Chapter 239

My heart raced. They had to be talking about me. But what could they want with me now?

The artifact…

I was the other artifact. He probably wanted to keep me away from Candido to stop Ian or something even worse. I didn’t even know who this guy was, but I guessed he had to be another prince. If he was anything like Marius, I didn’t want anything to do with him. I turned and rushed into the craggy rocks. I heard people panicking ahead.

“I don’t understand why they did nothing,” someone said. “Wasn’t that weird?”

“It has to be some type of vampire trick. L-Like hypnosis or something.”

“What do we do now?” A woman cried. “We don’t have a way to contact the king! We don’t have any weapons!”

I turned the corner and found the small group of them huddled together. All of them were covered in blood. They looked at me and glared at me.

“You’re supposed to be the next luna, right? Then, do something! Don’t you have a way to contact the king?”

I reached into my pocket to pull out the crystal mirror, but it flashed with red light and crumbled in my hand. I didn’t know what that meant, but I figured it had to be Estella’s doing. Even though she was dead, she was still making things so hard for me! That red light had to be here. All of this was her fault, but I… I wasn’t going to let her win. I wasn’t going to let her kill me the way I made sure she was killed.

I tried to reach out to Candido through our bond, but I felt nothing. I couldn’t feel anyone or anything.

Footsteps grew closer, and I scanned the area. A gust of wind, cold and musky drifted towards me. There was a cave nearby. It was really my only hope. I looked around, then I saw the opening of a cave.

I turned away and rushed towards the opening of the cave. I heard them following me, but I couldn’t focus on that. I had to run. I had to get away from the vampires and get to Candido somehow.

I knew I shouldn’t have stayed behind. As soon as I got to him, I was going to tell him all about this. For now, I just had to trust that he would make sure that I would get away through the caves.

Candido had to feel that I was in danger. Then, I remembered what Cillian said: golden wolves all have the same powers. That meant that I had to be able to control the caves the way Candido did. I rushed ahead, ready to prove the fact that we were mates. That I was his equal in ways that Estella never could be. I pushed past the others until reached the front of the group even as I felt dizzy from all the blood I’d lost.

I ran into the darkness and willed for it to shift and open for me. The cold wrapped around me as I ran. Then, pain slammed into me as I slammed into the wall and fell back. I groaned. My head spun. My whole body hurt as I looked up at the dark wall that had not moved. I looked back at the group that was coming up behind me, then back at the wall.

I hadn’t gone anywhere. The cave hadn’t moved me to safety.

What was going on?

“What the—Are you an idiot?”

I got to my knees and put my hands on the wall, feeling along it for some sign that it would move. It just felt like stone, completely solid, but I could feel the familiar air of the caves sweeping around me. I looked back at the sound of vampires getting closer. I heard more people dying and gunshots. There couldn’t have been more than ten or so people left. I didn’t see the man who had been bandaged among them, so at least I felt like he was out of the way.

The woman who asked if I was an idiot turned and lifted the gun she had. Before she could fire, her head exploded into a fountain of blood and flesh, splattering everyone around her. The others screamed. I could barely breathe. What was I supposed to do?

Where was Candido? Where was anyone to save me? If I died here, I’d never be with Candido the way I wanted to be.

“There’s an opening!” Someone said. It turned my head as I saw someone rushing away from me into the dark.

I got to my feet and followed. I wasn’t going to die here. I wasn’t going to let everything I’d worked for go to waste. I was going to marry Candido. I was going to be luna. Everything I wanted would be mine no matter how hard I had to run, or who I had to shove behind me to give me more of a chance.

I caught up with a woman and shoved into the wall as gunshots rang out. I heard her choke and stumble behind me. I pushed the next one behind me and the next until I could see light at the end of the cave as if it had another exit.

“Quickly!” Someone called from up ahead. Hurry! Hurry!”

I ran out of the darkness with a few other people. The vampires were just behind us, so we kept running. Slowly, the forest started to become more familiar. My heart lightened. We were in Full Moon, near the bunker where Candido had hidden all of my mother’s things.

“This way!” I said turning and rushing toward the clearing from before. The stone tablet was now a plain door. I tried not to think about it as I flung it open. There were no light and no locks. I didn’t plan to go down there. There was nothing down there for me. And it was likely that they would all be caught by the vampires, giving me more time to escape. And if not, at least they would be out of the way of the battle.

“Get in! Hurry!”

They clambered down, and I slammed the doors shut before I kept running.

I heard the sound of footsteps fading. The forest felt different. It didn’t shift or bend around me. If anything, it felt a little lifeless compared to the way it had been before. None of that mattered. Now that the camp had fallen, I had to get to Candido.

He asked me to stay behind to protect the camp, but if there was no camp to protect, there was no sense in staying away from him.

I climbed a rock, searching for some sense of direction. Nothing looked really close, but as I pulled out my phone, I tried to figure out where I was. There was no service, but I had an old map of the area on my phone.

If the vision I’d had about Candido on that cliff was right, I had to get there. That’s where the last battle would be.

I looked at the map, trying to remember where that town was, where that cliff was when a message came on the phone.

It was a map with directions to the cliff.

I headed away from where the Full Moon Estate had been and walked through the forest, following the map as best as I could. I wasn’t very good with directions. I had always been driven and even trying to get from Wolf Fang to the nearest highway when I was younger was pure luck in some ways.

“Good. I think we’re done here.”

I froze and turned. I recognized the voice.

“Poor sods, better this than the alternative, hm?”

It was Shiloh and Messiah. As I reached the area, I saw them shoving unmoving bodies around. Based on their clothes, they were all werewolves from our world.

“We’re done, Uncle Ian.”

I looked across the clearing and saw other werewolves from our world, helping drag people into piles. I stepped out as Ian cam into view. The odd glow around him seemed brighter and the glow of his eyes seemed meaner.

“Traitors!” I yelled at the werewolves who were helping them. “How could you be helping them? They’re the reason that the camp fell!”

Ian tilted his head. The werewolves looked at me and didn’t say anything. I marched over to one of them, but ran into a thick invisible wall.

“Let’s get going,” Ian said calmly.

“You said that you would help Candido!” I cried. “You said that you would help, and you’re killing people! You took all the weapons and sabotaged the camp! I know you—”

Shiloh laughed and Messiah pulled out another cigarette. “You’re certain that we can’t kill her, Uncle Ian?”

“Let’s go,” Ian said, not even responding to the question. “Shiloh go ahead to the next location. Take them with you.”