The Devil's Cursed Witch

That woman from his dreams, since she shouldn't be a stranger but someone he cherished, then why was it in his earlier dreams, he had seen her holding a knife to his chest?

Was she an enemy? A lover? A lover turned enemy?

Though he couldn't answer that, there was something his intuition was telling him-- the closeness he had with her felt the same as what he felt with Ember.

'And why did Ember call me Raven? How did she know that name which I only heard in my dreams?'

A strange thought came to his mind as he remembered how Ember's face and the face of the woman in his dreams overlapped.

'What if rather than her ancestor...Ember is that very woman?'

He almost scoffed at how stupid he was being, yet he could not drive the strange feeling away.

'Though they looked different, their resemblance is too uncanny to say they are not the same person. But how can that be? Am I thinking too much or...?'

Draven could only let out a tired sigh as he pressed his lips against Ember's forehead, briefly closing his eyes.

'For thousands of years, I have roamed this continent without a memory of my past. Say, if my dreams are all from before I lost my memories, that would mean I had probably encountered a terrible tragedy that caused me to suffer memory loss. Then, what if I had family or friends back then? It wouldn't be impossible that something happened to them too.

'If the woman in my dreams is my lover, then did something happen to her...like dying... and she is reborn as Ember?'

The mere thought of that made Draven's chest tighten.

'There are too few clues and it's a large leap of logic, but that would explain a lot of the strange things about Ember, the only human in existence who can use magic, who also possesses a seal created by divine power.

'If so, then I need to discover what happened to me and her. For that...' His gaze turned determined. "I hope the seal on her powers lifts with the completion of the mate bond and those people come after her. Only then I can know who they are. If they had truly harmed her before, I will spare none of them.'

His eyes simmered with rage at the possibility that someone had hurt Ember before. He held her sleeping form closer, as if to assure himself that as long as he was living, nothing could ever hurt his little mate in this lifetime.

'My mate...'

Holding her slender form closer, Draven breathed in her lovely intoxicating scent and pecked on her forehead as he decided to sleep. An unusual sense of comfort spread over him, causing all his muscles to relax, as if nothing of his burdens existed at this moment.

'Is it because of her?'

There was not a single night, as far as he could remember, when he could have a peaceful sleep. It had been a habit of his to lay in bed for the sake of resting, but his beastly instincts had always been on alert, his body prepared to react at the smallest sign of danger or hostility. Despite the long period of peace the kingdom had witnessed for the past decades, Draven had never been at ease.

This had been the case even thousands of years ago, from the moment he had woken up without his memories. His mind would always be restless, trying to fill in what was missing, and there would always be this odd feeling that there was danger lurking everywhere. Whatever it was, he needed to find it out, whatever it was that was waiting for him.

On the rare occasions when he fell into a deep sleep, his recurring nightmares would descend, causing him to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat while harbouring the phantom pain of being stabbed in the heart.

So Draven had never had a night of sound sleep.

But now...

With his mate by his side, it was like everything fell into place, and before he knew it, he drifted to a peaceful, dreamless slumber.

By the time he opened his eyes, it was already morning. The entire chamber was filled with bright sunlight, and the first sight he saw caused a ghost of a smile to linger on his lips.

It was the sight of a beautiful face framed in a mess of long mahogany hair, its owner still in deep sleep, and he found it hard to move his gaze away. His hand seemingly had a mind of its own as it moved to caress her cheek, as if to make sure she was real and not a dream. He could not resist leaning close once more to leave a soft kiss on her forehead.

Careful not to wake her, he freed her from his hold and then he moved to look at the mark on her neck. It was supposed to change after the consummation of their bond and he was curious about its evolved appearance.

A content smile appeared on his lips as he looked at that mark on her neck which had a black dragon draped around the crimson blossom.

'Now everyone will know she is the Black Dragon's mate, that she belongs to me and me alone.'

Beside the crimson blossom mark seemed to be pink petals scattered all over her fair and delicate skin, and he almost chucked when he realized what they were. Love bites were everywhere around her neck and her shoulders, and as his gaze moved down to her chest, he even saw his teeth marks.

He touched those bruise-like marks with his fingers. 'I hope they won't hurt.' Then a thought came to his mind as he recalled her pained expression and her weak efforts to get away from him. 'Did I scare her last night? I hope not.'

As he admired the marks he left on her body, his mind could not help but wonder.

'With our mate bond completed, the seal on her powers must have been broken by now.'

Curious about the consequences this would have brought, he could not help but feel the heavy burden added to his shoulder. He had already decided that whatever happens now, he would face it head-on while ensuring that his mate remains safe. He covered her sleeping form with a blanket up to her shoulder before stepping out of bed. He then picked up his pants that were left lying on the carpeted floor and wore them.

'Seems like she won't wake up soon.'