Chapter 229

We walked back to the stone doorway in silence. I honestly didn’t know what else I could say, but the thought of going back to the safe camp or Lunae made me depressed. When surrounded by all those people, there was no way I could get him to stay with me long enough to get him to come around.

Of course, I was a bit upset that he didn’t seem excited about having the reception in the ballroom of the new estate. Just having one would be great. We really could have our whole ceremony there. I could see it now.

We walked through the darkness until the air turned dryer, and we came out into the forest. I almost groaned at the thought of walking anymore, but then I heard voices nearby.

Then, I saw Peter loading something onto a truck that I didn’t recognize. He’d lost his cloak and was dressed in a tank top and jeans. He was a bit sweaty, like he’d been working for hours.

My eyes skimmed over the gleaming sweat on his arms before I turned away as Candido walked past me to reach him.

“Thank you,” Candido said. “Everything go over well?”

Peter glowered at him. “I’m in jeans, and I hate it, but everything else is fine.”

Raven’s voice cut through, laughing as she appeared and floated down.

“They suit you,” she said, grinning at him. “Really regal and all.”

Peter flushed. “Your Highness, please don’t tease me.”

Raven laughed and pat him on the shoulder. “I’m pretty sure this is better than ruining your nice clothes.”

He nodded. “Of course, it is. How is your injury?”

Raven went still for a moment before chuckling. She pressed a kiss to his cheek and leaped off the truck.

“I’m not so bad off that you need to worry, Peter. Where’s Cillian?” Her gaze drifted over me briefly. A look of pity washed over her face. Then she turned away.

“Over here,” Cillian said. “Peter, you too.”

Peter set the last box down and leaped down to follow Raven. Candido climbed up on the truck to take Peter’s place, and I found a place to sit down.

I watched them work for a little while before deciding that I would be better off getting some rest.

I left the area, ignoring the way people looked at me. Wren was seated with the rest of the members of Moon Shadow. Each of them glared at me as I passed. I glared back until I found an empty sleeping spot.

“Don’t even think about it,” Harper said, crossing the area and cutting me off. “You want rest? Set up your own cot.”

“I’m going to be—”

“Dead,” he growled, and his eyes flashed. “If you don’t move along.”

I glared at him. “You won’t be able to treat me like this for much longer.”

His lips curled into a cruel smile. “Murder in self-defense is excused….”

I glared at him. “I’ll remember that when you attack me again.”

He smiled. “You won’t have to.”

I turned from him and glared at the rest of the group. The young woman was leaning against Wren’s side as he rubbed her back and spoke softly.

I turned to look for another empty spot, but every other spot was taken until I found one near the edge of the camp. There were several empty cots in a row.

“Not yours,” a woman said, coming over.

“It’s empty.”

“It’s not yours,” she said, then pointed to a pile of cot pieces. “You want a cot. Put one together.”

“I’m going to be luna. I’m taking this cot.”

She tilted her head, and a flicker of light circled the cot, then every other assembled cots far as I could see. I turned and realized that she had put up some sort of barrier.

“How about that, Loser?” She walked away before I could say anything.

Candido came over, wiping his brow, and smiled at the woman. “Good to see you. I thought for sure you’d have stayed in Lunae.”

“I’m here as a favor,” she said and pulled a box out of her cloak. “This is for you.”

She nodded back to the line of cots. “Pick whichever you like.”

She turned back to look at me. “And tell her that unless she’s about to do some work for the camp, no one is doing any work for her.”

Candido pat her shoulder. “Thanks. Get some rest.”

Candido shook his head as she walked off and looked at me.

“I’m not putting my own cot together,” I said. “I’m going to be luna. That’s ridiculous. You didn’t have to put your cot together.”

He smiled. His eyes twinkled with amusement. “If you feel so strongly, why don’t you go find the members of Wolf Fang? They might have a cot for their Alpha Regent.”

I flinched at the phrase. All I could hear was him saying that Wolf Fang was my birthright again.

He walked around me and went to one of the cots. I tried another one and growled as I was repelled from the cot. I turned away from it and went to look for a blanket or something, but there weren’t any around.

Finally, Cillian, Peter, and Raven walked over. Raven snickered.

“Who pissed off Circe?”

“I can guess,” Peter said, pulling out a blanket from his cloak.

I turned back to Candido, but he was on the cot, on his back, already asleep. His shoes were still on as he lay across the cot. He looked like he’d barely managed to get fully on it before he was asleep.

Waves of light drifted and rippled over him.

“It must be hard arguing with a Goddess,” Raven said. Then, she walked past me to the pile of cot pieces. She gestured vaguely over the pile, and the pieces drifted up and snapped together. Three of them landed in a row, and the same barrier went up around them as had the rest of the cots. Other people started to come over and assemble cots. A woman set her cot beside Candido’s, and I stepped in the way.

“This is my spot.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “No cot, no spot. Move.”

She shoved me aside. I couldn’t believe her as I bumped into the barrier around Candido’s cot.

I growled and went to grab part of a cot and dragged it to the area. By then, there wasn’t enough space near Candido for my cot. I got as close as possible, but I dropped the pieces in a spot close enough to Candido that he would see me when he woke up. By then, I was just too tired to even think about putting together this stupid cot. I huffed and fell to the ground. The energy drink was wearing off, and before I realized it, I was fast asleep.

I walked through a house that looked more like a shack. It definitely wasn’t a place that Candido and I would live in. There were no windows in the place, just a low-burning candle. Maybe it was a cabin. I walked forward, and soon I saw a pallet on the floor. It looked like it could have been in bed. Lying in the bed was Candido and a version of myself. Candido looked pale. His golden hair had turned dark and was streaked through with gray hair. He was wrapped in bandages and barely breathing. I could see rolls of bandages nearby and a basic first-aid kit.

The me in the dream was curled up beside him, half draped over him in a nightgown that looked like it had once been one of his shirts. She slept peacefully. She looked happy. There were bandages wrapped around her wrists. She looked pale, but she smiled. There was no moon mark over Candido’s heart as he lay there sleeping.

Hope swelled in me. If Candido was right, then this had to be an answer to all my doubts about our future. Whatever the Moon Goddess took from me was worth it.

She was going to answer my prayer and give me Candido.

It was all I could have ever wanted. I wanted to cry. I wanted to reach out and pull Candido into this vision with me, but I couldn’t reach him. I couldn’t feel him in the darkness.

He was keeping me out again. I knew he was, but it didn’t matter.

I was on the right track to make sure that I got to be with Candido the way I was always meant to be.

I woke up to a blinding pain slamming into my head.

I sat up, grabbing my head and curling away from the pain.

“What kind of idiot are you?”

I looked up at the woman I didn’t recognize, looking down at me as she pulled her cot apart.

“You hit me!”

“You were sleeping on the ground in between several cots. No one even saw you there.”