Chapter 211

Just five…

I got to my feet and headed back to camp. I sat on the edge of the camp, deep in thought. Wren would be the hardest. Whatever connection he had to the Moon Goddess meant that he likely knew I was planning to kill him. The other four I had a good idea about. One was the man who had stopped me from killing Estella. He was covered in so many bandages that I was almost sure that he was going to die on his own. If not, I could probably find another way to get rid of him. He was probably the easiest.

Then, there were three others: the man that had nearly attacked me named Harper, the man who had been crying, and the woman who had comforted him. I didn’t know anything about them, so my best bet was to try and find out who they were. It would be best if I could get one of the vampires to kill them. If not, I would have to catch each of them off guard. Maybe I could get my hands on a gun and shoot them in the middle of another battle. It wouldn’t be hard. I had almost shot Estella; I was sure of it.

I bit my lip. The real question was how was I going to get Candido to forget what Estella and the others had told him about what I’d done. How was I going to get him to forget about Vanessa, Dune, and Apollo?

The Heart of the Moon was my only option, but I had no idea where it was.

Peter’s vampires moved around the camp, checking on people and distributing what looked like food. I smiled as an idea came to mind. I could poison them. If I could figure out where they were getting the food, I’d just poison it. Some of the medical supplies were tainted by Starlight. Hell, some of them might actually be poison. I just had to find the right ones and put it into the food.

If that didn’t work, vampire blood would do, or if I could get a hold of some of the drugs that Francium used to take, that would do too. One of the vampires had to have some, but would they give it to me?

Then, I heard a tutting from behind me.

“Rule one of plotting murder,” Raven said. “Don’t, especially if you’re doomed to fail. The second is don’t be so obvious about it.”

I turned to look at her. She looked like she’d just taken a shower. Her eyes glowed with a soft red light. She was wearing another pair of tight leather pants and a camisole shirt under an embellished black corset. She looked as if she had rested and her eyes had a soft glow to them.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

She cocked an eyebrow. “Supplies delivery, among other things. Work. Unlike some people. Honestly, your father had to be the laziest werewolf in existence for his blood to taint you so much.”

I glared at her. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

“I don’t really want to talk to you either,” Raven said. “It irritates me to think how much shame you bring our mother just by breathing. Don’t you have any sense? All your talk about being luna and you’re plotting murder?”

I crossed my arms. “Don’t you have something else to be doing?”

“Work,” Raven said. “Unfortunately, that involves you right now. There’s an issue with Wolf Fang that you need to take care of.”

I looked at her. “What does Wolf Fang have to do with me?”

Raven rolled her eyes. “I’m not even going to humor that stupid question. We’re making arrangements for you to do something useful—”

“I’m not going to Wolf Fang,” I said. “My place is with Candido. This is where all the fighting is. This is where I should be. I’m his right hand, his partner. You might not understand that, but I do. Deal with it yourself.”

Raven tilted her head. “You know, I thought you were just being selfish. I considered that maybe going back might traumatize you, but no. You actually believe that your being here is helping. I can’t tell if you’re truly insane or just stupid.”

“I’m not stupid. And I’m not crazy. I would be helping a lot if people would listen to me,” I said. “I—”

“People might listen to you if you had something intelligent to say,” Raven said. “Or even seemed to care that your actions are making everything harder.”

“I’m Pandora,” I said. “I’ve supported Moon Shadow and Candido all this time. It’s only now that everyone is forgetting all of it. Because you vampires all showed up.”

“Save it for your tragic heroine story. No one cares that you pushed a few buttons and sent a few emails,” Raven said. “They do care about the fact that you lied. They do care that you’re selfish. They do care a lot that you’re being toxic.”

I gasped at her. “I haven’t lied about anything?”

“So, you didn’t try to push Estella out of a moving vehicle while she was mostly unconscious?” Raven cocked an eyebrow. “And you had nothing to do with Vanessa, Dune, and Apollo’s deaths?”

“You don’t know anything,” I said. “Leave me alone.”

She scoffed again. “You know, people might actually respect you a little if you just owned up to being a truly terrible person.”

“I’m not a terrible person. All I’ve done is try to support Candido and make him understand what it means to be mates.”

“Sure,” Raven said. “By being toxic as fuck. Wanting Candido to be alone just because you are, by your own choice, is toxic as fuck,” Raven said. “Being a selfish liar and being unwilling to even admit that you are is what everyone’s pissed about. Being a heartless bitch is why no one cares about your well-being and why no one wants to listen to you. And yes, blaming everyone else is also toxic. We’re not stupid.”

I set my jaw. “I don’t have to listen to you. You’re just saying all of that because you don’t want me to be with Candido.”

“I could care less what you do, Hedy,” Raven said and sauntered past me. “Word of advice, if you even think you have a chance of reconciling with him after everything you’ve done, I’d suggest you start using your head more than to cry and hold your hair.”

“Candido loves me,” I growled. “As soon as Estella’s tricks wear off, he’ll come back to me.”

She cackled. “The only person using tricks around here is you.”

Tears streamed down my face as Raven kept walking. I didn’t watch her go. I didn’t have to listen to anything she had to say. I had to focus. Once I killed everyone in my way, Candido and I would be together. By then, I was sure that whatever Estella had done to him would wear off, but first, I needed to find Candido. He needed to see me and remember that he loved me. He’d never come around if we were apart. I glanced through the camp, looking for the remaining five members of Moon Shadow, but they were nowhere to be found.

I turned to a member of New Moon. She was silent and glaring at me. I was going to ask her if she’d seen any of the Moon Shadow people, but she turned and walked away from me. A few paces away, I saw Francia, whose eyes were still hard and cold.

She glanced over me and turned to a member of Peter’s forces. They talked for a moment before they headed into the forest and seemingly disappeared.

Then, I was alone with the werewolves and vampires from Lunae. I could feel their eyes on me, glaring at me. My stomach turned. They hated me, but I didn’t care. If they tried to hurt me, Candido would save me. I knew he would. He had to. We were mates, and no matter how angry he was with me, it was only a matter of time.

He’d promised.

“Tough crowd,” Cillian said from behind me.

I turned around. He looked around with a neutral expression. He didn’t seem upset at all. He seemed a little tired but not angry. Then, I realized that he must not know that Estella was dead. And I wasn’t going to tell him. I needed him on my side, especially if I was going to get Candido to see reason soon.

Cillian looked me over and winced. “You look terrible. I suppose that’s what happens when you wear a spring dress to battle.”

He nodded away from the rest of the people. “Come on. I’ll patch you up.”

I followed him away, glad that they were watching me leave with him. I didn’t know how, but it would get back to Candido.