The Devil's Cursed Witch

When Ember stepped out of her chamber, her attention was on her dress rather than her surroundings. She had to carefully hold her long flowy skirt in her hands so she wouldn't trip over her dress.

'Bear it for a day,' she consoled herself. 'From tomorrow onwards, I'll refuse to wear such a long dress.'

Because her mind was focused on keeping herself upright, she thoughtlessly crossed the grand hallways without any particular direction in mind. She had seen a number of servants on the lower floors yesterday, but this particular part of the palace was empty, without a soul in sight.

'This is more comfortable for me, actually.'

The carpeted hallway had huge glass windows on one side which had their panels open, allowing plenty of sunlight and fresh air to enter inside the palace. With each step of hers echoing, those long curtains seemingly moved along it.

Chirp, chirp?

Suddenly, Ember stopped in place. Hearing such a playful chirping voice, she turned around to search for its source. The flapping of the wings caught her sight, and she saw an adorably small bird flying in the hallway, taking random stops on various spots along the wall, especially where the lamps were hung.

'Did it enter by mistake?' she wondered and went towards it, but sensing her presence, it seemed frightened and fled from her. Without a thought, Ember followed that small bird despite struggling with her heeled shoes and that unbearably long skirt.

'I wonder what that bird is called. I remember Leeora mentioning the birds commonly nesting in the trees of Ronan. The brown ones are called sparrows, and the white ones are doves. This bird is white but it is too small to be a dove.'

Though it was flying several feet away from her, she could see it was one beautiful bird. Its body was covered in white feathers, with a yellow face and crest, and a long tail. The funny thing was that it seemed to have two red-orange spots on its cheeks, making it look like it was blushing.

Ember wished to see it closely and continued to follow it. Unknown to her, she had crossed the boundary between the southwest wing that belonged to her and the southeast wing that belonged to the King.

After a while, Ember realized the bird wasn't frightened--in fact, it seemed to be playing with her. It would land somewhere as if to rest, but once she came close, it would fly away again.

Ember didn't mind it, and she even forgot how troubled she was with her dress. All she wanted was to see this bird and touch it once it got tired of playing.

"Ah? Little bird, where are you going? Wait for me!"

The bird seemed to tease her before heading inside one of the rooms along the hallway. It appeared like one of the doors was left ajar, and the naughty bird entered through the small gap left between the door and the doorframe.

Ember stopped in front of the door, pouting that the bird was troubling her to this extent. She didn't even know in which part of the palace she was in.

'It should be fine to enter since I was allowed to explore the palace, right?'

She slowly, ever-so-quietly pushed the door open to take a peek if someone was inside, and she let out a sigh of relief when she sensed no one inside.

She opened it slightly, only enough for her small body to enter the chamber, and realized--

'That large canopy bed and that fancy chandelier on the ceiling, not to mention this soothing smell of the forest. Isn't this...?'

The chamber was familiar. In fact, she had even slept here. It was the King's chamber where Leeora said she had spent the past two days sleeping.

'Oh, no. Will he get mad if I intrude?'

Realizing this might land her in trouble, she was about to step back but the naughty white bird let out another adorable chirp.

Chirp, chirp?

That bird flew along the ceiling of the chamber and sat on the crystal chandelier in the centre.

Ember once again looked around the chamber to confirm it was vacant.

"Come down," she said in a low whisper as if she was a thief. "We shouldn't be here."

She raised one arm as if signalling him to sit on her hand, but it didn't make the bird come to her. Instead, it fled away towards another door connected to the bedchamber.

Ember sighed. 'That bird is so stubborn. I just want to see it close but it won't let me. I had never seen such a bird on the mountain nor in Ronan.'

In the end, she still braved coming inside to follow that bird. Once again she peeked through the slightly ajar door of the side chamber. She realized it was similar to hers, a stone chamber with a huge pool of water in the middle, though this seemed to be twice as big as hers. Everything was quiet, and no one was there. The water in the pool had steam coming out of it, but no one seemed to be using the pool.

She felt relieved and walked inside with light steps as she looked at the playful white bird that was hovering over the pool.

"Come on, let's leave before anyone else realizes we came in without permission," she said in a low voice as she walked closer to the pool. This time, the bird seemingly shivered in midair and hurried towards her arms.

She let out a surprised cry as she held the bird in the cup of her hands.

"You are so beautiful." She petted it with her other hand. "See, in the end, you still listened to me. Why were you flying here and there when in the end you--"

She was about to walk away while talking but---

Splash!

Someone emerged from the centre of the pool of water, startling Ember who reflexively turned her head to look at it.

The bird flew away in panic as if it had sensed danger, making Ember take a backward step and causing her feet to be entangled with her long skirt.

Splash!

An even louder splash happened as her body lost balance and toppled over the edge of the pool. She fell even before the person who came out of the water could get rid of the water from his face.

With a look of disbelief, he looked for the person who fell in the water and then saw a panicked human emerging from the water, gasping heavily as if she almost drowned.

Ember wiped the water from her face, only to see a pair of red eyes staring at her with bewilderment.

"Y-Y-Your..."

Draven looked at the human girl who made him lose sleep the entire night, forcing him to take an unnaturally long dive under the water to keep his mind and senses calm.

Just as he decided his mind was calm enough, this little mate of his was once again in front of him, putting all his efforts to waste.