Chapter 175

I hurried up the wood and stone path. Wherever that person was going had to be where the temple was, and if not, they knew where I needed to go. I rushed up the path after the figure.

A large stone building came into view through the trees. The trees were covered in snow-white blossoms tipped in blood red. I had never seen flowers like these. The person ahead of me entered the temple and the doors slammed closed in my face.

I tried to pull on the stone, but my fingers slipped and scraped against the stone. I rushed around the sides, trying to find another entrance, but there wasn’t one. The building wasn’t large. It was perhaps the size of a small house. I could walk the entire perimeter, but there was nothing.

I went back to the doors and tried to pry the doors open again. They didn’t budge. I didn’t see a hinge or anything.

I yelped as one of my nails broke. As the blood started to well up beneath the broken nail, I screamed.

“Let me in!”

“Quiet,” Wren’s voice hissed. I whirled around on him. I found him with a red scarf around his neck and covering his head. He took the last step up and fixed me with a hard look. “Don’t you have any respect? This is a sacred place.”

I sneered at him. “Stay out of this. I already know how you feel about me, and I have no reason to listen to the likes of you.”

I was half-vampire, wasn’t I? Couldn’t she see me? Why wouldn’t the doors open for me? I turned back trying to pry the doors open before a bolt of light shoved me back tumbling me back and away from the doors. I landed just beside where Wren was standing. He looked down at me with a pensive look before turning back to the stone doors.

I pushed myself onto my feet preparing to rush the doors. I’d break them down if I had to. She’d listen to me. She had to. Why set me on this path if she wouldn’t listen to me? Why save me all those years ago? Why send me to Candido at all if she wasn’t going to help me keep him? He stopped me grabbing my arm.

“Stop.”

“Let me go!” I snarled, tearing away from him, and aiming for his face.

He dodged easily and tumbled me to the ground, flipping me with almost flippant strength. Then, I realized that his power had to be like mine. He eyed me sternly. His eyes glowed with blood-red light. My eyes narrowed. How high and mighty of him to not be all werewolf and want to talk about me behind my back.

“Cease,” he said, his voice shaking the air. “This is sacred ground. No violence is permitted here.”

I growled at him. “Your eyes are glowing red. You’re not a werewolf. I wonder how Candido would feel about that?”

I glared at him. “I’m going to tell him. I’m going to tell him you attacked me. I’m going to tell him all about this.”

Wren said nothing, simply observing me.

“Hedy,” Raven’s voice cut in as she came up the stairs. “What are you doing?”

She turned to Wren and her eyes widened. Her eyes skimmed over Wren. “Well… isn’t that interesting?”

“He grabbed me and flipped me!”

“I’m sure you’re not as innocent as you’d like me to think,” Raven said bowing her head. “Priest.”

Priest? Wren was a priest? I looked between them.

He turned his head and smiled lightly. He came to her and cupped her face.

“Hmm,” he said. “You have taken to your training well.”

She beamed, prideful and happy. “Thank you.”

He nodded and turned back to me. “You should leave.”

“I’m not leaving,” I said. “I have every right to be here as anyone else—no, I have more of a right to be here.”

Raven sighed and looked at the doors. “What are you going on about now?”

“I have a request,” I said. “I have a request, and I’ve never asked for much before.”

“You know…” Raven said. “You don’t have to make your request at the temple.”

“I want to make sure she hears me,” I said and glared at Wren. “And if you’re really a priest, you shouldn’t be stopping me. You should be helping me.”

“So you can ask the Goddess to give you Candido?” Wren asked wryly.

I flinched. How had he known?

Raven snorted. “That’s not how it works.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Cillian said I could ask for anything!”

“You can,” Raven said. “But… what makes you think she’ll even… entertain such a request.”

“We’re mates!”

Raven rolled her eyes. “And?”

“She put me in his path. She saved me. She put me with him. We’re mates. Why else would she do all of that if we’re not supposed to be together? Estella’s just messing everything up. Everything was going fine before she showed up!”

And that was true. He was upset, but I hadn’t even gotten a chance to explain anything before she showed up and saved Van. I almost regretted it.

“Or to just get rid of Estella?” Wren asked, tilting his head. He shook his head.

Raven waved her hand flippantly. “Maybe you should speak to the Goddess so she can… sort out whatever is going on in your head.”

“Don’t talk to me like!” I yelled. “You make it sound like I’m crazy.”

“You are acting a bit crazy,” Raven said cocking her eyebrow. “Trying to force your way into the temple? Pretty crazy.”

I hissed at her. “The doors just slammed in my face!”

“Because there’s a prayer session going on,” Raven said cocking her eyebrow. “The next one starts after this one is over.”

I drew up short and looked at the door.

“Well, how was I supposed to know?”

“Oh, I don’t know, fucking ask?” Raven asked and rubbed her head. “Why don’t you just… sit down—”

“I’m not a child! Don’t tell me to sit down.”

“Then, stand,” she shrugged.

I glared at her.

“Or are you going to do exactly the opposite of anything I suggest because you’re an adult?” Raven pursed her lips.

I glared at her. “You’re picking on me. What happened to us being—”

“You don’t get to play the sibling card only when you want to,” Raven hissed. “You don’t get to use a blood connection when it’s convenient for you then throw it away—”

Wren placed a hand on Raven’s shoulder. “Calm yourself.”

She huffed, but she crossed her arms and walked to take a seat on a bench that seemed to appear out of nowhere for her. She took a steadying breath.

“Don’t you think Candido should have a choice?” Raven asked.

“The Goddess blessed me to be his mate,” Hedy said. “He’s said it himself that trying to go against that choice is a bad idea! It’s the whole reason we haven’t been together all this time.”

“Actually, the reason why your daddy hasn’t pounded you into the mattress is that werewolves have that stupid age of majority at twenty,” Raven said. “No offense, Priest.”

“None was taken,” he said. “I didn’t come up with it, and I agree that making it twenty is stupid.”

She chuckled. “You’re not bad. Different than the priests I’ve grown up with, but not bad.”

“She’s a vampire!” I cried pointing at her. “How can you be so mean to me, a werewolf, yet you’re so chummy with her? You’re a member of Moon Shadow! Your whole mission is to—”

“Support Candido,” Wren cut in. “Raven holds no threat to Candido or interest in him… Though…”

He looked at her with a wry smile. “I seem to be getting a sense of… something else towards me.”

She eyed him. “I have a deep weakness for broad shoulders, and I fuck werewolves regularly. Never fucked a priest before.”

He laughed.

“How can you talk like that on sacred ground?” I asked. “Why aren’t you scolding her about her comportment?”

“The Goddess is a hedonist,” Wren said. “Several rituals in her honor involve sex. Sex, desire, and pleasure are all welcome on her hollowed ground… Violence is not.”

I glared at him and crossed my arms. “Well, when is it going to be over?”

“When they feel as though they have spoken all they needed,” Wren said. “I’m… somehow not surprised that you never attended any temple services with Candido in all these years… though I am sure that is not because he did not invite you.”

I stiffened, thinking back on it. Candido had invited me, plenty of times, but I always said no. I didn’t want to go. I never thought it was important.

Then, I heard footsteps coming towards us. I turned to look down the path and I saw them walking together towards me, draped in temple red silk.

Candido was in the middle of Estella, an older woman, and an older man.

My heart screamed.