Hellbound With You (WN)

Alicia's mouth hung with her lips slightly parted. She was temporarily incapacitated, and her face washed blank with utter confusion. Wife? Could it be that he was talking about Abigail?!

"A wife? What's her name?" she asked. Her eyes intrigued and expectant as she started at him.

Zeres's smile slowly faded, but his expression turned soft and nostalgic. "Abigail," he then uttered, rendering Alicia speechless once again.

Her gaze flew to the cloaked man, but she couldn't even see his face because of his hood. He didn't even move nor glance at her despite clearly hearing what Zeres just said. It seemed this vampire prince already know everything for him to act like he heard nothing.

Trying her best to hide her expression, Alicia's eyes wandered around. She tried to refocus and secretly took a deep breath before she looked at Zeres again.

Alicia was sure that something was so wrong with all this. There was no way that was true. She had heard Abi's story, and it was clear that Zeres love for Abigail remained unrequited until the day he died. Zeres, marrying Abigail, was just impossible. Did Dinah lie to him?

However, looking at his thoughtful expression, Alicia shook her head inwardly. She could tell that he seemed to be recalling some sweet memories, so the only possible reason that Alicia could think right then was someone definitely gave him false memories. And a powerful spell like that can't be performed just by any witch. That thought made Alicia clenched her fists. Because aside from the former queen, there were only two witches that she knew who could perform that spell.

"I want you to help me locate her." Zeres moved closer to her and held her hand, his eyes pleading. "Once I'm reunited with her, I will bring you back to the Dark Forest and will not bother you again. I promise."

Alicia peered at him through her beautiful silver lashes, surveying his face again. After a long while, she let out a sigh.

"Let me look at her face first," she said, and Zeres immediately nodded.

"Of course," he grabbed her wrist and dragged her towards the room at the end of the corridor.

Somehow, Alicia was glad that his room at least didn't look like a fairy's room again. A crystal ball was shining on the bedside table, and there were old books piled up on the floor in almost every corner.

Zeres led her towards the crystal ball, and they both stood before it. "This crystal ball is good enough for you to use, right?" he asked her. Alicia could only nod. She knew that this crystal ball was one of the previous queen's important possession that was stolen from Dark Forest a few months ago. Of course, Alicia already knew who the culprit was and she was still hunting them.

"A witch gave you this?" she still asked.

"Yes. That witch used this to locate my wife, but when she failed to see anything, she left it here."

"I see." Alicia's gaze turned cold for a fraction of a second. "Okay, shall we start?"

Zeres then sat on a chair, facing the crystal ball while Alicia stood behind him. She took another deep breath and closed her eyes before she slowly placed her hands an inch above his head.

Once the silver glow appeared from her hands, Alicia opened her eyes and stared at the crystal ball. A hazy image was being formed in the crystal ball.

And then there it was, his false memories. The false memories were showing Abigail and Zeres' simple wedding in a forest and then their happy moments together. Everything was a complete lie from the beginning to the end that Alicia felt pissed and angered just by watching. She was angry because it was not easy to break this spell. The only way to break this spell was if the individual remembered his real memories. In fact, this was one of the hardest and trickiest spell to undo because the trigger in remembering the real memories differs from each individual.

In Alex's case, it seemed Abigail easily made him remember. But would that work with Zeres? What if meeting Abi will make him remember?

As Zeres' false memories continued appearing in the crystal ball, Alicia sneakily tried to delve somewhere else. Normally, witches could only see the memories that the owner would allow them to see. But witch queens could forcefully see what they wanted to see, whether or not the individual allow it. And the good thing was that they could do it without the invididual realizing it.

Alicia was certain that Zeres knew this common knowledge, yet he let her do this with no hesitation. Was he really not hiding anything from her? Or did he really trust her this much?

She closed her eyes again. Something was bugging her since a while ago. Just what happened to this half-witch before he woke up outside this castle three months ago?

The crystal ball then blinked and something else replaced the false memories. However, what she saw first was nothing but pure darkness. Alicia frowned, but she didn't give up. She knew that finding the memories she wanted to see wasn't easy since the owner wasn't thinking about it at the moment. She didn't have the time to start from the very beginning for her to see everything, so her only choice was to pick randomly where to start.

For the second time, the crystal ball blinked again, but to Alicia's dismay, what she saw was again the same pitch black image. What was wrong? Could it be that Zeres was sleeping in the past 22 years after he got separated from Dinah?

Alicia made the crystal ball blink once again, but there was still nothing. She gritted her teeth because Zeres was now moving. He might open his eyes real soon yet she still couldn't see a thing!

One last time, Alicia made the crystal ball blink again. Her eyes stared hard at it with great anticipation, hoping that it will finally show something, anything. But then, what appeared was another pure darkness.

Disappointment painted Alicia's face, and she was finally about to stop when her eyes widened. She couldn't see anything, but she heard Zeres' voice. Witches couldn't listen to voices when they were watching someone from afar using their crystal ball, but what Alicia was doing with Zeres was a different story. Powerful witches, especially the queens, could also hear voices in someone's memories.

"Stop…" said the voice in her head. Although the voice sounded weak and forced, Alicia knew the voice was definitely Zeres'. Why did he sound like he's in pain?

Alicia's expression turned grave as she started to hear faint sounds from the background. Soft sounds of metals and voices of men echoed. She couldn't understand anything because the sounds were just barely reaching Zeres' consciousness. What was going on? Where was he? Were people surrounding him?

Questions were piling up as Alicia anxiously waited for what she would hear next. She was already running out of time! Zeres will realize what she was doing if she takes any longer than this!

She was almost holding her breath when finally, she heard Zeres' voice again.

"Stop cutting me… it's painful…" he uttered in an agonized voice.