Chapter 55: Humans versus Beasts

Blair was the first to wake up.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open, her vision adjusting to the dim, hazy light filtering into her room. The first thing she saw was a sharp jawline, lightly dusted with stubble, and a pair of closed, relaxed eyes. Daemus.

Her breath hitched. A tinge of red dusted her cheeks. He was still holding her tightly against his chest, his large arms wrapped around her waist. The steady, rhythmic rise and fall of his chest was oddly comforting.

"Daemus," Blair called quietly, her voice barely a whisper.

His ear twitched from amidst his messy blue hair, swiveling slightly toward the sound. But his eyes remained shut.

Blair let out a quiet sigh. She tried to carefully shift her weight, and as she moved, her gaze caught the small clock resting on her desk.

3:45 PM.

Blair’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Oh my god!"

She instantly started wiggling, trying to break free from his iron grip. The library was all the way on the other side of the campus, and she needed to be there right now.

"Daemus, wake up!" Blair panicked, shoving at his chest.

Daemus groaned. He buried his face deeper into the pillow, his arms tightening around her. "Why are you being so loud?" he mumbled, his voice thick with sleep.

"Because it’s almost four!" Blair practically shrieked. "I have to get to the library right now!"

Daemus cracked one eye open, looking at her with sluggish confusion. "The library closes at midnight, Bunny. Go back to sleep."

"No, it doesn’t!" Blair argued, finally managing to pry his arm off her waist and scrambling out of the bed. "It closes at five!"

Daemus hummed, letting his eyes slide shut again. "Right. Five for humans."

Blair stopped dead. She stared at the sleeping wolf in disbelief. "Five for humans?" she repeated, her voice dripping with irritation. "Who is the student representative for humans on the campus council? They can’t even get us equal library hours?"

Daemus didn’t answer; he just let out a soft, sleepy snore.

Blair’s shoulders slumped.

"I have detention at eight," Blair said, her voice dropping into a quiet, defeated tone.

Just saying the time out loud made her stomach churn. Detention tonight wasn’t going to be in the safety of the sweltering armory. It was going to be in the woods.

She was going to be monster bait.

And she still owed Professor Feron an hour of free will with her body. The thought made a cold sweat break out across the back of her neck.

Which one will happen first? Blair wondered miserably, staring blankly at the peeling wallpaper. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll die in the woods tonight.

But Blair knew the truth. She had never been a lucky person.

"I’ll go with you," Daemus said, his deep voice cutting through her morbid spiraling.

Blair jumped, snapping out of her trance. She looked back at the bed.

Daemus was sitting up, rubbing the back of his neck as he stretched his broad shoulders. He looked disheveled, but he was wide awake now.

"You... you would do that?" Blair asked, her eyes wide. "So, I can stay past five?"

Daemus offered her an easygoing grin. "Why not?"

A wave of relief washed over Blair. "Thank you! Thank you so much, Daemus!" she gasped, a genuine smile breaking across her face. "Give me two minutes!"

She sprinted into the bathroom, shutting the door to frantically splash cold water on her face and run a brush through her messy hair.

Before long, they were outside, walking side-by-side down the path. The sky was still bright with the late afternoon sun, casting long, golden shadows across the campus lawns.

Daemus was doing most of the talking. He walked with his hands shoved casually into the pockets of his sweatpants, chatting animatedly about his visits back to the Beast World.

"You wouldn’t believe the fruit there," Daemus was saying, gesturing with his hand. "They have these massive, glowing blue melons. They taste like pure sugar, but if you drop one, it literally bounces ten feet in the air."

Blair smiled, nodding along as she listened to his vibrant descriptions. She tried to picture the sprawling, untouched landscapes he described—the bioluminescent forests, the towering crystal mountains. It sounded beautiful.

Why come to the human world, then? Blair wondered silently, keeping her eyes on the path ahead. If it’s paradise, why stay here?

