Hellbound With You

Black Forest.

”Queen Alicia is still in the crystal cavern.” A witch standing just inside the entrance of the great forest said with a worried look on her face. ”I am starting to worry. She never hid herself that long. It’s been four days and we have yet to see signs of her coming out of her seclusion.”

The other witch sighed. ”I wonder what is wrong this time. She had been confining herself since Zeres left.”

”You’re right. It started on that very same day...”

”But wasn’t she looking fine even after their fight? She even told us to let him do whatever it is that he wanted.”

”Then why did she suddenly end up going into solitary confinement all on her own? This is the first time she had ever stayed hidden from everyone since she became queen. It’s not like her to act like this.”

The other witches nodded. They knew that their queen wasn’t the type to shut herself away from her subjects. She would always come out and would meet up with them even when she had other important things to deal with. And that was why the witches adored her.

”Could it be that something really bad happened to her inside?” One of them said and everyone began to look distressed. They could not even force their way to go in and check on their queen because only the queens could enter the secret crystal cavern.

”What should we do? It’s really been too long. This is not something we can overlook. Someone must go in and check if she is fine.”

”But how? Nobody can enter the cavern!”

”I think there’s only one person we could ask to open the cavern.” One of them finally said this and the witches’ eyes widened. They all thought the same. He was no different from their queen so he must be capable of opening the cavern.

”I’ll go.” A young witch that had grown up in Alicia’s care, named Lilith, said. ”I know where to find him.”

After a long moment of indecision, the witches agreed that Lilith should go. Though she was young, she was very skilled in infiltrating and disguising herself. Moreover, if the vampires happen to catch her, they will not harm her because they will think that the young witch was just lost, or she was moving on her own out of ignorance and curiosity. The witches knew that because there have been cases like that in the past. And sometimes, there were even young vampires who actually dared enter the Black Forest out of curiosity. The witch queen always released the youngsters unharmed and that’s probably why the vampires also did the same.

And thus, the witches all agreed to let go Lilith go.

It didn’t take her long before Lilith manage to arrive at the forest near the Reign’s castle. She had disguised herself as one of the human maids and successfully entered the large castle. Lilith had tried infiltrating other vampires’ castles before, but not with the intention of doing anything bad or stealing anything. She simply did it to see if someone would actually take notice and end up catching her. If the vampires were truly superior and more powerful than the witches, as they always claimed they were, shouldn’t she have been caught multiple times already by now? The young girl was driven by curiosity and starving for adventures that she had become so skilled in her hobby of infiltrating into the places where there are vampires. And now that she had actually managed to infiltrate the dreaded Reign Castle, Lilith couldn’t help but smile triumphantly to herself.

It seemed she had overestimated the vampires. Getting herself into this place was supposed to be a challenge, but it ended up being a piece of cake.

However, her triumph and pleased thoughts only lasted a whole minute. She had just left the kitchen to go and look for Zeres when someone suddenly grabbed her, causing her heart to almost stop. A powerful arm lifted her, and she couldn’t even resist.

”What are you doing here, little witch?” the voice whispered in her ear and when she looked up, Lilith was startled. The first thing she saw were grey eyes. But what she at least knows is that those eyes belonged to a vampire royal. Oh no!

Lilith had always been told to avoid the royals at all cost because they were the ones who could recognize the witches with just one glance. Gritting her teeth, Lilith clenched her fist. She can’t be caught now. She must find that man and tell him about Queen Alicia.

While berating herself for being too careless, Lilith finally realized that royal vampire who caught her was as young as her. She thought that though he’s royalty, he was just a young boy. With that thought, Lilith silently chanted a spell and green-like light flared between them.

The boy stumbled backwards, Lilith was ready as she scrambled away and disappeared in a flash. ”Ugh!” he cursed but his lips curved into a smirk and his eyes turned red. ”How dare you escape from me, little witch!” he said, and he leapt.

Lilith had lost her disguise. Her blond hair now turned to the brightest shade of red and her appearance returned to her normal self – fair skinned and a spattering of freckles on the nose and cheeks. She hid herself behind a pillar as she steadied and slowed down her breathing. She was already on the third floor, but she still couldn’t see the silver-haired man.

Realizing that she didn’t have much time to spare, Lilith peeked at the guards at the end of the corridor and was about to move when someone grabbed her – again. What is with today and people grabbing her? That hand holding her from behind stopped her from disappearing since witches couldn’t disappear when someone that isn’t a witch was holding them.

”Gotcha!!” It was the royal boy again.