The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 87: The Shadow Palace

Chapter 87: The Shadow Palace

His Darkness...

Damien stared at his brother as the meaning behind those words finally dawned on him. Since Annalise was attacked by the dark energy, she needed something similar to tackle it and his shadow powers were the best option.

His gaze turned back at the unconscious woman whose breathing was getting fainter and fainter with every passing minute. He found himself taking hold of one of her hands as he tried to analyze just how bad her condition was because the price he would be paying to save her was too much to ask for.

"Damien, stop thinking. She needs you." Kenric tried to plead but Damien was focused on the unconscious Annalise as he let his energy search her body for all the injuries.

There was no doubt that she was badly injured physically but that wasn’t the real problem because Valerius’ healing power could fix all her wounds in minutes. The problem was the dark energy that had seeped inside her and was trying to destroy her pure energy.

He kept his attention focused as he searched deeper and finally felt it. The inky abyss sucked her into a black hole of malevolence, stripping her of her parents, and cascading her to the darkest depths of the real darkness.

She really needed him!

He opened his eyes and turned his attention at Kenric as he gave his shoulder a little squeeze before speaking, "Don’t panic. You need to stay strong for her."

His brother nodded his head hurriedly as he brushed away the tears that were staining his cheeks. There was no doubt that the youngest was already too deeply involved with Annalise and if something happened to her, it would hit him really hard even if the two of them hadn’t started a bond yet.

Damien then turned his attention to Valerius as he spoke in an urgent tone, "We need to return to the Midnight Realm." His brother nodded his head in understanding as he immediately moved to open the emergency portal that would lead them directly to the Shadow Palace.

The power of creating portals was a rare one and only a few could master it, Valerius was among those only three people from the midnight realm who had the ability to open a portal whenever and wherever they wanted.

Damien picked up Annalise in his arms while making sure not to hurt her, his powers wrapped around her in earnest as he and Kenric moved away to give more space to Valerius. It took barely a minute before a huge portal was opened in the middle of the forest, ready to take all of them to the Shadow Palace.

"Let’s go."

The three of them stepped through the portal, Kenric going first and followed by Damien along with Annalise in his arms. Valerius was the last one to step through the portal as he needed to close the portal too.

They appeared in the ancient hall of the Shadow Palace, filled with the essence of darkness and shadow powers along with the other elements.

"We will go and get everything prepared for the ceremony," Kenric said in a hurry as he gave one last look at Annalise before he left the hall.

Damien placed Annalise on the stone table that was made of pure obsidian before he stepped away and watched as the essence of darkness present in the hall immediately surrounded her, even they recognized what he had been denying all this time.

He found Valerius still standing there and he finally turned to face his brother. "What is it?" He seemed to be repeating this question too many times but the situation just called for it.

"I know that we are asking for too much, Damien. There’s no going back for you after this, especially when you don’t even like her and there are so many misunderstandings between you both. But brother... this is the only way to save her. I... I really want to apologize... If you don’t want to do this, I can understand... but I’ll request you to save her... I’m sorry for being selfish here..."

"Valerius..." Damien took hold of his brother’s shoulders and sensed just how tense he was. He was torn between his feelings for Annalise which was making him do anything just to save her and his guilt for using him, Damien, to save her.

"I should make this clear before either you or Kenric will start feeling guilty once everything will be over." He took a deep breath to collect his emotions. He couldn’t believe he was finally going to say these words out loud because doing so meant that he was accepting them but at the same time, he didn’t want his brothers to feel guilty.

"I... I’m not doing this only because of you both... It’s true that I don’t trust her and that I believe she has some hidden motives behind this marriage but I..." He stopped as the next words refused to come out of his mouth, he just couldn’t say them so easily but he had to. "... I don’t want to lose her either."

Here it was - the truth, one that he had been trying to deny for a long time but could no longer. Seeing her life fading out of her, the way that dark energy was trying to kill her from the inside, something broke deep inside him, something that cared about her more than he thought. There was no lie that he had been attracted to her since the very moment his eyes landed on her but just how deep his feelings were, he only got to realize now.

"Damien..." The expression on Valerius’ face wasn’t really that of surprise as if the man already knew and of course, he did, he always seemed to know everything.

"I know that after today, everything will change between me and her. There are chances that will only end up helping her in her motive but whether I’ll regret this decision or not, only future will tell."

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