Chapter 223

Candido cocked an eyebrow at me. “No.”

I set my jaw. “Why not?”

“If you can’t walk, go with Wolf Fang.”

“I told you I’ll be fine,” I said. “It would just be faster if we took a truck.”

Candido tilted his head. “How do you figure that?”

My face heated. “Cars are faster than two or four legs.”

“Do you even know how far Wolf Fang is from Full Moon?” He asked. “How long would it take driving? The road conditions?”

“Then, we take a cave.”

“No,” he said. “The caves aren’t an option.”

I stomped my foot. “Why not?”

“Why does it matter?” Candido asked. “You can’t create a cave path.”

“But you can.”

“And I won’t.”

I glared up at him. “You’re doing this on purpose. Aren’t we trying to get there faster? If you would just listen to me for once, you’d see that I’m right. You’re just trying to make it seem like I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

Candido blinked at me, and I waited. Then, his lips lifted into a smile. It felt cold and cruel, and his eyes flickered with a bit of red light.

“Fine, Hedy, tell me your grand plan.” He scoffed. “I’ll do my best not to interrupt.”

My face burned. “You wouldn’t treat Estella like this. You’d listen to her.”

“She would also listen to me,” he said. “Yet, you seem incapable of doing so.”

“Now, you’re comparing us—”

“You compared yourselves,” he said. “Never once have I compared you.”

My eyes pricked with tears. “Because she’s so much better than me?”

“Because you’re two different people.”

I blinked up at him, unable to say anything. I swallowed and dropped my gaze. I felt a little ridiculous. Here I was, comparing myself to a dead woman. Here I was, trying to get him to forget about her, and I kept bringing her up.

“It’s just… you seemed to respect her.”

“I do.”

“And it doesn’t feel like you respect me.”

“You haven’t given me a reason to respect any of your decisions—”

“I—”

“—especially because you keep disrespecting mine,” Candido said. “You keep saying you want to stand at my side, but all you’ve done is lie to me, lie to others, scheme, and undermine me. Now that I’m giving you a chance to not do any of that, to work with me, you can’t even take your emotions out of it and tell me what you think is this great plan.”

He scoffed. “It’s so obvious that you just don’t want to walk there. Whether that’s because you don’t think you’ll make it, or you’re just being stubborn, I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

I glared up at him. “So, you don’t care about my plan?”

“Honestly, if it’s going to get me killed, which it likely will, no, but I’m giving you a chance to voice your opinion. So, take it or don’t.”

I wanted to point out that he would have never said something like this to Estella, but I held back. I needed to stop bringing her up, or he would never forget about her. As much as he says that he’s not comparing us, I knew better. I could hear it in the way he spoke to me.

He thought Estella was better than I was. Well, he’s wrong. Not only is she dead, but I’m a more worthy luna.

So, I lifted my chin.

“A truck between Wolf Fang and Full Moon on the road would take about half a day. Walking would take three. Taking a cave would take even less time. If we took a truck, we could cut through the forest and shave off more time. We’d be able to get there less exhausted and get out faster.” I crossed my arms. “How’s that? Obviously, a better plan, isn’t it?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “All roads between Wolf Fang and Full Moon would go through Red Moon.”

My gut plummeted.

“Avoiding direct paths into Red Moon’s core territory and the obviously occupied cities would require us to go the opposite way and circle around. It would take us almost a week, never mind trying to stop for fuel in those areas.”

“Well, the caves then.”

“Again, not an option.”

“It doesn’t matter why.”

“Of course it does!” I said. “You keep talking about me not respecting your decisions, but you’re not giving me a reason to!”

He shook his head. “Not liking my decisions and the answers I give you isn’t the same.”

“Tell me why the caves aren’t an option, then,” I said. “If my plan is so bad, even though it’s more than possible with the caves, then tell me why?”

“You mean it’s impossible unless we go through the caves, and it’s not an option.” He turned. “Take it back to the drawing board if you’re so sure that taking a car for three people in this circumstance makes sense.”

“They can walk to the safe camp. Our lives are more important.”

He looked back. “And that is why you won’t ever understand what it means to be my equal.”

My eyes bulged, and my jaw dropped.

“No one’s life is less important than mine, Hedy. Or yours. Not even Cillian’s.” He met my gaze. “I would never sacrifice the life of my subjects for mine, let alone for comfort.”

He shook his head.

“It’s not about comfort—”

“The further away from the divide between our world and Lunae, the less stable the caves are. The more likely that Marius and his followers are occupying them. It’s where they’ve been all this time.” I swallowed, and he sighed. “If you were paying attention to anything, you would have figured that out pretty quickly.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “How do you plan for Cillian and me to fight off ambush after ambush? To fight our way out of their stronghold?”

“The forest moves,” I said. “It’s not any safer.”

He shook his head. “The forest is on our side.”

His lips twitched, and he turned his head. “For now, at least. Anything else you want to say in defense of your comfort?”

“I-It’s not about my comfort.”

He chuckled. “Sure, and I’m a virgin.”

My jaw dropped, and he turned away. “Are you coming or not?”

I set my jaw. “I’m not wrong. I’ll make you see that.”

“I look forward to you trying.”

After all the bodies were buried, people were loaded into the trucks and vans that had been there. There was barely enough space to fit everyone, but I couldn’t stop trying.

“If everything that’s my mom’s is in Full Moon, it’s in somewhere safe, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then, wouldn’t it be safe for them too?”

Candido sighed and looked at me. “How do you expect to sneak a caravan of ailing people past vampires, Hedy?”

“Well… Quietly?”

He shook his head. “The bunker isn’t made for people, Hedy. It’s not a shelter.”

“But it could be.”

“With a lot of magic and effort, that would be a waste of time.”

Candido lifted a young woman onto the truck to take a seat among the rest of the people. He looked back at me.

“Last chance. There’s one more seat for you.”

“My place is with you,” I said again.”

He lifted a shoulder and told the trucks to drive off. Cillian appeared from the shadows, it seemed.

“Couldn’t you create a safe cave path?”

Cillian cocked an eyebrow. “Why would I take that risk?”

Candido adjusted the gun on his back and rolled his shoulders. He pulled out a communication mirror.

“Looks like the forest is still on our side… We’ve got a straight path.”

Cillian nodded. “Then, let’s get going.”

Candido broke into a jog and headed into the woods. I growled and followed. I felt the forest shifting beneath my feet even as they started to get further ahead of me. Soon, the trees around Wolf Fang changed to the trees around Full Moon. I gasped as the path turned familiar. I couldn’t see the clearing that was just behind the Estate coming up ahead.

Candido slowed to a stop and pulled out his gun, aiming it at the shadows as we headed away from the Estate. I followed. We walked a while more before we reached another clearing covered in trees. Candido gave his gun to Cillian and bent down, clearing off the doors before a stone platform lit up and slid aside, revealing a set of stairs. Old air drifted out, and Candido headed down. I followed just behind, and I heard Cillian come down behind us. He put up a glowing barrier over the entrance.

“Why not just close it?”

“It’s not a shelter,” Candido said quietly. “It’s storage… It’s more of a crypt.”

I shuddered at the thought. “You could have said that the forest would work just as well as the caves.”

“You brought up the fact that the forest moved. If you hadn’t been so focused on having your way, you would have realized the plan.” We reached a door. “And for your information, it would have only taken a day at running speed with breaks to get from Wolf Fang to Full Moon if we cut through the mountains.”

I wanted to growl at him, but then he opened the door.