Chapter 112: A Trapped Serpent
"A patient hunter still bleeds when he underestimates his prey."
~ Rebel Beast
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Maverick Nightshade either had no secrets worth stealing, or he was far more intelligent than most people gave him credit for.
Left alone in the office, Venus Crotalus calmly surveyed the room, his sharp black eyes taking in the shelves, drawers, and neatly stacked reports resting upon the desk. Nothing appeared out of place, yet somehow that only made him more suspicious.
His Highness Caelis certainly wouldn’t leave anything important lying around for strangers to stumble upon. Venus preferred to believe Maverick Nightshade possessed enough intelligence to follow the same principle.
Still, the professor’s abrupt departure lingered in his thoughts. The urgency in Maverick’s eyes had not been feigned. Whatever had happened was significant enough for him to abandon their legal agreement without a second thought.
For a moment, Venus had considered following him. Information had value, after all. But then he changed his mind. This was the perfect opportunity to find out more about Aria Aspen.
Compared to apex predators like Maverick, Rhydian, and Caelis, ordinary humans had one fatal weakness. They hid things emotionally instead of strategically.
The clever concealed their secrets where no one could reach them. But the poor, helpless human probably tucked hers beneath her mattress, inside her drawers, between the pages of books, or behind photographs she believed no one else would think to inspect. She assumed locks were protection and privacy were enough to keep curious eyes away.
It rarely was.
Venus adjusted the cuffs of his academy uniform before allowing himself the faintest smile. His Highness had asked him to find out what was so special about Aria Aspen.
Which meant there was only one place worth visiting.
Her room.
And fate couldn’t have handed him a better opportunity than this.
Thus, Venus left the office.
From the information he had gathered, Maverick had assigned the human girls rooms on the second floor. He stepped into the elevator and pressed the button, watching the doors slide shut in silence.
At this hour, every student from House Therion should have been in class. That didn’t mean the house was completely deserted, and Venus had no desire to stumble across anyone wandering the corridors.
If he was caught, he could always claim he had gotten lost.
It wasn’t the worst excuse. He had only been inside House Therion a handful of times. Besides, while Maverick Nightshade insisted on keeping the academy under control, he was intelligent enough to know there were boundaries he couldn’t enforce. It was an uneasy arrangement between him and the beast students. Maverick overlooked certain things, and in return, they refrained from giving him reasons to interfere more than necessary.
The elevator doors slid open on the second floor. Venus stepped out and paused. It was empty.
Good.
Without wasting another second, he made his way down the corridor, his eyes quickly reading the room numbers as he passed them. His source had been very specific. The girls’ shared suite was the last room on the floor.
His pace quickened, yet his footsteps remained almost inaudible. As a serpent, being swift and silent came as naturally to him as breathing. He reached the door and lowered himself onto one knee.
From an inner pocket, Venus withdrew a slim leather case no larger than his palm. Inside lay several lock picks arranged with almost obsessive precision. After a brief inspection of the lock, he selected a tension wrench and the thinnest pick.
The tension wrench slid into the keyway first, and then came the pick. Venus closed his eyes and concentrated. To an ordinary person, the lock was silent, but to a serpent, it spoke.
His hearing sharpened until the faintest metallic scrape echoed through his mind. He could distinguish each individual pin as the pick nudged it upward, listening for the tiny clicks hidden beneath the pressure of the lock’s springs.
One. Two. The third resisted. All it took was a slight adjustment and another gentle lift.
Click.
The fourth pin fell into place almost immediately. Then the fifth. A soft, satisfying snap followed as the cylinder finally turned beneath his fingers.
Venus smiled to himself. He hadn’t grown rusty after all.
Years ago, back in the Serpenthood, he and Caelis had developed an unfortunate hobby.
Robbing dragons.
Most dragons were so insufferably arrogant they never imagined anyone would dare steal from their hoards. Venus and Caelis had considered it a public service to relieve them of a fraction of their excessive wealth.
It had worked remarkably well.
Until Njord found out.
The memory alone was enough to make Venus shudder. Njord had never laid a hand on Caelis. The Basilisk Prince was far too valuable to him. Instead, he punished everyone around his son. Friends. Servants. Guards. Anyone unfortunate enough to have encouraged Caelis’s recklessness became the lesson.
Venus had spent weeks recovering and had never attempted another robbery after that. At least not with Caelis involved.
The lock clicked completely open. Venus eased the door inward and slipped inside before quietly shutting it behind him.
His gaze swept across the suite, and a low whistle escaped him.
Maverick Nightshade certainly hadn’t spared any expense. The common area was spacious, comfortably furnished, and stocked far better than the average student quarters. It was a stark contrast to the accommodations reserved for the human students in Ophidian.
Then again, Karen Donovan and the others weren’t in their house because anyone particularly cared about them. They were temporary political pieces. Once they served their purpose, she and her goons would be sent back where they belonged —
If they survived that long.
Venus slowly surveyed the room. Four bedroom doors stood before him.
Which one belonged to Aria Aspen?
Left alone, he would have searched every inch of the suite, but he wasn’t sure how long Maverick would be away and had no intention of being caught. So he relied on instinct instead.
It had never failed him.
Venus chose the bedroom closest to the balcony, specifically the one on the left. He tested the doorknob and, to his relief, found it unlocked.
The moment he stepped inside, a feminine scent drifted into his nose. Orange and peppercorn.
His brows lifted slightly. Damn. That smelled surprisingly good.
He walked farther into the room when something brushed against his feet. Venus frowned and looked down to see a thin wire stretched across the doorway.
Wait a minute... wasn’t that—
His head snapped up. Too late.
A small projectile shot across the room and buried itself in the side of his neck before he had time to dodge.
"What the—"
He yanked it free and stared at the tiny dart between his fingers. It was a tranquilizer.
His pupils narrowed.
Who the hell rigged their own bedroom with traps?
Perhaps Aria Aspen wasn’t nearly as harmless as she looked.
The drug worked fast. His vision blurred almost immediately, and the room tilted beneath him. Gritting his teeth, Venus staggered toward the door, reaching for the nearby shelf to steady himself.
The instant his weight shifted onto it—
Snap. Pain exploded through his fingers.
Venus jerked his hand back with a strangled yell. A rat trap clamped tightly around two of his fingers.
"What kind of psychopath..."
Acting purely on instinct, he stumbled blindly while trying to pry the trap loose.
It was a mistake.
Venus had no idea what had been spilled across the floor—oil or something else—but the world suddenly vanished beneath him. His legs shot forward, and he crashed flat onto his back with enough force to drive every bit of air from his lungs.
For several seconds, all he could do was gasp. Finally, he managed to wrench his fingers free from the trap. Unfortunately, the tranquilizer had already spread too far through his body.
His eyelids grew impossibly heavy. The ceiling spun lazily above him, becoming more blurred with every passing second.
It turns out Aria Aspen was far more dangerous than anyone had given her credit for.
Darkness swallowed him whole.