CHAPTER 191: NEAR

[ Old World - Greater Woods - Still inside the Mysterious Mist ]

Kieran shifted slightly, sitting upright, his arm still firmly wrapped around Autumn’s waist.The flickering silence between them was softening...not heavy.

Then he reached up and pulled her face gently towards his.

"Wait," he murmured, his eyes narrowing with affection and curiosity, "What did you mean just now... when you said you are already home?"

Autumn parted her lips to answer, but his mouth was already against hers.

Soft. Slow. Like he couldn’t help it. Like her answer could wait just one more second while he tasted her sweetness.

Her breath caught...the answer remained tangled on her tongue.

"What I meant..." she tried, but then his lips captured hers again, slower this time, as if trying to read her thoughts through every suckle.

He pulled back an inch, teasing, his breath brushing her skin.

"Go on..." he said between kisses. "I am listening... I promise."

"You are not," she whispered, flushed, trying not to smile. "... even letting me talk. "

He kissed her again, this time behind her jaw.

Autumn giggled despite herself. "Kieran...you are being a naughty naughty boy..."

"Yes, love?"

"I am serious!"

He grinned. "So am I. I am listening. Just also... multitasking."

"Alright, alright...stop...wait...a second..." she pressed her hand gently to his chest, holding him back for a moment. Her face turned slightly solemn, voice softer now.

"I meant what I said," she whispered. "I think... I finally know where I belong."

Kieran quieted, sensing the shift in her tone. His thumb grazed the side of her cheek.

"For so long," she said slowly, "I was always wondering where my roots were. Where I truly came from. I grew up with... hate. Secrets. And lies.Nobody wanted me. " She paused, her gaze drifting into the mist. "I never felt like I was home. I never felt like I could own anything... even my own pain."

Kieran held her close, not interrupting.

"But when I came to the Old Lands... when I stood among those trees, when I breathed that air..." Her voice caught. "I felt it. I felt it in my bones."

She turned her gaze back to him, her eyes clearer than they had ever been.

"And when I met him..." she exhaled slowly. "When I met my father..."

Kieran blinked. "Your...what?"

She nodded, a smile breaking across her face. "Yes. Thorgar Skathheim. He is my father, Kieran.My real father...."

There was a moment of total stillness.

Kieran didn’t even blink. Didn’t breathe.

Autumn tilted her head, amused. "You okay?"

"Father?" he repeated, his voice almost a whisper. "As in...your biological..."

She laughed. "Yes! I wasn’t sure at first either, but he... he confirmed it. There’s no doubt...I am his blood. "

He just kept staring.

Autumn reached out and poked him in the chest. "Say something."

Kieran’s face twitched once. Then again.

And suddenly...He burst into laughter.

Autumn raised a brow, taken aback. "Okay...that wasn’t the reaction I was expecting."

He was shaking his head now, running a hand through his hair, laughing under his breath like someone who had just realized they had spent a year solving the wrong puzzle.

"Damn fuck," he exhaled. "I was so sure... I thought maybe he was interested in you. Or sizing you up for something. The way he looked at you... I thought he was trying to keep me away from...I swear I was already plotting his death...different ways to murder him if he ever laid another finger on my baby girl..."

"You what?!" Autumn smacked his shoulder.

Kieran just laughed harder. "It makes sense now. All of it. The way he hovered, the way he watched you,kissed your head...the way he snapped at anyone who questioned your instincts..."

He looked up at her, eyes twinkling with disbelief. "The Thorgar. Is your father. I swear I didn’t see that coming in a hundred lifetimes."

"I didn’t either," she said, smiling. " I mean, size wise, we don’t match at all... but maybe that I got from my mother! "

They laughed together for a few blissful moments...

But then Kieran stopped...

His body went still, the laughter draining from his eyes as a thought struck him hard...and fast.

He gripped her wrist suddenly...tight...not harsh, but firm.

His gaze locked with hers...razor sharp.

"Wait," he said, his tone shifting.

Autumn stilled.

"You are telling me..." Kieran began slowly, "that not only do you carry Isolde’s blood..."

She nodded cautiously. "Yes..."

"...but now, you are also telling me..." he exhaled, "...you are really an Old World princess?"

"Yes," she said softly, "I guess that’s what it makes me... umm, sort of...."

But Kieran wasn’t smiling anymore.

He was staring at her like she was a loaded weapon.

