Chapter 11: Burn
Autumn did not wait for another word. She did try to hear them out...try to understand what was going on. But the moment Malrick spoke of her being ’born for this’, something inside her snapped.
Nobody could dictate her life. She did not give anybody that authority! The next thing she did was turn on her heel and bolted.
But the fortress felt like a labyrinth of cold stone and eerie silence when she tried to find her way out. The apparently simple looking straight path, meandered, twisting and turning.The place was definitely enchanted.There was only one way in...no way out.
"Damn this! " Autumn muttered trying to find her way out. But the only company she got was from those portraits lining the walls. She had managed to reach that spot where the Lycan ancestors adorned the walls, with eyes that followed her every move. Maybe judging her amateur escape plan.
Their gazes burned into her skin, as if whispering things she could not hear but felt in her bones.
Her breath came in ragged gasps as she sprinted, bare feet slapping against the stone floor. She didn’t know where she was going. She just knew she had to get out.
But the corridors twisted again, the doors she yanked open led to dead ends, and she was back where the paintings were again. She could swear they had a smirk plastered on their faces, which definitely seemed impossible. But their eyes were alive, mocking, like she was a goddamn joke.
"Stop looking at me like that!" she screamed, swiping at the nearest portrait, nails scraping against the canvas. But her fingers never connected. The painting shimmered, just out of reach, as if taunting her.
She lunged again, this time throwing her full weight forward...
"Autumn!"
Kieran’s roar echoed through the halls just as her fingers finally caught the edge of the frame. The portrait tore with an audible ’rip’, and something warm and wet splattered over her hand.