Ascended (War of the Covens 3)

“To end the war. I thought I was quite clear on that point.”

She held in a long-suffering sigh. “Yes, but how do you intend to do that?”

Reuben looked off into the distance, a smug smile in his eyes. “Marita has inadvertently made everything so much easier for us.”

Caia snorted in disbelief. “And how is that?”

“Our plan was to take care of the Septum and then get rid of Marita. That could have been a bloody mess, but Marita has betrayed herself to the Council. We just need to take her out, and then once she’s out of the picture, I’m sure it will be pretty easy to persuade the Council to our way of thinking.”

“Again, what way is that? What the Hades is the Septum? If you’re going to keep me in a cage like a gerbil, you can at least do me the courtesy of providing me with some straight answers.”

Reuben chuckled and relaxed once more into his armchair, shrugging elegantly. “What cage?”

A jolt ran through Caia at his amusement, and she closed her eyes in disbelief. It better be there when she opened them. Slowly, she craned her neck. No bars. Her gaze flew around her sides and back. No cage. And the bars that had been suspended in front of her disappeared as she turned around to look at Nikolai. She shook her head, laughing low and humorlessly. “For how long?”

“Since Nikolai gave me this chair.”

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll try to use magik?”

He shrugged, apparently his favorite gesture. “Wouldn’t you have done so by now?”

Goddess, he was such a smug bastard. She wanted to smack the expression off his face. “I want to know what the Septum is. It doesn’t mean I have any intention of working for you. I want to know what I’m dealing with.”

“That’s smart. Probably the first smart thing you’ve said or done so far.”

Breathe, Caia, breathe. He claims to be impervious to magik. He could be lying, but if he’s not and you blast him, Nikolai will blast you before you can blink, and then Reuben will finish you off.

His eyes wandered over her face. “You think before you act. At least that’s something.”

“Screw you.”

“Very mature.”

“Oh, and your pointed insults are the height of sophisticated adulthood.”

His lips quirked at the corner. Goddess, she hated this guy.

“I’m just pointing out that you haven’t shown a propensity for logic in your previous dealings.”

Don’t let him bait you. Ignore him. Count sheep or something.

Oh, the hell with it! Counting sheep was for insomniacs. “And what the Hades do you know about it, huh?”

Well done, Caia, that’s showing him.

“You were planning on taking over the Daylight Coven with the hopes of beginning peace negotiations with the Midnights. Illogical, stupid, and naive.”

She bristled. “Maybe you’ve forgotten, but I’m the one with trace powers. I can sense Midnights emotions and motives, and I can assure you there are a lot of them out there who would welcome my plan to end the war.”

“Yes, but there are also many who won’t. That’s why we need to deal with the Septum first.”

Arrrgghhh!

“What is the Septum?” she seethed between clenched teeth.

“Not what. Who.” Nikolai stepped forward, seeming to understand Reuben was losing her.

Caia blinked. “Who?”

Nikolai settled on the arm of Reuben’s chair. “The Septum is comprised of the seven direct descendants of the Daylight and Midnight Coven.” He flicked his wrist, and a scroll of paper appeared on the ground before her. It slowly unrolled. On it were seven names and their locations. “What you see before you is information that has taken us a long time to verify.”

Caia shook her head. “I don’t understand.” Were these the descendants of the magiks who bound themselves to Galen and Penelope, respectively?

“Yes,” Reuben confirmed.

Her eyes widened. She hadn’t realized she’d muttered the question out loud. She took hold of the paper, seeming to understand that something of great consequence was unfolding here. “So these are the direct descendants of the first seven. What makes them so important?”

Her mind whirred with possibilities, but she couldn’t even begin to imagine that her theory was correct.

Reuben smiled. “Caia, you’re smarter than that. I think you already know.”

Taking a huge gulp of air, she tried unsuccessfully to fold the paper without her fingers trembling. “You think … you think you can get rid of the trace somehow through these seven people?”

They grinned at her as if she were a pet who’d just performed brilliantly for them. Nikolai leaned forward, excitement bristling in his movement. “We don’t think … we know.”

“How?”

“Just before you were born, the Prophet came to me again.” Reuben straightened in his chair. “He told me that if we killed the seven direct descendants simultaneously—and it has to be simultaneously, by the same method as it has something to do with connecting their energies and the trace—then the trace will leave us. I’ve always believed the trace has kept the war alive when it should have ended centuries ago. For goddess’ sake, lykans and vampyres, for the most part, have lived in peace with the humans for nearly two thousand years. The Midnights have nothing to complain about anymore … they’re just trapped with one another because of the trace and the prejudice of the powerful magiks who control it.”