|THE CURSED FOREST|

55

Naera brought Sohee inside her fort, the latter following the lady curiously inside.

"Look who is here?" Jihyo chimed, standing against the stairs staring at them, "If not my innocent and gullible mentee."

Sohee rolled her eyes, sighing out heavily as crossed her arms.

"Did he come to this fort?" Naera asked taking off her coat,

"He did and saw you trapped in the basement." Jihyo replied and Sohee looked at both of them in shock,

"He will be confused like this everytime, before he stabbed me I created that hallucination in his mind..." Naera sighed,

"Sorry to interrupt but who are you talking about?" Sohee asked chuckling awkwardly,

"Just a heads up Naera, this girl has a degree in medicine but also honors expertise in wasting others time and babbling nonsense." Jihyo said tilting her head at Sohee who threw a smile to her,

"Learned from my mentor herself." Sohee blinked mirroring Jihyo's expression,

"Enough!" Naera shouted, raising her hand, flinching both of them, "Jihyo, go and call Yeonjun... I want to meet him." Jihyo nodded as turned to leave before giving side eye to Sohee.

"Why do you want to meet him?" Sohee asked, raising her voice in tiny, still careful of the threat Naera was.

"All in time my dear Sohee, all in time..." Naera said,

"Who were you talking about before?" Sohee asked gulping down,

"It turns out dear Sohee, that your love and I share the same enemy now." Naera smirked pursing her lips tightly,

"Same enemy? Sunghoon is not Yeonjun's enemy. Only yours." Sohee uttered,

"Oh sure, Sunghoon is for me to torment. I meant Taehyung."

"I lost my only love, and he can't come back because he died through Niara which I regret creating now so if my creation led to my own destruction, I won't let that Lord Jin's creation be left anymore too. I will destroy this forest, this city and his last generation." Naera's voice echoed in pain and rage,

"You'll help me in this, and in return I'll make you powerful... even more." She suggested,

"Surely I'll help you." Hyunjin nodded, "Now that I am immortal, devoid of any curse on me."

Naera smiled nodding but soon her eyes widened as a tearing pain felt across her body, she looked down, Hyunjin had stabbed the silver dagger in her stomach.

"I am already powerful enough." Hyunjin smirked, twisting the dagger deeper inside her, causing Naera to squint her eyes in pain, "Sunghoon made my work easy actually, by killing Namjoon because if not him then I had killed him myself."

"How could you..." Naera grunted as tears of pain streamed down her cheeks.

"Namjoon helped me to become what I always wanted and then he planned to bring you back like come on lady I want all power to me." Hyunjin scoffed, "So now I can't kill you. Duh! I don't have the woody dagger so I'll keep you here trapped with this silver dagger keeping you wounded and not heal to get any stronger."

"Taehyung left, trapping me in the basement. Jihyo saw a chance and rescued me. He comes to check if I am still trapped every morning but because my hallucinations are fixed in him he sees me like he wanted." Naera explained.

"But if Taehyung died to bring you back, how does he-"

"He had taken the body of Hyunjin," Naera revealed, gripping Sohee's shoulders. Sohee shook her head in immediate denial.