The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 164: The Basement

Chapter 164: The Basement

"The basement?" Annalise questioned with surprise clearly evident on her face but it wasn’t her fault as she never thought she would ever be able to step into the basement of the castle, that was the most forbidden part of the entire Cursed Castle for anyone who wasn’t one of the three dark lords.

"Right. This..." Kenric spoke while signaling toward the room behind him, "... is our new room so that at least one of us can stay next to your room all the time but if we are going to talk about my actual room, then it’s definitely the one down below. After all, that’s the place where I have slept for centuries."

Annalise opened her mouth to say something but then closed it without saying anything at all. Her thoughts were running around her brain at such a rapid speed that she was having trouble focusing on anything. After a couple of long seconds of silence passed, she finally spoke, "So... I can enter the basement?"

Right! She was still having doubts if she had misjudged his words and misunderstood what he wanted to say. She needed him to say it out loud and clear that she could now enter the basement.

"Yes, Little Bird..." Kenric confirmed as he closed the distance between tge two of them and moved to stand right in front of her with barely any space left between them and yet, he wasn’t touching her at all which only made the situation more intense. "...you are the lady of this house and our wife, there’s no place in this castle where you can’t go."

Annalise took in a deep breath as she craned her neck to look into her husband’s beautiful dark orbs that seemed to speak nothing but his true heart to her.

"Thank you..." She found herself saying with as much gratitude in her voice as she was feeling deep down in her heart, "... for trusting me and for every other thing that you all have been doing for me. I really mean it, Kenric. I’m really thankful to you all for all the love, warmth, respect, and protection that I have received here..."

She didn’t get to say more as Kenric placed his index finger against her lips and silenced her. "You have no idea what a precious treasure you are, love. If I’m really thankful to the stars for something, then it’s for you being my soulmate and I’m sure my brothers would agree too."

"I second that." Damien’s soft voice made both Annalise and Kenric turn their attention toward the man who was standing a couple of feet away with his back pressed against the wall and his gaze focused on both of them. "Though I’m sorry for disturbing your sweet moment." He apologized quickly as if realizing what he had just done.

Annalise let out a small sigh before she hurried toward the second dark lord and surprised him with a sudden hug. "I missed you." That’s all she said before burying herself in his warm embrace. It didn’t even take more than two seconds before she felt his arms surrounding her as he returned the hug and pulled her closer.

"I missed you too, Princess," Damien whispered as he placed a soft kiss on the crown of her head before resting his chin over her head and allowing her to hug him as long as she wanted.

Kenric also moved toward them and once he was standing right next to his brother, he asked in a low voice, "Where is Valerius? I haven’t seen him ever since the feast ended and he accompanied the Crown Prince on a stroll outside in the garden."

His question about Valerius’ whereabouts made Annalise pull out of the hug as she also turned her attention to Damien’s face as she also wanted to know the answer. Valerius had been too occupied the entire day that she had barely exchanged a few words with him.

"He has plans of spending the night in the library as there’s something he wants to look through in the ancient books and scrolls," Damien answered before he fixed his gaze on Annalise and continued, "He asked not to be disturbed."

"I wasn’t planning to." Annalise quickly defended herself which made both Kenric and Damien smile before the latter wrapped one of his arms around her and made her turn toward the staircase leading downstairs.

"Since that’s the plan, we should head to our rooms and sleep," Kenric whispered in her ear before he took hold of her hand and all three of them headed toward the basement.

As the distance between her and the basement decreased, Annalise found herself getting both excited and anxious with each passing second. She watched as Damien used some sort of spell to open the basement door and pure darkness met her eyes on the other end but it was gone soon enough as lanterns flickered on the very moment Damien stepped inside.

She and Kenric followed behind Damien as the three of them descended the stairs which ultimately led them to a huge parlor where lanterns also bloomed to life along with their arrival. "How did you manage to keep this place from deteriorating?" She found herself asking as her eyes keenly observed every corner of the place.

"It took our combined energy of the five elements to keep this place in shape, something similar to what Valerius did with the library," Kenric answered as he pulled her toward one of the two hallways connected to the parlor.

They once again crossed another set of stairs that led them even deeper and to a hall where four rooms were located. "Three of these are our rooms and that fourth one is basically a study that Valerius has set up," Kenric told her as he pulled her into the very first room.

The darkness inside the room evaporated with their entrance and Annalise found herself looking at a room that screamed ’Kenric’ from starting to end.