Chapter 82

Surely he is not about to decide that blood is no longer sufficient and he must eat my flesh next time.

A chill spread through Isaac’s chest, prompting him to hurriedly change the subject. “More importantly, tonight is when my vitality is at its peak for the entire month.”

Kaiyan’s eyebrow rose slightly. “Yes. I suppose it is.”

He appeared willing to set the other thought aside and follow the new thread of conversation. Isaac relaxed as Kaiyan went directly to the point. “How much do you think you can see?”

Isaac answered with equal directness. “I won’t know without trying, but I should manage better than last time. This is when my condition is at its best. I should attempt it.” He spread a blanket across the bare floor and sat upright upon it; at least if he collapsed, he would not injure himself.

How did I see the witch before?

Surrounded by Kaiyan’s silent gaze and three pairs of enormous feline eyes, Isaac felt a flicker of pressure as he searched his memory. How had he done it before? He had thought that he needed to see the witch, that he had to know where she and the magician were, and that he must pursue them. He had focused his entire consciousness upon them, thinking only of their location. Then…

His heart struck heavily. The beat gradually quickened. Heat and pain filled his eyes. Though he had experienced it before, the sensation remained alien and agonizing.

Isaac pressed both hands over his face, feeling his heart race as if trying to rupture his ribs. His eyes burned fiercely, and even with them shut, the world behind his eyelids swayed. His vision twisted until dizziness took hold and nausea surged within him. The heat in his chest grew dangerously fierce.

A groan slipped through his fingers. Then, a hazy image emerged behind his tightly shut eyelids. Like a dim light gradually kindling within absolute darkness, his vision brightened little by little. Even at its clearest, the scene remained murky, as though illuminated by a single candle inside a vast, dark room.

He was seeing through someone else’s eyes—the magician’s, most likely. A shadowy room stretched around him, resembling an old, dust-covered barn.

This is no good.

They were inside, and if they stayed there, Isaac wouldn’t be able to see the surrounding landscape. Without landmarks, terrain, or nearby buildings, he couldn’t pinpoint their location, rendering the whole effort pointless. He was running out of time. Cold sweat formed on his forehead as he felt his energy, his very life, draining away like water. His mind blurred and spun, and he knew he wouldn’t last much longer.

Please go outside.

What were they doing inside this decaying, dark place? Isaac saw a man held in the magician’s hand. No, a young man. The magician gripped him by the throat, fingers digging into flesh that had just transitioned from boyhood to adulthood, his cheeks still bearing a youthful hue. His eyes were wide as he stared at the magician, and Isaac flinched, feeling as though their eyes had met.

Terror and pain filled the young man’s hazel-brown eyes. His mouth hung open in a silent scream. Suddenly, his face began to wrinkle and shrivel, as if aging hundreds of years in an instant, each contorted line filled with unimaginable agony. The young man was being eaten alive before Isaac’s very eyes.

“Hey.” Kaiyan’s voice reached him, sounding faint and distant. Isaac could sense the prince’s grip on his shoulder, trying to pull him back to reality, but he couldn’t tear his eyes open. Instead, he was forced to witness the horror unfolding behind his closed lids.

Cold sweat streamed down Isaac’s face, draining it of color. His body trembled violently, and his chest felt as if it had been filled with ice water. The vivid image of a living person being devoured played out in his mind with horrifying clarity. The young man’s pain, terror, and silent scream overwhelmed him. Before Isaac’s eyes, the victim rapidly dried and shriveled into the form of an ancient corpse. Only when even the parchment-thin skin vanished did he cease to move. Soon, his exposed bones crumbled into dust, leaving only his clothing behind. Within moments, the young man had disappeared completely, as if he had never existed.

“Hey. Stop. Open your eyes,” Kaiyan ordered, his typically flat tone turned rough with urgency.

Isaac trembled violently, his heart racing with an intense heat he couldn’t control. He no longer knew how to open his eyes. The world spun around him, nausea clawed at his throat, and cold sweat drenched his entire body. His eyes felt like they were on fire, and his life seemed to be disintegrating into fragments.

