The Devil's Cursed Witch

Inside Ember’s bed-chamber, only the sounds of Reya’s and Clio’s movements could be heard.

They had given her the vitality potion as per the King’s order in order to relieve the side effects of her magic exhaustion, and then they proceeded to clean her body from sweat.

However, even after an hour had passed by, Ember continued to remain unconscious. Her servants, who were waiting for her to wake up, could not help but worry for her.

Clio was still a bit better; she tried to distract herself by wiping the dustless furniture and tidying up the chamber again and again. On the other hand, Reya was pacing around to the point that her younger cousin was getting dizzy, her angry rambling the dominant sound echoing inside the chamber.

“Why isn’t Miss waking up?”

“Should we inform Dame Yula to send in a healer just in case?”

“Maybe one bottle of potion isn’t enough? Should I request one more?”

“This is the Young Lady’s fault! I know she’s bad luck! As soon as she comes back to the palace, this happens—”

The rest of her words were swallowed the moment they felt movement in the bed and the two servants hurried to check on Ember. However, instead of joy, the elves felt panic.

Rather than seeing her rousing from sleep, they found Ember restlessly turning in bed, her face pale and dotted with cold beads of sweat.

“Miss? Miss, can you hear me?” Reya asked but there was no response.

Nightmare.

“Looks like Miss is having a nightmare,” Clio said.

Reya put her hand on Ember’s arm to wake her up, but the moment she touched Ember, she retracted her hand as if she had touched something that she should not have. Despite the fabric between their skin, she felt her burning up.

“Why is Miss’s body temperature so high?” Reya mumbled. “She didn’t have a fever earlier!”

Clio reached out as well, and this time, she touched Ember’s hand. She flinched. “It’s not normal to have such a high temperature even for our kind. For a human with a weaker body, this should be really dangerous.”

“We need to inform His Majesty.”

Just as Clio said those words, they heard the door slam open and saw Draven entering his mate’s chamber with quick strides.

Because of what happened, Draven had expanded his senses to pay particular attention to the unconscious girl. Though he could not detect Ember herself with his powers, it was easy for him to check on her servants from time to time despite him being in his study.

The same moment he sensed the female elves’ agitation, he felt something was not right with their mate bond. This only happens whenever he sensed her powers were about to surface, and that meant something dangerous could happen to Ember once again.

Without a delay, he went to her chamber, and as expected, something was not right with her.

The moment they saw the King, Clio and Reya stepped away from the bed.

Draven touched Ember’s forehead and found her body temperature higher than normal—no, that was saying it lightly. Her entire body was burning up.

Even though he was already by her side, she continued to turn and toss restlessly, and the beads of sweat dotted her forehead. She looked like she was having another terrible nightmare.

‘Is it related to her seal?’ He caressed her cheeks. “Ember, wake up. Can you hear me?”

There was no response from her even though he called out to her once more. Draven tried to wake her up but could not get her out of the nightmare, and her high temperature was worrying.

He climbed the bed and held her body in his embrace.

“Ember? You can hear me, can’t you? Wake up. I am here. There is no need to be afraid, It’s just a nightmare…”

He continued to caress her head gently while saying the same thing over and over again.

Ever since he began to learn the consequences of Ember’s powers leaking from its seal, Draven had somewhat expected troublesome times ahead. He had never been weak, and never been powerless. As a person used to using his overwhelming strength to deal with his problems, it was exceptionally difficult for him to be in a position where he was helpless, unable to do anything but hope for time to pass.

At this moment, he didn’t know what was going on with his mate. He had no idea what he should do to help her. No medicine or potion was going to work on her, and he could only rely on the power of their mate bond to at least ease her suffering.

The two servants initially wanted to ask Draven whether they should call Yula or someone else, yet witnessing him holding his mate in his arms made them unable to speak up. Their shock grew when they heard him speak to Ember in such a tender manner.

Standing by the doorway, they awkwardly looked at each other, not knowing what to do, but in the end, they decided to leave the pair of mates on their own. They decided to go out of the chamber, knowing that King would take care of his mate and call for them if he needed their presence. They silently closed the door behind them and stood outside.

Minutes slowly crawled without them knowing the situation inside.

“I wonder what is wrong with Miss,” Reya could not help but say as she fidgeted outside the door. “Remember that time she passed out while having a bath?”

Clio could only sigh. “Whatever it is, I hope she can recover soon…”

The sounds of approaching footsteps caused the elves to shut their mouths. Several seconds later, they saw a beautiful young woman in a pink long robe approach them. The two bowed before her.

“Greetings, Young Lady Isa,” they both greeted her.

“Announce my visit to your master.”

“Young Lady Isa, apologies but Miss is resting and will not receive guests at the moment,” Clio informed her courteously.