~RUNE
I swallowed.
I knew it deep within my heart that I stood no chance at surviving the Path of the Veil.
It would have been different if Sayla had been here instead.
All she would have had to do to protect herself during the hunt was use her light.
She had all the wit, the bravery and strength to survive it.
While I was a completely useless human compared to her.
I looked away, unable to answer that question.
It was too humiliating to.
“The only chance you have at surviving is if I catch you instead,” Uriel revealed and finally stepped away.
“If someone else catches you, you’ll be dead.”
I released a shaky breath.
Then I thought of the Queen’s Court.
They had tested me first and I failed.
The only way to redeem myself was by walking the Path of the Veil and passing it.
Yet if Uriel caught me, then I would automatically fail.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Everything was all just so messed up.
Truly, I didn’t deserve to be Queen.
Perhaps, if my family never forced me to take Sayla’s place then Uriel would have moved on and eventually married Darya.
“What must I do so that you catch me?” I asked as I slowly rose to my feet.
He began to take steps toward me until there was no more distance between us.
My heart started to race again under his intense stare.
The uncertainty of whatever he was about to do almost drove me mad with a million thoughts all at once.
He lifted his hand to my neck and held me there possessively before bringing his lips to my ear.
“Naturally, you stand no chance. Every Orin out there knows your scent and they strive to drink from the House Aylin— drinking from light itself…”
I shivered because this man didn’t make me feel any better.
He only intensified my fear and now my body had resumed trembling— not from the cold but from fear.
“So, the only way you can survive long enough is if you don’t bleed… Or you’ll lure every Orin toward you and they will tear you apart, just like in your human histories.”
My eyes went wide as the stories, histories of what the Orin monsters did to humans long ago came rushing in.
Then he pulled his lips away from my ear and looked at me, his crimson eyes blazing with something I could not explain.
Was it hunger…
Anger or lust?
“When it begins, just run as fast and as far as you can,” he whispered.
“I am the Orin King, you can never outrun me.”
With that, he pulled away completely and began to leave.
I remained standing there, frozen in place, thinking about my impending doom.
Why was Oraena so demanding?
I never asked for all this.
“Sayla… Why did you leave me?” I whispered in a small voice before finally breaking free and running after Uriel.
I soon caught up with Uriel and was just running after him blindly when he suddenly stopped and I bumped into him.
I gasped and stepped away fearfully.
“I— I apologise…”
He didn’t look at me.
Instead, he remained quiet, tilting his head like he could hear something I could not.
Suddenly, I heard a loud wail and it seemed to be getting closer like it was coming fast at us.
The temperature around us dropped drastically.
I felt as if someone was pressing down a knife through my throat and I was almost close to tears.
Goosebumps of fear scattered across my skin as I stared around in horror of the unknown coming at us.
And as I was still trying to understand what was happening, Uriel suddenly pushed me out of the way, taking my original place instead.
I fell hard to the ground.
Pain shot through me but when I looked up, all that pain disappeared because I saw it.
A black arrow coated with living shadows appeared out of the blue and buried itself hard within Uriel’s shoulder.
He let out a painful animalistic roar and he dropped down to his knees.
My eyes went wide with horror and shock as I watched the color drain from Uriel’s skin.
His crimson eyes began to glow like he was fighting something I could not see within him.
And all I could think of was how this happened.
Where did the arrow come from?
Who dared to shoot at the Orin King himself?
One of his crimson glowing eyes began to darken.
The poison from the arrow was spreading and I just lay there on the ground, too shaken and terrified to move.
Uriel finally pulled the arrow out of his shoulder.
It dissipated into a shadowy message which floated above for both of us to see.
“The Queen must die.”
Then it disappeared.
My heart sank as it dawned on me.
Whoever had sent that arrow never sent it with the intention to attack the king.
I was the target.
Why?
Uriel’s eyes went wide with something that looked like panic and he stared at me.
The stare made the hair at the back of my neck stand because it almost seemed as if Uriel knew something I didn’t and whatever it was could probably be more terrifying than anything we had already faced.
Yet, Uriel didn’t get the chance to say anything because the darkness on his body began to spread again.
Black liquid flowed from the ugly injury left behind by the shadow.
And I could swear I started hearing whispers, wails rising in the air around us.
“We need to leave!” Uriel roared.
Before I could blink, he lifted me in his arms and sped away.
To me, it felt like he was jumping through space.
One moment, I could see the trees and the next, my world was shrouded in complete darkness.
The cycle continued like that, over and over until we arrived at the castle.
But he went down another path I had no idea of— it was not like I knew anything before.
He kept speeding until we arrived in front of a metal door.
That was when he fell with me in his arms.
We crashed badly to the floor.
Uriel was already breathing heavily and sweating at the same time.
The dark veins were all over his body now.
“Leave…” He breathed as he struggled to get into the room.
I stood up immediately to do just that but my heart skipped.
What if he was dying and there was something I could do to help?
After all, he had taken the hit for me even if I still couldn’t understand a thing.
Also, it could be bad for me if Uriel died.
He was the only one standing between me and all of Oraena.
In his absence, they would tear me apart.
So I turned and went back to him, I put his arm around my shoulder and began to help him to his feet.
“What do you think you are doing?” He demanded in an authoritative voice.
“Get out!”
But I stubbornly continued to pull him up.
I pushed the door open and we walked in to meet a stone bed in the center of the room with chained restraints. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
What was about to happen here?
“Just get me to that bed and leave,” he ordered breathlessly.
I walked him to it.
His body was burning up now and I feared he would literally go up in flames at this rate.
Once I reached the stone bed, I helped him get on and he instantly began to cuff himself.
The restraints were for him?
I stared in horror.
The darkness continued to spread and it began to look like he was turning into a maddened Orin, just like the one they had brought to me to heal when I first arrived.
“I— I think you need help. I’ll go get help,” I stuttered and began to leave when he suddenly grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t you dare bring anyone to see me like this!” He roared as it started to contaminate his other eye.
“I will fight it like I always do!”
My heart started raging heavily against my chest as I stared at him in horror.
Was this a normal thing for him?
Was this the madness that earned him the title of The Mad Orin King?
That was when another roar escaped his lips.
Fangs began to grow out of his mouth, getting longer like that of a predator.
This was probably what enabled the Orin to drink mercilessly from humans.
But the sight of him was getting more terrifying.
His ears grew longer than they had been earlier.
Another roar erupted from him and he started fighting against his restraint.
I flinched at this and staggered back.
He groaned again as his voice came back down and I soon realised an internal battle was going on.
He was in pain.
And for some reason, it hurt to watch him in pain.
I could not understand why.
This man had been torturing me since the moment he realised I was a fraud.
He’d made me cry so hard.
So why was I still unable to see him suffer?
Suddenly, Uriel went completely still.
Was it over now?
Was I to check?
It felt crazy to approach but he wasn’t moving again and the silence was becoming eerie.
So I began to come closer.
“U– Uriel?” I called shakily.
My pounding heart was the only sound I heard besides my heavily breathing.
When I reached him, I realised that he was just staring at the ceiling like there was something there.
I instinctively looked up.
There was nothing.
I was just bringing my eyes back down to him when–
He suddenly grabbed my wrist and my heart dropped.
“At last…” he said in a strange voice.
A voice I did not recognize.
A voice that terrified me to the core more than Uriel ever could.
“The Fallen Veil has surfaced… now everything will fall into place.”
The horror I felt was too much for me to handle.
My heart stopped.
And the world turned black.
When the shadow speaks…