CHAPTER 174: CHAPTER 174: AT THE GATES OF CRIMSON HUNT

Lorraine’s POV

The night air felt heavier as I walked toward the academy gates, every step deliberate, every breath drawn deep and steady, as though I were bracing myself for the gallows. The gravel crunched beneath my boots in rhythm with the pounding of my heart. My arm, my only arm, swung weakly at my side. The moon cast a silver sheen across the path, and with each step I took, I felt as though I were crossing some invisible boundary, one that could not be retraced.

When the gates loomed into view, tall, black iron spires biting into the sky, I slowed. My pulse surged, but my face remained calm. Two Crimson Hunt warriors, their crimson-plated armor glowing faintly in the torchlight, stiffened the moment they saw me approach. One barked an order, and in an instant, shadows moved.

I stopped dead in my tracks as more soldiers emerged from both sides of the gate, their weapons gleaming under the moon. Swords raised, arrows drawn back taut. They encircled me like wolves cornering wounded prey.

I exhaled slowly, then raised my only arm high into the air. My voice carried across the silence, calm, steady, and without tremor.

"I am not here to fight you," I said, meeting each of their cold stares one by one. "I need to see Adrian Vale."

A brief murmur rippled among them, quickly silenced by the bark of their captain. He stepped forward, a tall brute of a man with a scar across his cheek and a cruel smile tugging at his lips.

"And who are you," he asked, his voice dripping disdain, "to demand to see Director Vale?"

Director.

The word struck me like a slap. My lips parted, a breathless scoff leaving me. So Adrian hadn’t just slithered his way into power, he had crowned himself in it. Director Vale. Of course he had. The academy was his stage now, and every soul inside it was his audience.

"Director Vale, huh?" I muttered under my breath, a humorless laugh escaping me. "That didn’t take long."

Their blades inched closer, the arrows aimed at my chest taut enough to pierce straight through. I lifted my chin.

"Just tell him," I said firmly, "that Lorraine Anderson wants to see him."

The captain’s lip curled. One of the younger soldiers sneered, stepping out from the line. His bowstring trembled as he hissed, "Don’t waste time with this crippled girl. Let me end her now."

My eyes snapped to him, and for a moment, the world stilled.

"Go on, then," I said, my voice dropping into a dare. "Kill me. Do it, just like you said."

He faltered, his fingers tightening on the string.

"But you’d better be ready," I continued, my gaze locking with his, "to lose your head in Adrian Vale’s hands. Because when he finds out you murdered his visitor without even letting him know about it..." I took a single step toward him, lowering my arm but keeping my voice sharp "...your body will be rotting on these very gates before sunrise."

The soldier’s bravado cracked. His bow wavered, then lowered slightly. A murmur ran through the others, uncertainty thickening the air.

I smirked faintly and shook my head. "Thought so."

The captain’s scarred face hardened as he studied me, then barked another order. The circle of blades didn’t lower completely, but they eased enough for me to breathe.

Inside, though, I was trembling. Not from fear of their weapons, no, I had faced worse, but from the weight of what lay ahead. Adrian Vale. The boy who had once stood at my side, who had saved me when no one else would. The friend who had betrayed me in the most unforgivable way.

And now he was Director.

The title echoed in my skull with bitter venom.

I straightened, squaring my shoulders against their gaze. Whatever waited beyond those gates, whatever venom Adrian had laced this academy with, I would face it. Because I had come too far to turn back.

The gates groaned open, and the soldiers tightened their formation around me, their weapons still gleaming sharp at me.

The captain, moved closer until his shadow nearly swallowed mine.

"If this ends up being some kind of trick..." His claws elongated with a sickening crack, catching the dim torchlight. "I will personally rip out your heart with my own hands and feed it to the dogs. Do you understand, girl?"

I lifted my chin, staring directly into his eyes. "Perfectly." My voice was calm, almost too calm, because inside I was fighting to keep my breathing steady. Fear had no place here, not when Adrian Vale was at the end of this walk. Not when Elise’s blood still screamed for justice in my veins.

The captain narrowed his eyes, as though testing if I would break, but I didn’t. He finally gave a short grunt and gestured sharply to one of his men.

