Destined (War of the Covens 2)

“I’m okay.”

“Caia, you have to eat.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“At least have some coffee and a sandwich.”

“I don’t think I could keep it down.”

“I’m ordering you a sandwich.”

“Fair enough. Hope you can afford new upholstery in the truck.”

He grimaced. “Maybe just the coffee, then.”

As his eyes wandered the menu, his expression changed, a big wolfy grin spreading across his face. “I, on the other hand, am going to have a burger. A huge, juicy, meaty burger with a hunk of melting cheese, maybe some thick mayo, and—”

Caia felt herself turn green. “Stop, I beg of you.”

The portal to the Center was just over a five-hour drive away. They’d left at sunrise and would be there in a few hours’ time. The thought of meeting Marita and Vanne, of taking part in the war, was causing not only sickening nerves but trembling, cold shakes. The hairs on her arms stood on end and her teeth chittered.

The drive so far had been fraught with tension. The cab in Lucien’s truck seemed smaller somehow. She could hear and feel his every move, her eyes wandering to his strong hands and sinewy forearms every time he reached for something. Tingles shot through her whenever she caught a glimpse of his profile, or when he turned to smile at her, his hard silver eyes softening to smoke the way they only seemed to do around the people he really cared about. Momentarily, her nerves over the Center were forgotten, instead replaced with new nerves, sad, achy nerves over Lucien, over the stupid mistakes she’d made when she learned he’d been keeping things from her.

In the end, it’d turned out there were more important things in life than petty grievances. And her grievances had been petty in comparison to what had happened to Jaeden and Sebastian.

Hindsight sucked.

In fact, hindsight should be assassinated.

Lucien frowned over having been stopped in his meat salivation. “You sure you’re okay?”

She nodded mutely.

His eyes narrowed. “Last time I’m asking. I’m a guy, after all.”

Caia laughed. Olympus forbid anyone consider him sensitive or considerate. “Some coffee will be fine. I’m just a little nervous, that’s all.”

The waitress returned and Lucien gave her their order. When he was done, she offered him a huge come-get-me smile and then turned unexpectedly to Caia. “He your boyfriend?” she asked.

Her mouth fell open at the woman’s brazenness, and she looked over at Lucien to see him grinning, enjoying the interlude, waiting for Caia’s answer. He quirked an eyebrow at her as if to say, “See … I’m hot.”

She glared at him and turned back to the waitress. Caia smiled sweetly, checking her name tag. “Oh no. He’s all yours … Melissa, is it?”

Melissa grinned. “You’re not dating?”

“No. Never. Not gonna happen.” She turned that sweet smile back on Lucien whose smirk had been replaced with a glower. “I would have to be paid—”

“Okay, she gets the picture,” he snapped and turned to Melissa. “Can we just get our order, please?”

Melissa nodded. “What are you doing later?”

“Going to France.”

She giggled. “Yeah, right. Seriously, you want to, like, do something?”

“I’ll be in France.”

The waitress lost the grin, straightened up from the table, and gave him a dirty look. “If you don’t want to go out with me, just say so.”

As the girl flounced off, Caia chuckled. “You’re so getting a loogie in your coffee.”

“I don’t get it, I was telling the truth.” He looked adorably confused and irritated.

“She’s human. She doesn’t understand that there are portals to Europe in gym. I didn’t realize there were portals to anywhere, let alone Europe, in gyms until last week, and I’m a half-lykan, half-magik.”

“Not a label that trips off the tongue, huh?”

“Still working on a name for what I am.”

“How about a mykan?”

“Or a lykik?”

Lucien screwed up his face. “Stick with half-lykan, half-magik for now.”

She smiled, and for that moment, they were comfortable in each other’s company. She bit her lip, remembering the first time they’d taken a walk together in the woods behind their house, when Lucien told her about Pack Errante’s origins. It had been comfortable then too. If only it could be like that always.

Abruptly, the moment between them changed as Lucien’s eyes fell to her mouth. It was the same look he’d given her when he kissed her for the first time and when he had initiated the night they slept together.

Oh boy.

Her cheeks flushed.

And then Lucien seemed to come back to himself and coughed, shifting in his seat. “Where is that coffee?” he grumbled, his eyes not meeting hers.

Caia tried to hide her smile. Maybe Lucien wasn’t quite as unaffected by her as she’d thought. Maybe there was hope after all. Maybe—

What is that?

An icy tingle shot through her, and she stiffened in response. She was fully in control of her trace magik now. She tapped into it whenever she wanted, but if a Midnight magik was nearby, the trace alerted her to it. Glancing around, Caia tried not to show her panic. It didn’t mean the Midnight was here in the diner. The magik could be a few miles away.