Chapter 118

I don’t know how long I was asleep. I felt myself moving like I was sliding across the ground and being handed off and around. It was so strange. I was cold and hot at the same time. I felt nothing yet I was in pure agony. I thought I was opening my eyes, but I saw nothing.

I don’t know where I was or how I got to be where I was now, but I stopped moving and everything went dark and silent. The next time I heard or felt anything, I was moving, slowly, jostled a little. Someone was panting above me like they were tired. Everything in me ached, and I smelled something familiar. There was blood and fire, but there was also a musky scent I recognized as Candido’s cologne.

“Candido?”

I frowned, slowly opening my eyes as I looked up. It was dark, but there was the faintest light hovering above that let me make out Candido’s face. The golden light illuminated his eyes beneath his mask which looked like it had been ripped a little, but his face hadn’t been revealed. His eyes were blood-shot and there seemed to be blood coming from the edges of them, but I couldn’t tell if that was accurate or not. He felt like he was trembling, but I couldn’t tell for sure.

I really wanted to pull his mask off and see his face, to know that Candido had finally come to save me like I knew he would.

“Candido,” I said, curling into his arms. “Candido, I was so scared.”

He said nothing, still panting, but he stuttered out a soft, hushing sound. He stopped for a moment, wavering on his feet, and stumbling into the wall. He closed his eyes and leaned against the stone. The light above his head flickered and went dark for a moment, plunging us into darkness.

Then, I realized that the scent of blood was closer than I first thought and fresher. It was in his hair and sliding down his face as if he was bleeding. Slowly, he opened his eyes as he seemed to catch his breath. He straightened and adjusted my weight with a little grunt. His eyes stared ahead as he walked with me in his arms. We were still in the caves and I couldn’t see a thing beyond the small orb of flickering light above his head.

“Candido, what’s going on—?”

“Be quiet,” Candido said softly, staggering ahead. He didn’t even look down at me. That wasn’t like him. I was hurt and we’d been separated for so long. He should have been looking at me. He should have been holding me and promising me that we wouldn’t be separated again, that he’d get us out of here.

My jaw trembled, and I shoved at his chest. “You can’t tell me to be quiet! I was scared you weren’t—”

“Pandora!” He growled at me without looking down at me. “Be quiet.”

My eyes watered, and I burst into tears, wailing in panic.

“Be quiet,” he said more sternly, swaying. “You’re making my ears ring.”

That just made me cry harder. He’d never shouted at me before. He’d never raise his voice at me. This man wasn’t Candido.

“Pandora,” he groaned. “Please just shut up.”

I shoved out of his arms, dropping to the ground. I grit my teeth as I hit the ground hard, and it started to move beneath me, carrying me away from him slowly as if it was slowly dragging me away. The light above his head flickered again as he staggered after me. His eyes were wide with panic.

“You’re not Candido!”

“Pandora, stop!” He said, grabbing me. I shrieked at the pain that shot through me when he pulled back on my arm. “If we get separated, there’s no guarantee I’ll find you again. Just calm--”

“Let me go!” I cried. “I don’t care! You’re not Candido! Candido wouldn’t yell at me! Candido—”

He slapped his hand over my mouth and dragged me back as the light went out overhead. I struggled, trying to get free of him. He pressed me against him, trying to keep me from moving, but I kept kicking, trying to get free of him.

“You need to be quiet.” Candido hissed in my ear. “If we get caught, it’s over. Do you understand?”

I struggled.

“Stop it, or I’m going to have to knock you out,” Candido said.

Candido would never threaten me. I bit his hand hard. He yanked his hand away with a hiss. He staggered as I twisted hard, and I got free of him.

“Candido, help me!” I screamed, running away from him into the darkness. Tears streamed down my face as I ran and ran, not even sure if I was going where I wanted, but I had to get away from this imposter.

Candido would never yell at me. Candido was always gentle with me. He wouldn’t have hurt me like that. He wouldn’t have spoken to me like that.

“Pandora, stop!” He yelled after me. I heard him coming after me.

Tears streamed down my face as I ran. I tried to put as much distance between us as I could. It didn’t even matter where I was going or how I was getting there. It was so dark that it hardly mattered. I didn’t know what was in front of me or behind me.

I felt the earth beneath me surge and send me flying forward, slamming me into a wall of stone. I choked on the pain as it cracked through my shoulder and face.

“Shit. Pandora!”

I bounced back and the earth shot up beneath me, tumbling me backward and tumbling me down a huge height that I couldn’t see down or around. I didn’t know how far it carried me up, but I heard him behind me.

“Candido, help me!”

I heard the wind whistling around me. I felt it pulling me and carrying me off the spikes of rock, but it slammed me into another wall then dropped me down through the darkness. I fell through water before I was tumbled over and out into another wall.

Something cracked in my chest. I felt pain shoot through my hip.

It felt like the cave was just smacking me around. Then, it dropped me. I slammed into the ground with little more than a whimper of pain as I hear my shoulder crack.

“Pandora!” Candido’s voice carried over the silence. It echoed and went silent. I felt him getting further away then closer as if he was moving or trying to get closer but the caves wouldn’t.

“Candido, help me,” I wailed, sobbing into the dark.

I felt his hands on me and tried to twist away. He pressed me to the ground and covered my mouth. It wasn’t Candido, it was this imposter.

“Let me go!” I cried again. “Candido! Candido!”

“Be quiet or—” He went still then yanked me up against his chest. A thin line of fire appeared on the ground, illuminating figures standing in the darkness. I couldn’t make out any of their faces, but each of their eyes glowed gold or silver through the shadows.

The scent of the stone around us changed and I smelled the faintest hint of Candido’s cologne again, but this man couldn’t be Candido.

Candido wouldn’t have let all that happen to me. He wouldn’t have let all of this happen to me. He wouldn’t have yelled at me. He wouldn’t be mean to me. He loved me. Candido loved me.

I sobbed, slumping in the imposter’s arms as he drew me back. Tears slid down my cheeks.

Where was Candido? What was going to happen to me now? Would this imposter take me to Damian? Would he just leave me here to die?

Had Candido already died?

“Who are you?” The imposter asked to the hooded figures.

They said nothing, but I felt more of them appearing around us. Their eyes were focused on us. I expected this imposter to drop me and escape on his own if he could, maybe offer me up, but he didn’t release me.

Maybe he was getting paid more to capture me than he would without me.

“Candido,” I sobbed. “I want Candido. I want Candido…”

Someone scoffed in the darkness, but there were no words to follow.

“The alpha king’s princess… lost in the caves. What a shame.”

“If you mean us harm…” the imposter said as I tried to distance myself from the pain and the shock. I wanted Candido. I wanted Candido to come to save me.

This would be the time to do so. He always came right when I needed him.

“Who are you?” The imposter asked again.

Their eyes all started to glow brighter, and I heard something that almost sounded like a song drifting through the air. Golden light danced in the air and I thought of the painting at school.

They were vampires and we were going to die.