Hunted (War of the Covens 1)

“Caia,” she announced, “you should have had these before we placed you into hiding. But everything was done in such a rush… anyway, you should have them now.”

Caia took photographs from Ella’s hand. She gasped, gazing at the first one. It was of a toddler standing in between a man’s knees as he bent down to cuddle her close. They had matching green eyes.

“Is this my father and me?”

“Yes.”

Goddess, her dad had been just as gorgeous as the rest of them. She snorted as she looked at herself. Even as a toddler, she looked scrawny and weird, her head just a mass of blond curls and her eyes too large for her face.

There were two other photographs: one of her father by himself, staring into the camera with a weary sadness in his eyes; the last of them together again, joined by a younger Magnus. Magnus had her on his shoulders and her father was trailing behind, seeming to protest at her being up so high. His eyes were happier with her, his love palpable even in these old photos.

Caia felt a searing stab of loss in her chest. She blinked against the run of burning emotion and a tear escaped, splashing onto the photograph.

“What the hell?” Ella jumped from her seat.

Startled, Caia watched Ella rush to the kitchen tap. Water gushed out of it, hitting the sink with such force it was spraying up onto the counters. She hurried to switch it off, muttering under her breath. As she mopped up the water off the counters, she looked over her shoulder at Caia. “Sorry about that. I’ll have Lucien take a look at the pipes. You okay? The photos, I mean?”

Caia brushed the tears from her cheeks even as she smiled. “I’m good. This means a lot,” she gestured with the photos. “Ella?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you have photos of me with my mom?”

Ella’s expression turned guarded. “Uh, well I—”

“Hey, party people!” Jaeden bounced through the doorway.

“Hi, honey.” Ella seemed almost relieved by her appearance. “Nice timing. I’ve got errands to run.” She strode toward the kitchen door, brushing an affectionate hand down Jaeden’s cheek. “Look after her.”

She was gone before Caia could ask about her mom again.

Jaeden chatted nonstop in the car on the way to school. Upon learning Ryder had made an appearance at dinner the night before, she was full of questions.

“And you spoke to him?” she asked in awe.

“No, we had a conversation through the power of thought,” Caia answered wryly.

“You know what I mean.”

“The guy is really not that intimidating. Not compared to Lucien.”

“Pfft. Ryder makes Lucien look like a border collie.”

Caia didn’t believe that for a second. “He really is cool, Jaeden. You should try talking to him. Mention movies.”

The girl shook her head in disbelief. “Here for two days and you already managed to speak more words to that guy than I have in a lifetime.”

Caia studied her, concerned she may have upset her new friend. Pop culture had educated her well enough to know girlfriends could get weird about guys. Plus, Jaeden had warned her off Ryder. Even if she’d be light-hearted about it, Caia could tell Jae was crushing really hard on the Rogue Hunter. She didn’t want a male coming between them.

To her relief, Jaeden shot her a cocky grin. “Movies, huh?”

“Movies.”

“I’ll give it a shot.”

“Class, this is our new student, Caia Ribeiro,” the overly enthusiastic English teacher singsonged. “Why don’t you take a seat, Caia?”

She wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. There were several seats available in the classroom, but the problem was one of the vacancies was beside Alexa. Everyone had seen them sitting together in the cafeteria yesterday, so if Caia didn’t sit with her now, it would look like she was snubbing her.

Enter the real problem: Alexa’s obvious dislike of Caia.

Crap, she thought, as she teased her lip between her teeth as she walked to the seat. This was why she’d been a loner at her old school; to avoid situations like these.

She gave Alexa a small smile. The dark beauty practically snarled at her.

Pretending not to notice, Caia slid into the chair, fully aware she had the attention of the class. It seemed like forever before the teacher finally started doing her job, and the class was once again preoccupied.

“You don’t mind, do you?” Caia murmured under her breath, aware that Alexa could hear her with her sensitive lykan ears. “About the seat?”

“You can sit wherever you want. It’s a free country.”

Well isn’t she a bundle of warm fuzzes.

Caia let it go, listening to the English teacher while she handed out copies of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense as part of the American Literature curriculum. Lit class was her favorite subject, and she had sort of been hoping the class would be interesting enough to take her mind off the she-devil sitting to her left, but she’d already read this book at her last school.