Chapter 61

“I am not issuing a request,” the prince stated, his tone plummeting to a freezing temperature.

Isaac felt his heart sink. He realized with a heavy, mounting dread that he had no room to maneuver; there was no graceful exit. He held the prince’s gaze in silence, radiating profound reluctance, until he finally released a hollow sigh and slumped his shoulders. Perhaps he looked pitiful, though knowing Kaiyan’s character, such a sentiment seemed unlikely.

The prince continued, “If you truly are as skilled as you claim, I may spare your life once when death comes for you.”

“…Pardon?”

“I mean that should some peril threaten your life, I will intercede to save you.”

Isaac stared at him, stunned. “Do you honestly mean that?”

When Isaac pressed for confirmation, Kaiyan raised a brow and offered a slight, decisive nod. A flicker of hope ignited within Isaac’s chest. The man clearly had no concept of the gravity of that promise, but Kaiyan was a man who never reneged on his word. Perhaps, against all odds, his heart and eyes would remain safely anchored in his body. Perhaps.

Isaac turned to the maid, who watched them with unabashed curiosity. He felt a sharp, fleeting pang of guilt as he met her inquisitive gaze, but it dissipated the moment he tapped his lips and she responded with a bright, knowing smile. Isaac stepped toward her and gently cupped her face. She offered an indulgent smile, as if regarding an adorable younger sibling, and closed her eyes in anticipation.

Isaac leaned in, acutely aware of the prince watching them with the clinical, cold detachment of a medical examiner. The absurdity of the situation struck him, yet he did not falter. To hell with it.

Their lips met.

He felt the maid release a sharp, excited breath. Her lips parted, and he felt the darting heat of her tongue. Their tongues soon locked, and her breath grew heavy and sweet. This was hardly Isaac’s first kiss; while he remained a virgin, he had not lived like an ascetic. He had known the touch of others before.

Every woman he had been with reacted with a familiar, hungry intensity. Whether they had been coy or bold, they invariably became enthralled, as though sampling a rare nectar for the first time.

Isaac had been baffled at first, until his instincts revealed the truth: the witch’s power to entice was at work. The effect was subtle, never so potent as to appear unnatural, yet the result was always the same. It made them feel good, and that knowledge left a bitter taste in his mouth.

It felt like a deception.

It forced him to confront the dark, buried nature he spent every waking hour trying to forget. It was the primary reason he never permitted these hollow encounters to escalate further.

The maid was no exception.

She exhaled in pleasure, her arms winding around Isaac’s neck. Her movements soon shifted, growing more assertive as her embrace tightened and her kiss grew desperate. Whatever my own ability may be, she is certainly gifted at this, he thought.

Her tongue probed deeper, sending a rush of heat flooding through his chest. His own breath hitched. In that instant, he was searingly aware of the gaze fixed upon his cheek. Even without turning, he could feel those blue eyes at the periphery of his vision—the prince’s vivid, emotionless stare, as palpable and jarring as ice water splashed over his fevered skin.

It was as if a predator had lunged into their space to observe the kill.

A primal, inexplicable chill of danger raced through him.

THUD

At that precise moment—

“Enough.”

The prince’s voice cut through the air. It was not loud, yet the maid seemed oblivious, her hand still tracing the nape of Isaac’s neck. Isaac noticed Kaiyan’s eyes narrow, and he hurried to catch the maid’s shoulders, pulling her back.

She blinked at him in confusion, then glanced toward the prince. Grasping the situation, she quickly composed herself. She managed to cast one lingering, amused look at Isaac from the corner of her eye before he offered an awkward, apologetic nod.

“You may go,” Kaiyan flicked his fingers toward the maid.

She studied their faces one last time, bowed, and retreated. Even as she withdrew, she could not resist offering Isaac one final, lingering glance. Isaac lowered his head in a silent, respectful bow in return. Once she had disappeared into the palace, only Isaac and the prince remained in the sudden, heavy silence.

“Did you enjoy it?” Kaiyan asked, his tone clipped.

You ordered me to do it, so why do you sound like you are interrogating a libertine? Isaac wondered, cautiously gauging the prince’s volatile mood.

“Yes. It was… fine.”

“You appeared more like the one being taken advantage of.”

“Surely not.”

His defense lacked conviction. In truth, as the maid had grown more assertive, Isaac had felt entirely out of his depth. Kaiyan watched him in brooding silence. For some reason, Isaac found it impossible to meet his gaze, instead fixing his eyes on the scuffed tips of his boots.

“Regardless, it seems you are more skilled than you appear. I will honor my word—I will spare your life once.”

Isaac involuntarily jerked his head up. A faint, desperate flame of hope kindled in his chest.

One chance.

Even one was a reprieve.

Isaac bowed his head deeply. “Thank you. ”

Perhaps his heart and eyes really would be safe. Then, doubt crept in. The person the prince had granted this single mercy was Isaac. The person whose heart and eyes he intended to harvest was the witch of the new moon. They were the same soul, yet in every meaningful sense, they were entirely distinct. What was he meant to do with that? Hope and despair collided within him.

Isaac remained lost in the storm of his own thoughts for a long, heavy moment. He then realized that he could detect no movement from above and slowly lifted his head. His eyes locked with Kaiyan’s.

Isaac flinched.

The prince was staring at him with such vacant, terrifying intensity that he could not begin to guess his intent.

The moment Isaac looked into those eyes—so darkly, impossibly blue they verged on black—an inexplicable, mounting sense of danger surged through him. Kaiyan’s gaze wandered, traveling with agonizing slowness over Isaac’s lips.

