Forced Bride Of The Vampire Lord

452 Freedom, They Desire!

They both were staring at each other when they heard the footsteps behind them.

“Hey, why are you still standing here? Lucio had called everyone in the meeting room. Do you want to miss the first and last chance of attending the meeting with the heads?” They both turned to look at the group of witches.

They all looked ordinary with simple clothes. All of them had a look of excitement on their face when Anne nodded and walked towards them with Declan following her.

They soon reached a large hall. The whole floor was empty for the meeting yet not everyone was able to get a chair.

Many were standing even reaching to the door or behind it.

There were three seats at the place of head. But Lucio was not sitting on them but three elders.

He was standing behind them with a grim face.

“My lord and my friends, her majesty had told us that she is granting us the town as our new fief. Many of you are not aware but she is the dark witch you have heard about…”

Only gasps could be heard in the room. The dark witch had only been in the legends for them. But now the one ruling them was a dark witch.

.....

But did they not say that the dark witch represents demons and she should be burned on the stake for the welfare of the witches?

It was also said that their worse condition was due to the curse of the dark witch and it will improve if they kill her.

Several discussions started to fill the room and the voice only kept increasing.

Anne looked at the scene with a hardened face. They are all selfish. Instead of being happy that Hazel was supporting them and giving them land to live freely. They were talking about killing her when she had only tried to save them always.

Her face filled with anger and the desire to burn all of them when she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Declan.

She glared at him as if he was one of them. Did he not try to kill Hazel too?

“I was bound to the orders of my master, Anne. it’s like you are bound with Hazel. But i..” he stopped. He did not want to tell her that he stopped at the last moment and decided to save her instead of killing Hazel.

It would only sound like another lie to her ears and he did not want to take advantage of the actions he had done from his heart. It would feel like he was trading it for his selfish means.

“Ha!” she looked away jerking his hands from her shoulders.

“I know all of your fears!” this time it was Lucio who spoke, “but those are only the legends we could never confirm. None of us belong to the first generation of witches to confirm it.”

His voice was calm and soothing like a waterfall.

“I know that the fear of being cursed is traumatizing. But we should think of the positive side. The dark witch you are afraid of.. Is our leader now and she is helping us in getting new land and living a life that we had always desired. So.. you want to rebel against her or support her?”

His question shook all of them and they turned silent as if muling over his words when one of the elders scoffed.

“Ha! This land.. We have been living on it since the start. It was humans who took what belonged to us and now that we had got our heritage back, everyone is talking like that dark witch had done a favor on us and we should be indebted to her!” His voice was harsh and mocking as if their rights were challenged.

“I would have been impressed if she would have given us the lands that belong to humans but she did not even ask the humans living here to leave. She left the decision on us if we want to coexist with them or if we want them to leave.” he said as he stood up bringing complete silence to the room.

“But she did not give us any land to compensate them. Would it not mean that her choice is only in words. We can not execute the latter part at all.“ Her words provoked the thought of witches negatively when the elder smirked at Lucio whose face had turned pale.

His hands were clenched into a fist.

“I am just telling the facts since I do not like mincing my words. But you all are wise and can think about it yourself. If I am wrong, I would not mind being corrected by you.“ He looked at all of them with a dominating look but there was a warm smile on his face.

His actions made everyone scared but attracted to him at the same time. They all looked at each other and the small whispers filled the room again.

“That is because our ruler did not believe in war. She believes in peace and wants us to live in harmony with the species around her.” he defended in a loud voice but it only brought a mocking laughter on the face of the elders.

“Ha! Is that why she is hiding her identity and living as a human while marrying a vampire? She didn’t even have the courage to stand up for us. Did it not mean that she is asking us to live in hiding all our life? Do we never get the right to stand freely and we will still call it coexistence?

It will only be a proper coexistence if we will have the freedom to live as a witch and have respect in the society of humans.” This time there was no need for discussion.

The whole room had the same desire. They did not want to live as dead, in hiding. They wanted freedom.

“Very well, then we can go and ask for it instead of believing that she did not want this!”