Bride To His Darkness-Chapter 347: The Tree And A Symbol

After receiving the paperwork from Brian, Ivan and Samantha took a stroll through the elf community. The people were starting to step out cautiously, as if unsure if the dangers still lurked somewhere, but with Brian’s assurance, everyone’s heart was at ease, and the elves were thankful to Ivan and Samantha, else, they would have lost their children to Carmela for sure.

As the dappled sunlight danced through ancient trees, Ivan unfolded the paperwork, revealing intricate illustrations and elvish scripts below. Samantha peeked into the paperwork, her eyes squinting at the detailed drawing, as if trying to scan it’s elaborate depiction, and she said,

"These illustrations are perplexing." She looked at Ivan whose brows were furrowed in concentration, "Brian said these illustrations were made whenever Carmela went for any sought of meeting, but as the details of the illustrations were never understood, no one chose to croak their brains out by unlocking the meaning behind each one."

"It’ll be unusual if she made matters easy for us." Ivan handed the paperwork to Herbert so he could have a look. "If you study the illustrations closely, they seem to point at a location, the way it was depicted. I don’t think she made this for anyone to see, she probably made it to avoid forgetting something, but at the same time, she was smart enough to make it look less captivating, so it wouldn’t pique much interest."

As they passed, the elves, with pointed ears twitching curiously, waved and exchanged greetings with them. Ivan responded with a curt nod while Samantha beamed at them with a smile, equally waving back as they continued their walk.

"Look at these symbols." Samantha traced her delicate finger on a tree that happened to stand out in the thousands of tiny illustrations drawn on the paper. "It could be a reference to a specific location. What if these drawings lead to something? There’s a tree, then the symbols, I have a feeling we should study them."

"Shall we ask the elder elf?" Herbert suggested, "if there happens to be a tree like that somewhere in the land, he looks like the type of person who should know about things like this."

"You’re not wrong there." Ivan’s lips twitched, and he turned to Samantha, "where do you think he’s likely to be? They must be done with treating the injured elves shouldn’t they?"

"There are three places where we are most likely to find him, come." She led them through.

—--

When the sun was already setting, Ivan and Samantha finally left with the assurance that they would return after dealing with Carmela. When they made it back to the tent, everyone was relieved to see that they had returned safely.

Alain and Lily hurried towards Samantha, and he showed her Viney who was resting delicately on his palm. She had almost forgotten that she left Viney under their care of these two children, and she was surprised to see that Viney had no complaints.

"Children are so gullible, you can get them to do anything." Was Viney’s witty remark, but Samantha was too tired to ask what sort of mischief Viney had done. Wait, shouldn’t she be the only one who can listen to its voice?

"You can have some rest, I’ll stay here with the children." Viney suggested, and Samantha couldn’t help but feel slightly jealous with how attached he had become to them in one day. Viney was naturally a sweetheart, despite its sharp tongue, they had bonded that way too, and since Viney was not being clingy for once, Samantha decided to use the opportunity she had to relax for the night.

Stepping into her tent, she cleansed herself and chatted a bit with Lucy who was ever ready to hear what happened, but she sounded disappointed to hear that Ivan and Brian got along quite well.

"I was expecting some sort of conflict situation." She sighed as she threw her head back, but Samantha failed to grasp the meaning behind that dragged phrase of hers.

"What sort of conflict were you expecting to hear from me?"

"Nevermind that, I’m really happy to know things went well for the both of you. Infact, I’m already getting tired of this place and just want to return back." Lucy expressed her genuine thoughts before scooting over to where Samantha folded the clothes on her bed spread.

"By the way, I have something to share with you." Lucy’s brown eyes gleamed as Samantha stared into them briefly, and the only person who could evoke such a look from her friend here was no one other than Lord Duncan. Whatever Lucy wanted to share with her definitely has something to do with him.

"Tell me."

Later on, after she was done listening to Lucy speak about Duncan’s plan to take her away to his kingdom, Samantha’s emotions were conflicted, as she wondered who would be by her side if Lucy left, but seeing her talk about how he addressed her as his ’ignara’ Samantha wasn’t sure why but she felt her silly friend here was exaggerating the story.

When Lucy finally retired to bed, Samantha was able to relax on the comfort of her bedspread, whilst she hoped to get some sleep before tomorrow.

She had worn one of Ivan’s ebony nightshirts. She liked how free and comfortable they felt on her skin, and what’s more enticing was the lavender scent of him that lingered strongly on his shirt. She could swear her senses were never this sharp before, but right now she felt completely wrapped in his comforting scent.

Smiling to herself as she took a long, deep sniff of it, she closed her eyes and allowed her senses to take her away to Dreamland.

Halfway through her slumber, Samantha woke up to a warm sensation that traveled across her body. Her eyes snapped wide when it instinctively dawned on her that she was being showered with kisses.

"Hmm?" She closed her eyes once more when she felt the same tingling warm sensation travel up to her neck, only for a certain someone’s tongue to lick her skin as if she was some sort of sweet.

She shivered from the tantalizing contact and turned to meet Ivan’s crimson eyes, watching her with burning need.

"Iva–!!" She was caught off-guard when he captured her lips. Her mind instantly went blank when his tongue pushed its way in to dominate her small ones. He flung aside the blanket on her body and grabbed her thigh, pushing her closer to his heated body while he continued to steal her every breath.

"I couldn’t stop myself." He uttered before peppering her cheeks, jaw and swan neck with kisses. "you’re freaking beautiful, do you know that?"

Samantha’s flushed face turned hotter at his compliment, and her ears became red when his skillful hand wandered south, going beneath the shirt she wore as if he was targeting a specific area.

"And no undies." His dark pupil turned pitch-black with desire, "I want to make love to you, or I’m going to lose my mind."

Samantha couldn’t deny that his restrained desire had slipped loose, but then she recalled something he did which made her turn away from him.

"No." She refused.

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