Chapter 108

He twitched and the SUV took off. I looked at him.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

His lips twitched. “First thing you will learn about being queen, Hedy, is that the press has only one job: get a rise out of you. They make money when you respond.”

He sat back. “I make it a habit of not playing their game.”

I looked out the window and nodded slowly. “That’s why no one knows anything about you… Good or bad.”

“They know what they need to.”

We reached city hall and there were reporters there too, but we pushed past them easily and walked into the building. Once inside, he opened a bunch of documents for me on a tablet and sat across the table from me.

I was about to tell him that I didn’t understand anything, but I stopped.

He knew I was Pandora now. I didn’t have to hide anything from him.

“We’ll need to deal with Red Moon,” I said.

He nodded. “I agree… Let’s start with what we know so far and go from there.”

We worked quietly for a moment before we ended up leaning over the tablet together, arguing over what to do with the border along Red Moon’s territory.

The problem was that not everyone in the pack and the surrounding areas were bad, and not everyone we knew to be outside of the pack were good either. I said we should just try to keep an eye on the main roads and organize Moon Shadow to watch the more obscure ways to get in and out.

Candido disagreed. “We need Moon Shadow mobilized and ready for the next attack.”

“But we might avoid the next attack if we can catch them by locking down the borders.”

He narrowed his eyes. “And the caves?”

I shook my head. “There’s almost no way to manage that other than shutting down the schools, and even then, can’t they open other exits?”

He rubbed his head and sank into his seat. “I’ll have to ask… I have no idea. I’ll admit that I Know almost nothing about vampires.”

I stared at him in shock. What? What did he mean he didn’t know anything? What about the book on vampires? The Moon Goddess book? What about Moon Shadow?

“Candido, you mean… that Francia’s right? We know nothing.”

“I know how to kill them.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Do you actually?”

He set his jaw. “If you separate their heads from their bodies they die.”

I shook my head. “But if you reattach it, they live.”

He huffed. “Burn the body afterward. They’re dead.”

“Well…” My shoulder slumped. “That’s great… if you can get close enough to do all that.”

“I can,” he said stiffly. “There are other methods, but that’s the fastest way.”

I shook my head. “Meanwhile, stabbing a werewolf in the chest, ripping out their throat, draining them dry—”

“I get your point, but they don’t react to silver the way we do,” he said. “And silver is harder to come by these days.”

“What happened to the mines?” I asked.

His lips twitched. “The ones in Red Moon?”

I grimaced. I had forgotten about that. Norton hadn’t ever needed much of a force, even when he should have had one, because he controlled the silver mines.

I sank into my seat and shook my head. “This feels…hopeless.”

We didn’t have enough information. We didn’t have enough power, and we definitely didn’t have enough time to puzzle it all out.

“Do you think that book on vampires would help us?” I asked. “I still have it.”

He shook his head. “It’s unlikely that they wrote down the best ways to kill them… It’s more likely they wrote the best ways to kill us.”

I nodded. Not wanting to agree, but it was hard. Candido sighed and came over to sit beside me. He pulled me into his lap and held me close. I loved his scent and sunk into his arms.

“Could we just stay like this forever?”

He chuckled. “If it would win this war, gladly.”

I nodded as he stroked my hair.

“You know… I’d die for you, Candido,” I said softly, closing my eyes.

“… Would you live for me?”

I frowned and looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

“If the choice was between me and you… If I asked you to live, would you?”

My jaw trembled. “I thought mates die together.”

“By choice,” he said. “It never has to be that way. There are… second chances, new loves, life after loss…”

I flinched back at the thought. I didn’t want anyone but Candido, but his eyes were steady.

“If I died, would you just move on?” I asked, setting my jaw. How could he even suggest something like that? “I thought you loved me.”

“Would you want me to waste away pining for you after your death?”

“Yes!” I cried, my eyes burning. I knew that I would die of grief if I lost Candido. If I knew I would never be able to see him again. If he died before me, I would be just after him.

