SPELLBOUND

Leon's heart was beating like a drum as he sat on Silver's back, looking down at the ground rushing past him as they approached the Middle Lands.

He could hardly form a single coherent thought the nearer they were to their destination. He kept thinking back to that one day. That dawn, as soon as he came out of the water, he had searched around the area, trying to find where Zanya had ran off to. He had thought she was somewhere in the vicinity. However, when he could not find her even after expanding his search for another 5 miles out, he thought that she must have left as soon as he had fallen unconscious due to exhaustion.

Leon could not quite explain how he felt at the thought that she had left him without even saying a single word to him just because the mating was already a done deal. Why did she leave? Why did she not wait for him to wake up? Was she in such a hurry to get somewhere? Or… could it be that she had regretted after the fact that they had gotten the mating done?

Although he was not a person who would usually worry about such things, he just could not help but think negatively at the fact that she had left without saying a word. He remembered that she had said it when she came looking for him. But was all that mattered to her was completing the mating only? He had tried his best to understand her. But he truly did not know why his heart was aching so much at the thought that probably, she did not want to see him anymore after this. 

For all the days that had passed since that day, he found that he could not put her out of his mind at all even if he had wanted to. And to make things worse, he realised that lately, he had started to feel restless, as though there was a fire that had been lit under his pants. He had even begun to dream about her in his sleep, always starting off with him chasing after her, and looking for her as she disappeared from his dream view. 

Now he understood what was behind the unease and ache that he had been constantly feeling growing in his chest. She did not leave him because she had not wanted to see him anymore, but she had disappeared. And he could somehow tell that she had disappeared that dawn itself. Right now, he felt that he would rather have her run off in avoidance of him than this – disappearing without a trace or even a hint. He could not accept this. How many days had passed since then? And she was currently missing? How was it that he did not have a stronger feel that something had happened to her?

Gritting his teeth, Leon could not help but feel angry and disappointed in himself. Shaking himself out of that dazed state he was caught in, he refocussed on his surroundings and looked down again.

The moment Silver crossed the borders of the Middle Land, the dragon suddenly dived down gracefully and landed on the ground, surprising Leon. He had thought that Silver was going to take him into Crescia first. But he did not have the time to wonder anymore as he saw three light faes who were standing nearby, looking at him as though they were expecting him. He then walked over and chatted with them to find out what they were doing out of Crescia.

They had told Leon that they were searching for Zanya's whereabouts. Leon joined them and he led them to the place where he had last seen Zanya. 

Upon reaching the place, Leon and the light faes began a thorough combing down to search the place. They had planned to turn over all stones if that what it takes to bring them even a single clue of her whereabouts. 

...

Meanwhile, in the Northern Empire, Gavriel and his army had already started invading the last city in the South. The city had fallen into Gavriel's hands before the sun could even rise and he crushed all the hopes of the opposition to ever dare consider going against him ever again in this lifetime. Katerina and her husband were also caught and along with them, the generals and important officials who had conspired with them. 

Gavriel had mercilessly condemned them all to be thrown into prison, and the sentence was to last for their entire lives until death claimed them. Many of the vampires had then begged to be killed instead as they were all well aware that the prison where Gavriel was placing them in was a place no one had ever escaped from before. But Gavriel did not even bothered to listen to their pleas and before daylight came, all of them were cast into that maximum security prison – forever doomed to live out their entire lives in there. 

Everything went on smoothly and efficiently that day and when the night finally came, Gavriel's coronation was held immediately and Gavriel was declared the new king of the entire vampire kingdom. 

The events went by too fast that even the vampires themselves could hardly believe that their ruler had changed yet again. And it seems that this time, their new king will definitely bring big changes to his rule now. 

Many vampires had expressed their unhappiness, but no one dared to speak up as they all saw how powerful their new king was. Of course, as many or even more were glad as they knew that King Gavriel was the vampires' real and true monarch. Their previous rulers were fake royals and had stolen the throne from the true heir.

While the capital was in the process of being restored to its former glory, Gavriel had his coronation ceremony conducted in the second largest city of the empire.. He had also immediately addressed his people that very same night and even those who were opposed to him inwardly, were unable to deny the power he had on them all after he was done with his address to the people.