The ornate office chair turned with a slow, ominous creak, revealing a figure that made Blazar's instincts scream danger. Every fiber in her body tensed immediately, recognizing the powerful presence before her eyes even focused clearly on his face.
Kaelric.
Dressed in his signature white longcoat with glowing ice-blue circuits tracing complex patterns down the sleeves and across the shoulders, he looked every bit the untouchable king.
An icy blue compression shirt clinging to lean, powerful muscle beneath, white cargo pants pristine despite the brutal violence she knew he carried in those heavy steel-toe boots.
The intimidating ensemble spoke volumes about both his aesthetic preferences and deadly capabilities.
He had long, flowing icy blue hair, half-pulled back in a frozen silver clasp resembling delicate icicles cascading down his back.
Piercing sky-blue eyes, colder than a glacier's heart, studied her with calculating precision from beneath those striking brows.
His gaze felt like needles on her skin, assessing and judging her every movement without mercy.
A handsome, angular face that had never known a genuine smile—only the sharp, chilling look of a predator assessing prey with detached interest.
High cheekbones caught the harsh light from above, casting dramatic shadows across his severe features. His thin lips pressed into a tight, disapproving line as he regarded her with open contempt.
He sat with one leg crossed elegantly over the other, the picture of controlled dominance, elbows resting on the polished mahogany desk as he leaned forward slightly, invading her space even from across the room.
His long, slender fingers were loosely interlaced before him, deceptively relaxed despite the tension radiating from his frame.
Then his voice cut through the air like a whip, shattering the heavy silence between them:
"The hell were you thinking?"
The words were low, measured, but beneath them simmered a fury so deep and vast it seemed to vibrate in the very molecules of air surrounding them. His anger was a living, breathing thing in the room with them.
The temperature plummeted so fast her next breath came out as visible fog, crystallizing before her eyes.
Frost crackled across the nearby windowpanes, spreading in intricate, beautiful patterns that belied their dangerous origin.
Somewhere in her chest, Blazar felt that familiar, hated tremor - the one that always came when facing him. Pure, undiluted fear.
She forced a casual grin, trying desperately to mask the thundering anxiety in her chest. "Oh. Kael. It's you." Like this was just another casual meeting between colleagues.
Like her ribs weren't still aching fiercely from Dante's brutal attack minutes earlier. Like her hands weren't shaking behind her back.
His eyes flashed.
"Don't 'Kael' me, Blazar."
A warning. A threat.
Blazar's smirk faltered. She glanced away, scowling, before snapping her gaze back to him. "Wait—are you the principal?" Her eyes sparkled behind her black-rimmed glasses, a flicker of childish wonder breaking through the tension.
Kaelric didn't blink. "No. The principal is the man who just left."
Her shoulders slumped slightly in defeat, the façade already crumbling under his unwavering stare. "About the mission—I, uh... I think it's too tough for me."
She swallowed hard, throat suddenly dry as sandpaper, gesturing vaguely toward nothing. "That king almost killed me yesterday. He's a monster—just like you."
The moment those last reckless words left her mouth, she regretted them with every cell in her body. Ice from Kaelric's feet exploded outward in jagged, lethal spears, crackling across the floor like lightning seeking ground. The temperature dropped another ten degrees in an instant.
She backpedaled fast, nearly tripping over her own feet. "I mean - I don't think the mission's on my level—my talents aren't suited for this particular—"
"That's not my problem." Kaelric's voice was a blade against her throat, razor-sharp and deadly. "I don't care about your limitations or excuses. You do what you're ordered. Precisely and completely."
Something hot and reckless flared in her chest, pushing past her better judgment and igniting her tongue with foolish bravery. "And if I fail? If I die trying?" She threw up her hands in exasperation and fear. "You want me to take out their strongest of those four? Are you completely insane? Nobody could accomplish that alone!"
The silence that followed her outburst was more terrifying than any shout or threat could have been. It stretched between them like an invisible noose tightening around her neck.
Then - movement.
One second he was seated behind the massive desk. The next -
Too close.
