Chapter 227

My jaw dropped as Cillian stood and rolled his shoulder.

“But I just sat down!” I said. “I haven’t even—"

He looked at me. “Are you turning back?”

I set my jaw and stood. “No! Stop asking that.”

“I’m going to ask it every time you complain about the pace,” Candido said. “Consider it a part of all that training you missed.”

I growled. “That’s not fair.”

“Life isn’t fair,” Candido said. “And I’m just now realizing how much I’ve sheltered you from that. Let’s go.”

He turned without another word and headed off. I looked at Cillian, who chuckled and shrugged.

“This is why you shouldn’t invite yourself along.”

He broke into a jog after Candido. My legs were so tired that I could barely stumble in the same direction. This time, Candido had vanished through the trees. Cillian remained closer, but as I started to slow down again, I lost sight of him.

I stumbled to a stop at the edge of a grassy area. I couldn’t move another step. I didn’t even care where Candido was. I didn’t care where Cillian was. I was just so tired. I collapsed to the ground, panting and barely getting enough air into my lungs to keep conscious. My stomach grumbled, and slowly, the world started to go black.

I felt the earth beneath me move. I felt like I was being carried through the forest on a wave of earth. When it stopped, I was lying face down at the edge of what looked like a courtyard. Cillian was standing several feet away.

Cillian crouched beside me.

“Next time,” he said. “Maybe you’ll remember this moment and decide to listen to people with more knowledge and experience.”

I looked up at him. “I don’t like you.”

He flashed his teeth, and his eyes flashed with lights. “Just the way I’ve made you feel, hm?”

I tried to push myself up onto my knees, but my whole body trembled with the effort. I dropped back to the ground, and Cillian turned away from me.

“I’d offer you a potion, but Estella brewed it, so…” He chuckled and shook his head. “I’m sure the woman the Goddess intended to stand at her Beloved’s side will be fine soon enough.”

I grit my teeth. My face heated.

“Why are you being so mean to me?”

“I thought I told you I wasn’t going to treat you like a child,” he said. “You want coddling? You want to be protected? You should have gone to the safe camp when he told you to… Maybe even just stayed where he told you to at any time.”

“Where is Candido,” I asked, trying to turn over as my body started to cool down. “I’m hungry…”

“Funny how you didn’t prepare yourself to tag along.”

“How was I supposed to know we weren’t going to be on a truck?”

“Candido told you we wouldn’t be.” He pulled something out of his pocket and unwrapped it. He started eating as my stomach growled. “You know… when I train new members of the army, a lot of them have the good sense to at least pack some basic rations: a vial of blood, dried fruit, or something. Then, there are these short-sighted idiots who show up to training thinking they’ll be released after an hour like they’re in school and end up face down in the dirt just like you.”

He finished eating.

“You could at least offer me some.”

He crouched over me. His eyes narrowed and filled with red light.

“Estella would have packed her own.” His lips curved down, and his expression turned cold. “Estella might have even packed enough for two… Estella would have offered you some, and you would have spat in her far you continue to do.”

My heart lurched. Did that mean he knew that Estella was dead? What I had done to her? I bit back the defense. I couldn’t know for sure what he knew, but I could tell that he knew something.

Cillian narrowed his eyes. “Nothing to say now? No screeching? No protests, hm?”

He chuckled and stood. “Probably for the best. You should save your strength.”

“It’s clear,” Candido said from further away.

I tried to get up again. I was so embarrassed and angry. When had Candido told him? Had Candido told him, or had he known even before we’d gone to Wolf Fang?

Candido came over, still scanning the area.

“The passageway is blocked off, but I can get it clear with a little time.” He looked up to the sky. “There’s a storm coming, so we should take shelter.”

Cillian nodded and headed out of my line of vision.

Candido crouched beside me. He stared at me for a few moments before reaching into his pocket. I looked at the vial he offered me, expecting it to be one of Estella’s potions, but it wasn’t.

It was an energy drink capsule. They tasted terrible, but they were fast-acting. I remembered trying one years ago when I’d taken it from Candido. It had been the first and last time we had ever shared any sort of drink.

I looked at it and then back to his face.

“I hate the way they taste.”

“I know.”

“Then, why are you giving it to me?”

“Because I’m not going to give you a potion.” He put it in my hand. “Drink it until we get back to camp, and you can manage to eat.”

“Why can’t you just carry me?” I asked. “That would be easier.”

He scoffed. “Easier for you. I believe I said you would make it there on your own feet or not at all.”

My jaw trembled, but there was no room for argument in his eyes.

“I don’t want to.”

“Don’t make me compel you.”

I gasped. He stared at me for a few more moments. My jaw trembled. Tears spilled down my cheeks.

“You’ve never treated me like this before,” I sniffled. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re not my ward any longer, Hedy,” Candido said.

My jaw dropped, and I looked at him.

“You’re not a minor. You’re not a child. You’re not an innocent bystander,” he said. “While you are still my subject… you and I both know that you have done things that, if you were anyone else, you would be banished if not executed.”

“I haven’t done—”

“Stop,” he said, his voice soft, but I still felt the command in his voice. I couldn’t speak. I blinked at him.

“If you aren’t going to at least acknowledge the truth, we have so little left to say to each other.” Candido stood. “I am trying to be as kind as I can be in these circumstances. Drink it and come inside before it starts raining.”

Then, he left, and I cried. Why wouldn’t he listen to me? Why couldn’t he see that everything I had done was for him? Candido would never banish me. He would never sentence me to execution. We were mates, and he promised to always protect me. I looked down at the drink in my hand. I wanted to throw it away, but as the clouds started to move in and I didn’t see Cillian or Candido, I didn’t have a choice.

I opened it and drank it.

My heart leaped at the taste.

Blueberry.

They’d never had this flavor before, and it tasted good. More importantly, it was sweet, and Candido didn’t tend to like sweet things.

He’d been carrying it around for me.

I looked at where he’d gone. Everything in me felt more hopeful.

Maybe… Maybe I was closer to getting him to come back to me and our love than I first thought. I struggled to my feet and felt it starting to kick in as I entered the ruins of the building.

Lightning ripped through the sky, and the light shot through the burned-out remains of the house. Something thumped up ahead, and I headed toward the sound.

Candido tossed another beam away from a cellar door.

Cillian was at his side clearing the area.

Soon, a large painting was revealed. I gasped as Candida and my mother stared down at me from within the frame. They were smiling.

Cillian let out a soft sigh. “The painter was very talented… she looks up to no good.”

Candido chuckled. “Despite how long it took for it to be done, I don’t think anyone could have done them more justice….”

Candido shook his head. “I just wish… I would have known more then.”

“You were too young to be caught up in it,” Cillian said. “If you must blame anyone, blame the original jackass who started all of this.”

“My ancestor,” he scoffed. “Yeah, I guess that’s only slightly better.”

Cillian stepped toward the painting and put his hand on the frame.

“We can’t be held responsible for the actions of our ancestors,” Cillian said as light rippled across the painting.