"Run ahead. Inform Director Vale he has.... a visitor."

"Yes, Captain!" The soldier sprinted off, his boots hammering against the stone courtyard until his figure disappeared into the looming buildings.

The rest of them tightened their circle around me again, herding me through the gates as though I were a wolf about to be caged.

The captain’s heavy footsteps fell in sync with mine. He never let me out of his sight, and when I shifted my gaze sideways, I caught him watching me as though expecting me to sprout fangs and attack.

"Enjoying the view?" I asked dryly

His lip curled, revealing a flash of fang. "I don’t trust you, girl. I don’t care if Director Vale knows you or not. If you so much as blink the wrong way, I’ll end you before you can speak another word."

I smirked, though the expression didn’t quite reach my eyes. "Funny. Adrian always did have a taste for keeping people around who could challenge him, though they always end up dead or betrayed in the end"

The captain’s claws flexed, but he said nothing this time. Only a low growl rumbled in his throat, enough to make the soldiers nearest to me shift uneasily.

******

Adrian stood silently by the edge of the wide bed, his eyes fixed on the fragile figure curled beneath the sheets. Aveline’s breathing was uneven, her skin pale with a sickly sheen of sweat. She hadn’t opened her eyes in hours. The wolfsbane coursing through her veins was keeping the raging beast inside her subdued, but it was also slowly poisoning her body. Each day she slipped further away from him, and Adrian felt powerless. He was losing her, to the beast, to the madness wothin her

His hand hovered above her damp forehead, wanting to touch, to comfort, but he let it drop helplessly to his side. What good was a brother who could not protect his sister from herself?

The silence was broken by a sharp knock on the door.

"Enter," he said curtly.

The door creaked open and a soldier stepped in, bowing stiffly. "Director Vale," he greeted. "We have apprehended someone at the gates. She insists on seeing you."

Adrian didn’t even bother to turn. His tone was clipped, laced with irritation. "If you apprehended someone at the gates, then kill her and be done with it."

The soldier hesitated. "She.... gave a name."

That caught Adrian’s attention. Slowly, he turned, eyes narrowing. "A name?"

"Yes, Director." The soldier straightened his posture nervously. "Lorraine Anderson."

For a moment, the world seemed to tilt beneath Adrian’s feet. Lorraine? Here? His chest tightened. Without another word, he strode toward the soldier, his coat brushing against the floor like a shadow in motion. "Lead the way," he ordered.

The march down the corridor was silent, except for the echo of their boots. Adrian’s thoughts raced with every step. Why was she here? What had possessed her to walk into Crimson Hunt territory, alone?

When they reached the gates, the soldiers parted instantly at his approach. And there she was. Lorraine.

Adrian stopped short, breath catching despite himself.

She looked like death had chewed her up and spit her out. Her skin was pale as bone, her frame thinner than he remembered, and where her left arm should have been.... there was nothing the empty sleeve of her cloth. Rage and horror collided inside him. What the hell had happened to her?

Her eyes met his, defiant despite the weakness etched into her body. She was still Lorraine Anderson, too stubborn to bow, even broken.

Before he could say a word, before either of them could, something shifted in the air. A presence descended over the courtyard, thick and suffocating.

The soldiers dropped to their knees all at once, as though an unseen weight pressed them down.

Adrian’s eyes snapped forward, and his pulse lurched.

He was here.

The Leader.

Adrian hadn’t seen him outside the villa in days. He was supposed to be locked away, brooding over whatever cruel schemes ran through his mind. Yet now he walked straight into their midst, cutting through the soldiers like a blade through water.

The ground itself seemed to bow beneath his presence.

He did not spare Adrian a glance. His eyes, sharp and burning with a twisted hunger, fixed solely on Lorraine.

Reaching her, he seized her face with a rough, calloused hand, gripping her cheek as though she were nothing more than prey caught in his claws. Lorraine flinched but held his gaze, refusing to cower.

The Leader’s lips twisted into a cruel smile. His voice was a low, guttural rumble that carried like thunder.

"I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment," he said.

And then, he laughed. A sound sharp and chilling, echoing through the gates like the toll of a death bell.