Touch of Flame

The witch stepped into the room, not bothering to close the door behind him. That was an indicator that trying to run away would be useless. He had his pistols but he was in no way going to use them against this creature. Ares didn't know the limit of magic and didn't want to enrage a witch and spend the rest of what was left of his life in a cave.

"You are suddenly in a hurry." He said.

"I need to be somewhere," Ares replied.

The witch smiled. "With Nazneen?"

"You know her." He narrowed his eyes. "Are you the one..."

"Yes."

Great. He was with the expert of cursing people. "You want her to lose?"

Ares was confused. From what Joel told him, this man seemed to be after Malachi and Ravina. Not Nazneen.

The witch chuckled. "Whether I keep you or not, I am sure she won't lose. In this day and age, there is no dragon with her skill. She has spent a century training, honing her skills, and learning to utilize the power of her dragon even in her human form. She was preparing to fight the likes of Malachi and his brothers. Those with almost as pure of blood as her. These other families have no chance." He smirked.

"Then why am I here?"

The witch casually leaned against the wall. "Nazneen has trained her body, there is no doubt. But the mind... I am testing the mind. I know she will win, but will she participate?"

"Why are you still after her?" Ares wondered. "Isn't a hundred years enough punishment?"

The witch tilted his head curiously. "I never made it about the years. The spell was to keep her locked until her breedmate releases her."

"Oh. So I arrived sooner than you hoped."

He smiled. "I am not sure how I feel about this. A part of me has been curious about you. Human breedmates are very rare and I wanted to see what such a union would look like but..." he narrowed his eyes. "You are even more interesting. A tamer." He became thoughtful. "I even met another one at the party. Very interesting."

Ravina. Ares didn't like this at all.

"And what is it you want from her?"

"The other tamer?" He shrugged. "Nothing. I was only curious."

Only curious? Ares couldn't tell anything from the man's face.

"Well, if you are curious, you have a tamer here."

Suddenly the witch laughed. "Oh I ssseee. Protective of two women. This is more interesting."

Ares frowned.

"Don't worry. I have no reason to harm her. I mean... the tamer."

"And Nazneen?"

He took a moment to think. "I do not wish to harm her either."

Not a good answer.

"You won't!" Ares told him firmly.

The witch narrowed his eyes. "Why so protective? Sea demons chose their mates. So do humans."

"That must be correct."

They stared at each other for a moment.

"I guess even the smartest of men are weak in the face of beauty." The witch smirked.

"I thought you did all of this to bring about a change. She is changing." Ares said.

He recalled the look of fury in her eyes when she saw him with Ravina but she held back her anger. She didn't say anything of it later either even though he knew she wanted to. While he was sick, she had also stayed away from causing trouble. She went through all these changes in such a short time and right after her release when emotions were still heightened and everything was new to her. She learned about the new world quickly and tried to adapt as much as she could.

The witch watched him as if he could hear his thoughts.

"Isn't that why you waited for me to release her?" Ares asked.

"Yes. But you are also leaving her eventually."

Of course, he had to know everything. Then... "Am I dying?"

"Unfortunately."

Ares felt like he was hit in the chest. He knew this already so why did he feel this way?

"Life is that way. Death avoids us when we don't mind and when it comes, it makes us wish we could live longer." The witch said.

"But... I am feeling better than before and my broken leg healed."

"It did. The fault is in your heart. You have only recently gone to your home. The sea. Before that, it was the drowning that barely kept you alive and being human, but your heart has weakened over time. Don't you know sea demons came to land to shorten their lives?"

"How would I know?"

The witch nodded. "Now you do."

"Wait! Are you saying it is my weakened heart that is killing me?"

"Yes."

"And my healing won't help with that because it is the way for us to kill ourselves?"

"Yes."

"Going back to the sea now won't save me?"

"It might help lengthen your life a little, but the damage is already done. You are chronically ill now and magic doesn't do well with such things. It will repair the damage but after a long time when the process keeps repeating, the magic will perceive it as something natural in your body and stop the repairing process."

Ares's gaze slowly dropped and he stared at the floor while trying to process what he learned.

"It was a lot for you today. Now at least you understand what I want from Nazneen. You won't always be there for her so I need to be."

Ares was alarmed. "No! You won't need to be there for her. She can take care of herself."

"That is my wish." He smiled. "But not all wishes come true, do they?" He pushed himself away from the wall. "I will let you go at the right time. Stay here and don't try anything stupid or your life will be even shorter."

Ares tried to think quickly of what would be the best thing to do but this man seemed to be ten steps ahead. He began to whistle just to try his luck.

The old man stopped right when he was at the door and slowly turned around. His eyes were still. Was this working?

Ares stood up as he continued to whistle,, but then the old witch smiled. "Not bad, but don't try it unless you are sure it will work. It could put you in trouble." And then with a wave of his hand, he shut the door.

Ares sighed. How was he supposed to deal with a witch and... where was Joel? He forgot to ask.

***

Joel kept feeling bothered by what he did. His conscious couldn't spare him. It tortured him but what should he have done? The witch was going to keep him anyway so he did what he thought would benefit him the most. The witch also promised to release Ares after a while so he should be fine? Right?

Why did he care?

Unable to keep it to himself, he went to the person he knew hated Ares the most. Saul held him in a choking grip against the wall. "Have you lost your mind?!" He spoke between clenched teeth.

Joel didn't try to fight him off and endure the pain for a while. When his brother released him, he gasped for air and coughed.

Saul paced frustrated then kicked the chair in the room. "Ugh! I always have to clean up after all of you. Why did you not speak to me first?!"

"I thought you hated him."

"This is not how you fight him. What do you think will happen when he returns, if he does."

"The witch said he won't know I left him there. Magic can explain anything."

"That way you gave the witch power over you. He will keep that secret or expose it anytime he likes. I thought you knew better than to get involved with those creatures."

Joel cursed himself. "He was going to keep him anyway. I got for us what we need."

"We won't be needing anything from that witch. You don't know what he has done with those stones. Malachi is just trying to please his human breedmate when he knows no good comes from these creatures."

"We have to try. One of us can try. I will wear them."

"You will do nothing! Give them to me!" He held out his hand. Joel hesitated. "I said give them to me."

Joel shoved them into his brother's hand.

"Be thankful I won't be telling Malachi and pray for things to go as you said or we will have a lot of mess to clean up."

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