Chapter 85-A different side of you

Chapter 85: 85-A different side of you

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

Kayden stared at her for a moment, his mind racing as he tried to figure out exactly which vampire could have inspired that expression. Then, slowly, a knowing smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

There was only one redblood in the entire academy who had somehow managed to wrap the princess around her little finger. And judging by the look on Varitreya’s face, he had a pretty good idea who it was. "Maisa?"

"Who else?"

He looked toward the forest again. "You think she’s there?"

"I think the bond has gone suspiciously quiet," she had her doubts but wasn’t sure. "Either she is, or she isn’t."

Kayden folded his arms. "And you’re considering entering the forbidden dark forest because you have a feeling?"

Varitreya gave him a sideways glance. "Care for a detour?"

His smile widened immediately. "As long as we’re going somewhere far away from everyone else. I’m in"

Varitreya raised an eyebrow. "Who exactly are you avoiding, Kay?"

"I am not avoiding anyone," he said, looking away.

"You’ve been avoiding someone since we arrived."

He sratched the back of his neck. "I am strategically maintaining distance to avoid lovestruck teens."

"That’s called avoiding," she stated.

Kayden ignored her. "Are we going or not?" He changed the subject.

It was difficult to focus on his avoidance when the thought of it only reminded him of the painful truth that the boy he had loved for so long had chosen the company of a blackblood girl over his.

The realization reopened a wound he had been trying desperately to ignore, and bitterness slowly took its place. The hurt was still there, buried beneath his pride, but now it was tangled with a growing hatred he couldn’t easily suppress.

Varitreya didn’t bother answering. She simply vanished. One moment, she was standing before him; the next, she had disappeared in a blur, moving with such astonishing speed that even the air seemed to shudder in her wake.

Leaves and loose debris scattered from the force of her departure, leaving Kayden staring at the empty space where she had been.

A grin slowly spread across his face. "Race you," he called, though she was already far beyond hearing.

Then he vanished after her, launching himself into the darkness in pursuit.

The landscape became a blur. They crossed the distance between the waterfall and the outer grounds of Scaris at a speed that would have been impossible for nearly every other vampire alive. Trees streaked past them.

The roads blurred into silver streaks beneath them, while buildings flickered past like fleeting shadows, appearing and vanishing in the blink of an eye. The sheer force of their speed tore through the air around them, whipping at their clothes and drying the water that had clung to them only moments earlier.

Within what felt like a single breath, they had crossed the burial grounds and raced through the ancient streets beyond them. Civilization gradually thinned behind their backs until the last traces of stone paths, houses, and distant lights disappeared into the darkness. Ahead lay only the untamed wilderness, stretching endlessly beneath the night sky.

Finally, they reached the Primrose Border. Varitreya appeared so abruptly that the flowers beneath her feet barely had time to settle before Kayden materialized beside her a heartbeat later. Neither of them spoke. After racing all the way there, the sudden silence felt almost unnatural.

Before them, the primroses swayed gently despite the complete absence of wind, their delicate petals brushing against one another in an eerie, rhythmic motion.

Beyond that beautiful boundary stretched the Dark Forest. It was ancient and impenetrable, its towering trees swallowing the moonlight and casting the woods into an almost unnatural darkness.

For a moment, they simply stood there, staring into the forbidden forest. Neither of them needed to say what they were thinking. They had reached the place where the rules changed and where whatever waited inside could be far more dangerous than anything they had encountered outside it.

Kayden’s playful expression had vanished. "Are you sure?"

Varitreya looked ahead. "The last person who entered that place was probably regretting it before they took their second step."

"I was hoping you’d say no."

Varitreya glanced sideways at him. "You can stay here and wait."

Kayden scoffed, folding his arms across his chest. "And let you walk into a magical prison alone?"

"You’re the one who asked if I was sure." She raised a challenging eyebrow.

"I wanted reassurance, not permission to abandon you," he fired back without missing a beat. His expression made it clear he wasn’t backing down, no matter how dangerous the forest beyond the border might be.

Varitreya stared at him for a moment before a faint smile tugged at her lips. Of course, he wouldn’t stay behind. Kayden had always been like this; reckless, stubborn, and apparently incapable of letting her face danger alone.

"Let’s look around."

"And if she’s not there?" He asked, "We would have not just wasted our time but also risk angering the palace."

"If she’s not there then... I’ll teach you the royal forbidden earth-ground technique," she dangled a price in his eyes.

Kayden’s eyes widened. "The one you’ve refused to teach me for years?"

"The very one," she replied boldly.

"I’m suddenly very interested in this detour."

Varitreya’s expression turned almost mischievous. "And if she is there..." she paused and let the sentence trail away.

Kayden studied her face. "You have a plan."

"No," she said, but her lips curved up in a mischievous smirk.

"You definitely have a plan," Kayden read right through her.

"I have several."

"For Maisa or me?"

"For the idiot who thought sneaking into a forbidden prison was a reasonable thing to do."

Kayden shook his head. "She really does bring out a different side of you."

Varitreya ignored him. She stepped toward the primrose border. The instant her foot crossed it, nothing happened, her whiteblood magic remained so did her senses, strength and speed.

The forest’s suppression simply slid around her as though it didn’t recognize her as something it was allowed to control.

Kayden stepped through behind her. The atmosphere changed immediately, and the sounds of the outside world disappeared.

There was no distant resort music, no roads, no voices but only the ancient forest.

The trees seemed impossibly large from within, their trunks twisted and dark, their roots breaking through the earth like the bones of something buried beneath the ground.

Varitreya looked around, and Kayden stood beside her. "Nothing, she is not here?"

"Not yet. Let’s look around first, and them declare she isn’t here," she had a gut feeling that Maisa was there.

She lifted her wrist. The fate flower remained silent even at that moment. Varitreya’s eyes narrowed. "Come on, Maisa," her voice was barely above a whisper. "Where are you?"

Somewhere deep within the forest, unseen by either of them, Maisa was sitting beside a boy she’d met only hours earlier, completely unaware that two of the most powerful vampires in the academy and perhaps the nation had just entered the prison to find her.