CHAPTER 470: SWEET DREAMS-I

Taken aback, Arabella’s breath halted for a while. Her chest rose and fell in an uneven rhythm, her confusion breaking through the fragile calm she’d tried to maintain. The weight of what Cassius had told her sat heavy on her shoulders, as if the walls of the castle themselves were pressing down upon her.

She recalled vividly how Morpheus had always told her that undoing the castle’s magic would take time, that it was a delicate and dangerous process. He had said it required more than just magical strength; it needed precision, knowledge, patience. He had said so with such conviction that she had believed him.

But now, with Cassius’s words lingering in the air, those excuses crumbled like ash.

It wasn’t that the curse was too complex. It was that Morpheus feared what would happen if it were ever broken.

"You do know," Arabella began, her voice trembling slightly, "that if the castle’s walls are lifted, it won’t hurt a single sorcerer in this place, don’t you?" Her gaze drifted toward the high stone ceiling, her words gaining strength. "The time flow will finally move again for them, allowing them to age like any other human. But it won’t kill them, it won’t suddenly cause them to turn old or perish."

Cassius nodded, his golden eyes narrowing slightly in thought. He reached out, brushing a strand of hair that had fallen across her brow and gently eased the tension gathered there with his thumb. "I do understand," he said quietly. "But Morpheus is a different case than the others."

His tone grew darker. "He knows how the castle’s power halts time, and he’s abused it. He’s used that stillness to delve into forbidden magics he was never meant to touch. And though he avoids paying the proper price for those magics because of his half-demonic bloodline, every spell still drags him deeper into that corruption. When the castle’s curse is lifted, you’ll see it, his body will betray him. His true self will begin to show. He’ll grow horns from his forehead like any other demon."

Arabella’s lips parted soundlessly. "This is..." Her words fell away, her voice lost to disbelief.

It was the kind of revelation that could ruin Morpheus forever, not only in power, but in the eyes of his followers.

To learn that he was half demon didn’t shock her as much as she might have thought. Deep down, she had long questioned how Morpheus could wield magics that even seasoned witches struggled with. His ability to twist spells, to break natural limits, had always felt wrong.

Either, she had once thought, he was born with the blood of a witch, or he was simply... extraordinary. But it seemed now that both guesses were mistaken.

"Then how do you know about all this?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "Information like this doesn’t come from nowhere. It would have to come from a very firm source."

Cassius’s lips curved into a faint smile, one that didn’t quite reach his eyes. "I demanded the truth from Circe."

Arabella’s heart skipped a beat. "Circe? But she’s... she’s dead."

"She is dead," Cassius agreed, his tone soft but steady. "Though her soul still lingers. It possessed the body of a boy."

Arabella blinked rapidly, as if the world had tilted beneath her.

Cassius continued before the shock could make her faint. "It’s a long story, you used to know about it too," he added, his voice low. "When I found her, she finally told me what she’d hidden for centuries. She knew something was wrong with Morpheus, something dark, but she only ever knew part of it. She knew about his mother, not his father. She said that when she first found him, it was because of his uniqueness, his power drew her in. But by the time she realized what that uniqueness meant, it was already too late. His bitterness had already turned to her."

Arabella lowered her head, her brows furrowing deeply. "Morpheus feared and despised rejection," she whispered, half to herself. "Do you think... Circe rejected him?" She hesitated, her fingers tightening against her palm. "He spoke of her once, in passing. He said he loved her, but a part of his voice..." She swallowed hard. "It sounded hateful."

Cassius’s gaze lingered on her for a moment, sharp but unreadable. "Perhaps," he said. "But Circe was never his to have. She was in love with a human king, a man named Atlas."

Arabella’s breath caught again.

Cassius’s voice dropped lower, his words threading through the still air like a quiet curse. "And perhaps that was what broke him. He wanted her, all of her, but she chose another. And from that jealousy, his heart rotted. His love turned to envy, and envy... to hate. Typical of him. You can doubt his love and sincerity as o matter how many time Morpheus claim he loves someone to the point of death, it is simply him fearing the idea of losing control of that said person. He never loved them."

For a moment, the only sound in the room was the whisper of wind slipping through the cracked windowpane.

Arabella couldn’t open her eyes and though she felt comforted with her eyes closed by the large hands, she could feel her mind spinning. "Then... all of this, the curse, the manipulation, his obsession with controlling others—"

Cassius nodded. "It all began with that. His fear of not being able to control someone as he wished of course.."

She bit her lip, her heart tightening with unease. "Then if he’s half demon... and his power tied to the castle... what happens when the curse breaks?"

Cassius’s crimson eyes gleamed faintly. "Then the demon finally reveals himself. So you do know what you have to do don’t you? I’m sure you have guessed what my plan is."

"To remove the magic casted on this castle for good and to push him into revealing his true self," she muttered but blinked, "No, but isn’t it safer to kill him before he turns into a full demon? If that’s the case then we would suffer more fighting a demon."

"He will gain power but the demonic energy will prevent him from using the magics he had always familiarized himself with. We will strip him of his magical power as a sorcerer, detain him in position and end his life for good."