The Devil's Cursed Witch

"Tell me what is wrong," were his next words, sounding sharp and impatient, and she flinched in his arms. She looked at him with teary eyes and shook her head, as if she decided she didn't want to tell him.

Draven wanted to hit himself. This person was his mate and not one of his subjects who he could order around. He was not used to being gentle but he had long realized that acting as he usually did to his servants wouldn't work on his mate.

'She's not below me but my equal. I do not want her to fear me.'

He realized he should be softer to her, and today, he scolded himself that he should try harder in order to get her to trust him. As he thought of those, he once again removed the black gloves from his hands and tenderly held her face, wiping the tears from her eyes with his thumbs.

"I mean... you should tell me what happened so I can help you," he said while idly putting her loose hair behind her ears so he could see her expression better. He struggled to put his honest thoughts into words she could understand. "If you are hurt, I will make you feel better. If you are confused, I will try to answer your questions. I want you to trust me. Let me help you."

She stared at him for a while before hesitantly opening her mouth.

"...purple eyes..." she mumbled.

"Purple eyes?" he repeated after her. "Did you dream of someone with purple eyes?"

"Yes. I saw a woman with purple eyes...she...I don't know who she is...." She once again clutched her chest. "It's confusing...I don't know what it is...I feel like something from me has been snatched away... I feel empty as if what was taken away was very important to me ...It hurts...It feels empty here...I don't know what it is but I want it back..."

Ember kept clutching her chest, like she had lost something precious to her and the act of remembering her nightmare was causing her physical pain. She continued to cry while burying her face in his chest.

Draven could not understand what her dream was about, but all he knew now was there was a purple-eyed woman who caused her pain.

'Is that her enemy?' he wondered. 'If that dream is a memory similar to mine, then does that mean that Ember's memory is sealed along with her powers? Will she remember more if the divine seal is broken?'

Once Ember had calmed and returned to her right state of mind, he decided to ask her properly.

======

Meanwhile, after leaving Ember in Draven's care, Morpheus returned to his residence in Redcrest, the land ruled by the feathered race. He was still shocked by what he had seen. He doubted what he had sensed from that human, but he was just beside her. His senses could not be mistaken.

'Then how could she possess such a strong power of the fire attribute?'

He lay in his bed and stared at the ceiling of his nest-shaped home.

'How can a human have powers?'

He felt like he had a bad dream and wished to erase it from his mind.

'Has the continent changed that much? I know I have been cooped up in Agartha for some time, but I've been alive for a thousand years. Humans from then and now shouldn't have changed to that extent.

'During the council meetings,  the representatives of the races never raised any questions about her constitution being human. Be it Halifax, Leeora, Cornelia, or my uncle, everyone thought the same. Was there a mistake?'

Morpheus frowned as he tried to remember the talks he heard from the council.

'It's impossible, and even more impossible was the fact that no one could catch it. If she's not human, there wouldn't even be a need for those meetings in the first place. She would have been accepted as a supernatural being...'

He thought about something. Draven's reaction when he saw Ember using her powers on the balcony.

'He didn't look surprised at all. Has he been aware of how special that human is all this time? Did he mark her knowing she is not human?' His brain felt like it would explode from all the unanswered questions he had. 'If he knew, then Leeora also...?' He shook his head. 'Leeora would have mentioned something to me.' If she knew Ember is not human, then she would not have said she is one. Instead, Leeora would have chosen to stay quiet instead of lying.

He then thought about Ember's reaction after she used her powers. 'Though she told me she could use a shapeshifting spell, she was shocked by what she did to those butterflies. Seems like she was not aware of her ability to use fire. I don't believe it was simply an act.

'There is more to her and I need to know. For that, I need to meet that annoying dimwit of a dragon.'

After he decided on his next step, he then closed his eyes with a deeper frown.

'Even if she isn't human, I should not care. Why am I so concerned about her? She is not even my mate...Mate?'

He remembered when she asked if he was her mate too. He was shocked, but somehow, he liked that thought. For the first time ever in his life, he liked that word 'Mate' being associated with him.

Morpheus remembered how he could not say 'no' when she repeated her question and simply dodged it, leaving her unanswered.

'Why didn't I say no? What was I expecting? That human...has she bewitched me? Now I think about it, I always feel pulled towards her eyes. Did she bewitch me using her eyes? No wonder I cannot stop going to her. Whatever I try, I end up finding excuses to approach her.'

He once again frowned at the way his thoughts were leading him to something useless.

Memories of their encounters flashed before his eyes. The first time he laid his eyes on her that time he found her wandering towards the cliff, the emptiness he saw in her emerald green eyes when she decided to end her life and he saved her, that shy smile on her face when he visited her home in Ronan and confirmed their friendship, even that time he carried her in his arms as he flew over the skies of Agartha, distracting her by touring above the Forest of the Elves before bringing her to the palace...

'She seems innocent. I cannot blame her like this. I should just stop thinking about anything and wait to meet that Dragon again. Till then, I should meet Leeora and ask her about this. I am sure she knows something.'

====

Once again you all can thank reader Despina for this bonus chapter. ^_^