Chapter 160

He looked back at me then to Candido before shaking his head. “I’ll come with you.”

Claire went still. “But Francium, you heard—”

“She is my mother, Claire,” Francium said, meeting her gaze. “There are very few people I can still trust and she is at the top of the list… Not trusting her got me into all of this mess in the first place.”

Claire said nothing. She turned away from him stiffly. He took her hand gently and turned her back towards him, cupping her cheek.

“We’ll talk more later.” He pressed a kiss to her lips and turned to leave, following Francia.

The sight of them made my heart clench with longing. I looked up at Candido wanting him to kiss me too, but he didn’t even look at me. He steered me back to the table and pushed me down onto the bench before making me a plate. He leaned against the table with a shudder as I ate. Claire sat across from us; her eyes focused on the phone she had been given. Candido was typing on his screen and the entire hall was silent.

I ate, but everything tasted bitter with Candido not paying any attention to me. My body still felt heavy. I was exhausted. Couldn’t he see that? Didn’t he care?

The door opened again and Raven came in with a bundle of clothing. It looked like a simple white dress and a pair of shoes.

“Only thing I had that might fit--”

I scowled at her. “Are you calling me fat?”

I glared at her. She wasn’t thinner than me. She just wore tighter clothes than me, I was sure. At least, I thought so.

She cocked an eyebrow at me. “I don’t share my nice clothes, and you seem like you want to play up the virgin card, so white came to mind.” She tossed them at me. “I’ve never worn it and never planned to. Not my style. Just thought I should help you out. Don’t do anything to get yourself electrocuted.”

She turned away and paused before looking back at her. “And, for your information. I’m at least a size bigger than you and…” She glanced at my chest. “At least two cups bigger, string bean. Just because you have body issues doesn’t mean everyone is trying to insult you. Get over that victim complex.”

I scowled at her. She flipped her hair and left out the door. I looked down at my chest and tightened the blanket around me. I finished eating as it seemed the rest of the hall did. Then, I frowned as I saw Gilgamesh looking depressed. Shouldn’t he be happy that Julia was gone? She had no loyalty towards Candido and that was the whole point of Moon Shadow. He stood up and a burst of cold air went past.

Candido looked up. “Gilgamesh.”

He shook his head and Vanessa stood and went after him. They left together, and I looked at Candido, thinking back to the files I remembered reading on most of the members of Moon Shadow.

“I… thought Gilgamesh was a mind reader.”

Candido frowned at me and shook his head. “Moon Shadow’s mainframe scrambles certain data about the members. It’s meant to protect us.”

“Then… is Julia a mind reader?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “She’s never used her powers in the field as far as I could tell.”

I nodded slowly. Candido helped me up and we followed the rest of the Moon Shadow group to a set of rundown-looking buildings. There were rooms, but there wasn’t much in them.

“I’ll room with Gilgamesh,” he said.

“But we could—”

“No,” he said. “You need rest, and I have some reconnaissance to do.”

“I could help,” I said stubbornly.

“You can barely keep your eyes open,” he said eyeing me. “Get some rest and maybe… if you’re good, I’ll take you out tonight.”

I smiled and I looked up at him. “You promise?”

He nodded. “I promise if you go to bed.”

“A real date?” I pressed.

He smiled and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “If that’s what you want. Though I have no idea how any of this works. I’ll figure it out. Just get some rest.”

“Okay,” I said. “You promise you’ll make it up to me.”

He nudged me into the room. “Go to bed, princess. And don’t go biting anyone.”

I scowled at him. “You should be comforting me. He hist me really hard.”

He took in a deep breath. “Go to bed, Hedy.”

I pouted at him. “That’s all you have to say?”

“Go to bed, or forget it,” he said and turned away. I glared after him. “Well, maybe I don’t want to go to dinner with you if you’re going to be like that.”

Candido didn’t even pause, ignoring me. I closed the door after him and sat with my back to the door out of sheer defiance. I wasn’t going to let him treat me like this and get away with it. I pulled out my phone and messaged him.

You owe me a birthday present. The least you could do is act sorry that you just let him hit me.

Candido didn’t reply. I sent another message.

Are you saying you don’t care?

He said nothing.

Are you ignoring me?

I called him, irritated that he wasn’t saying anything.

He answered. “Go to bed, Hedy.”

“Candido, I—”

He hung up in my face, and I got up, leaving the white dress in the room and clinging to the blanket around me. I stomped down the hall searching for where he could be, but I couldn’t smell him.

I couldn’t feel him either. Someone came out of a room and cocked an eyebrow at me. I hissed at them.

“What are you looking at?”

“A naked teenager wrapped in a blanket and being a brat,” the woman said, leaning against the doorway. She shook her head. “Aren’t you that half-breed?”

“I’m not a half-breed!” I screeched. “I’m a werewolf! Don’t you ever--”

I was slammed back by a forcefield or something that glued me to the wall and sent a current of electricity through me. The woman looked almost smug, shaking her head before turning and going back into her room as everything went black. I heard her laughing softly.

When I woke up, Candido was crouched beside me.

My eyes watered. “You didn’t answer.”

“I told you to go to bed and not get yourself into trouble,” he said. “Why is it so hard for you to follow instructions? Do you not understand the situation we’re in.”

I sniffled and tears streamed down my face. “You can’t… I’m hurt and you’re scolding me? You’re supposed to take care of me…”

He set his jaw. “Can you stand?”

For a moment, it wasn’t Candido speaking to me, but Ian. I braced myself to be dragged along and stared at him.

“Hedy, can you stand?” Candid asked again, not moving from where he crouched beside me.

“No,” I said stubbornly, wanting him to carry me like he had before.

He sighed and stood. “I’ll get you a crutch or something.”

“Why can’t you just carry me?”

He looked down at me. “Carry you?”

“You carried me before.”

“You were in your wolf form, weaker. Lighter,” Candido said. “You couldn’t even move more than a few inches. You can at least manage a crutch.”

“And if I can’t?” I asked.

“Then, I guess you’ll sit there until I can find someone willing to carry you back to your room or you’re strong enough.”

I set my jaw. “Why won’t you just carry me?”

“Because I can’t. You’re too heavy.”

My eyes burned. “You’re calling me fat.”

Candido looked down at me. “Hedy… I recognize that a lot of things have changed. I don’t even know all of what you’ve been shown or told. What’s happened to you, but if you’d like for us to get out of this alive, I need you to grow up.”

My eyes watered. “You…”

“I need you to realize that all of what remains of Moon Shadow is in danger. Werewolves, on the whole, are in danger, and everyone is going to have to pull their weight, you understand?”

I crossed my arms.

“And I am sorry,” he said. “I didn’t expect… I never wanted you to be this involved with the war. I could have never fathomed that you were so involved with all of this, but after seeing that woman and that man, Ian… It is obvious that you are more involved with this than many of us, and you’re going to have to come to terms with that.”

He leaned against the wall. “For now, we have a moment’s break. Could we please just enjoy that for as long as it will last?”

I stared up at him.

“Can you stand?”

My jaw trembled, but I nodded and got to my feet, still angry.

“Do you still want to go out?”

“Yes.”