She Belongs To The Devil

Joyce was dumbfounded upon hearing Damien's explanation about how the Zobekker plant was able to unlock one's memories that were engrained in their soul.

And she was in even more pain upon realizing that everything that she saw in her dreams could have actually happened to her in the past.

"You mean, I…" Joyce took a deep breath in and asked Damien, ready to break down into tears again, "You mean I was killed that brutally for real? And the tears that King Lucifer shed were for no one else but me?"

However, Damien was also not a hundred percent sure. "That's my guess. But we will have to confirm it first."

"How do we confirm?" Joyce asked restlessly.

Damien instantly glanced at Ariel. And he suggestively said to her, "Maybe your grandma will have an answer regarding this?"

"She should know, right?" Ariel had forgotten for a second that her grandma wasn't someone ordinary. "Shall I pray and call her here right now?" she asked Joyce.

Joyce didn't know why she was so eager to find out if she indeed was a reincarnation of Mackenzie.

She didn't know if that was because she was somewhat attached to Lucifer by now because of constantly seeing him in her dreams. Or if she wanted to get the answers and nothing more.

But whatever the reason, Joyce wanted to know the truth. So she nodded her head and agreed with Ariel. "Yes. I would love to know the truth. I don't think I will be able to think of anything else before I get to the depth of this."

Ariel was ready to be of some help to her cousin. She immediately joined her hands together and closed her eyes. And she began to pray to her grandmother in her mind.

Normally, all she would need to say for her grandmother to appear in front of her was, "Holy mother of the universe, I wish to see you." Sometimes, she would simply say, "Grandma, I wish to talk to you" and the Goddess would appear in front of her within a matter of a few seconds.

However, right now, no matter how many times Ariel called for her grandmother, she didn't see nor felt the presence of her grandmother in the room.

"What's wrong?" Damien asked when Ariel's breathing got heavier as though she was getting restless.

Ariel opened her eyes. And she answered Damien while furrowing her brows, "I don't know. Grandma should have been here by now. But she isn't responding for some reason."

"Maybe she is busy with something important?" Damien lightly touched Ariel's knee because she had been tapping her foot constantly for a while now. And he consolingly said to her, "Your father said that your grandma was going to settle things with your uncle who was here earlier, right? Maybe she is still busy with him?"

"Ah! Yes." Ariel took a deep breath in and smiled. "I was worried for no reason."

Joyce then spoke in a much calmer voice when she saw how frantic Ariel was getting, "You can try calling her a while later."

---

Theodore and Irene were also stuck in a similar situation as Ariel.

The two of them were standing outside the border of Wyverndale. Theodore and Irene had already taken their turn to call their mother on Earth so that Irene could go to the Wyverndale Palace and meet Adeline.

However, their prayers weren't answered.

"Did something severe happen between Michael and mother?" Irene gave a worried glance to her brother and asked.

Theodore was also worried regarding the same. He wasn't worried that his mother wouldn't be able to handle Michael. But he was worried that if the two of them fought, then the consequence would affect more than just the two of them.

"I hope that it's nothing serious," Theodore replied.

Irene then asked her brother again, "What if I go and check the situation in the Heaven realm?"

Theodore was confused regarding what to do. He would have liked it if his sister went there and came back with the news. However, he didn't want to send her there when she was heartbroken because of how Michael had broken her trust.

So instead, he put his trust in his mother. "I think there's nothing to worry about. I bet our mother is taking her sweet time to let Michael know his boundaries." And then he asked Irene, "Why don't you wait here for a minute? I will go inside and bring Adeline with me. We can sit somewhere here and catch up until our mother comes here."

Needless to say, Irene liked this suggestion better. "Okay. I would love to see the mother of your child. I bet she is as sweet as Ariel."

"She is." Theodore gave a wide smile. His love for his wife was too apparent in his eyes. "I will be right back. Don't disappear until then," Theodore playfully gave Irene a warning. Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire

And when she smiled and nodded, Theodore teleported to his home.

---

In Romania, all the youngsters were now occupying themselves by listening to Joyce again.

Damien had disappeared the night he had brought the Zobekker plant as a gift for Joyce. So he had no idea how it was affecting her.

He had asked Joyce about the same. And Joyce was explaining everything in detail.

"At first, all it did was work as a danger detector. The pendant would pull me towards the place where something bad was going to happen. And side by side, I would hear a soft whisper telling me what to do. That was how I was able to find Niylah on the day she turned."

Joyce glanced at Damien and Ariel and added, "It was the same day the two of you ran off."

"And gradually, I started to feel a strong connection with the pendant. Mostly because it would give me more than enough energy to perform any kind of spells, even the complex ones."

Joyce looked down at the pendant and then took a deep breath in. "And with time, I stared to see pieces of memories in my dreams, memories that weren't mine. I say memory because the dream felt too real.

The dreams started to get more vivid and much longer when more time passed. And I began seeing this particular dream about me getting killed."

"I'm so sorry, Joy." Damien closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his palm in frustration. "I wouldn't have brought something that nasty and handed it to you if I knew that it would torture you so much."

Joyce didn't want to make Damien feel guilty for following the foolish demand that she had made as a teenager. "You don't have to apologize to me. I have already made myself clear regarding that. You got it for me because I asked you to. If anyone is guilty here then it is me."

Damien nodded his head and sighed. And he asked again, "Are there other things that the nasty plant did to you?" He hoped that there were not. But he was disappointed.

Joyce frantically tapped her foot and nodded. "I don't mean to alarm any one of you but… there's something more…"

She looked at her husband because he already knew about the incident that she was going to reveal. And she was seeking his approval regarding whether or not to say it to everyone. It was something she was ashamed of.

Vlad nodded his head and motivated her to come clean. "They all are your loved ones. They will understand," he encouragingly said to her.

"What is it?" Damien asked with curiosity. He had a feeling that it was something bad.

"It was the incident that happened a few days ago." Joyce looked at Damien and then said apologetically, "I took the plant out of the capsule in the fit of my rage towards a criminal. And when I did that, the plant wrapped its vines around my arms. And its flowers bloomed on my palms."

"What?" Damien and Ariel shouted simultaneously because they knew what that meant.

And Damien further repeated what Joyce had just said, "You took the plant out? And it bloomed? And it also wrapped its vines around your arms? How did you survive?"

Damien was glad that she survived. But he was genuinely confused about how that happened because he had faced the atrocities of those plants. And he knew how painful the attack from its thorns was.

And Joyce answered while feeling guiltier, "It didn't do anything to me. But I was going to let the plant suck that criminal's soul."