To His Hell and Back-Chapter 403: What If I Say I love You?-I

"Straw dolls?"

Lastor’s eyes widened in sudden realization, and he shot to his feet. "Yes! That’s it! That’s why you couldn’t recognize the curse, Princess, it isn’t a spell at all, it’s voodoo."

Arabella frowned, pulling the crimson bound book closer. "A voodoo doll... I’ve read of those before." She flipped through the pages, her tone thoughtful. "Dolls created with a person’s hair, teeth, or even blood... used to control them. Or to stab with needles to inflict pain directly onto their body?"

"Exactly," Noah confirmed with a grave nod. "Though an ordinary voodoo doll takes time before it can be used safely."

"Because it must remain near the target for at least a week," Lastor added eagerly, "sometimes longer."

"And the nearer it’s placed, the stronger the curse grows," Arabella murmured, recalling the lines from her earlier readings. Her memory for such things was sharp, and she was certain now she had seen something like this before. Voodoo dolls aren’t often used, especially by witches who had always prefer to directly cast curse as it has a higher chances of succeeding than a voodoo doll, hence why she had forgotten its existence.

Both men leaned in, eyes fixed on her as she turned the pages. When she reached nearly three-quarters through the book, her fingers stilled.

"There," she whispered, pointing to an illustration she had somehow overlooked before."It must be this one," she echoed what she saw, "Yes, it’s this one." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Xavier curious, stepped closer to read the letters upside down, "A curse pinned on a voodoo dolls all have their own meanings to it. Often uses by a witch, a difficult process and quite ancient. The curse could: separate a loving couple, make a woman barren for life, and kill them- killing the target has so many different ways and different type or curses."

"What about this one?" Lastor pointed at one of the writing that appeared similar, "A dream full of nightmare to destroy the person from their soul."

"It’s similar, you’re right Lastor," she agreed but the different is the few writings on it. "I suspect it’s a mix, don’t you think that since they could use one type of curse on the voodoo doll, it’s possible to do two curse in one voodoo doll?"

"It could be possible... but the person who use the curse must be someone strong," Lastor said in exchange when he seemed to realize something that made his nerves crawl.

"Wendy," Arabella pointed upon seeing his palling expression, "You know the sorceress by the name Wendy don’t you?"

Lastor’s lips pursed tight and Xavier at that moment noticed something, studying in his head, "That’s why Noah would know about the voodoo dolls while you might have missed it, Princess."

Arabella nodded toward Xavier’s side, "Witches prefer curses and I looked over it as the chances of my enemies using it was low but Noah immediately spoke up about it as he knew that the weaker the enemy is, they would have chosen another method instead of a direct curse."

Exactly. Their opponent isn’t a witch. It must have been why... why Wendy, a sorceress, powerful as she was, would choose to use voodoo doll as meant to curse her.

"It seems to point even closer that our enemy is that sorceress named Wendy. What do you know about her, Lastor?"

Lastor pursed his lips almost looking upset just by recalling about Wendy. It wasn’t jealousy or hatred, just pure uncomfortableness that felt vivid from his his expression turned blue for a moment.

"A rather disgusting person," pointed Lastor. Lastor who always spoke so politely to women. "She admires Morpheus, a lot. A lot more than I wish she would. I suspect it’s due to how once Morpheus had saved her life."

"Morpheus?" Arabella didn’t think of him as someone who would help others so willingly. But perhaps she had misread it?

"Before she was brought to the castle, Wendy lived amongst the humans. Morpheus perhaps saw himself in her as they were both chased from the village like all other sorcerers who could use potions. But she wasn’t chased out because she was different, Princess."

Xavier narrowed his eyes and guessed, "Was the village she lived tolerated her?"

"Tolerated her? They accepted her. They knew that she had an odd power and she was blessed enough to be accepted by humans despite her difference. But in no way is she different than a dog who bit back the hand of its master. After all, out of curiosity of wanting to see how her potions would work and if she could use magic, she poisoned a child. A baby in her crib. Since then she preyed on all the children in the village and without evidence, they all thought that the babies died because they weren’t just strong enough to live."

"Then they found out?" Arabella asked, frowning when Lastor shook his head.

"She’s wrong in the head, Princess, all sorts of wrong," Lastor pressed his tone when he reached the end of his sentence, "That woman then preyed on the pregnant women in the village, and took the stillborn’s body from its grave to make more potion. Eventually she burned the whole village when her mother noticed her odd behavior."

"But Morpheus took her in," Arabella frowned tighter, "Why would he do that? He knew that could endanger other sorcerers doesn’t he?"

"He doesn’t care," Lastor’s tone turned ice cold. "All he cares is whether he could fulfill his goal. When he saw how Wendy was so grateful of him and admired him in that creepy manners, he decided to use her as his pawns, and now she had became stronger... a strong and deadly killer. She’s different from all the other sorcerers we have faced. Though not as strong as Alice, she might be trickier to be killed with her knowledge of killing. She might be an even tougher enemy to face than witch Alice herself."

Arabella pushed her back to the chair, placing a hand under her chin as she recalled all the words Lastor had said, finally understanding that perhaps this was the last gate separating her from finally defeating Morpheus.

"And now she is after me," Arabella raised her eyebrows, "So that would means that Morpheus have planned to kill me."