Chapter 84-Good times

Chapter 84: 84-Good times

Water thundered over the stones, crashing down the side of the cliff in a silver curtain that caught the moonlight and scattered it across the pool below.

Varitreya surfaced with a gasp and pushed her soaked white hair away from her face, laughing despite herself as Kayden landed several feet away with enough force to send a wave rolling toward her.

He grinned when the water splashed against her, and for once, neither of them looked anything like heirs, bloodlords, or future rulers of the nation. They left all that burden behind to have some fun.

They were simply two old friends enjoying an evening away from the endless responsibilities waiting for them at the academy and palace.

"Again!" Kayden called. "Again, blood heir."

Varitreya narrowed her eyes. "You’re losing badly... Kay."

"I am allowing you to believe that," he splashed the water around him, enjoying its softness against his skin.

"You’ve said that three times, and you ended up behind just as many times," Varitreya called him our, rolling his eyes at how childish he was.

Kayden shrugged. "And you believed me every time," he still pretended that losing was him being a gentle vampire and letting her take the win.

She laughed and climbed onto the rocks beside the waterfall. Kayden followed, and before she could challenge him again, he raced to the top in a blink of an eye and jumped from the highest ledge.

His body disappeared beneath the rushing water before he resurfaced at the bottom with a victorious grin.

Varitreya rolled her eyes. "Show-off."

She sprinted after him, moving faster than he expected, and launched herself off the highest point just after he jumped. Her soaked hair streamed behind her as she plunged beneath the surface, while her drenched clothes clung heavily to her, emphasizing the motion of her dive.

A burst of cold water rose around her as she disappeared beneath the surface, followed moments later by her laughter when she resurfaced.

"Hahaha!"

They spent several more minutes doing it, racing through the water and scrambling back up the slippery rocks faster than any ordinary vampire could have managed.

The waterfall became their private playground. The surrounding forest was quiet except for rushing water and occasional distant sounds from the resort area beyond the trees.

Eventually, Varitreya climbed out of the pool. "That was..." she paused and drew a sharp breath.

The last time she had felt this free, this utterly unburdened by the weight of everything waiting for her beyond the forest had been with her partner in crime, Kayden. Of course, their idea of fun had been considerably more reckless. It hadn’t been a waterfall... it had been a volcano.

When the volcano had erupted, the two of them had turned the chaos into a ridiculous competition, challenging each other to see who could venture closest, dodge the dangerous heat, and make it back out the most times.

It had been reckless, foolish, and completely exhilarating. For those few moments, nothing else had mattered. No duties, no expectations, no consequences, it was just the two of them laughing and daring each other to go one more time, and naturally, she had won, obviously.

"Good times," she whispered with a smile.

Her jacket had become thoroughly soaked, clinging uncomfortably to her arms. She pulled it off and draped it over a nearby branch, wringing water from one sleeve.

That was when she noticed the strange silence. It was not the silence around her but the silence beneath her skin.

Varitreya lowered her gaze to her wrist, where the Fate flower rested beneath her skin. Its delicate petals were faintly visible, each one connected to a bond she could feel even from a distance. She focused on them one by one, sensing the emotions bleeding through the bond.

Zolani’s petal carried a deep, aching sorrow. Lumi’s was caught somewhere between sadness and relief, a confusing mixture that made Varitreya wonder what had happened to her. Then, there was Addessa’s petal. It felt completely different from the others. Hatred radiated from it so intensely that Varitreya could almost feel its bitterness beneath her skin.

"Addie, what is going on with you?" She asked into the air. She had never felt such deep hatred before and couldn’t understand what she missed out on that changed Addessa in such a short time. "I will find out and see to a way to help her," she said, determined not to let her warden fall down a pit of no return.

But there was one petal she couldn’t reach, Maisa. Varitreya searched for her presence again, concentrating until her brow furrowed, but there was nothing.

There was no emotion, no warmth, and no faint echo through their bond. It’s just an unsettling emptiness where Maisa’s presence should have been. "That is strange, too. She usually has a million plus feelings flowing through. Why is it so quiet now?"

For the first time, a cold sense of dread settled in Varitreya’s chest. Something was wrong. Usually, Maisa’s emotions came through it constantly.

At most, it was always fear, confusion, hunger, embarrassment, and other times pain. Even when Maisa wasn’t deliberately thinking about her, the bond had a way of reminding Varitreya that the girl existed.

Now? There was nothing, not even the faintest stir. Varitreya’s smile disappeared. She had a feeling that Maisa had gone and gotten herself in trouble again.

"Kayden."

With one call, the blood lord surfaced again. "What?" He asked, still in a playful tone.

"Come here."

Something in her voice made him stop joking. He climbed from the water and approached her, wiping droplets from his face.

"What happened, Vari?"

Varitreya didn’t answer immediately. She kept staring at the flower on her wrist, and then she raised her eyes and asked, "Where would a vampire go to avoid being sensed?"

Kayden’s expression changed. He thought about it seriously, and his gaze slowly moved beyond the waterfall. Past the glowing resorts scattered through the countryside, past the enormous burial grounds stretching beneath the moon and past the old streets and abandoned roads that marked the outer edges of Scaris.

Then his eyes stopped because that far in the distance stood the forbidden Dark Forest. Even from here, the place looked wrong. The trees rose like a solid black wall against the night.

Kayden’s whiteblood eyesight stretched farther than almost any vampire’s. More than a million meters was nothing extraordinary for him when he focused properly, and the distance that would have been impossible for other bloodlines was merely another stretch of landscape to his eyes.

His expression hardened. He looked back at Varitreya to give an answer but found held it in when he found that she was already staring in the same direction.

"What vampire are you looking for?" he asked. "Is it an outlaw?"

Varitreya’s eyes narrowed. "Just an annoying, attention-loving damsel-in-distress of a redblood that i have sadly come to know," she answered.