The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 81: A Group of Tainted Harpies

Chapter 81: A Group of Tainted Harpies

Valerius did return after another ten minutes or so had passed. By that time, Kenric and Damian had already prepared the horses and the carriage after collecting all their possessions from the cave.

"Have you taken care of them?" Kenric asked as he handed a white fur cloak to his brother.

Valerius nodded his head in response before he shared a glance with Damian. The look that passed between the two of them confused Annalise just as much as Kenric’s question.

Just when she thought that she won’t be getting any answers to her questions, she found the first Dark Lord turning his attention to her. A warm smile bloomed on his face as he made his way to where she was standing next to the carriage.

She was taken aback when the man pulled her into his arms and gave her a warm hug. She still felt surprised by all the warmth he had in store even after being the holder of ice magic.

"How are you feeling now?" The first thing he spoke was to ask about her well-being.

"I’m completely fine. What about you?" She was going to ask where he had been all this time and what hidden agenda was taking place between the brothers but then decided against it. Being nosy never resulted in anything good, and she didn’t want to take advantage of her husbands’ good nature towards her.

Valerius took hold of her face between his palms as he replied, "As long as you are fine, I’ll be as good as possible. Don’t worry about us, we were just taking care of a group of harpies that were tainted with the dark energy."

"Harpies?" Annalise asked in surprise. Another supernatural creature she had read and studied about but never got to see personally.

Harpies were not a part of the Seelie Blood or the Seelie Empire but neither did they belong to the Midnight Realm or the Mortal Realm. Instead, they were deadly creatures from the Primordial Realm.

"What do you mean by tainted? Being from the primordial realm, aren’t they already related to the dark energy?"

Valerius shook his head but before answering her question, he spared a quick look at his brothers who were waiting silently and patiently for them to end their conversation.

She almost expected Lord Damian to comment again but fortunately and to her surprise, he remained completely silent.

"It’s true that Harpies were one of those few races that still resided in the primordial realm, but they were balanced by the two energies - dark and light."

"But not anymore." Annalise finished the remaining sentence, finally understanding what he meant by the word ’tainted’.

Valerius nodded his head in agreement. "Damian noticed their presence nearby when he went out to collect firewood. They would have attacked us sooner or later, so instead of waiting for that moment, we decided to take care of them when we have the chance."

Annalise bit down on her lower lip with her teeth as she hesitated about asking the next question but she couldn’t stop herself from asking it either. "Did you... did you kill them?" Her eyes looked at him in expectation even though she wasn’t sure why she didn’t want such dangerous creatures dead. Was it only because they hadn’t attacked them yet and there was no knowing for sure that they would have attacked them at a later point?

Valerius smiled as he once again shook his head before responding, "We didn’t. Damian set a trap during the night to catch them without alerting the other beasts in the forest and just now, I went to cast a sleeping spell on them before locking them inside a ward. They will stay asleep for the next couple of days, enough time for us to safely leave the forest."

"Valerius, we should depart now." Damian finally spoke as he looked at his brother with a serious gaze. In response, Valerius nodded his head in understanding.

"If you have other questions, I’ll try to answer them when we will stop for a break next. Let’s not waste any more time now." He spoke while turning his attention back to her.

Annalise nodded her head and hurriedly climbed inside the carriage and watched the three lords mounting their horses from the carriage window.

The path down the cliff was a little bumpy but not really uncomfortable, she found herself relaxing in her seat as the chilly wind outside forbade her from looking outside from the window. Doing so would have frozen her face like ice.

The deeper they ventured into the forest, the thicker the fog became. At one point, when she took a glance outside from the window, she even had trouble seeing Kenric who was riding just a couple of feet away from her.

A couple of minutes later, the carriage suddenly stopped, making her look outside the window to find all her three husbands riding toward her. "Is something wrong?" She asked while pointing her attention at Valerius.

"The fog, it seems to be trying to trick us. I still can’t tell exactly what kind of trick it is holding for us but we better need to be prepared." He answered as he jumped down from the horse and moved closer to the window.

Kenric followed his suit and came to stand next to him as he spoke, "The three of us are already connected. We will eventually find each other even if got separated. But what about her?" His voice carried worry and a little bit of anxiety in it.

"Let’s bind out mount treads together with hers. It will work the same way as our bond but it will only last for a day. Besides, my bond with her is also there. Even though it’s just the initiation stage, it’s still better than nothing."

"Binding moon threads? How?" Annalise found herself asking as she had never heard anything like that ever before. She watched as a sinful smile appeared on Kenric’s like as he stepped even closer to the window and to utter surprise... kissed her!

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