Chapter 331: Chapter 331

Currey nodded at Ian’s statement. He especially did not want Ian to complete the sentence relating to sex to his wife. Currey did not wish to discuss the intimate moments between his boss and wife. He cleared his throat, but his expression was still grave, indicating the seriousness of the matter.

Ian paused for a split second, and then he led Shelby to the main seat in front of the monitors and stood behind the chair, rubbing his hands over her exposed flesh to warm them. Shelby was puzzled about what the discussion was about but trusted Ian to let her know in due time.

’He means to say that we may have visited the Fae-land briefly during our lovemaking yesterday....’

"WHAT!" Shelby clamped her hand over her mouth, and her face turned bright red. She was so shocked that she forgot to use the mind link and shouted that out, causing Murray and Currey to smile despite their agitation and the seriousness of the matter.

Shelby buried her face in her hands as Ian chuckled and leaned over to kiss her hair.

Ian could not help but examine his hands as the memory of touching a tree resurfaced. Currey’s words told him that he had not imagined that.

"We are not too sure about it yet, but...."

"Why are you telling me this if you’re unsure?"

"Our apologies! Your Highness!"

Currey and Murray bent so low that their foreheads nearly touched their legs.

"I came to the back garden yesternight but...."

’Murray came there? ... while we were....’ Shelby’s eyes grew larger, nearly popping out at the thought that someone may have seen her sexual explorations with her husband. The experience from the night before had been thrilling with a touch of euphoria.

They had made love under the stars, and the surge of the unknown through her had been extraordinary. However, that reckless abandonment only felt so before she thought that she and Ian had been alone. The thought of another eye seeing her doing that was just too much for Shelby.

To Murray and Currey, sexual acts between their kind were not necessarily a secret but could be an openly celebrated gesture. However, they also understood that Shelby was not their kind, and, most importantly, Ian would have skinned them alive if they ever witnessed his wife’s naked body.

With Murray guarding Shelby around the clock, he had made sure never to look at her in her naked state. Murray was wise in this stead.

"I mean, there was no one in the backyard when I came there..." Murray quickly added as if to reassure her, looking at how Shelby turned crimson by the second. At that statement, Murray saw her release a sigh, and then a frown followed as the implication of the words dawned on her.

He could see why Ian doted on her that much, and his protective instincts flared up. Murray was the only person among the three who had witnessed Shelby’s life in-depth, and he understood more than anyone her concerns and current state of mind as compared to previous experiences

"We were not there?" Ian beat Shelby to asking the question.

"Yes, your Highness! I couldn’t feel your presence anymore, but at the same time, I could... in a faint way. It’s hard to explain..."

Ian looked at his palm as Currey also jumped into the conversation.

"The residual power remnants there was more than usual, and we..."

"How was that possible?" Ian interrupted them. He had no doubts about the truth of the matter and the possible implications it bestowed on them, too.

"I sense some change in you, your Highness. It’s subtle but still there. We are still unsure how you could cross between the worlds .... Especially... in that state..."

Currey cleared his throat, and Shelby lowered her head, wishing the ground would swallow her up. She did not trust herself to look at either of the men in the room.

"Find out more about what happened!"

"Did you feel nothing strange, your Highness?" Currey could not help but ask.

Ian ignored him and then asked,

"What of the other things I told you to check on?"

Currey sighed. He wisely knew when to let go. Besides, no matter how much he was close to Ian, Currey was best at knowing that he was not qualified to hear Ian’s thoughts.

"Before that... there was another issue..."

"Are you going to spit it all out or drop them one after the other?"

"My apologies, Your Highness." Currey bowed again and, without wasting time, went on,

"We were locked out of the festival grounds yesterday. There was also the presence of ... I mean, the heavy presence of some Fae, but whatever locked us out, the grounds looked to have locked them out, too. The enchantment had all but dissipated this morning when we went back to inspect.... In fact..."

"What do you mean by the fact that you were locked out?"