Candido shook his head. “To be young and so passionate… so short-sighted.”

I flinched. “You sound like Francia.”

“What about your promise?” He asked lightly. “What about your plan to support me?”

“How am I supporting you if you’re dead?”

“Do you think a king’s legacy dies with him?” He asked and stroked my cheek. “Or does it live on in his heir? His descendants? Think on that, Hedy.”

I glared at him. “You’re just telling me that you don’t care about me as much as I care about you.”

Candido didn’t even flinch. He stared at me as if he was coming to an understanding about something and it turned my stomach.

“What?”

“You really… don’t understand what love is.” His eyes turned soft and indulgent. He pressed a kiss to my temple. “Let’s go get lunch.”

I pouted the whole way. I didn’t want to talk to him and he didn’t seem interested in making me talk to him. He seemed perfectly okay with me being upset with him. Perfectly okay with even hinting at the idea that I should just move on if he died in this war and that he would move on after I died.

What happened to us being fated? What happened to us being together forever? Had he been lying when he said he loved me?

I ate my lunch in silence. Candido simply stared out the window, watching people mill around on the streets. I wondered if we’d be accosted when we exited here too and what the journalists would say.

We returned to the office and I grabbed half of the documents to sit on the couch rather than sitting across from him at his desk. Candido sank into his seat with a soft sigh and leaned back, rubbing at the spot between his eyebrows.

I hoped he had a headache. It would serve him right for what he’d said. It was like he doubted how much he meant to me, but at minimum it was obvious that I didn’t mean nearly as much to him as I thought I did.

As I crossed out plans and made notes, I wondered what I was even doing. He didn’t care about me. Why should I devote so much energy into this? Maybe it would have been better if I never had the confirmation that we were mates.

After all, being mates didn’t guarantee happiness. It didn’t guarantee anything but a fated life together.

Something crashed and I turned to see Candido leaning against the bookcase. His eyes were scrunched shut and he had a wad of tissue pressed against his nose. The scent of blood filled the air and I jumped to my feet.

“Candido, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he said stiffly. “I just tripped.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Liar. Your nose is bleeding.”

Wasn’t this familiar? Hadn’t I seen this before? He wiped his nose, erasing even the hint that he’d been bleeding before standing up straight.

“I’m fine,” he said again. His eyes went unfocused before he stumbled again.

Then, I saw the faint black veins in his neck. I reached up and tugged his collar down to get a better look at it, but there was no mistaking it.

“You’ve exhausted yourself,” I said softly, my voice sounded haunted.

I thought back to Vanessa’s warning about Candido pushing himself too far, but I thought that he’d rested enough. I thought he’d been sleeping while I was, but that didn’t seem to be the case, or maybe he just needed more rest. I didn’t know.

“I’m not—”

“Your veins are turning black. If you keep up with this, you’re going to end up in a coma.”

He looked me in the eyes. I could see him wanting to protest.

“I—”

“No,” I said, grabbing him by his shoulders and pulling him towards the couch. “You’re going to rest for the rest of the day. I’ll finish your reports and whatever else, but then, we’re going home.”

His lips twitched. “Home?”

I shoved him down onto the couch and threw a blanket over him. “Sleep.”

He gave me a mock salute. “As you wish, princess.”

I set my jaw. “I’m still mad.”

He smiled and took my hand. “I know, and I still love you… even though you’re a spoiled little thing.”

I flushed. “I am not spoiled.”

He hummed as his eyes fluttered close. His breathing faded into sleep and I huffed. I was going to tell Vanessa about this as soon as I could. I headed back to his desk to take stock of everything that he had to do when a message popped up from Blue Moon on the second desktop.

I opened it, smiling at the fact that I was allowed to use his profile.

Then, my stomach plummeted.

Bella had been recovered from the caves and was being taken to Blue Moon headquarters for interrogation.