Page 16 of Shadowed Bond

I pick up the pace and walk ahead before I say something that gives her the satisfaction of being right.

We pass what looks like a training ground, and rust covers the metal posts.

I hate it here; it’s as if the weight of Zidane’s sins still holds something over me.

I try not to think about the people who once lived here. The ones who followed him. The ones who feared him. The ones who couldn’t leave.

The ones he murdered.

Not my ghosts.

Not my guilt.

It was a long time ago… The horrors of this place have been recorded, and some – maybe the worst of it – hasn’t. But I’ve heard about the way he tortured Grandma… The things she survived…

Charlotte slows near the courtyard and crouches, pressing her gloved fingers lightly to the ground.

I stop beside her, grateful for the distraction. “Anything?”

“There’s water, but barely… Spotting a drain is probably our best bet. According to the maps, there’s a large manhole in the garden of the old Alpha mansion.”

I hold her gaze for a second. The Alpha mansion – do I really want to go there?

“Are you ok?” Charlotte asks, her voice softer than I want it to be.

“Don’t I look ok?” She opens her mouth, and I narrow my eyes. “Don’t answer that shit.”

“Fine, I won’t.”

Charlotte spreads her fingers as she begins walking beside me, her aura glowing around her fingertips as it spreads to the ground. She closes her eyes. Earth and water elements, I think... Yeah, that’s it.

Convenient.

It spreads to the falling rain as if forging a connection. Then her eyes snap open, glowing as she looks at me.

“We need to get under the pack grounds once we locate that manhole,” she says.

I glance at the ruined courtyard, then the broken packhouse beyond it. “Alright, let’s find this manhole.”

Charlotte turns her head slowly. “We could have waited until tomorrow…”

“No, Princess, you have a carriage to catch to your precious ball, remember? So the sooner this shit is over with, the better,” I drawl mockingly, even though the dark grounds could be seen as pretty ominous. “Besides, we’re fucking wolves; we thrive beneath the moon. Oh shit, you hold the sun in higher regard, right?”

“Westwood?”

“Yeah?”

“Please shut up.”

“I’m right though, init?”

“Please do not use ‘init’. It’s so… urgh.”

“Alright, forgive me for not speaking like a posh Londoner,” I mockingly imitate her accent. She opens her mouth, but this time I beat her to it. “Don’t tell me to shut it, Arden, or I’ll become even more annoying.”

“At least you admit you’re annoying,” she mutters.

We walk towards the mansion, Charlotte leading the way since she actually studied the maps Leo gave us. Well, good, she had to be useful for something.