Chapter 33

33 The Devil Incarnate

“You are going to die tonight, no matter what.” Caspian’s grim cackle resounded throughout the punishment room.

By now, Olive was tied up with the chains. She had puncture marks on her neck from Caspian’s attack earlier. Rather than completely draining her blood from her body, he was letting her bleed out slowly and painfully. Caspian still had to extract information from her.

Caspian was towering in front of Olive like a shadow of death. His red eyes were glaring right into her shattered soul.

More than Olive, the human maids, and servants who had lined up at the end of the room were trembling in horror.

They had no idea why they were brought inside the room. But seeing the dead body in one corner, they were bound to believe that all of them were in grave danger. They all feared that after Olive was killed by that cruel King, it would be one of their turns to be his prey.

Some were trembling at the cruel sight of that chained and bleeding maid, some were holding the cross hanging on their necklace and praying, while some were already on the verge of losing their consciousness.

Caspian clenched Olive’s jaw with the sharp tips of his claws and asked in a soul-piercing voice, “I’m going to kill you tonight. But it is, of course, your choice how painful you want your death to be. If you want a quicker death, tell me who gave you the order to kill my wife?”

Olive was in a very tight spot right now because she had no idea what that Vampire’s name was. She still tried to give some answer so that the King wouldn’t bite her again, “He was a vampire. He came to my quarter and asked me to find out what Her Majesty liked to eat. And after an hour or so, he came to me again and handed over the poison.”

“And you simply agreed to poison the Queen?” Caspian pierced that maid’s cheek with one of his claws.

.....

And the room was filled with Olive’s miserable screams.

Caspian then narrowed his eyes at her and attacked her with a series of questions, “Did he bribe you? What benefit was there for you? And who is that vampire? I want his name. Did he act alone or were there several other instigators?”

Olive’s voice trembled as she answered the King, “I don’t know if there were any others. And I don’t know who he was. He never gave me his name. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t do as he said and forced me to poison Her Majesty.”

Caspian was frustrated that he was not getting any useful information from this maid. He ended up digging all of his claws in her cheeks and yelled, “And look where that compliance brought you! You still are going to die. The only difference is that you are going to face a much worse death now.”

Olive’s agonizing screams filled the hearts of the other humans with terror.

Caspian left his clutch on Olive’s jaw and asked her while pointing at the humans behind him, “Did any one of them help you in carrying out today’s plan?”

“No,” she struggled to even whisper because of the burning pain.

Caspian then pointed towards the corpse of Madok and asked, “Did you kill him to silence him?”

Olive already had enough on her plate so she had not even noticed that there was a dead body in that room. She widened her eyes upon realizing who it was. And she violently shook her head to deny that accusation. “I didn’t kill him. I didn’t.”

“Then who killed him? That same vampire?” The frown line on Caspian’s forehead was getting deeper and deeper.

“I don’t think so...” Olive’s eyes now looked very drowsy. She had lost a lot of blood by now so she was starting to get lightheaded. “I had not even told that vampire that he had seen me preparing-”

She suddenly stopped as if she recalled something.

“Well,” Caspian questioningly raised his brows.

And Olive whispered while hanging her head low with guilt, “I had spilled some poison in a bowl. Maybe he had it somehow... I killed him... But it was completely unintentional.”

“But you did kill him. And you were intentionally going to kill my wife.” Caspian glared at his bloodied claws intending to kill that maid.

He then spoke in a chilling voice, “You are of no use to me now.”

From the way Caspian was giving a death stare to her, Olive knew that her end was near. But she still tried to justify her action, “I had no other choice than to follow his order. Please forgive me, Your Majesty. Please spare my life.”

“You always have a choice. Always. And you chose to poison the Queen.” Caspian suddenly swiped his claws across Olive’s stomach, making her scream in anguish. One of the cuts was so deep that her stomach was opened. Needless to say, it looked gruesome.

Those who were watching from behind were all petrified. All of the humans were aware by now that Olive had tried to poison Anastasia. But they were not used to witnessing such horrifying scenes. And one of the young maids collapsed at that sight.

Caspian strangled Olive and snarled at her, “I despise the betrayers. And I don’t give second chances to the betrayers.”

He wanted to slice the throat of that maid and end her but he resisted. That would be too easy. “Had you given me the name of the one who had pulled your strings then maybe I would have given you an easy death. But you brought this upon yourself.”

In the blink of an eye, Caspian was now offering Olive the same tea that she had prepared for the Queen. “Drink!” he ordered in a devilish voice.

Olive was in no condition to even open her lips. The pain was already too much for her to tolerate. Though she was already on the brink of her death, having the poisoned tea would only make her pain worse. So she managed to whisper a clue to the King hoping for a quick death, “He had crooked front teeth.”

Caspian hardened his face and glanced at the guard who was standing beside the corpse. That guard immediately understood what he had to do and rushed outside.

“If it was any other day then I would have loved to savor torturing you. But my wife is waiting for me.” Caspian flicked his claws and said with a sinister smirk on his lips, “As you have no further value to me... go to hell!”

With a swift motion, Caspian dug his claws in her chest and pulled out the beating heart.

The room was filled with gasps and screams and the sound of a few more maids collapsing to the floor.

Caspian finally focused his attention on the other humans present in the room. He slowly walked towards them.

The sound of his shoes clicking on the cold floor alone was enough to instill fear among all those poor humans. And the way he was casually holding the heart in his palm and the way he was glaring at them, they all believed that their King was a devil incarnate.

He gave a piercing gaze to those who were somehow still standing and ordered them, “Wake those three up, will you?”

The humans couldn’t even produce any sound. They just nodded and instantly leaned down to wake up the unconscious maids. Though it took a while for all of them to wake up, Caspian patiently waited for them.

When all of them were finally awake, Caspian showed the heart to them and spoke in his bone-chilling voice, “The owner of this heart dared to poison the Queen today. An innocent man lost his life because of her.”

“Let this be a warning to all of you.” Caspian slowly uttered so that the maids and servants would engrave what he said in their minds, “I won’t tolerate any lies and betrayals. Report to me or Zenon immediately if any of the vampires try to force your hands.”

Caspian threw the heart behind him and bluntly gave them a suggestion, “If you cannot report then kindly kill yourself before performing any treacherous act. Save yourself from the torture that I will put you through.”

—

Zenon and a squad of vampire soldiers were searching throughout the forest for any piece of clues – any footsteps, smell, anything that could potentially lead them to the main culprit.

“Lord Zenon,” one of the soldiers shouted not too far away from where Zenon was. “I think I found something.”

Zenon immediately zoomed towards that area. That soldier pointed towards a small kerchief that was lying on the ground. Zenon crouched down and inspected it.

A deep frown appeared between his brows when he saw an alphabet embroidered at one corner of the kerchief. And he whispered in contempt, “B...”