She knew the history. The beastmen had arrived many years ago, right when the human world was tearing itself apart. Global warming had reached its terrifying peak. The rainforests had dried into kindling, island nations had vanished beneath the rising oceans, and the ice caps were melting fast. The world was standing on the precipice of World War III.

But World War III never happened.

Instead, a devastating, supposed "nuclear explosion" had torn a hole in the very fabric of reality, opening the Great Spatial Rift between the human and beast dimensions. The war shifted immediately—Humans versus Beasts. And the humans lost, horribly.

Blair had her own theories, though. She firmly believed human scientists hadn’t caused an accidental explosion; they had been trying to tear a hole in space to find a new world to escape to because Earth was dying.

And now, the survivors were paying the price.

Humanity had retrograded entirely. All the modern marvels: smartphones, cars, the internet, artificial intelligence...were now exclusive luxuries hoarded by the beast nobility. The beastmen didn’t know how to create the technology; they had simply conquered the humans who did.

Now, only the smartest human engineers, scientists, chefs, authors, and innovators lived what could be considered a "decent" life. The beastmen kept them around to maintain the comforts they had stolen. Blair knew those humans were treated well, they were given excellent food, luxurious living quarters, and endless funding for their projects. But they weren’t free. They could never leave their assigned compounds.

Glorified prisoners, Blair thought grimly, shivering slightly in the afternoon sun. A gilded cage is still a cage.

And even that fragile safety wouldn’t last forever. The beastmen were technically animals, but they weren’t all stupid. They learned incredibly fast. Soon, they wouldn’t need human tutors or engineers at all. They would replace them entirely.

Especially the brilliant ones. Like the Crown Prince.

Blair’s blood ran cold. Speak of the devil.

Walking directly toward them on the wide path was Killian Lexur.

He was flanked by a stunning, raven-haired beastwoman. Rain Tegret. The Snake beastwoman was tall and impossibly elegant, her vibrant green eyes sparkling as she chatted, hanging off Killian’s every word.

But the sight that made Blair’s stomach turn upside down was trailing just behind Rain.

It was a human male. He was naked, crawling on his hands and knees over the hard stone path. A thick leather collar was fastened tightly around his neck, connected to a silver chain that Rain held casually in her hand.

Bile rose in the back of Blair’s throat. She quickly averted her eyes, feeling horror and pity wash over her.

Rain was talking, a bright, bubbly laugh escaping her red lips, but Killian wasn’t paying an ounce of attention to her.

His slitted, purple eyes were locked onto Blair.

His gaze felt like needles piercing her skin. The sheer weight of his attention made it hard to breathe. Without thinking, Blair instinctively drifted closer to Daemus, her shoulder brushing against his arm.

Daemus noticed immediately. His jaw tightened, and he could clearly hear the frantic, terrified hammering of Blair’s heart.

Blair kept her eyes glued to her shoes, missing that Daemus had stopped talking.

The silence between the two men was deafening. As they approached each other, Daemus and Killian locked eyes. Neither apex predator blinked. Neither broke eye contact. The tension radiating between the Wolf Prince and the Snake Prince was so thick and hostile it felt like the air itself was sparking with electricity.

Blair held her breath. Please, she prayed silently. Please just let them walk past us.

But Blair had made too many deals with the devil lately for God to consider her pleas.

As they drew level, Rain finally noticed them. She paused, her green eyes raking over Blair with a look of undisguised disgust. It felt like she was being shredded down to the bone.

"Well," Rain chuckled, her voice a melodic, venomous purr. "So the rumors are true. Daemus, you actually have a human mate."

Blair squeezed her eyes shut, but to her relief, Daemus didn’t stop. He kept walking, ignoring the Snake beastwoman entirely.

They were almost past them. They were almost safe.

"I suppose it makes sense," Rain added lightly, tossing her raven hair over her shoulder. "Dogs always like playing in the dirt."

Daemus stopped dead in his tracks.