Hunted (War of the Covens 1)

She could feel him.

Her uncle.

Her disgusting, soulless uncle.

He never planned to let anyone go. He wanted them all here. This had been his original plan before everything had gone wrong. He wanted Lucien and the others to care about her, to care so much that they would give into their volatile natures and come crashing in like stupid, easy targets.

She dropped the shield protecting Lucien and Jaeden and raised her right hand, encasing Ethan in an invisible cage that circled around him with a power that traveled in golden light, before dissipating at completion.

Lucien’s sigh of relief met her ears.

“Caia,” he stumbled toward her just as Ethan also moved toward her, sneering at her display of power. He wasn’t sneering when he bounced back against the shield, disbelief on his face when he punched it and nothing happened. Satisfied but still wary, Caia kept Lucien behind her.

“So.” Ethan gazed incredulously around him. “you really do have some power.”

When he caught her eye and saw how carefully she watched him, he shrugged, pretending indifference. “It won’t hold for long.” And then he muttered something that sounded awfully like a spell.

Caia grabbed Lucien. “He planned all this. For us to come here like idiots, guns blazing, our emotions clouding us,” she hissed, feeling a riotous pain in her head. “I don’t know how long I can hold the shield. Get Jaeden—” She stopped abruptly, her heart slamming as she felt the tingling of another trace, their energy throbbing ten seconds away. “Lucien, get Jaeden quickly! There’s another one coming!”

He shook his head, his face twisted in anger. “I’m not leaving you.”

Caia swore. “You have to. That’s what he wants, for us to be stupid and emotional!”

“Caia—”

But it was too late. The trace she’d felt appeared in the kitchen in the form of a tall, rangy warlock. His wild eyes took in Ethan. “My lord …”

“Stop them, Lars!” Ethan cried, piercing one hand through Caia’s wall.

Caia looked back at Lucien in a panic. “Lucien, change!”

The bolt of white heat hit him before he had a chance to process her words and sent him soaring with incredible force straight through the pantry door, wood splintering everywhere as he collided with the floorboards.

“Lucien!” Her eyes burned with tears as he lay unconscious.

“Don’t worry, he’s not dead.” Ethan grunted as he punched another hand through the wall. “Yet.” He glared at Lars and pointed at Jaeden. “What are you waiting for? Kill the girl.”

“No,” Caia whispered, and she felt her own swell of white heat spring like a root from her tingling toes, up her calves, over her thighs. The kitchen window flew apart and a large lykan burst through and lunged straight for Lars’s jugular. His scream was cut off by the sickening spurt of blood that painted the ceiling above him.

Ryder. He mauled the magik to pieces.

Enraged, Ethan broke through her shield entirely, and one of his own shot up around her and himself, immediately blocking out Ryder. The lykan growled and snarled as he bounced against the wall of energy enclosing her with her uncle.

“Not well done at all, Caia,” Ethan tutted, shaking his head and prowling around her like a tiger taunting its prey. “I must say, I’m horrified to hear you feel a Midnight’s trace. That you could feel my plans for you …” He chuckled but without humor, his eyes soulless. “In fact, you’re my worst fear realized. I should make this quick.” He scratched his chin as if thinking, and then stopped, studying her body. “But I won’t.”

He snapped his fingers, never taking his eyes from her, and Lucien was suddenly behind him, his arms cuffed to chains that dangled him from the ceiling like meat on a hook. Ryder snapped viciously, his fur trembling with the frustration of not being able to get to his friend.

Ethan laughed at the horror on Caia’s face. “You know, my mother died in a similar situation.”

“You touch one hair on—”

“Oh please,” he scoffed, “enough with the threats, you pint-sized harpy.”

Caia wanted to cry. Lucien groaned, coming to, his silver eyes finding her, eliciting an involuntary noise of pain from her. She made a move toward him only to bang up against another of Ethan’s shields.

“Now, now, Caia,” he taunted. “Be good.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“What did I say about the threats? Hmm? And just so you know … you won’t kill me. Not even close. In fact, I’m going to kill all your little friends here.” He flicked his hand elegantly around the room and suddenly Jaeden’s and Lucien’s heads were snapped back by invisible hands. Jaeden cried out.

“Stop it,” Caia demanded, trying to hold on to her cool so her brain might function well enough to come up with a plan.

Ethan laughed. “Never. Once they’re gone, you and I are going to have a little showdown before I slaughter the rest of these mangy mutts. What is that death match you idiots have?”