The King's Prey (Unedited Edition)

Chapter 37 : Dangerous Destinies

Orphic • [or-fick]
Mysterious and entrancing; beyond ordinary understanding.

🖤

~+~

~ Anatasia ~

Air whips against my face as I sprint down the endless maze of hallways. The dim lighting provided by the ceiling lights makes it even harder to make out landmarks as I whizz past door after door—all the same as the last.

A part of me is startled by the amount of energy supplying my sprint, but I gladly accept the extra help as I search for an exit of some sort. My heart is already racing from the workout this is putting me through, but it picks up as the sound of boots pounding against the stone floor appears behind me, slowly gaining on my trail.

I pump my legs harder, pushing my body to go faster so I can escape their sights. My bad leg barely hurts with each strike it makes against the floor, and with that, a tingling, freeing smile ripples over my lips.

Knowing I'm underground, I keep my eyes open for a stairwell of some sort. It's been at least two minutes of me dead-sprinting through these halls and I haven't run into a single guard. The expectation was for these passages to be riddled with them, but I guess Markus wasn't as prepared as I thought he would be. But I wasn't prepared for what had happened back there either. I don't know how I was able to wield such abilities, but it somehow happened as if they were acting as my guardian angels.

I shake the events away from my mind though, refocusing back on the task at hand. Taking a left down another unfamiliar corridor that looks somewhat promising, I spot a door with a sign indicating stairs. Wasting no more time, I nearly trip over my feet making it to the door before swinging it open and sprinting up the narrow steps.

The footsteps behind me have disappeared out of my earshot, but I continue my frantic mission to get out of this place and find help before it's too late for Sterling. Finally arriving above ground, I find myself in a very large, worn building. Everything about whatever grand hallway I'm in is disheveled. The brick walls still stand strong, but the floors are covered in dirt and the wood trimmings have begun to rot away.

Four separate doorways branch off of the grand hall I'm in and the lighting in here is so dim that it's nearly impossible to make out where the front door is. Voices erupt from one of the diverging rooms and just as my heart rate has begun to slow down for a moment, it picks back up again. Being as precautious as possible, I creep my way through the wide, empty hallway and find the large front door.

Without a second thought, I yank the double doors open, causing the old wood to creak as I step out into the freezing air before closing the doors behind me. I'm met with a crowd—a civilization I should say—of people, all rushing or walking up and down a ruined street to whatever destinations they're trying to get to.

Instantly, I can tell they're all rogues just based on their sheer muscular bodies and heights, and I want to curl into my turtleneck to disappear at the sight of it all. The broken—yet still lit—street lamps help to light the sea of bodies as they continue to swarm the worn road as if we're in some kind of an apocalypse. The scene confuses my vision, but thankfully no one has taken note of my presence yet.

Their voices echo loudly through and off of the other worn and cracked buildings surrounding us. It's so noisy, it's difficult for me to even hear my own thoughts. But the fresh air is a sensation I will never get over as I intake another gulp of it.

Elevated above the bustling crowd by a set of stairs leading up to the building I just came out of, I overlook everything with confusion. Observing the urban landscape, I make out the silhouettes of the buildings lining either side of the wide road, the full moon illuminating their outlines. It almost looks as though these structures were abandoned long before these rogues lived here as if they're repurposing the worn buildings.