The Veil of Darkness

"What?"

Kenric had really taken over the job of being the extra dramatic the more secrets she revealed. The way both her husbands handled the information was completely different from each other. While Damien was listening to everything in silence with next to no change in his expression, Kenric was reacting to Annalise’s every second word.

"Yes, this Castle belonged to the Late Light Fae Queen," Annalise repeated and waited for her husbands to digest the information. "There’s a mention of this place in the History Book. It says that there used to be a cave and deep beneath it was the location of the main portal of the Seelie Realm. However, it’s the diary that actually contains a story about this place."

Both Kenric and Damien appeared to be interested to know the story, so Annalise continued - "The Late Light Fae Queen was always busy with her duties and her mate couldn’t help but worry for her health. So, he was the one who built this place as a sanctuary for her. Whenever she had free time, she would escape to this place together with her mate to live like normal persons."

Taking in a deep breath, she resumed - "They lived here happily for a long time but... then things started going wrong. Somehow, the Late Light Fae Queen already knew what was coming, so she prepared for everything..."

Now, Annalise was at the part of the story where she had to finally reveal the secrets of the castle - "You all know about the portal and also the garden fairy... her name is Pristine. Other than those two, there are three other secrets here - a magical library in the second empty room on the top floor, a secret realm in another room on the same floor, and a secret hideout inside the old oak tree in the backyard."

Neither Damien nor Kenric responded at all, they were just completely stunned and sat there in complete silence.

"The oak tree is under Pristine’s care. The secret library is under the care of two light faes - Sir Niles and Silas. The latter is also the one appointed as the guardian of the castle by the late light fae queen. As for the secret realm... it’s the place where all the Seelie races are currently living in secrecy."

The deep silence that followed Annalise’s revelation made her look at her husband with arched eyebrows. She wondered exactly what they were thinking as they just sat there in silence and even Kenric didn’t show the slightest reaction.

"Are you guys alright?" She asked almost in worry.

Kenric was the first one to react as he stood up from his seat and moved to kneel in front of Annalise and he spoke - "My lovely wife, you can’t just drop something as huge as this on us and expect us to be normal about all this. What you just said is almost making me think that you are trying to mess with us."

"But I’m not..." Annalise protested and Kenric was quick to nod his head in support. "I know that you are not." He added while shaking his head as if he was having trouble sorting out his thoughts.