The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 246: Yours

Chapter 246: Yours

The ward of light and darkness...

Annalise immediately realized which ward it was as soon as Esme ended speaking. She had so many new questions swirling in her mind but she shook them away as she didn’t want to lose her focus from the main topic.

"Fine, You were telling me about the Portal Halls carrying important items that can be used to break the wards around the Seelie Realm. Tell me what they are." She was almost impatient to hear what the man had to say more about the incidents.

But to her utter dismay, Esme only responded with a little shrug of his shoulder.

"What?" She asked in confusion, not really understanding the meaning behind his gesture.

The masked man shook his head as if he was once again disappointed to see just how clueless she could be about things at certain times before he finally replied, "I have already told you what I promised, there’s nothing left for me to tell more about those incidents."

Annalise quickly shook her head as she didn’t agree the least bit with his words. "What nonsense are you talking about? You can’t just go against your words of helping me..."

"I have already fulfilled my words of helping you." Esme’s voice was slightly darker as he cut her off before she could have finished blaming him fully. "I have told you the identity of the attackers, their motive behind attacking the Portal Halls, and the things they were looking for."

"That’s not fair!" Annalise immediately stood up from her seat as she realized that she had been tricked by the man. "You just gave me vague answers, nothing solid..." Once again she didn’t get to finish as Esme spoke up - "Did you come looking for me to help you guide in your investigation or for me to solve it completely?"

Annalise opened her mouth to tell him that she never expected him to solve any investigation for her but the words refused to come out as the realization of her actions finally dawned on her.

"It’s true that I haven’t given you specific names but I think I have given you enough clues to find the names on your own. Don’t expect me to fight your battles, Annalise." Esme stared right into her eyes as he said these words.

Annalise took in a deep breath before she nodded her head in understanding. He was right, if she and her husbands tried together, they would surely find out about what they needed through the leads that she had gotten from Esme.

"Thank you." She was indeed grateful for his help even though it was more of a deal instead of him just helping her, still, he had been of great help to finally show her some light to search through the darkness.

Esme completely ignored her words as he suddenly changed his attitude into the person she was most familiar with, the arrogant, mean, and selfish Esme. "It’s your turn now to fulfill your part of the bargain."

All of Annalise’s good feelings disappeared almost immediately as she realized that it was her turn to fulfill her part of the agreement. The most unfair and troubling part was that she had no clue what he wanted from her.

Taking in a deep breath, she once again settled down in her seat and spoke with as much confidence as she could muster, "What do I need to do?"

Esme was silent for a while before he finally spoke, "All that you need to do is to tell me what you saw beyond the ward of light."

Out of everything that Annalise was thinking about what he would need from her, this never came into her mind. Now, she could finally understand to some point why he made her suffer so much because of that ward. The only thing she couldn’t understand was why he needed her to find it out. Because he didn’t want to go through the pain?

She opened her mouth to answer and suddenly recalled the words she heard right before passing out in the middle of the ward. She took another couple of deep breaths but Esme’s fixed gaze on her wasn’t helping her in calming down at all.

"Annalise..." His voice almost sounded slightly impatient as he pressed her to answer his question.

"I..." She started speaking but struggled to find the words she wanted to say to explain what she saw. Taking in another deep breath, she tried again - "I saw a huge palace in the middle of dead fields, it was the only place not filled with darkness. It had greenery, light, and colors... but I didn’t get to see anything more than that..."

A gasp got caught in her throat as she was completely taken by surprise as Esme suddenly appeared right in front of her as he crouched on the ground and his face to the same level as hers, making his eyes stare right into hers. "Is that all? You must have seen something else. Try to remember what else was there, something really important or unique that you must be forgetting about."

He seemed really anxious as he literally forced her to think of something that she must have forgotten to tell him. At this point, it was pretty clear that whatever it was he was looking for, it was too important for him. She decided to search more about that ward of light and darkness when she would have time.

She remained silent for a while, not telling him what he wanted to know that easily. She stalled for a little bit more, probably only for a couple of long seconds before she finally revealed, "I heard some voice calling a name."

"What voice and what name?"

She thought about the voice, trying to recall it. "I’m not too sure about the voice, it was really faint and sounded... miserable... or tired?"

"And the name?" Esme asked again.

Annalise watched the man in silence for a while before answering - "Yours."