The Devil's Cursed Witch

“She is my mate, and even if she suffers, it is none of your concern. She suffers, she dies or whatever, that has nothing to do with you.”

“Do I need the King’s permission to have the right to be concerned? Are you treating her not as a person but as an object you owned?” Morpheus enjoyed the murderous expression on Draven’s face. “Tell me, how can I not be concerned about her when she smells so good? I simply cannot stop myself,”

Draven gritted his teeth at the evil words he said, “You don’t deserve to be her friend.”

“Why? Did I do something wrong?”

“You know better than me whether what you did is wrong or not.”

But Morpheus was unrepentant. “So tell me, what did I do wrong?”

Seeing him continue to provoke him, Draven’s last patience snapped.

Another reason Draven let Morpheus be with his mate was not only because  Ember needed a friend, but due to his lingering guilt for Morpheus himself. He felt guilt over how his past mistake ruined his former comrade, and that was why he allowed their friendship. For the first time, he witnessed the shapeshifter show interest in something aside from his revenge.

“I thought your friendship with her might help you out of your obsession for revenge. I thought you won’t at least break her trust in you, but you simply don’t deserve it…”

Morpheus coughed out blood and started to laugh in disbelief.

“So Your Majesty was making up for the loss of my family and my loneliness by letting me borrow his mate…? Do you hear yourself? Do you honestly–ah!” He spat out the blood from his mouth and continued, “Hah…You sure are so funny, Draven…you got me…”

Morpheus broke the invisible power pinning him to the wall and fell on a single knee as he gasped for breath. He was mumbling words in between each gasp, and Draven had no problem catching what he was saying.

“…I wonder why did I even stop? I should have just… gone ahead with it…tsk…sad that she stopped me, I did not try to seduce her… But now I really regret it. With little push, she would have felt it impossible to resist me… When someone is in heat, they tend to lose their mind…”

Crash!

Once again, the badly battered body of the shapeshifter was thrown against the side of the mountain, and this time, Draven didn’t stop with just one or two–he threw him, again and again, using his powers.

It only ended when Morpheus’ body broke through the rocks and ended up sliding inside a random cave, his body leaving a harsh trail of overturned rocks on the ground. His entire body was covered in blood and he looked like he had no strength left in him.

“Haa…it hurts…but not enough…”

Morpheus heard steady footsteps echoing inside the cave, the sound getting louder as it approached him, and he slightly turned his face to look at the furious Draven glaring down at him.

Despite having his entire face covered in blood to the point he’s nearly unrecognizable, he still smiled at him, the trademark lopsided smile he wore that felt especially mocking on his face.

“Is that it…? But…am still alive…tsk…You still can’t kill me…?”

Morpheus’s body was already in such a miserable state, but that did not stop him from continuing to provoke Draven. The once proud warrior was panting, many of his ribs broken, and he could barely open his eyes, his ash grey hair dyed red with his own blood, yet the broad grin on his face remained.

“If this…all… you got, Your Majesty–cough!”

Blood was pooling on the ground underneath his body, but there was not a tinge of pain on his face. He even seemed entertained by the situation.

“…her lips…sweet…should have…kissed her…more…”

It was as if the world had become white for Draven, and by the time his senses returned, Morpheus was no longer on the ground and there was a new gaping hole on the walls of the cave.

Draven took slow strides towards where he could hear the shapeshifter’s gasps for air. Upon entering the hole, he found himself in another cave, one that looked like it had been someone’s residence at one point in time.

It was the cave that belonged to Morpheus’ sister, and the man’s already weak body was sprawled on the ground. He seemed to have collided against the shelves, causing the shelves to topple over and the things on them to scatter around him.

Draven bothered with nothing else other than that half-dead eagle letting out amused chuckles amidst his groans of pain. He continued to walk forward, but just after a few steps, he stopped as his black boots nearly stepped on an item that looked familiar to him.

A pendant necklace made of colourful woven threads.

Draven looked at it and gestured with his fingers for it to fly into his hand. The small circular pendant was made of redwood, and a pair of large wings were carved on its centre. It was an identity token, and Draven knew who it belonged to.

A young woman as radiant as the sun, long hair like silk spun out of gold.

The images of her innocently smiling face flashed in front of his eyes, and it was as if the sounds of her giggles echoed in his ears. But in a split second, those images and sounds were replaced by her face crying in grief, her lovely voice broken as she sobbed and begged.

