Hunted (War of the Covens 1)

“Well?” Ella trembled.

Dimitri bowed his head, his breathing erratic as if he were drowning. Lucien ran his hand through his hair in that familiar gesture of frustration. “She’s alive.”

They all let out a collective breath of relief.

“But?” Caia asked, bracing herself. Jaeden may be alive, but there was a reason Dimitri looked like a grieving father.

“They’ve had Jaeden for weeks.”

An unexpected growl erupted from Magnus, and Ella squeezed his hand tightly, trying to rein in his furious shock.

Caia was angry, too, but at the moment, confusion won out. “How? I … I sensed something different in Jaeden’s trace today, so I assumed that …” Her voice cracked. “I assumed she’d been taken recently.”

Dimitri glowered at her. “What do you mean you sensed something different?”

She stumbled back under the force of his ire. “I just thought something was off … but—”

“You knew!” he yelled and moved toward her. Lucien jumped in between them, his teeth bared. A low, menacing growl erupted from deep in his chest. Caia’s heart raced frantically.

“It was the transition,” Marion’s mellow voice broke the tension. They all turned to her as she walked calmly into the room. “With Caia’s powers under control, her senses have opened up. She would not have sensed the unfamiliar trace on Jaeden until afterward. And as far as I’m aware, this was their first meeting since Caia became aware of her heritage and started training with me.”

Dimitri seemed to relax, and Lucien followed suit. He moved to stand beside Caia, though, proclaiming his position as her protector. For once she was glad of his nearness.

“How long has Jaeden been gone?” Ella asked.

Lucien grimaced. “According to that thing downstairs, she was kidnapped and replaced two weeks after Caia’s return.”

Oh my—Caia’s head swam with the news, and she grabbed her stomach, nauseated. She’d only known Jaeden—the real Jaeden—for two weeks. Her best friend was some scheming faerie bitch from Hades! Oh, Jaeden, she whimpered inwardly as images of her friend in a cage burned behind her eyelids.

Magnus stood from the kitchen table. “We need to start a search. Did she tell you anything?”

Lucien nodded, pain flitting across his face. “She gave Jaeden to Ethan. She wouldn’t give us a location, but she hinted he wasn’t far away. Obviously, Dimitri and Christian will be in on the search, and I’ll send Ryder and Aidan with them.”

“Shouldn’t you send more than that?” Caia asked.

He shook his head. “No. I don’t know Ethan’s plans. She refused to say anything—”

“Refused?” she interrupted, noticing his use of the past tense.

He shrugged, obviously no longer bothered by what he’d had to do now that he understood the reality of the faerie’s crimes. “Marion’s spoken to the Daylight Coven. She’s not a useful POW if she’s not talking, so they told Saffron to take care of her.”

Caia swallowed hard, glancing toward the hallway. After everything she’d been through, it took the fact that a dead faerie lay in the basement—an executed faerie—for her to comprehend fully what their war meant.

She had a feeling this was just the beginning.

“Anyway,” Lucien sounded weary now, “she wouldn’t tell us what he plans. So I’m staying here, and so is Magnus, to protect the pack. I’m afraid it will just have to be enough that I’m sending my strongest males out to find Jaeden.”

“It is,” Dimitri said hoarsely.

“Right. We better get ready, then—”

“I’m sorry to stop you all,” Marion interrupted again. “But you seem to have missed a very pertinent fact. Understandable given the circumstances.”

No one said anything. Caia tensed, however, when Marion’s gaze rested on her once again.

“If you have learned anything in the last few days, you should remember that only a faerie can sense another faerie’s trace, with the exception of the Head of the Coven it belongs to.”

“What are you getting at?” Dimitri snapped, his patience gone.

“Caia sensed the faerie’s trace.”

A silence descended over the room as the weight of her meaning fell upon their shoulders.

“It’s not possible,” Caia whispered.

A smile played on Marion’s lips. “Not only sensed the faerie but with a single touch, garnered much about that faerie, including the conditions of Jaeden’s kidnapping. Adriana was heir to the Midnight Coven, and you are her daughter.”

“What does this mean?” Ella asked.

“It means we know how desperate Ethan is.” Marion strode farther into the room. “He’s not the Head of the Midnight Coven, and the coven doesn’t even realize it. It also means that he has none of the powers that accompany it.”

“Such as?”

Caia wasn’t even sure who asked that. Her brain overloaded, her heart sped out of control.

“In time, Caia should be able to trace every member of the Midnight Coven, no matter where they are.”

It was like a bomb that kept on exploding.

“Don’t you see?” Marion was getting excited now. “This is Gaia’s plan. The Midnights won’t be able to attack anyone without Caia knowing exactly when and where. The war will eventually come to an end once they know there is no hope of victory.”