"There is no other hidden meaning, Your Highness. We could not enter the grounds after we came out. Murray went back to get the eldest daughter but could not enter, and the same was true for me. It was as if an invisible wall had been set up that lasted the whole night. I am not sure of what other species could not enter, but we two and the others of our kind were all affected."

"Did it just bar you from entering?"

"Yes, thankfully, there was no harm to us. We found that there was a material sprinkled all around that place, and it was what triggered that invisible wall. Something or someone clearly did not want us there...."

Ian did not like what he was hearing, and the more Currey talked, the heavier his face became. What Currey was saying had a lot of implications. For some reason, his people were barred from the grounds of his own land, and then he and his wife were transported briefly to an unknown land.

"We think that whoever it was bent on keeping our kind out, but I could not sense any malice from that.... There was something good in that, though...."

That got Ian’s attention as he could not think of anything good coming out of that. He thought of the scenario that if someone could bar a Fae from entering a particular confinement, then that meant that his Elvin could potentially be left unprotected. If she had been in there alone and had called for help, did that mean that he and the rest could not get to her on time?

Ian walked around the chair and easily lifted Shelby up, settling her on his lap. He tightened his arms around her, and Shelby let him. She understood the connotations of those words all too well and she was uneasy herself. There had been multiple attempts on her life, but if there was a chance that her protectors could not get to her, then she had no idea of what she would do!

"What is good about this? Did you find the culprit and their reasoning?"

Ian frowned as Currey approached a small shelf and brought out a keyboard. He typed really fast and then projected a hand-drawn picture onto one of the most giant screens....

"Is she....? No, that can’t be... but the resemblance is uncanny!" Shelby whispered to herself, as she stared at the woman on the screen, who looked barely older than her.

"It is her!" Currey chipped in after observing Shelby for a while.

"What do you mean? Isn’t this a page from an ancient book of a sort? How can...." Shelby stopped short as Ian studied the hand-drawn image of the beautiful young lady from centuries back. Then Ian turned back to Currey,

"When we tried to check what that meant from yesterday, I heard one thug who had joined his friends but was still in the woods, talking.

He was muttering about a young girl scaring the hell out of he and his brothers and they leaving him behind after that. So, based on what he was saying, I dug through the archives and found this. I wasn’t too sure of it as we had not seen her face from the cameras, but her Highness just confirmed this for us.

The good thing I talked about was the fact that we would never have been able to find out about this person who had met Her Highness yesterday had it not been the description of that thug. For some reason, I think, she wanted us to find her...."

Shelby frowned.... "Is she really Royston’s cousin? The one from yesterday? Also, it doesn’t make any sense... is she the great-grandmother of this woman here on the screen...."

"She is indeed the one you met yesterday, but I am confident that she is no one’s cousin!"

"What do you mean that she wanted us to find her?" Ian asked,

"I can answer the two questions together. She is the Timeless Witch. I only made the connection based on the mark on the back of her hand. That is the only way she can be identified. She never ages."

"Yes. She bestows favours and grants wishes in exchange for life, so she always manages to stay seemingly young forever. My best guess is that the young man may have used her services, and it may have been related to her Highness..."

"Say that again?" Ian asked quietly, but the menace emanating from him was too deadly.

"... I also think that she may have done something to keep all the Fae’s out yesterday. The fact that she met her Highness but is unharmed shows that she has no indication to harm her.

If the Timeless Witch wills it, anyone can do nothing to save the person. She never does anything without cause and never acts for free, but it is strange that she would keep the Faes out, especially when we can be sure that the Chicken person knows nothing about our species. Which means the witch acted on her own and that does not match her known behaviour patterns..."

Ian closed his eyes tightly to calm himself down and then opened it,

"Find out what that chicken wanted the witch to do!"

"Yes, Your Highness!"

"What did that person want?" Ian asked Shelby gently. He was uneasy and wanted to get to the root of whatever that was as fast as possible. He did not even want to think that the attempts on Shelby had been because of this person called the Timeless Witch.

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