SPELLBOUND

Evie was so curious within the protective confines of her thick and furry coat, because it had already been a while since they have left and yet Gavriel was still running and leaping. She could tell they had already left Dacria and by now she was certain they were already quite far from the city.

Anticipation bloomed in her chest, maybe because this was the first time in a long while she was going out of the secluded city. And he also said he was going to bring her somewhere magical.

A long while later, Gavriel finally halted but he did not immediately put her down on the ground. He had kept her tucked securely in his arms as he walked.

"Where are we?" Evie asked, it was dark, but she could tell that they were in a thick forest.

"We're now at the border of the Northern empire and Crescent Land."

Evie's eyes immediately widened with shock and alarm. From what she had heard, the Crescent Land, also known as the forbidden land was the most dangerous place in the entire Lirea. It was a land formed in a crescent shape and it was located between the Northern Empire and Eastern Empire.

The Crescent land was called the forbidden lands for a reason. No human would ever dare to set foot in the land because it was where the large and most ferocious of beasts live. It was said that even the vampires themselves would avoid it as much as possible. And only elite knights were brave enough to go on an expedition to investigate the land.

It had also been said that beasts residing in this land were magical and Evie knew that this was the place where the dragon live as well. When Evie had asked her father long ago where do his dragon live, he had told her it always return to the forbidden land.

She had always been curious on what kind of place would this forbidden land be and why did the beasts and the dragon never leave this place. Especially the dragon, it could go anywhere since they have wings to fly and bring them anywhere else, but it never leave unless a dragon guardian summons it.

This land had always been a mystery to the humans and since none of the humans were brave enough to investigate it, they have little to no information about this mysterious land. And their hands were pretty occupied in their war against the vampires, so they barely paid any attention to this strange place where creatures much more dangerous than the vampires resides.

And now, she was actually here at the borders of these lands? She was about to set foot in this forbidden land?!

Gavriel saw the look of horror and surprise in Evie's eyes, and he smiled.

"It's okay love, the beasts don't come out to this particular area for some reason." Gavriel said. "I discovered this place back then. When I was running away from the horde of beasts, I stumbled into this place and for some reason they just stopped chasing as if there was an invisible barrier holding them back. I also tried this before when I came back here with my men, and it seemed my observation back then was proven right. The beasts cannot set foot in this area. And I'm guessing because this place might be truly special."

"I heard before from Caius that you went to a journey…" Evie replied after absorbing the intriguing information Gavriel had told her.

"Yes… the emperor suddenly sent me to this place most probably hoping that I would die from the attacks of the beasts here and never return again." Gavriel shrugged a little and as Evie's expression became grave, Gavriel laughed mockingly, "Little did he know that I've been here before and survived."

Evie exhaled. The anger that rose within her faded at Gavriel's haughty tone.

"Does the emperor always send vampires to this place?"

"Yes."

"Why? To fight the beasts?"

"No. To search for the nest of the dragons."

His answer made Evie fall silent for a moment. The mention of the dragon made her feel something strange. It felt like worry… and she did not know why. Was she worried about her father's dragon?

Evie shook her head to clear her thoughts. "W-why? He wants to kill the dragon?"

Gavriel halted for a moment and stared at her before he continued walking. "Yes. He couldn't accept that the humans can use them as their weapons, so he always sends the best soldiers to go find them. And kill them."

"Did they… find the nest?"

"No. None of the vampires ever found the dragons' nests. Aside from the deadly journey and battles against all sort of beasts, only few vampires had ever managed to reach farther inside the land. I and my men managed to reach the heart of the land but…" Gavriel paused, "there were many dragons guarding it."

Evie's eyes circled. "Dragons?" she repeated.

Evie thought that there was only one dragon. The dragon her father was summoning was always the same one. And when the guardians summon, there was only one dragon that responds to that summons.

Gavriel was not surprised that even the daughter of the dragon's guardian did not know about this. There was no way for the humans to know because none of them tried to set foot in this land. They were much more focused on the vampires that they did not even think about the possibility that the guardian could probably enter this land with the help of his dragon. But then again, he could not blame the humans for being extra cautious. The guardian was still just a human after all so they could not afford the risk especially since they were always in a war.

"Yes. I've seen more than two dragons during the journey into the inner lands. And I believe there are more of them that we have not seen." He told her and Evie's lips parted with shock.