Ensnaring his Dark Moon-Chapter 287: I don’t trust Cardan

Back in Visteria, he was always the one protecting their kingdom or family or the throne when the need arose.

In heaven, he was the one manipulating the officials and the King to regain his lost powers.

All the time it has been him standing up for himself.

But during these years, once in a while, there was this person who always had the strongest desire to protect him.

When she was young, she shielded him with her own body and after all this time, this habit of hers never changed. He did not whether he should feel happy or helpless about it.

Esme fell into contemplation when she heard him. Fragile? She knew he was not.

’’I know my powers are nothing compared to yours. You have divine powers which alone can annihilate this whole kingdom,’’ she had read about his father, God Atlas and since Aleister had inherited his divine powers, he must have many other abilities too.

’’As for me, I am just an ordinary mermaid. That too, not of pure origin. I am just a half-human and half-mermaid. Many of these people secretly despise me,’’ Esme looked at his face, addressing something she had never spoken about before ’’I am a mortal, Al. You are an immortal. I would live for a few more decades, retaining my youth till the day I die because I am a mermaid. And you will still be there after I am gone, living for centuries.’’

Aleister’s brows tugged together.

Before he could speak, she shook her head, ’’I am not upset about any of this. It is fate. You are special. I had known it the day you grabbed my hand and we disappeared from the Daven Castle.’’

’’Esme,’’ Aleister looked at her solemnly, ’’At the end of the day, you will always be there beside me and I will make certain of that no matter how many decades have passed.’’

His words sounded like a vow.

Her lips tugged up in a soft smile, ’’What I meant to say is that I know that we are worlds apart. I know you are powerful while I can’t even master my abilities properly,’’ a small frown appeared on her face, ’’But when she is around, your powers are suppressed,’’ she added in a soft whisper.

Aleister did not have to think much to know who the ’she’ was.

’’Marilyn is the bane of our lives. Your father is finding a way to break her spell on you but as long as she is alive, I...’’ Esme stood up from his lap, ’’There would always be this fear in my heart that one of these days, she will appear in front of us and...’’ she met his gaze, ’’...and what happened a year ago would happen all over again.’’

Aleister pushed himself to his feet, ’’They will find a way.’’

’’What if they don’t, Al?" Esme looked at him, ’’What if I tell you that I have a way to kill her?"

’’We can’t kill her,’’ Aleister responded, his face turning cold.

A mocking smile appeared on Esme’s face, ’’How could I not know about it? You have let me see every word she said to you a year ago. I know the spell she had cast on her son. If she dies, Cardan dies. Miraculously, during your stay there, you became good brothers.’’

’’Esme, we can choose not to talk about it.’’

’’But I am choosing to talk about it, Aleister,’’ she stepped back from him, ’’I am happy for you and Luciana. If she finds love in someone, and you find a family in your brother, the happiest person would be me. I have seen how well Cardan seems to treat us all. He is like a changed person compared to the man we met a year ago.’’

She turned to look outside the window. Her fingers twirled as a shield appeared around them, isolating them from the outside world so that nobody could hear the words exchanged between them.

’’Yet, I will be honest. At the end of the day, I don’t trust Cardan. I despise him for what he had done before, I loathe that man from the bottom of my heart even if I don’t say it most of the time. He is the only weakness of his mother. What are the chances that he had not manipulated this ploy again? His brotherly affection for you, his love for Luciana, what if it is all fake? A pretense?"

Aleister closed his eyes briefly, massaging the spot between his brows.

’’Now, don’t act like you haven’t thought about it. We took Duchess Flora as a family. But look who was it in the end? Even though we did not admit it, that hurt,’’ Esme turned to look at him.

’’I never fully trusted Duchess Flora,’’ So the betrayal was not as bothersome at that time compared to the fact that his father was a god or he had a brother.

’’Cardan is just like his mother. Deep down, he is capable of backstabbing everyone for that woman. How can I bring myself to trust that he is not manipulating us all?"

’’You said you have a way to handle Marilyn,’’ Aleister opened his eyes to look at her.

After hesitating for a moment, she spoke up, ’’Capture Cardan. While he is still being good to us, let us capture him.’’

Aleister did not speak.

’’It doesn’t matter whether his affection is genuine or not. At the end of the day, your lives are what matters the most to me. Luciana and you... he treats you both well and we can take advantage of that. Capture him. Use him against his own mother. Coerce Marilyn into breaking the spells on the both of you and then kill her,’’ Esme said, ’’Marilyn might be heartless, but she is obsessed with her son. He is the only person she truly loves in the world after your father. And we can use that.’’

’’Yes,’’ Aleister said, surprising her, ’’Cardan’s powers are still impure. It is not hard for us to imprison him. Once we reach our objective and kill Marilyn after breaking the spells, we can release him and tell him why we did that to him.’’

Esme’s lips parted slightly in disbelief when he agreed to it, ’’Y-Yes.’’

’’But can you do that my dear moon?" Aleister questioned, his voice still solemn. When she nodded, he smiled, ’’Why are your hands shaking then? Why are you stammering?"

Esme’s fingers curled into fists.

’’You detest Cardan because he backstabbed us by pretending to be Duchess Flora. You want to do the same to him to protect us. Are you both not the same?"

’’We. are. not. the. same.’’

Esme spoke through gritted teeth, ’’Cardan has done disgusting things throughout his life. He forced himself on girls, he manipulated us all, and he killed people... King Alexander died at his hands. Uncle is suffering somewhere because of him. He is just as much as responsible as his mother. He is not the epitome of innocence. He is cruel, evil, and heartless. He ruined our happy lives just for the sake of some revenge that his insane mother could not give up on.’’

She was panting by the time she finished speaking, ’’You are blinded by the changes in him. You people ignore everything he did because you love him but I have no such affection for him. I loathe that man. And the reason I never said it before is that I didn’t want to hurt your feelings. But with every day that passes without Marilyn’s spell on you shattering, I feel more and more unsettled. I would rather hurt you emotionally than have you or Luciana die.’’

Esme swallowed as she shook her head, ’’So what if he has changed for the better? He should pay the price for what he had done before. He... It is not bad if we can use him to threaten Marilyn to break the spells on the both of you,’’ she paused for a moment before adding, ’’Moreover when a snake sheds his skin, his poison won’t disappear. Cardan... can he even be trusted?"

Aleister glanced at her quietly.

When Esme thought he had no words to rebuke her claims, he opened his mouth to speak.

’’He was compelled by the powers of a witch. Even though he never said that and he lied to us that he had integrated a part of Duchess Flora’s soul within himself but he could never have done that. Only a witch could do that. Whenever his emotions wavered, Marilyn could make him do what she wanted him to do.

From time to time, he would have relapses. He would suffer in pain. His bloodlust would heighten and at that time he would lose his rationality and suck the life essence of anything he chanced upon. Hence, the deaths of those 18 maids and the villagers. They were not molested by him, their life essence was fed on till they died. They were killed. Marilyn wanted to destroy my mother’s family and she did not hesitate to get it done by Cardan.

The King’s life essence was sucked until he died. Uncle was in the wheelchair because of what happened in the Florania Kingdom’s fire and also because his life essence was being fed on by Cardan. He did what he did because he was being compelled. When he lost control, he would not even hesitate to harm anyone close to him, or even himself,’’ Aleister stroked Esme’s hair when her face turned blank at every revelation he made, ’’But even if he was not being compelled, I don’t think Cardan would find it impossible to do any of those things.’’