Then, the vision shifted. The magician turned toward a cracked mirror hanging in the corner of the barn. His face appeared in the glass—the same young magician Isaac remembered. The expressionless mouth slowly stretched upward, lips pulling almost to his ears in a grotesque grin. That smile didn’t belong to the witch, but to the magician, the man who had preserved his consciousness by consuming humans. He was looking directly at Isaac as he smiled.

The vision vanished like an extinguished flame, leaving behind only the sensation of his eyes burning. Unable to move even a finger, Isaac collapsed onto the floor. His throat constricted, stealing his breath.

I’m dying.

Terror overwhelmed him. He might truly die.

“Isaac!”

A cold, harsh voice washed over the burning sensation like freezing water.

Ah. My name.

With the strange familiarity of a newborn hearing its name for the first time, Isaac opened his eyes. The world flooded back into his blackened vision. Instead of the dim barn, he saw a brightly lit bedroom. Kaiyan’s face hovered directly above him, severe and frightening. Isaac lay motionless, staring up in a daze.

Kaiyan was a vast and terrifying man, more frightening than anything Isaac knew. Yet, he was also the only presence solid enough to support him, like an immense mountain of stone—the only thing Isaac could cling to while escaping that deathlike terror.

Isaac reached up without thinking. His arm barely obeyed, all strength drained from it, but he managed to hook it around Kaiyan’s neck and pull himself close. Like a child who had barely crawled out of the deepest pit of hell, Isaac clung to the prince. He felt Kaiyan go completely still within his arms, remaining motionless.

He held on without thought, gasping for breath as though death had followed him all the way to his heels and he had only just escaped its grip. He embraced this terrifying, dependable man with everything he had left.

Kaiyan slowly began to move. Without shifting the rest of his body, he raised his arms and wrapped them around Isaac’s back. The embrace was neither tender nor gentle, but ordinary, almost matter-of-fact. Yet, his arms held Isaac with the unyielding firmness of someone who refused to let him slip away.

Isaac rested his forehead against the crook of Kaiyan’s neck. Safety flooded him. Here, he could finally breathe.

“Lord Kaiyan.”

The address escaped like a sigh, closer to a murmur directed at himself, with only the faint movement of his lips giving it sound. Even so, as though Kaiyan had heard him, the arms around Isaac’s back tightened slightly.

Enveloped in that breathlessly solid sense of security, Isaac lost consciousness.

***

The first thing Isaac saw when he opened his eyes was a ceiling washed in yellowish sunlight. The hue belonged to late afternoon, when the day’s urgent work had ended and the world had begun to breathe again. It was Isaac’s favorite time of day. He blinked at the ceiling without moving.

A long, plaintive meow finally dragged his consciousness fully back to the surface. It sounded as though one of the cats was ordering him to get up. The first thought to flash through Isaac’s mind was, I need to feed those things. He had no idea how long he had been lying there or how long they might have gone hungry.

Isaac hurriedly sat up. Then he witnessed the scene before him.

Three cats lapped noisily at a plate piled with meat broth, a meal that appeared far more luxurious than Isaac’s own tableware. As soon as their eyes met, all three froze.

A whirlwind of conflicting emotions churned within Isaac. Resentment surged because they had eaten so well while he lay unconscious, followed closely by relief that someone had fed them and they hadn’t starved. Finally, a crushing, bone-deep exhaustion enveloped his entire body.

He recalled why he had been lying there. He had attempted to see the witch, exhausted his vitality, and lost consciousness. How much time had passed?

“You do seem stronger on the new moon. You woke earlier than I expected.”

Isaac flinched at the voice behind him. He hadn’t sensed a thing, assuming he was alone. When he turned, he found Kaiyan seated with the window at his back. The prince leaned languidly into a large chair, watching Isaac with an unreadable expression. There was no telling how long he had been sitting there.