Page 74 of Wolf Burdened

They called out their farewells to Hydum, but I didn’t look back. This wasn't goodbye. I'd see him again, and hopefully, whenever that was, I wouldn't feel such gut-wrenching regret coming from him.

But even with that, I could feel his love for Tedara, which was the only thing lighting up the darkness he was in.

The doors closed behind us, and the torches revealed a space as wide as a football stadium. Without needing to narrow my eyes to see from such a distance, I could make out a plain brown door on the other side across a sea of ruins hovering a few inches off the ground.

Nathos looked at us with a stern expression that I didn't doubt was a reminder of the instructions he'd given us. He walked off, and we followed quickly, the silence only disturbed by the sound of our light footsteps in the sand.

Why was there sand here?

We walked for two minutes when I heard a child cry, and I skidded to a halt. The others kept going as if they hadn't heard it. Had I imagined it?

Lucian tapped my shoulder from behind. I shook my head and started walking again.

Nathos had told us that whatever we saw or heard wasn't real. But that child’s cry had sounded so real, I'd instinctively reacted.

“Help me!”

This time, I just frowned and bit down on my lip. Nobody else seemed to hear the child's cry this time either.

We were making our way through the ruins, and then suddenly, I was alone. I paused, looking around me slowly. Everyone had vanished.

I started to say something, then clamped my lips shut.

This was an illusion, I told myself as I continued walking, although slowly, on guard. I sensed a presence behind me, but when I turned, there was no one there.

I felt my powers start to stir. Great.

I turned to continue walking… and had to clap my hand over my mouth to silence my gasp.

Standing in front of me was the female minotaur whose brother I’d killed.

She stared at me with hatred, her eyes rimmed red with tears, and I swallowed hard.

I stepped around her.

She was a figment of my imagination and nothing else. Just a figment, Natalie.

But when I walked by her, she reached out and grabbed my shoulder. Her claws sunk into my skin, and her growl echoed around us. She threw me through the air, and it took everything I had to stop myself from screaming.

I collided with an old pillar, and I winced at the sound of my bones breaking.

“You killed him!” she screamed. “He was all I had!”

She was real!

How had we missed the fact that she was following us?

I scrambled to my feet, my body already healing. Tears slipped down her cheeks, but I could see nothing in her glare except a need for revenge. She intended to kill me.

I didn't waste time. I ran.

I wasn't sure how she could speak in this place without anything happening to her, but I still kept my mouth shut.

Perhaps the others would hear her and find me.

Whatever the repercussions were for speaking, at least she'd be dealt with first. At that thought, I slowed down, even as her thudding footsteps chasing me grew closer.

She had a right to be angry with me. I shouldn’t be wishing her ill-will, even to save myself.

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