Chapter 92: The Upside-Down Sun

Jasper sat cross-legged in the center of his huge, luxurious bed, a deep frown pulling at his lips.

The floor of his playroom was a mess. Dead human girls littered the space like discarded dolls. The smell of singed hair and bubbling chemicals hung heavy in the air. Some of the bodies were severely burned from the boiling water, others had faces tinged an icy blue, and a few were covered in ugly, bubbling acid scars.

All the Blairs were dead.

Jasper let out a long sigh, resting his chin in his hand. "Why did every single one of them guess seven?" he muttered to the empty room.

He was incredibly annoyed. He glanced down at the bodies, briefly considering just eating them to save himself the hassle of disposing of the evidence. But his nose wrinkled in disgust. He absolutely hated the way humans tasted. To his refined palate, their meat tasted exactly as bland and boring as they looked.

But the cleanup wasn’t what was actually bothering him. Other than disposing of the bodies, the core issue remained: none of these fragile, easily broken girls was the Blair he was looking for. That annoyed him the most.

Standing quietly by the doorway of the quiet room, Olive watched him.

She bit her bottom lip, her eyes tracing the lines of his pale, flawless back. She found him so damn sexy when he was frustrated. The dark, brooding pout only made his delicate features look sharper.

But then, Jasper turned his head.

His bright blue eyes locked onto her, devoid of their usual sweet, playful warmth. They were icy, piercing, and filled with a raw, murderous rage.

Olive sucked in a sharp breath, her knees instantly knocking together. She almost wet herself right on the spot. She had never, ever seen him look so genuinely angry.

"Did you really bring me all the humans named Blair?" Jasper asked, his voice a chilling, melodic whisper.

Olive’s heart hammered frantically against her ribs. She was too scared to tell him the truth about the one human she had deliberately left off the list. If she told him she held out on him, she would end up right there on the floor with the rest of them.

"I did," Olive stuttered out quickly, nodding her head. "I swear that I did, master."

Jasper stared at her for a long, suffocating second before finally frowning and looking away.

"Maybe that name is an alias," Jasper thought aloud to himself, tapping his chin thoughtfully.

Standing in the doorway, Olive released a slow, silent breath of relief. She had survived. But as she looked at the bodies on the floor, a cold realization settled in her stomach. She was going to have to get rid of that other Blair. Quickly. Because Jasper would definitely not spare her if he ever found out she had lied to him.

---

Meanwhile, miles away deep in the snowy mountains, King Beralt stood by a massive glass window.

He looked out over his sprawling estate, watching his wife, his eldest and youngest sons, and Blair pile into a sleek black car to head back to the academy.

"He is very attached to that human girl," Beralt commented quietly, watching the vehicle pull down the snowy driveway.

"Young love is fast and intense, but it burns out quickly."

The smooth, male voice came from behind him.

Beralt slowly turned around. Standing in the center of his private study was a man draped in a black robe. Emblazoned across the chest of the fabric was the distinct, golden emblem of an upside-down sun. The man’s hood was pulled up far over his head, completely obscuring his entire face in a pitch-black shadow.

"My son must marry Kyana and become the Beast King," Beralt stated firmly, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

"And that will happen," the robed man promised, his voice calm and steady. "She was never meant for your son. That was an accident because we got careless."

Beralt narrowed his dark eyes, his nostrils flaring slightly as he took a breath. "What exactly are you? You smell... strange. Are you beast or human?"

"I’m just like that girl who has your son wrapped around her finger," the man replied. "I’m the disease born from the virus she is."

Beralt glared at him, a low growl rumbling in his chest. "You speak in riddles and that annoys me. Are you human or beast?!"

"Does it matter?" the robed man asked dismissively. "I told you we can help you get your son and Kyana back together. All we ask is that you keep your son off us when we take Blair back. For an extra, we can even give you genius genes. It can be injected, you know? We can give them to you."

Beralt let out a loud hmph, his thick brows pulling together. "That girl is really that important?"

The robed man nodded slowly. "More than you could imagine."

Beralt narrowed his eyes even further, studying the shadowed figure. "Why not simply take her by force?"

"Because," the robed man explained carefully, "we do not want to be her enemies."

Beralt went quiet. He was very curious about this "virus" thing. He had called her a virus? So she wasn’t actually a human, but a virus? Beralt’s mind spun in confusion. How did they turn a virus into an actual person? Did the virus just magically take shape and walk around on two legs?

Shaking the confusing human science from his head, Beralt focused on what mattered most. He cared solely about putting his son back on the path he was supposed to set out on. But...

Beralt glared at the robed figure. "I do not make deals with people when I do not at least know their face."

"You would be frightened if you saw my face," the robed man said calmly.

A fiery rage exploded in Beralt’s chest.

"Are you calling me a coward?!" Beralt roared.

The Wolf King lunged forward. He snatched the cloak and ripped the hood away from the man’s head.

Beralt froze. His jaw dropped, his dark eyes widening to the size of saucers as he stared at the face before him.

"WHAT THE HELL?!!"