Reborn, Its Time To Save My Family And.. My Enemy!
Chapter 226: A Trap

Chapter 226: A Trap

The dark sky had loomed over Rhistel as he rode the horse with urgency. The path was barely visible but his eyes were too sharp to miss anything.

"How far is that temple?" he demanded without looking back.

The girl held him tightly as he rode with a monstrous speed. "It is in the clearing. You will reach there once you cross the lake."

"If i did not find Oriana or kids there, you are going to die there, witch." the girl frowned and glared at him in the dark.

He sneered when she acted innocent.

"Do not think that I treated you as a normal innocent girl. I can sniff the witches even in the dark and I know that you are working for Clondoires too. I have saved you and now I owe your life. You will help me with the rescue." The witch was stunned for a moment.

She was most afraid of Olivia when they made the plan. She was sure Olivia being a blood witch would recognize all of them. But she did not. And Whistle had been protected from the crowd. She had been sure that she had completed her mission.

She had distracted all of them and controlled Rhistel completely. But now..

"The shawl you are wearing is given by Olivia.." Rhistel spoke softly as if only talking about the moon and stars, "it had a forbidden magic in it. If you lie or betray me, you would suffer agony and die." the witch frowned and scoffed, ready to kill him then and there to prove that he was a fool when she felt the pain in her chest.

"I have told you." Then his cold voice rang, sharp and full of venom. "Even thinking about it could be too painful."

She clutched her chest, stumbling as if invisible chains had wrapped around her lungs. Her fingers clawed at the shawl, trying to tear it off, but it pulsed faintly and she could not throw it away no matter how much she tried.

"You—" she hissed, eyes wide with a mix of rage and panic. "You cursed me?"

Rhistel didn’t even look back. He continued riding, slow now, deliberate. "I warned you."

With a strangled cry, the witch leapt from the saddle. Her boots skidded against the dirt as she landed, bolting toward the trees on the left, ignoring the sharp branches that tore at her arms. But the moment her foot crossed the boundary of the path, her body seized violently.

A scream tore from her throat.

She crumpled onto the ground, twitching, gasping, writhing as if fire licked through her veins. Every beat of her heart slammed like a hammer against her ribcage. The shawl flared again, the threads tightening, burning her skin.

"No!" she wailed. "Let me go!"

Rhistel finally turned, his gaze like ice. He dismounted calmly and strode toward her collapsed figure.

"You see now?" His voice was quiet. Cold. "This was mercy. If it were up to Olivia, she would have ended you the moment she suspected. But I gave you a chance. And you wasted it."

She coughed violently, tears of agony running down her cheeks as she clawed at the shawl, her fingernails breaking against the curse-bound fabric. "You... don’t understand... I didn’t have a choice—"

"We never do," Rhistel interrupted harshly. "But that doesn’t make what you did forgivable."

He crouched beside her, eyes gleaming faintly in the darkness.

"You’ll survive, if you obey. And if you lie again..." he leaned closer, his voice low and ominous, "your bones will break before your heart stops beating."

The witch trembled, her eyes wild with hatred and helplessness.

"I’ll take you to them," she rasped. "I’ll do what you want."

Rhistel stood, wiping his gloves clean as if her words had dirtied the air. "Good. Because if Oriana is hurt..." His voice cracked with something darker. "You won’t have to fear the curse. You’ll beg for it.

The witch felt the strange pain coursing in her blood and every cell pained. It only slowed down when he touched her cheeks. She leaned to that touch.

"Stand now, we do not have time to waste on your tantrums." how she wanted to curse him and kill him there and there. But even as a witch, she had never thought of giving her life for a human. She gritted her teeth and stood up to follow him.

He pulled her back to the horse and they started riding again.

"Where now?" his voice was demanding and the witch bit her lips.

"We have been going down the wrong path, if you continued to take it, a group of men would be waiting to kill you there." Rhistel’s grip on the reins tightened but he was not that surprised.

"Can we change paths now?" the witch was surprised with the calm in his voice. She felt like a fool speaking to him.

"We can. But it is a long path. We could not reach Oriana on time." she explained fighting the urge to tear her skin apart.

"Watch your words, witch! You will die before she does." the witch flinched, not doubting the words at all. Death would be liberating at this point.

"What do you want me to do then?" the words came shallow as she felt the pain.

"Do not tell me the problems again and again, tell me their solutions. I am sure you know the answer." the witch gritted her teeth. She did not want to betray her kind. But what choice did she have?

"The woods are connected. If you could fight those men and defeat them, I am sure a narrow path would connect this part of the woods to the lake too." That was all the assurance he indeed had. He held the reins and rode faster, shocking her.

"But there would be twenty of them and you are alone. I will not help you with killing them!" She warned him only to laugh softly.

"I do not need a witch to protect me, not with the blood corrupted enough to kill innocents"