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Dedicated to all my wonderful readers. Thanks for all your wonderful comments and threats🙄 I haven't been home all day. I just arrived, the next chapter will be up in a few hours. Then hopefully two more tomorrow. Mandee, storygirl, redsafyre, Husnalmau, FunMochi, Jennifer, Nansy123, m_small, B_6651, pie_md423, and Fantasy Dreamer. Thank you 💜

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The woman looked at her like she had gone mad. " My lady, I'm afraid, it won't be possible. "

" You'll have to find a way to make it possible. I'm very well aware you use magic and as it's not a crime, I know you can do it. "

" But I have so many more orders," she said, unable to believe the demands coming out of the princess's mouth.

" I have some other clothes I would like to buy from you but if you cannot do something as simple as this, I might as well take the work to someone else. " the princess said looking disappointed.

The lady's eyes went wide at the thought of more money. " There is no need to take your business elsewhere. I will try to do as you asked. "

Clarissa selected a few more clothes and night wears as provocative or even more so than the first.

" Have these brought to the inn at the centre of the village. I will pay for everything at once. I'm sure this will be enough motivation to have you complete my work on time. " Clarissa said to the elf while the door was held for her.

" I promise not to disappoint you, my lady," she promised.

" I find action to be more convincing than words. " were Clarissa's last words as she left the store.

The second they were gone, the open sign was switched to closed.

" Everyone get to work, you heard the lady. "

When they went back to the inn, it was as they had left it, perhaps even more noisy. They went up to their rooms barely bothered by the people in the inn.

Clarissa opened the door to the room she and Dante were sharing and he hopped in happily.

Mari was by the fire as was the cat whom they'd left behind.

Kieran watched her quietly wondering what she had been up to. There was this smug look in her eyes like she was up to no good. He told himself to be patient in two days, they would arrive in Shadow's Kiss.

When the clothes she had ordered arrived Clarissa tested them out and checked them in the mirror placed in the room.

She had one plan and that was to make the vampire Lord fall for her. What better way was there to make him fall than to seduce him? All men were the same, he would fall cheaply and she would make him regret the amount of disrespect and suffering she had been through.

Kieran saw the look in her eyes and knew immediately what her plan was. He smiled and wondered how the princess would feel when her plans came apart.

The next day, they continued their journey. They passed through more villages and soon found themselves in another forest that was close to the border of the village.

Winterbourne might have been a human kingdom but the cold weather, the different creatures and the variety of plants, herbs and flowers which grew here made it seem more magical.

They stopped to rest and eat and in doing so, Dante wandered about, playing by himself.

The child had much joy in him and such love for nature. He saw a plant with a green stem, white petals, tinged at the edge with red and at the centre a beautiful pink colour that was alluring to the eyes. The beauty amazed him and he wondered if the princess would let him bring a flower. He reached for it to show her the beauty and a hand grabbed his.

He looked up for his eyes to meet that of the princess and he knew that he was in for a scolding.

" What do you think you're doing? You can't go picking flowers from the dirt. If you want one, you can simply buy one, it's cleaner. "

He bowed his head and apologized, but Clarissa was not done educating him.

As Clarissa got lost in scolding him, she failed to see thorns elongate from the flower to her, her wrist was close to the flower.

Leonard was amused at their display as was Raphael who turned to see what type of flower it was.

His face blanked and even as he screamed to alert her, it was too late the blood flower pierced its thorns through Clarissa's wrist and she screamed but time was not to be wasted and Raphael cut off the thorns from the flower which were still attached to the princess's arm. It let out a screech as it died and then bled out.

Clarissa could feel her arm burning up with an insurmountable pain. But she didn't have the time to dwell on that.

A few seconds later, they were surrounded by dark witches.

Raphael knew this was his fault. He had been careless in choosing their resting site. Bloodflowers were known to be planted by witches. They had their good uses but it was rarely planted by good witches because it was hard to harvest due to their carnivorous feeding. But the plants knew their kind and wouldn't hurt the dark witches.

Clarissa struggled to bring out her sword and gun, despite the pain in her arm.

Dante held her, scared of the scary-looking lady with warts on their faces flying with brooms.

" Come with us princess or we will hurt your friends and child meat and blood is the sweetest. " one of the witches said, causing the rest of the witches to laugh.

Dark witches were not known to keep their end of a bargain.

" I will have your head before you can hurt any of us. " Clarissa said daringly.

" Hurt you? I believe the blood flowers have done that for us already. Hahaha! " Her laughter was so piercing to the ear, it had Dante covering his.

" Well, you're never going to have me or a taste of this child, just a taste of my sword. " even as she said this she could feel herself getting weak.

" You certainly don't know what the blood flower does, honey. The thorns alone weaken you, slowly paralyzes you, makes you lose consciousness and if you're not treated within the next four hours, you die! " she said, waiting to see fear and horror break out on Clarissa's face.

Clarissa looked bored. " That is not a fun way to die but you're not going to find your death funny either. "

The witches laughed in mockery but they did not know the gruesome death that awaited them.

Author's note

Thank you so much for reading. Don't forget to vote, comment, share, rate/review, add to your libraries and reading lists. Don't forget that you can gift the book now. Thanks again💜