Huh?
She knew she must look stunned. Truthfully, the thought hadn’t even crossed her mind. Wow. It had worked against the lykans. “Oh, yeeaahh.”
Ryder looked confused. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.” Caia watched Jae. “I don’t want you to worry about it, though … I just think that at some point, it’s something we should look into.”
She stiffened, panic tightening her chest. “Look into how? By experimenting?”
Caia looked aghast at the suggestion. “Gaia, no! I thought maybe a blood test. We don’t know if your telekinesis is part of a transfer of magik from Ethan or if it’s an emotional parting gift from what happened to you. There are theories that severe emotional trauma can cause us to tap into parts of our brain we don’t normally use, thus giving us access to things like telekinesis.”
This conversation was making her uncomfortable. “Does it matter?”
“Not to me.” Caia smiled gently at her. “But if it’s magik, then somehow you’ve managed to discover a new kind that penetrates the biggest defense a lykan has. That’s important. And also … if it is magik, does that mean it’s genetic?”
Ryder relaxed into the sofa. “You mean, will our kids have it?”
Caia nodded.
Wow. Jaeden hadn’t even thought of that. Was this something her kids would get from her? And did that make her and any kids she had a threat, because she could hurt lykans in wolf form?
“Is this a problem, Caia?” she whispered, trying to tamp down the nervous butterflies waking up in her gut.
Caia stood, and as she did so, her power crackled around her. “No,” she replied firmly. “I came here to suggest that we keep it between us. Only Lucien and I, and now you guys, know about this. I think we should keep it that way. If after all this you want to know more about it, then we’ll look into it. But I think it’s safer all around if this never gets out, and that you refrain from using your telekinesis against lykans in wolf form.”
Relief washed through Jaeden and she gave her friend a grateful smile. “Thank you.”
Caia looked shy as she turned to walk back toward the door. “Don’t. I’d do anything for you, you know that.”
She was the second person in the last ten minutes to say something that sweet to her. A warm revelation settled over Jae. The pain caused by her father’s death would never disappear, but the loneliness was slowly melting away.
And all because she was lucky enough to have soul mates.
Her legs shook as Caia got down on her knees in the middle of the court. Like last time, all the Daylights sat upon the rows and rows of benches, the Council seated in the row before her. Unlike last time, her pack was in the crowd, and the Council wasn’t out to get her. Well, for the most part, she thought, ignoring Benedict De Jong’s displeased expression.
The time for the ceremony had come, and she had been warned, as had the pack and everyone else, that once she inherited the title of Head of the Coven, the impact of the trace would hurt. Trace magik, when inherited as it had been for Caia, was easier to manage; it was a gradual addition to her magik. For most, however, the trace was inherited by ceremony, and it could be painful. Thus the Center had been warned not to overreact if Caia displayed signs of discomfort. Her hand twitched. Just how much discomfort were they talking about? And would the pain last long?
The rite asking the gods to take back the trace was not being performed until the Hunter’s Moon, or Blood Moon as it was often called (Caia felt Blood Moon was more fitting considering she had to offer up some of her own during the rite), which was another four days away. Four days of excruciating pain didn’t sound like fun.
“Caia Ribeiro.” Alfred Doukas stood up. Like the rest of the Council he wore pale-blue ceremonial robes with the Fasces on their left breast. The Fasces was a bundle of rods tied together containing an ax in the middle with its blade projecting. In ancient Rome, it had been carried in front of the magistrates and symbolized authority. The Council couldn’t have been clearer about how they saw themselves within the coven.
“You kneel before us today in supplication to the gods, asking them to bequeath favor upon you and grant you the gifts only bestowed upon that of this coven’s leader.” At that the Council all stood as one and made their way around the bench to the platform. One by one, they lowered themselves to their knees, Alfred Doukas only marginally closer to her than the others. “We, the Council, kneel with you, and ask the gods to grant this favor.”