Then, without warning—

“You.”

Isaac froze, trapped like a frog before a viper. He twitched, bracing himself for whatever command would follow.

Kaiyan did not look away, yet he appeared strangely conflicted; his brow furrowed, and he tilted his head in a gesture of profound ambiguity before murmuring, “No.” The prince then shifted his gaze toward the people gathered nearby. After sweeping his eyes over the attendants and guards in his immediate proximity, he crooked a finger at a servant standing at attention a few paces away.

The servant hurried forward, his expression a frantic cocktail of bewilderment and dread.

When the prince loosened the fastenings at his waist and commanded, “Undress,” the servant’s eyes went wide.

Isaac went rigid.

Of course.

Things had been quiet for a spell, but this was the man Kaiyan had always been. In the past, he had kept bedwarmers on hand to satisfy his desires whenever the whim struck him, without preamble or warning. It had been a long, uncharacteristic lull by his standards.

The servant darted his eyes around with wet, panicked intensity, stammering, “I-I-I—”

Isaac quietly averted his gaze. I am sorry, but I cannot save you. Most of the onlookers were likely harboring the same thought. Once the prince selected his target, there was no reprieve.

With his face drained of color, the man eventually stripped below the waist and dropped to his knees before Kaiyan.

Isaac had witnessed similar incidents two or three times while serving as a member of the royal guard at the Blue Shadow Palace. Ever the professional, he had simply turned his back, affording the pair a measure of privacy he had extended in the past. His colleagues, however, had reportedly watched with wide, undisciplined eyes, yet the prince had not cared in the slightest. Isaac, in part, possessed no desire to intrude upon such intimate acts. Standing nearby while every mortifying sound remained perfectly audible was harrowing enough. What sort of nerves did those men possess to stare so openly?

Isaac clasped his hands behind his back and gazed toward the distant sky. Then—

“Stand this way.”

The prince’s voice reached the back of his head.

It sounded as though Kaiyan had directed the command toward Isaac. Though he assumed the prince must mean the servant, duty compelled him to acknowledge the request.

He turned his head slightly. Their eyes met. Kaiyan was looking directly at him.

Without breaking that gaze, the prince repeated himself. “Turn around and face this way,” his command was calm and absolute.

Isaac stood blankly for several moments, trapped in a void of confusion. Only when Kaiyan’s eyes began to narrow did he come to his senses and swiftly obey. He stood straight, facing them, and blinked in bewilderment.

The prince reached toward his own groin. He grasped his cock in one hand and stroked it upward several times until it swelled into a thick, throbbing length. Once fully hard, Kaiyan positioned it between the legs of the servant, who remained on his knees with his lower body exposed and his hips raised. The prince caught the servant’s buttocks with one hand, spreading them apart before driving himself inside.

THUD

A crushed, animal-like howl burst from the servant’s mouth. Throughout it all, Isaac faced the prince, yet Kaiyan’s gaze remained fixed solely upon him. As though held captive by those piercing blue eyes, Isaac stood frozen, unable to look away.

“Ah—hk! Ngh! Ah!

Hah! Ahh! ”

The servant beneath Kaiyan screamed without reason or restraint, but the prince paid him no heed. He gripped the man’s hips tightly and drove forward. At first, the passage resisted and he could barely enter, but after several brutal thrusts, he began sliding in and out with thick, heavy ease. The sound of flesh striking flesh filled the garden, accompanied by wet, obscene noises.

Above them, that gaze pressed against Isaac like the edge of a blade.

“…”

Isaac swallowed dryly. Even his heart seemed to have gone rigid.

Why? Why is he staring at me like that?

It was almost as though Isaac were the one Kaiyan was taking, as though he were being ravished by the prince’s very gaze. The instant that thought crossed his mind, a jolt of heat surged through Isaac’s body. He grew flustered by the absurdity of his own imagination, paralyzed by a sudden, frantic uncertainty.

Kaiyan continued watching as Isaac lowered his gaze and rubbed his face, his skin burning. The prince saw every trace of the heat spreading across Isaac’s features. That awareness made Isaac even more embarrassed, and he bowed his head.

The prince’s stare remained.

Isaac did not know why, nor what Kaiyan was thinking. Perhaps the prince meant nothing by it, and Isaac alone had conjured a foolish fantasy and become humiliated by his own internal betrayal.

Calm down. Calm down, Isaac. This exists only in your imagination. Of course it does. You fool. What sort of ridiculous fantasy are you indulging in?

Isaac pressed his palm firmly over his heart and took a deep breath. Gathering his resolve, he lifted his head.

Their eyes met again.

At that exact moment, the prince’s gaze tightened. His mouth went rigid, and the relentless rhythm of his hips abruptly stopped. The servant released a long, broken cry as a pale, sticky fluid began spilling between his legs, running down his thighs. When Kaiyan remained motionless for a moment before slowly drawing his cock from the servant’s body, a fresh wave of it gushed out.

Throughout the aftermath—even while he wiped his wet cock with a dry towel and straightened his clothes—Kaiyan continued watching Isaac. It was as though he were imagining something. Or perhaps, testing it. At the end of that prolonged, suffocating gaze, the prince murmured to himself.

“…Perhaps I could.”

Isaac heard the quiet words clearly. He did not know what Kaiyan believed he could do, yet his chest lurched violently. He was so deeply bewildered that he did not know how to react. Yet one thing was certain: his body had suddenly grown unbearably hot.

***