The Dragon King's Heart

Dante clenched his jaw. He could not let her go, not again. The last time she slipped out of his hands he regretted it. But he could not tell Laina who she was either. It would only raise even more questions. 

"Laina, you have to trust me on this," Dante pleaded with her. 

It was not that she did not want to put her faith in him. But his actions were making it extremely difficult for her to do so. Furthermore, a child's life was at stake here. Laina shook her head. 

"I want to… but I can't. Not when you're threatening the life of a child."

Colette was still struggling to stay alive. She was reaching out to Laina for help with tears in her eyes. She could not ignore the cries of the child. 

"Dante, let her go," Laina pleaded. 

"Laina, please you have to trust me on this. She's not what you think she is-"

"Then tell me what she is!"

"I…" Dante bit his lip, "I can't"

She did not want to hurt him, but Colette's life was at stake here. She had to do what she had to do. 

"I'm sorry, Dante. But you leave me with no choice," Laina lunged forward and tackled Dante to the ground. 

She was a lot stronger than he had anticipated. Not wanting to hurt Laina, he let go of Colette and used his body to shield Laina as they both fell onto the ground. Colette dropped to the ground, gasping for air. 

Her face almost turned blue from being deprived of air for so long. The moment she was on the ground, she ran for her life. Laina got up as fast as she could and chased after Colette. 

"Laina! Get away from her!" Dante roared in anger as he grabbed onto Laina's wrist. 

She struggled out of his grasp and continued to chase after Colette. Realizing Dante was not going to give up so easily, Laina made a decision. As soon as she caught up with the child, she lifted her off the ground and used a speed spell to put some distance between them. 

Colette, realizing her cover is completely blown, decided to turn the situation to her own advantage. Now that she had Laina with her, she clicked her fingers and summoned a spell circle beneath them. 

In the blink of an eye, they vanished into thin air. Dante cursed as he slammed his hand against the carpeted ground. He was about to give chase when Margaret stopped him in his tracks. He did not have time to play games with her. 

"Move aside, Margaret," he ordered in a cold voice. 

Margaret shook her head. 

"I can't let you do this. That girl is just a child! Sure she might have been playful and put Laina in trouble but she's not evil!" Margaret defended. 

Just as Dante was about to speak, Marius came up to defend Margaret too. He was worried she might receive the brunt of Dante's wrath if he did not do so. But his actions only fueled his anger even more. 

A sudden surge of pain in his chest caused Dante to fall to the ground. The curse he was suffering from acted up from time to time. His body turns ice cold, cold enough for his breath to turn into mist upon contact with the air. 

His vision began to blur as his body grew so cold it began to hurt. But Dante did not have time for this. Laina's safety was all that mattered. 

"Dante, are you alright?" Marius asked as he tried to approach the Dragon King. 

But Dante waved him away, "I'm fine. I'm fine. I need to find Laina and get that child away from her."

Margaret knew something was amiss. But she did not have time to dwell on it, Laina and Colette were more important now. 

"I will not allow you anywhere near the both of them until you explain to me what is going on," Margaret declared. 

Dante gritted his teeth as he got back up on his feet, "Margaret, that is no child! That's Cordelia in disguise!" 

"What did you say?" for a moment, she thought she misheard what he was saying. 

"You heard me right, that is no child. That's Cordelia and she just got away with Laina," Dante declared. 

He shoved past the both of them and headed out of the room. He knew that the teleportation spell was not summoned by Laina, so it had to be Cordelia's doing. She must have used the opportunity to whisk Laina away. 

They had to act fast. 

Dante gathered the magical energy that was left from the teleportation spell, hoping it would give him some clues as to where they might have gone. 

Margaret was still dumbfounded by what she had just learned. All this time, the cute child they had come to know as Colette was in fact Cordelia, the purple-haired witch who's been trying to get to Laina. 

She looked down at her shaking hands. Because of her lack of magic, she was not able to sense that Cordelia was in disguise all this time. If that was not enough to add insult to injury, she should have picked up on the times Laina had been thrust into danger because of Cordelia. 

"How… how could I have not seen this," Margaret muttered to herself. 

"Hey, it's not your fault. You don't have your powers so you weren't able to sense it. Plus she hid herself really well," Marius consoled her.

"But I'm supposed to protect her, Marius. How can I protect her if I can't even sense the enemy when she was right underneath our noses all this time!"

"You can blame yourself later," Dante said as he walked back into the room, "What we need to do now is to find Laina."

Dante was right, Laina's whereabouts were now unknown. Cordelia could have whisked Laina away to someplace beyond their reach by now. Finding her was more important than anything else.

"You're right, we need to find Laina."