A long silence stretched between them, the mist thickening just on cue.The woods around them seemed to move... like they had become the axis and it revolved around them...

"Kieran?" Autumn finally asked, her voice tentative. "What’s wrong?"

His jaw clenched. His eyes narrowed.

"Autumn..." he whispered, voice low, conflicted.

"Do you realize what this means?"

His fingers tightened on her wrist...protective. Alarmed.

His breath had grown shallow, his eyes no longer seeing just her...but calculating all the consequences, the implications, the threads pulling together behind that revelation...

"Kieran...?" she began, a tremor creeping into her voice as she saw the fear building in his eyes.

But something broke the moment.

A strange, almost beautiful sound echoed through the mist.

A haunting, chilling wail...too high and melodic to be a howl...more like a dolphin’s cry, only more... hollow. Louder... with a thousand times more intensity.

Autumn jerked in her place.

The air around them rippled, and she instinctively pressed closer to Kieran. "What... what was that?"

Kieran was already rising. In a second, his body snapped from thoughtful tension to sharpened alertness.

He grabbed Autumn’s hand, his stance suddenly defensive, predatory...gauging the danger.

"Stay behind me," he whispered. "The mist...damn it...it is messing with the sound. I can’t place it exactly, but something’s definitely not right...I know you can feel it too. We have to be very alert. Our vision is restricted. We will have to depend on her ears to see now...no distraction..."

Autumn didn’t question him. She nodded, pressing close as they shifted to stand back to back, their eyes scanning the swirling white.

The trees beyond creaked. Something distant snapped. A shape movement...no, flicker...through the fog.

Something was headed their way.Walking...no...rushing towards them...

Then...CRACK.

The underbrush split open.

A footfall...no, more like a stampede...was charging towards them at an unnatural...alarming speed.

Kieran’s senses screamed. His body turned instinctively towards the sound. "Autumn...Get down!"

He shoved Autumn to the side, just as something massive slammed into him, hurling his body backwards like a rag doll.

They hit the earth in a violent tangle...rolling, crashing through brush, snapping small roots. Pain lanced up his shoulder as they skidded finally to a halt.

Kieran growled, flipping over fast, fists clenched. " Fuck!!!Fuck! "

He was about to crack its skull but then he froze...

The thing beneath him... wasn’t a beast.

It was the Bloodfang Alpha!

"Velor?!" Kieran breathed, still stunned. His eyes swept over the figure...blood smeared across one cheek, eyes glassy with exhaustion, breath heaving like he had run for days.

Velor blinked up at him, chest rising like a trapped animal’s. "Kieran..." he rasped. "We need to go...get out...move...move..."

Kieran reeled back, letting him up. "What the hell happened to you?"

Velor staggered upright, trembling.

"It’s coming," he said hoarsely. "It’s hunting me. It’s right behind me...Kieran, we need to move, now...it will kill me...it will kill me for sure..."

"Wait, what’s coming, Velor?" Kieran demanded. "Who is following you?"

Velor looked around wildly, his pupils dilated. "I don’t know what it is...it doesn’t have a face...it doesn’t speak...it’s not from this world..."

Just then, Autumn emerged from the mist, running towards them.

"Kieran, what the...?"

Before Velor’s eyes locked on her and he screamed.

The panicked sound wrenched from deep in his chest,full of terror. He stumbled back in fear, hand raised like she was a ghost about to devour him.

"NO! STAY AWAY!" he shrieked, falling to one knee.

Autumn stopped cold.Confused...

Kieran turned sharply. "Velor, what the fuck is wrong with you?! It’s Autumn!"

But Velor didn’t seem to hear.

His lips trembled, voice breaking. "It’s her... it’s wearing her face...Kieran, get away from it...it’s her...she is it..."

Autumn stood there frozen, pale.

Kieran stepped between them, his own heart beginning to race now...not with fear, but with a rising, dangerous uncertainty...Velor wasn’t someone who would have such a severe panic attack out of the blue.

"Velor," he said quietly. "That is her. I swear it.It’s the Autumn we know...my Autumn..."

Velor’s breath was ragged. "I saw it, Kieran. In the fog. It smiled at me. With her face. And its mouth opened sideways..."

He shuddered.

Kieran’s jaw clenched. He reached for Velor’s shoulder, trying to ground him. "You are in shock. We need to calm down, get you out of the mist..."

But then the sound came again.

The dolphin like fierce howl...sky piercing...

But this time...it was closer. Far too close for comfort.