The Devil's Cursed Witch

The flight towards the palace was uneventful. Normally, Morpheus would delay reaching the palace in order to spend more time with Ember, but after what happened, the shapeshifter dared not pull any petty trick and wanted to make sure he would be long gone before she woke up.

Rather than bringing her to the front door and alarming all the servants of the palace,  Morpheus opted to land on the balcony of Ember's study. He carried her inside and took her towards her chambers.

"Miss!"

Ember's servants were pacing back and forth in the hallway outside. When Ember left, she had forgotten to inform them, causing them to panic when she went missing.  Fortunately, they spotted a gray feather that had fallen on the balcony, and they guessed that their master might have left with Morpheus.

Reya and Clio had been impatiently waiting for her to return, and if Morpheus had arrived a bit later, they would have already reported her disappearance to Yula.

Though they were relieved that Ember had returned, seeing her unconscious in Morpheus' arms, the two elves panicked.

"W-What happened to Miss Ember, Commander?"

"Is something wrong with the Miss?"

Morpheus first carried Ember to her bed. Once he made sure she was comfortable after covering her with a blanket up to her shoulders, only then did he answer, "She was affected by the scent of Glass Mist Flowers but there is nothing to worry about. Antidote has been given to her and she will wake up in a while."

The two elves felt relieved, and after Morpheus left the bedchamber, only then did they check on their master.

"How is her pulse?" Reya asked her younger cousin.

"It's normal."

"Commander Morpheus said Miss would be fine, so I guess I can leave you here to watch over Miss while I take care of our other tasks."

"No problem. I will wait for her to wake up," Clio said while Reya nodded.

However, Ember continued to sleep throughout the entire afternoon, and even after Reya returned to check if she should bring Ember's dinner, the human girl remained unconscious.

When Draven returned to the palace that night, the first thing he wanted to do was to see his mate but his current appearance was not presentable. Once again, there was blood on his clothes, exposing the fact that he had returned after dealing with enemies. He had found an important clue about what he was searching for.

'The blood on my clothes might scare her.'

Draven chose to bathe first as he didn't wish for Ember to see him like this. After cleaning himself, he wore fresh clothes and tossed the bloodstained clothes to Erlos.

Erlos held those dirty clothes in his hands, noticing from the size of the stains how much trouble Draven had gone through. "Sire, is there a war I didn't know going on somewhere? Or else, what kind of beings made you spill their blood and bring death to themselves?"

"A useless being," Draven replied nonchalantly.

"Sure. Everyone is useless in an almighty dragon's eyes," Erlos commented as he rolled his eyes.

The young elf was about to leave when he heard his master mutter, "Not everyone. You are not included in that everyone."

Erlos froze in his steps, and he turned around to look at his master in disbelief. The red-eyed man  had just finished wearing his clothes, acting as if he had not spoken out of character.

"Are you alright, Sire? Did you get injured in the head?"

What happened to Draven for him to spout such cringey words?

"No. I am starving. Get me a nice meal," Draven replied.

Could Dragons turn silly if they're starving? Or maybe, like in stories, a person suddenly finds out he has a terminal illness--

Erlos understood his master didn't wish to talk, and went to say a quick, "Will get it right away, Sire," as he left.

After Draven made sure not a whiff of blood could be smelled from his body, he disappeared from his room, only to appear in front of his mate's chamber. He was welcomed by the servant who happened to step out of the door at the same time. Clio immediately bowed to the King.

"Your Majesty."

Reya, who heard it, also looked at them and bowed to the King who stepped inside the bedchamber without a word. To his surprise, he found his mate sleeping despite the night still being young.

Even before he could ask anything, his senses got alert, his nose capturing various scents--the stench of medicine being the strongest, then the fragrance of flowers, along with one which should not be there. A scent that made him furrow his brows--Morpheus' scent.

Worse, it was a male scent so deep a terrible image of how it came about immediately sprung inside Draven's mind.

The two elf servants immediately felt their knees weaken at the outburst of  dangerous aura being emitted by the King. They felt their hearts nearly stop upon seeing his frosty expression.

"Y-Your Majesty, Commander Morpheus brought Miss back--"

Despite her fear, Reya explained why Ember was asleep but Draven didn't react to her words and simply disappeared from the bedchamber.

His dangerous aura exploded at a certain steep cliff at the peak of one of the highest mountains in the southern mountain range surrounding Agartha.

The sound of mocking laughter greeted Draven's arrival.

"What took you so long? I have been waiting for you."

Draven glared at the back of the shapeshifter who was sitting leisurely at the edge of the cliff. Morpheus looked over his shoulder to stare at him.

"That face...Seems like you already smelled me on her."

Draven clenched his fists and attacked, but Morpheus was quick enough to stretch his wings and dodge. Half a second later, there was a clash of powers on that mountain cliff.

Their bodies collided with each other and the repulsive force threw them backwards, cracking the rocky ground with their feet leaving deep gully-like imprints.