Hunted (War of the Covens 1)

Caia smirked and began piling the plates to rinse them. She handed them to Jaeden and noted the lykan stacked them exactly as Ella liked them arranged in the dishwasher.

“So, how was that for you?” Jaeden asked. “I know you were pretty nervous about it earlier.”

“Honestly … and you promise you won’t tell?”

“Of course.”

Caia shrugged, embarrassed. “I’ve never had a better time.” She spoke so quietly, even Jaeden with her lykan hearing had to lean in.

“Aw, Cy.” She laughed and shoved at her playfully. “Did you have A Little House on the Prairie moment tonight?”

At that, Caia splashed water from the sink into Jaeden’s face. She sniggered as Caia glowered. “I am never telling you anything again.”

“You did.” Jaeden wouldn’t let up. “Aw, I think my heart hurts a little. Do you want us to stay so we can all say goodnight to each other like The Waltons too? ”

“Oh, you’ve done it now.”

What ensued was a water-bubble-dish soap fight that ended with the two of them slipping on the latter and landing hard on their butts, laughing hysterically.

“What the Hades …”

Giggling, and trying to catch their breaths after having chased each other around the kitchen, which now looked like the great flood had hit it, they glanced up at the kitchen doorway to see Lucien and Ella staring around in wonder. Magnus chuckled behind them.

“What have you done to my kitchen?” Ella squeaked.

“It’s totally her fault.” Jaeden laughed, flicking bubbles at Caia.

“What …” Caia’s mouth fell open in shock at the betrayal.

The sound of Lucien laughing brought their heads up. “If you were going to have a water fight, couldn’t you have told us? Some guys pay to watch that stuff, you know.”

“Lucien,” Ella admonished.

“What?” He grinned unrepentantly and then looked down at Caia. “Need a hand up?”

She shook her head, wincing at the pain from her butt where she’d landed on the hard floor. She laughed breathlessly. “I think I can manage.”

Jaeden smiled flirtatiously. “I might need a hand.”

“A hand? You need something, but it’s not a hand.” Caia groaned, getting to her feet. She hauled Jaeden up with her as she promised Ella, “We’ll clean it up.”

“Hmm.” She grunted, unamused, as she stalked out of the room.

Lucien and Magnus followed, and Caia heard Lucien say, “Leave ’em be. She’s just having some fun.”

Jaeden raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like Lucien’s got someone’s back.”

Caia frowned, looking around at the mess. “How did we do this?”

Jaeden snorted. “I don’t know, but we better clean it before Ella decides to end us.”

Sitting down at her desk, Caia smiled at Jaeden sprawled across her bed, now in dry clothing borrowed from Irini’s closet. Caia’s clothes were all a little too small.

“You think Ella will forgive us?”

The kitchen was now sparkling clean after a thorough tidy. Tired and a little afraid of Ella, Jaeden had followed Caia up to her bedroom rather than sit with the rest of the family.

“She already has, I hope.” Jaeden studied the calculus work Caia had left on the bed. “Dude, what is this?” She tilted her notebook up at her.

“Drywall,” Caia replied.

“Ha ha, funny.”

Caia smirked. “What is what? My notebook?”

“Uh, the stuff in the notebook. The genius solutions you’re apparently capable of.”

“What?” Caia knitted her brow in confusion and took the notebook Jaeden held out to her. Shock rocketed her eyebrows up her forehead. “What the Hades …”

Now in the once-blank space next to the problems she had been unable to solve was the solutions and answers. She had no idea if they were right. There was no way on Gaia’s green earth she would have been able to come up with that. It was gobbledygook to her.

“I have no idea how this got here.” She stared suspiciously at Jaeden. “Did you do this? Are you messing with me?”

“Jeez, no. I wouldn’t even know where to start with calculus. Or anything to do with math. Math hates me.”

“Irini, maybe? One of the others?”

Jaeden sat up and regarded Caia like she had gone a little crazy. “You’re saying you didn’t answer these?”

“No!” Caia stood abruptly. “This is just another in a long line of weird things that have happened to me this week.” She grimaced and stared hard out the window as if the forest would give her the answers. Images passed across her eyes—of water coming on of its own accord; of Alexa’s chair flying away from her without anyone having touched it.

What was going on here?

“What other weird things?”

Could she tell Jaeden? She felt like she could trust her, but she had only known her for a week, and telling her this stuff might damage their blossoming friendship.

“I, um …” Caia took a breath. No. This, she would have to keep to herself until she could work out what was going on. “Nothing. You know … I forgot the teacher did these as an example for me. I must really be exhausted, huh?”