CHAPTER 169: 169-THE DISTORTION

Clementine:

We were still looking around, trying to figure out what was happening. The carriage wasn’t shaking much, but it felt like riding in a car on a rough path. We just stared at each other in silence, fixated on the voice.

"The others are happy and the tips are rolling in, so what is your problem?" came the voice of a man. His mannerisms felt familiar, like we might have heard him before, but the distortion made it impossible to recognize.

"But they are only kids. What happened was really bashful," the woman hissed, her voice sharp now, like she wasn’t happy about something.

"No, they are not children, they are subjects, and let’s not forget they are troublemakers." The man used a loud tone this time.

"Still—," the woman’s voice was interrupted when the man started to speak up again.

"And what do you suggest we do, M—?"

Then the voice cut off. The carriage went back to normal. No shaking, no distortion, no flickering lights. Just silence. We sat there, staring at each other, waiting for the next disaster, but nothing else happened. Soon the train reached its destination. The doors opened, and we got up quickly, rushing out.

As we stepped out to breathe, the other crusaders who had come from their carriages looked at us strangely.

"Did you guys— did you guys feel it?" Troy asked Oriana. She frowned, hands on her waist, and only moved her eyes side to side like she was trying to figure out what he meant.

"Your carriage didn’t feel any disturbance?" Yorick asked. This time she shook her head.

"No. Why? Yours did?" she questioned.

Yorick glanced at Troy, then at all of us, scanning our faces. Ian stood with his head tilted, hands on his waist, eyes down. His eyebrows were furrowed, and he looked so deep in thought that I swore when he broke from it, he’d have the answer. That’s how serious he looked.

"What is it? You guys look like you’ve seen a ghost. Or maybe a monster," Joshua said as he walked toward us, hands on his waist, looking tall and broad. Not taller than my squadmates, obviously, but not short either.

"Nothing." Troy waved him off.

This was the first time the white squad had interacted with us normally since the time they saved me. Probably because they weren’t getting along too well themselves, so now they were acting more mature, realizing that when someone fucks you over, it hurts.

"Did you guys notice the timing was weird?" Joshua asked. That made us turn to him, giving him attention we hadn’t before.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Usually we arrive in ten minutes. This time it took half an hour," he muttered, pouting. His squadmates stood behind him with the map still open, though I noticed Suki wasn’t even looking at it. She was staring straight at Joshua, probably annoyed that he was talking to us.

"We didn’t notice that," I murmured, and my squadmates glanced at me too.

"Anyway, we examined the map. Looks like we’ll take the same roads as always until the big city. From there, there’s a café called Mushrooms, then we take a left, pass a cinema, then a right, and go straight until we see the tower. Obviously, there’ll be more twists and turns since we’ll be avoiding monsters, but that’s the route," Joshua explained, helping both our squad and the one behind us.

"Are we all going together to this tower? Would that be necessary?" Ian asked, and I didn’t understand why he said that. Wouldn’t it be better if we all stuck together? But I let him lead, since he was the one who’d be doing the carving.

"We’ll discuss it later. First, we need shelter for the night. There’s no way we can reach the tower today. The weather’s already bad," Joshua said, shrugging as he pointed at the sky. Dark clouds had covered everything, turning the earth into a black ball. I couldn’t even imagine how deadly the hailstorm here could be. The wind was so loud we could barely hear each other. So I guessed he was right. That day wasn’t the right time.

"Then we need to find shelter, right?" Yorick asked, and Joshua gave him a nod.

"We have that one place, remember? The big mansion, the safest one, the one we were kicked out of," Haiden muttered, glancing at us, then at the white squad as he grunted.

I guess alphas really don’t let go of grudges so easily, because Yorick and Troy started grunting and nodding too.

"Well, technically, we didn’t kick you two out. You wanted to leave to find your girl. Now, it’s not our fault you’re regretting it," Joshua said with a shrug. As my squadmates started to square up, he added, "And if you stayed here, we’d do it again. So how about we drop the grudges and just focus on this task?" He hissed the last part before turning and gesturing for his squadmates to keep walking before the hailstorm hit us.

"One of these days, I’ll fucking leave him in a monster’s mouth," Ian grunted.

As we walked through the woods, I noticed something odd about the North. Maybe it was the net tearing apart, but this time it just felt different. Was it because I was thinking about the last time I was here?

’Or maybe it is the touch of my mates and the other squadmates, ’Mint said, bringing up something I didn’t even want to repeat to myself. But she was right. That’s what was making me feel iffy.

Last time, all of them somehow got caught up in their feelings, their emotions, and couldn’t control their lust for me, the kind that had always been hidden deep inside. But what about me? Why did I allow Ian? Fine, Haiden and Yorick were my mates, and we had some kind of relationship in the past. Even if it was a love-hate mess, there was still something there. And there were moments when I found them extremely hot.

’Like that incident with Haiden in the cinema hall,’ As soon as Mint mentioned that, I grunted at her, shutting her up almost instantly.

’But what about–Troy?’ she pressed.

’It is obvious I used to have a crush on him, so maybe that explains it. But Ian? It couldn’t just be that I saw him and thought he was attractive. Did I really fantasize about him?’ I asked Mint.

When I looked up, I saw Ian walking ahead, but he had turned just slightly, and our eyes met for a few seconds. I looked away instantly. He smiled, almost in awe, then looked forward again.

This was the first time all the squadmates, all the crusaders, were walking together as one group, heading toward their mission.