Chapter 90-A cruel trap (3)

Chapter 90: 90-A cruel trap (3)

"What happened to Asher?"

Varitreya’s expression became solemn. Asher Challan’s story was the saddest part of last year. Just talking about it made her heart ache.

Had it not been for the queen, the palace and the blood council refusing to shed more blood, she would have killed through every hunter family just to avenge Asher.

"He survived the attack," she lowered her head as a sign of respect for his soul.

Maisa looked up. She became a little hopeful that the story wasn’t as tragic as they originally made it out to be.

"Afterward, he found the village where the girl had lived," Kayden said, their was some pride in the corners of his eyes and in his voice when he said that. "He took his revenge and made that girl pay up tenfold by blood."

Maisa closed her eyes. The darkness that hit was far from enough to numb the feelings in her chest. Her chest was stuffy and it stung.

The pang was unending.

She already knew how the story ended, but knowing the outcome didn’t make it hurt any less. Seeing everything unfold from the prey’s perspective had transformed the tale into something far more painful than she had ever imagined.

The fear, helplessness, and desperate hope she could now understand from their side were heartbreaking. For once, she wasn’t simply hearing a story about suffering. She was seeing it through the eyes of the one who had endured it.

"He didn’t stop there. He eventually brought back the heart of an Everheart hunter," she let known, all that information had gone viral in the nation.

Maisa’s eyes opened. An Everheart? Since her brother who was supposedly responsible for the trap was still alive then which Everheart did Asher kill? "Who?"

"Saphra Everheart," Varitreya said, naming the hunter who had been killed. She could never forget that name. It had remained etched into her memory for years as it was the consolation prize Asher had taken when he failed to kill Rayne.

The name struck Maisa harder than anything she had heard before. Saphra was her cousin.

One of the brightest young hunters in the Everheart family, Saphra had been spoken about with immense pride by Maisa’s parents. They had praised her skill, her discipline, and the promise she carried as one of the family’s finest young hunters. She had been someone Maisa had grown up knowing as a shining example of what an Everheart hunter could become.

And now she was hearing her name spoken in connection with a death she had never known the full story behind.

The realization settled over her like a weight, leaving her struggling to process the fact that the person Asher had killed wasn’t some distant stranger. It had been family.

’Saphra?’ 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Maisa couldn’t breathe for a moment. It was already horrifying enough to learn that her brother had orchestrated such a cruel trap, using a human girl who had been turned into a vampire to lure unsuspecting vampires toward their deaths. But now there was something even more painful buried beneath that revelation.

His actions had also led to Saphra’s death. Saphra had paid the ultimate price for his desperate obsession with proving himself as one of the greatest hunters of the new generation.

A life had been lost not because Saphra had failed, but because her brother’s ambition had pushed him into a trap that spiraled far beyond what he had intended.

The realization made Maisa’s chest tighten as guilt and horror tangled together inside her. For the first time, she understood that her brother’s actions hadn’t merely destroyed strangers. They had reached into their own family and taken someone they had all been proud of.

She finally saw the worst side of her parents upbringing. Their way of parenting was the worst thing that ever happened to the new generation of Everhearts. ’Is Rayne the villain of this story or were their parents responsible for the tragedy?’

Varitreya continued the story carefully. "Asher was put on trial. He was sentenced to the Dark Forest for a century."

Kayden’s gaze dropped. "But after everything he’d lost and everything he’d done, he did not feel the need to serve his sentence."

Maisa waited for the next part of the story.

"He couldn’t handle the fact that his friends died because of him or that his family’s reputation went down the drain and he’d ost everything... so he killed himself!" Kayden dropped the cold hard truth.

Silence followed. The waterfall filled it with some noise but it wasn’t enough to stop the ringing in Maisa’s ears.

Maisa stared at the moving water, feeling as though pieces of her life were being placed together into a picture she desperately wished she couldn’t see.

"That’s why Adelaide Challan hates redbloods so much," Varitreya said. "She lost her son because of one. She lost him after he trusted one, and she watched the consequences destroy everything he had been... it destroyed her pride and her joy."

Maisa’s chest tightened. She recalled the way Adelaide came onto her hard before, the way the noble vampire had rallied so many vampires against redbloods and now she understood the root of her hatred.

Lumi’s father... Zolani’s sister... Asher Challan... Saphra Everheart. Every revelation seemed to lead back to her family.

Her mother had killed Lumi’s father, she had killed Zoe, her brother had orchestrated the trap that destroyed Asher’s life and somehow, fate had taken those three tragedies and tied them together with the same girl.

Maisa looked at Varitreya. She wondered what the princess had lost to the Everhearts. What terrible story would eventually come out of that family? Would it be her mother? Her father? Another sibling? Another name waiting somewhere in the darkness?

How many graves did the Everheart name have waiting for her?

Maisa’s heart sank. Maybe the redbloods weren’t hated for no reason... maybe this was why every bloodline looked at them as though they were something waiting to betray them.

They had human origins, humans hunted vampires and although redbloods became vampires, their human history remained. The distrust in the human part of them remained. The scars of wbat humanity had done remained.

"After Asher died, Addessa was forced to grow up too fast... to fill the void left by his death," Varitreya informed her. "It’s one of the reasons she is the way she is. The burden on her shoulders and the pressures from her mother... I don’t know how she does it."

Maisa wrapped her arms around herself. "Why would Nersus tell me all of that?"

Varitreya didn’t answer immediately. She was staring into the distance. "That’s the question i am also wondering about."

Kayden’s expression hardened. "He shouldn’t have been able to meet you unless you were his primary target."

"And he disappeared when we arrived," Varitreya added. "That just adds to how suspicious he is. L"

Maisa looked between them and said, "He was kind to me."

"That doesn’t mean he was harmless, Maisa," Varitreya’s voice was gentle but firm. "Did he ask you anything?"

"No."

"Did he tell you where he came from?"

"He said his name was Nersus and that was it, okay."

Varitreya’s eyes narrowed. "Did you see him use any magic?"

"No," Maisa wished she had answers for them but sadly, she didn’t. She knew as much as they did if not less.

"Did he tell you why he was in the forest?"

Maisa hesitated. "He said he was sentenced to prison there," she wiped her eyes, feeling like a pawn in a game she hadn’t signed up to play.

"But his story describes Asher," Varitreya stood. Her gaze remained fixed on the forest beyond the waterfall. "Which leaves us with several possibilities."

Kayden stepped beside her. "Either he’s lying about who he is or he deliberately wanted Maisa to hear it."

Maisa’s fingers tightened around the edge of her dress. Why? Did Nersus know about her being a vampire hunter in the past? Her mind froze at that thought.

Varitreya looked back at her. The princess’s expression became increasingly troubled. "Who is he? Why was he there? Why did he approach you? Why did he tell you about Asher? What does he want from you?" She paused. "And if he lied about everything else..." her eyes sharpened. "Was Nersus even his real name?"