Ensnaring his Dark Moon-Chapter 366: How to get out of here?

’’What is this place?" Cardan scoffed, ’’Do you think your father perhaps wanted to kill me and my brother together in this godforsaken land?’’

Esme halted in her tracks. She rolled her eyes before she continued walking towards the walls of the cave. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

’’A pity that he did not know that his fool of a daughter, blinded in her love for my elder brother, will jump into the pits of hell for him,’’ Cardan chuckled evilly.

Esme’s lips twitched, ’’If you don’t say a word, nobody will take you for a mute.’’

Cardan sighed, ’’But I don’t know what your father was thinking when he decided to send us here.’’

Esme’s movements paused for a moment when she heard his words because, even she, did not know.

Suddenly, her gaze landed on small murals that were carved in the walls. She stroked them gently with her fingers, not responding to Cardan’s words.

’’You are not weak yourself. Even if you have not reached the peak of your potential, you have divine powers. You possess hellfire. You are at the peak of youth. How long was it going to take for you to master your abilities?" Cardan said thoughtfully, ’’By making Aleister go through all these perils to get an artifact for you, not only is he hampering your marriage prospect but he is also looking down on your capability.’’

Esme did not say anything to him as she continued observing the murals on the walls. They seemed incomprehensible, even abstract. She could make out the outlines but she did not know what was going on in those ancient carvings.

"Say something now,’’ Cardan looked at the murals but he found them pretty dull to keep his attention so he averted his gaze in the next moment.

’’How does it concern you?" Esme looked at him from above her shoulder.

"What?’’ Cardan was bewildered.

’’Whatever my father did. How does it concern you?" Esme did not bother if her words were grating to ears as she spoke without mincing them, ’’Do not forget that you are here for your own needs and desires. You had no reason to force yourself into this but you are here to find a way to break free from the pain that your mother’s curse brings to you every time you stay away from her for longer periods.’’

Cardan’s lips twitched.

When she saw that he was finally quiet, Esme turned her attention back to the murals.

While observing them, she accidentally stroked the wall a little harshly, and a pile of mud that was gathered on it fell on the ground, causing the dust to fly in the air.

Cardan stepped back from the mess, scrunching his nose in disgust, ’’What are you doing? As if this place is not filthy enough as it is.’’

’’Go back to your heavenly chambers for all I care,’’ Esme mumbled as she took a closer look towards the carvings on the walls. After the layer of dirt that had covered it fell off, she could see the art a little bit clearer.

In the first carving, she could see the outlines of a woman standing on a rock. In the next carving, the woman squatted on the ground, with her chin tilted up towards the sky and in the last carving there seemed to be some battle going on with two hordes of soldiers on either side and a bloodied line in between.

Cardan also followed Esme’s gaze and observed the murals but after some time of observation, he felt uninterested in them. People here must be artistic but it had nothing to do with him, ’’Then tell me something that concerns me,’’ Cardan said.

Esme observed the carvings for some more time but when she could not decipher the meaning behind them, she gave up and turned around to look at Cardan, ’’What are you talking about?"

’’Luciana. How was she when you came here?" Cardan asked, his voice distinctly softening at the mention of that blonde haired woman who was the manifestation of all his beautiful dreams.

He remembered the way she turned her face away from him when he approached her.

Esme paused, a slightly awkward expression flitted across her face when she heard his question but it went unnoticed by Cardan who was daydreaming about Luciana, ’’She was fine,’’ she said, with a slight clear of her throat.

’’Are you lying to me?" Cardan narrowed his eyes.

Esme blinked, ’’Why would I?"

’’If she was fine then she would have tried to stop you from coming here.’’

Esme raised an eyebrow, ’’What makes you think that she won’t step inside the portal alongside me?"

’’She has no reason to,’’ Cardan said, after the briefest pause. It was not that he had not thought about the possibility of that when he saw Esme but he knew it was impossible, ’’You came here for Aleister. But she has no reason to risk her life and come to a place like this,’’ his words were sad but his tone contained a hint of relief that Luciana did not consider him important enough for her to put herself into such a perilous situation for his sake.

Esme refrained from dragging the man out of his delusions because regardless of anything, if he went berserk now after knowing that Luciana was also here then he might as well vent his frustration by tormenting her. And she did not even have her divine powers to put him in his place.

’’How are we supposed to get out of this place?" Esme whispered, shifting Cardan’s attention.

Cardan gazed around the cave-like place they were in and he could not see a single speck of natural light invading into the depth of the cave. His magic was the only source of light inside the place.

"I don’t know where Aleister is or what he is doing,’’ Esme mumbled.

Cardan frowned, ’’We stepped inside the portal at different times. That must have separated us.’’

Esme wanted to tell him that the situation was not quite like that because her and Luciana had stepped inside the portal, hand in hand yet they were separated but for the meantime, the last thing Esme wanted was for Cardan to lose his calm after knowing that Luciana had also followed them to a place like this with nobody knowing where she was at the moment.

Moreover, no matter how she tried to remember it, she could not recall a single incident that had transpired after she had stepped inside the portal with Luciana. The only memory she had was of her waking up in this dark cave and almost being strangled to death by Cardan.

’’I have a way,’’ Cardan’s contemplative voice snapped Esme out of her reverie.