Those were memories he had long buried in his mind. Draven closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to put them back in place, but the more he tried to ignore them, the heavier the weight in his chest became.

Draven looked around the cave which he had turned into a mess, but as his gaze landed on the familiar items inside, the more the memories he tried to bury turned vivid. The paintings on the wall, the decorations on the side, and the things scattered on the ground, all of them triggered a particular memory of their owner.

No matter where he looked, every inch of that cave reminded him of its owner.

“Don’t… touch…” he managed to say, “…give it…back…you monster…” Morpheus struggled to keep the last strand of his consciousness when he recognized what Draven was holding. He tried to crawl towards Draven, his broken arm reaching out to get from him that pendant necklace.

Draven glanced at that token in his hand and then looked at Morpheus forcing himself despite his wrecked body.

It was then that Draven realized what he had done. He was blinded by his anger that he thought of killing the one person he shouldn’t kill.

With his body leaving a trail of blood, Morpheus somehow reached him, but his body was too damaged for him to do anything else. Draven crouched down to put that wooden token that belonged to his sister on his bloodied hand.

Morpheus clutched it tightly in his fist and mumbled, “You…don’t deserve…touch…hers…”

Morpheus closed his eyes as the last of his strength left him. Tears appeared at the corners of his eyes as he mumbled the name of the owner of that pendant necklace.

“…Myra…”

Draven lowered his head and let out an anguished groan as he heard Morpheus call out the name of the person who had become a taboo between them.

He could not help but feel suffocated by the onslaught of long forgotten emotions threatening to erupt out of him.

‘I should not have…’

Looking at the broken body lying at his feet, he was hit by a deeper regret. He knew what Morpheus wanted, and he knew what Morpheus was doing. He should have known better than to be provoked.

‘Myra, I let you down.’

Draven continued to kneel there for a while as he had his eyes closed.

‘I had promised her I would take care of her older brother but…Myra…what have I done?’

He felt even more suffocated and didn’t know how to deal with it. He had no mortal wound, but he was in pain and could not figure out where exactly it hurt. It was as if his entire body was dragging him down, further down, into a swamp he could neither understand nor ignore.

Why was he hurting like this?

An eternity seemed to have passed before Draven found himself composed enough to realize the unconscious man on the ground needed immediate attention.

‘…I need to have him healed.’

—–

Morpheus regained his consciousness after some time and found himself lying on top of a stack of hay covered with thick hide. After several seconds of confusion, he realized he was still inside his sister’s cave.

‘How long had I been out? A day? Several days?’

As an experienced battle-hardened warrior, he knew precisely how bad his injuries were and could somehow guess how fast it would take for him to recover naturally. Though he could still feel the pain in his body, it was not much.

‘I should have slept for at least five days…’ He tried to lift an arm. ‘This…No way…’

He discovered that his body was covered in bandages and his fractured shoulder was wrapped in a thick bandage with a splint attached to not let it move. Realizing he had not been abandoned as he initially thought, he let his eyes roam around the cave that was lit with a lamp. Though the walls were still broken, he could see that the broken shelves were disposed of and the things inside had been tidied up on one side.

His gaze moved towards the entrance of the cave where his sharp eyes could see the familiar figure of someone, seemingly facing outside.

Morpheus sighed and lay his head back.

‘Unlucky. Why is he the first thing to come into my sight the moment I wake up?’

Draven sensed him waking up and he returned inside the cave to look at Morpheus. Draven could only do basic healing, but as someone who had also gone to war, he was able to manage this much even without an elixir or potion.

“It’s been a night,” Draven spoke with his normal dignified tone. “Buy yourself a potion after and you will be fine in a day or two.”

Morpheus scoffed at him. “Do you want me to thank you?”

Draven didn’t react to it and said, “I am leaving. Stay here until your bones mend back and don’t attempt to fly.”

Morpheus raised a brow. “Why? Are you worried that I will take your mate away?”

“You can try it once you are fine,” Draven said and turned to leave.

His reply surprised Morpheus. Instead of getting offended, this Dragon just brushed him off, acting all cool about it.

“You better not regret it,” Morpheus said in a loud voice.

Draven still didn’t turn to look at him until he disappeared from his line of sight.

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Bonus Chapter dedicated to reader “RMehrotra”. Thank you for the supergift. ^_^