Chapter 226

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Candido narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “That’s not a power that werewolves have.”

“Most? No,” Cillian said. “Estella is more than just my chief medical officer. She’s the reason we rarely had to waste time fighting creatures on the fringes of Lunae.”

Candido’s eyes widened, his shoulders relaxed, and the suspect left his face.

“What do you mean?” Candido asked.

I clenched my jaw. I wanted to call Cillian out on the lie, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t chance Candido telling him that Estella was dead. It was obvious that he thought Estella was still alive. Sure, he wasn’t being as nice to me as he had been before. I still needed him.

He was the only person around that I could use to make Candido jealous.

“His Majesty asked me to help you figure out your powers the way I helped Estella figure out hers… You’re a golden wolf, a solare. If the war is to end quickly and the way it needs to, you can’t afford to continue to be ignorant of the full extent of your powers.”

Candido swallowed. “You’re saying that there’s more than just element control?”

“Something like that. Those creatures, actually practically anything of any real danger to a werewolf in your world and in Lunae, are creations of elemental forces and darkness.” He cocked an eyebrow. “You golden-furred messes are supposed to be the brightest light of the moon goddess. It will yield to you.”

“That can’t be safe,” I said. “It’s never—No beast has ever yielded before.”

I thought of the huge beast that had been dead when I’d woken up all those years ago.

Cillian chuckled. “Have you ever tried? As far as I can tell, Hedy is the first person you’ve ever used your compulsion against.”

He frowned. “I try not to compel people. You’re saying that compulsion isn’t connected to me being an alpha?”

Cillian scoffed. “You all came up with that alpha nonsense to organize yourselves. It’s not part of your powers. The compulsion is yours because you are beloved by the Moon Goddess. There is no creature of Solare that could resist you.”

Candido lowered his gaze. His eyes flickered from side to side. I stepped forward.

“If you listen to him, you’ll end up getting hurt. It would be easier to just kill it.”

Candido lowered his gun and turned toward the beast as it began to growl. Its teeth glinted in the low light of the cave.

“Sure,” Cillian said. “But it would be a waste of time and resources…”

I looked between the two of them as Candido let the gun fall to his side. He turned to face the creature as it came closer.

“Stop,” I felt Candido’s voice echo through my whole body. It felt like even my heart had stopped for a moment. My mind stopped. All I could do was watch. Cillian let out a low whistle.

“First, go, hm?”

“Go,” Candido said.

The urge to leave the cave was almost overwhelming. I felt my legs starting to retreat just as the creature let out a low whine and hunkered down like a gigantic beast. Candido stepped forward slowly, extending his free hand, and stroked the creature’s fur. He let out an incredulous laugh.

“Thank you for sharing your cave,” Candido said softly. “We’ll be leaving soon.”

I looked between Candido and the creature. A flicker of light went through the cave, rippling over its fur as it rolled to one side and turned around, returning to wherever it had come from.

“Where is it going?” I asked, feeling the cave shudder at every step.

“Home,” Candido said, his voice almost a whisper. “I don’t know how I… ever didn’t realize…”

Cillian chuckled. “Do you really know anything about your powers, Candido?”

“Only what I figured out on my own… There’s not much information about golden wolves on this side….” He turned around. His eyes were glowing like two suns in the cave.

Cillian clapped. “Well done. Estella was freaking out the first time she did it.”

Candido chuckled. “I can only bet…”

“That one was bigger and then proceeded to follow us all the way to the edge of Lunae,” Cillian shrugged.

I ground my teeth to keep from talking as Candido laughed. “She… always had a way with wildlife. Her parents complained about her bringing bunnies home when we were kids.”

Cillian snorted. “I can only imagine.”

“Are golden wolves always capable of manipulating the elements?

“Of course,” Cillian said. “It’s as close to the goddess as you can get.”

I shook my head. “That can’t be right.”

Cillian cocked an eyebrow. “And why do you think that?”

“I’m a golden wolf, and my powers are just enhanced strength.”

Cillian coughed in a way that made me think he wanted to laugh. “Ah, well, I’ll let you stew on that. Congrats, Candido, on getting another level of understanding under your belt. It might come in handy. Shall we get on our way?”

Candido looked back into the cave for a moment, then nodded. “Let’s go.”

I went to Candido. “You don’t believe him, right? I mean, that just seems so out there since, well, we’re mates. Either golden wolves don’t always mate with other golden wolves, or there’s really no way to know what powers someone gets….”

“I think it would be best to listen to people who have more knowledge and experience than you.”

“You can’t be serious,” I said. “He might have more knowledge, but he doesn’t know everything. The Goddess must have made an exception.”

Candido sighed and said nothing more. “With any luck, we’ll run into issues of a similar variety. It’s about a day’s walk from here to the old estate.”

“What about a run?” Cillian asked.

He glanced at me. “A few hours.”

“Then, what are we waiting for?”

“I thought we weren’t in a rush,” I said. I definitely didn’t want to run anymore, and I needed more time to get Candido to come around before we headed back to dealing with all of the war.

Candido put his gun on his back and opened the mirror. His eyes flickered with light.

“The path is clear,” he said. “It wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

I groaned. “You can’t keep changing your mind. First, we’re not in a rush to go back. Now, we are?”

Cillian laughed. “That’s the nature of war. Sometimes, the pace of it changes unexpectedly.”

Then, he took off into a jog. Candido followed at a steady run. I tried to keep up, but I was so tired. The forest didn’t move around us like before. I lost Cillian in the woods, but Candido stayed close enough that I didn’t lose him. I huffed and puffed. I was a little dizzy, but they didn’t slow down even as I started to slow down. Candido kept ahead of me, and I heard his voice in my head telling me that he’d leave me behind in the woods if I didn’t keep up.

I was so out of breath; I couldn’t even call out to him. All I could do was keep going. Soon, I was barely staggering between the trees, huffing and panting. When I collapsed, my heart lurched. Would he actually leave me here?

I sucked in a deep breath and forced myself to stand. He wouldn’t have left Estella. He would have already offered to carry her, no matter what he said about her being able to keep up.

Why wasn’t he doing the same for me?

I bent over, leaning against a tree as my eyes burned with tears. As I started to catch my breath, I heard Cillian and Candido’s voices nearby.

“… up ahead. We’re probably getting close enough. I’ve let him know.”

“Great.”

“… are you going to be okay?” Cillian asked.

I frowned and got to my feet. I staggered forward.

“When this is all over… I’ll be more than fine.”

Cillian hummed. “She has asked a great deal of us all… To think you would…”

Candido chuckled. “I’ve never been able to shirk what I feel like is my duty… I suppose that’s why she chose me.”

I stumbled through the underbrush and found them sitting by a stream, seemingly relaxing by the water. I looked at the two of them, trying to figure out what they could have been talking about, but neither of them said anything.

I collapsed onto a tree trunk, panting and trying to get my legs to stop shaking.

“We’re maybe another hour away,” Cillian said. “We’d have been closer if you could keep up.”

I looked up at him, glaring at him as he ate what looked like a sandwich. His eyes twinkled.

“Are you making fun of me?”

“Of course,” he chuckled. “When teaching a lesson, it’s important to remind a student when they’re wrong.”

I huffed. “We still could have taken a truck if we were just going to let the forest get us there faster.”

Candido stood. “Let’s get going.”