Kaelric stood nose-to-nose with her, his cold breath turning her flushed cheeks numb. His eyes bored into hers, unblinking and merciless. His voice dropped to a whisper, deadly soft yet somehow filling the entire room with its menace.
"You've got a big mouth for a slave."
Her pulse stuttered painfully beneath her skin. The word 'slave' hit like a physical blow, knocking the wind from her lungs and sending ice through her veins. A brutal reminder of her actual position in this cruel hierarchy.
"Don't forget the consequences of failing this mission." He cautioned deliberately. The words slithered through the frozen air, wrapping around her throat like a noose. Oh, she remembered. Every horrific detail was burned into her memory forever.
Kaelric's voice from that terrible day echoed in her skull, haunting her still: "I'll dispose of you." Not sell. Not release. Dispose. Like garbage. Like something worthless and contaminated.
Her stomach clenched painfully as the memories unfolded behind her eyes:
The auction block ten years ago, its rough wood splintering her bare knees as she knelt there, trembling and exposed, when Kaelric first bought her with casual indifference. The ancient noblewoman's yellowed fingernails tracing her jaw just months later, leaving invisible scars of revulsion. That sickening whisper that still haunted her nightmares: "Such pretty skin for my collection..."
The noblewoman's breath had reeked of rotting roses and decay as her gnarled fingers traced Blazar's jawline, with hungry, possessive eyes that promised unimaginable horrors.
"He's cute for a man, isn't he?" The old woman had remarked casually, as though discussing livestock.
A chipped nail scraped down Blazar's throat, drawing a thin line of blood that beaded black in the dim light.
"When you tire of him... pass him over to me." she had said to Kaelric with a sickening smile that revealed blackened teeth.
And worse - so much worse - the curse. Kaelric had demonstrated it dispassionately on a rat. She'd watched it rot alive over three agonizing days, screaming with disturbing human-like cries as its flesh sloughed off in putrid strips.
One hundred days of that.
Her breath hitched painfully in her chest at the memory. A hundred sunrises watching her body betray her, piece by piece. A hundred nights choking on her own decaying flesh. All while that noblewoman's gnarled hands collected each rotting piece for her grotesque trophies.
"Do we understand each other?" Kaelric's icy question yanked her back to the present moment. Ice crystals had formed on her eyelashes, glittering like diamond dust. She realized she'd been holding her breath - her lungs burned fiercely with the need for air she couldn't seem to draw.
Her mouth moved before her brain caught up: "I understand."
The words tasted like ash. Like surrender.
And worst of all - like the beginning of the end.
Blazar swallowed hard, looking away from those penetrating eyes.
Sometimes, she forgot.
Forgot how cruel Kaelric could be when crossed.
Forgot how cruel the world had been to her from the very beginning. From the first flickers of memory, from those fragile moments when her infant mind first began stitching the world together, she had existed among wild monkeys in the dense jungle.
The monkeys had been her first family - their rough hands gentler than any human touch she'd known since. How they'd kept a human infant alive in the tall canopy, what fruits or stolen morsels they'd pressed to her small lips, remained a mystery she would never solve.
Their chattering warnings and shared warmth on cold nights were gifts no person had ever offered her, in her whole miserable life since being discovered.
Kaelric turned away abruptly, his voice dispassionate and cold once more. "Stop acting like a frightened girl and get the job done properly." A significant pause. "I'll deal with Aria and the principal myself. You handle Dante alone - that's your punishment for today's failure."
Blazar's fingers twitched nervously at her sides. "And if it all goes wrong? If they find me out? I can't fool them for long—"
"Then you'd better make absolutely sure it doesn't fail." His tone left no room whatsoever for argument or further discussion.
A beat of heavy silence fell between them.
"You're dismissed."
With a sunken heart and defeated spirit, Blazar turned and walked out on unsteady legs. As the heavy door clicked shut behind her, she allowed herself one moment - just one brief moment - to press her forehead against the cold hallway wall and shake uncontrollably.
Then she straightened her spine with determination, adjusted her dark glasses over haunted eyes, and walked away down the empty corridor.
Alive for now. But for how much longer?