Ascended (War of the Covens 3)

Saffron had taken that moment to roll her eyes. “Oh, please, don’t give us that ‘everything happens for a reason’ crap.”

Their disrespect toward the Cassandrian made Caia uncomfortable, and she gritted her teeth, waiting for him to decide their insults weren’t worth it and just … poof! Leave them with no words of wisdom or plan.

But he didn’t do any of that. Instead he pinned Saffron with an implacable look and said in a voice that sent shivers down Caia’s spine, “You’re a child of the gods and you don’t believe in fate? If you don’t believe in fate, then what have we been doing for the last seven hundred years, Saffron?”

She grumbled under her breath and tossed her hair. “I believe in fate,” she finally said and then twitched a little before throwing herself into an armchair. “Sorry. I’m just very anxious and very tired.”

The Prophet nodded, dismissing Saffron’s childish outburst. And then he turned his attention back to Caia. “My dear, I already know what you wish to ask. You wish to ask me, if you were to become the Head of the Daylight Coven, as Head of both covens, could we ask the gods to take away the trace.”

Caia gaped at him. “Did Nikolai tell you?”

“No,” the Prophet and Nikolai replied in unison.

The Prophet tapped his fingers to his head, smiling kindly as he told her, “Visions, my dear. The gods see all and they communicate through me.”

Excitement buzzed through them in that moment, all three leaning in toward the old man. “So?” she asked. “Will they? Will they take it away?”

Disappointingly, the Prophet merely shrugged. “They’re still deliberating.”

“What do you mean they’re still deliberating? What’s there to deliberate?”

He let out a gust of laughter, leaving them all bemused, which was pretty much how the entire meeting had gone so far. “My dear girl, we are the gods’ only source of entertainment. They’ll drag this out a little.”

“And by a little, you mean?”

“A few days, a few weeks—”

“Not months.” Caia gasped. “Please don’t say months.”

“I don’t know. But as soon as I do, I will return with the answer.”

And then he was gone.

“Whoa.” Reuben shook his head. “That guy has had some serious work done. Last time I saw him, he was wheezing and banging around with a stick.”

Nikolai nodded. “He really let himself go during Devlyn’s reign. My Regency did a world of wonders for him.”

Caia stared at them like they were crazy. Sometimes they were so inappropriately blasé.

She’d been waiting for a couple of weeks now, slowly going mad as she wandered from room to room. She’d spent her time going for runs on the beach as a human during the day and as a wolf at night. Other than Reuben’s “helpful” training regimen every day, where he tried to get her to focus the unknown energy that made her so special—and they were getting there, slowly but surely—he and Nikolai weren’t much company. When Nikolai wasn’t complaining about furniture and accessories he was losing to Caia’s training (she was successfully turning items to ash by choice), he and Reuben could sit still for hours, staring at nothing and speaking to no one. It was creepy.

As for Saffron, the faerie came and went as she pleased, and Caia had never envied anyone more for their abilities than during those weeks cooped up in the beach cabin with only a vampyre and a magik for company. With no one to talk to, she found herself dwelling on the pack a lot. At night it was hard not to cry herself to sleep thinking about their loss.

For her, the biggest hurt was the loss of Dimitri. It wasn’t just that he’d looked out for her or cared for her; it was more how much his loss was hurting the people closest to her—Jaeden, to be exact. Her friend had already suffered through so much. Caia ached for her. And she ached wondering if she would ever have the pack back, admitting only to herself how lonely she was without them, lonely without Lucien to fall asleep with at night.

On top of that was her trace. It had been tingling all over the place, telling her the Midnights were reorganizing. Two magiks were out in front for leadership—Jack Straton, an Australian, and a Russian woman called Orina Beketov. Caia had been praying for Straton to make the grade since he wanted to find Nikolai first (a task she knew was impossible and would keep them occupied forever) before taking on the Daylights. Beketov wanted to begin where they’d left off, starting with a major attack against the New York Krôls, one of America’s largest vampyre covens.

The worst day for Caia came when the trace told her Orina had won the votes. She was the new Regent of the Midnight Coven, and the woman was as vicious as they came. Her plans for the attack were set in motion, ready to take off in one month’s time. Of course, Caia had wanted to go straight to the Center to let them know so they could prepare themselves and warn the Krôls.