The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 209: An Understanding Husband

Chapter 209: An Understanding Husband

Annalise’s eyes flew open as a loud gasp escaped her lips. Her eyes fluttered as they tried to adjust to her surroundings and she suddenly felt a cold hand coming to rest against her shoulder before a soft voice entered her system.

"You are finally awake."

Her eyes finally adjusted to the brightness and she found herself looking at the very familiar and ethereal-looking face of the first dark lord who was looking back at her with worry-filled ice-blue eyes.

She hurriedly moved to a sitting position which resulted in a mild but still sharp pain in her temples but ignoring that, she looked around as if searching for something... or someone. If not for Valerius who was keeping her locked in his arms, she would probably have been already running around the chamber to look for tge person who just left her entire world shaking.

"Annalise, is everything alright? Do you want something?" Valerius asked as he tried to stop her from getting out of bed. Both his voice and expression were filled with worry as he looked at her in full seriousness.

"Why am I here?" She asked without wasting any time as she returned her attention to her husband.

Valerius let out a small breath before he replied, "Damien found you sleeping in the parlor and brought you here so that you can rest in your bed-chamber. I stayed behind to look after you as I was... slightly worried about you since you again shut us off through the bonds."

His voice almost turned complaining near the end but Annalise could hardly pay any attention to it as she was completely taken aback by what she just learned. Right before opening her eyes, she was still inside that magical sphere with that weird man and now she was back in her bed-chamber.

The fact that her husbands didn’t only lose contact with her as the bonds shut them off inside the magical sphere but they had no idea about her short disappearance from the castle, none of it helped her in calming down at all.

She opened her mouth to tell him about exactly what she just experienced but stopped right before she was about to say it out loud. She had no idea why she stopped at the very last second but she suddenly had no plan of telling them about the magical sphere or the masked man yet.

"Annalise..." Valerius softly whispers her name as he tried to pull her attention to him. "Is something wrong?" He repeated his previous question as he probably sensed that something was not right with her.

Annalise turned her attention to her husband and as she finally took enough time to take in his soft features and the warmth in his ice-cold eyes that was there only for her, she finally found herself relaxing.

Letting out a small sigh, she threw her arms over his shoulders and buried herself in his embrace which immediately surrounded her in a protected warmth. She remained silent for a while as Valerius pulled her tightly in his arms and surrounded her with his air and ice.

"Something did happen today." She finally confessed after a while and felt Valerius going completely still for a while. She even felt his worry for her rising through their shared bond and it made her speak further, "But I’m alright now." Though she was aware that it was more or less a futile attempt to dismiss his concern, she still wanted to say something good to help him relax.

"What was it?" Valerius asked as he completely ignored the part where she confessed that she was alright.

Annalise searched for the right words for a minute or two before finally answering, "I don’t think I’m ready to share it with anyone at the moment."

Valerius didn’t respond at all. He just kept his arms tightly wrapped around her and waited for her to continue speaking.

Pulling away from the hug to look into his eyes, she spoke - "I need some time to look into this matter on my own to get some answers before I’ll be able to share it with you all." She was expecting him to be once again understanding toward her wish and the man didn’t disappoint her.

"Will you be alright on your own?" Valerius asked as he took hold of both her hands in his own and looked straight into her eyes. His own eyes searched for the truth in her ocean-blue orbs.

Annalise didn’t jump to immediately answer in positive, instead, she took enough time to under on the possibility of her safety getting sacrificed in the new situation she had found herself in. "Probably..." She finally answered truthfully, "... but I will try my best to be careful and once I’ll feel like I can’t handle the situation on my own, I will immediately inform you all."

The last part was a promise and Valerius realized it too as he finally relaxed slightly. While nodding his head in understanding, he finally stated, "As long as you will keep yourself safe. I will wait for you to finally tell us exactly what is going on that has you this much disturbed. Do you want me to talk to the others?"

Annalise was grateful for both his understanding and his offer to talk g to Damien and Kenric as tge other two definitely won’t be as eager to go along with her plan as Valerius was, but she knew that she needed to talk to the other two dark lords on her own.

"Thank you, Valerius, but I will like to talk to them on my own. It’s better to let them know my decision on my own instead of you facing their never-ending questions."

Valerius nodded his head in both understanding and approval before he suddenly asked, "Are you mad at me about what happened in the morning?"

He was undoubtedly talking about the combat thing that Damien had put forward for her in front of everyone and she ended up making a scene because her anger and frustration got the best out of her.