours filling in the white building as they danced vibrantly. This seemed like a good gift. The only problem was that I wasn't particularly good at buying flowers for a special person.

I didn't know if Adriana even liked flowers. I hoped she did, she had grown flowers around her house. But, she could've just done it to not make the manor look too empty or bland from the outside.

Taking in a deep breath, I stepped into the building, my arm brushing the flowers on my right as I explored the shops, the footsteps of Amara's men closely behind me. I didn't need their protection; I had my magic. Despite not knowing about my magical heritage for 12 years of my life, I had mastered it to the extent that I could go one-on-one with someone for hours.

Roses

I didn't know much about flowers, but I knew that roses were the gift you'd get for a person you love. I mean, roses were meant to symbolise love, but, was I already in love with Adriana?

I might have just started talking Adriana for the past 2 weeks, but I noticed her on the first day of school; sitting there, her beautiful green eyes stuck on The Director as she listened to his speech.

It was as if the universe was trying to pull us together. I ended up in the same classes as her for the next 6 years, though only 4 were memorable. I remembered our first interaction; she asked me if I had the notes for our last class. It was a short conversation, but I still remembered it.

The way her voice was so low and gentle, her forest-green eyes looking at mine for the very first time, her fingers tapping my shoulders to get my attention; the memory of her first touch was imprinted in my mind.

As a kid, I thought nothing about it, but eventually, she caught my attention more and more. I found it hard to ignore her. I didn't want her to think I was stalking her or anything, so my natural instinct was to do everything I could to be away from her.

Rather than sitting on the desk next to her where I had been for years, I sat at the back of the classroom. I stopped going to the library because that's where she spent most of her time, her head buried in books as her eyes read the small words on the page, gracefully sitting on one of the many couches around the large area.

Before I knew it, I was mind-controlled and the person in my body was hunting her down. At first, I wasn't sure of what was happening; I thought it was a bad dream, something that happened once the school year came to an end. But the more time I spent captured in my own mind, the more of their plan was revealed.

The first thing they did to Adriana was drop the chandelier in the library on her. One of the couches was positioned right under the glass chandelier, and the same day at the same time Adriana came to the library to spend some of her free time.

A small muttering of a spell, a strange hand gesture, and before I knew it one of the screws on the chandelier became loose, allowing the large glass decorative to hang loosely before cutting through the thick air.