Hunted (War of the Covens 1)

Lucien made a face. “Not exactly. The only reason a Midnight faerie would be here is because of your uncle.”

He let that statement sink in, studying her face as it tightened at the news. “My uncle? My moth—Adriana’s brother?”

“Yes. Ethan. Devlyn died, so Ethan’s the Head of the Coven now, and a very powerful warlock.”

“So he’s after me,” Caia murmured. “He wants to end this, even though the pack has clearly protected the secret. He still wants me gone.”

“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” Lucien found himself promising fiercely, desperately wanting to reach out to her.

She ignored him again, and again he felt the ache of her distance. He rubbed his chest as if she’d torn something from it.

“This prophecy … what does it mean?”

Magnus spoke, “We didn’t know anything about the prophecy because the prophet is from the Midnight Coven. We discovered it when we sent a faerie in as a spy around the time of your first birthday. She told Marion’s family about the prophecy. Gaia wants the war to end.”

“And I’m … supposed to be able to do that?” Caia whispered, fear in her voice.

Marion shrugged. “Your mixed race must do something to your powers. I’ve already witnessed firsthand how strong you are, and you haven’t even begun to harness them.”

“That still doesn’t explain how I’m supposed to bring an end to the war.”

They were silent. Because they were as clueless as she was.

She chuckled humorlessly. “Devlyn had no idea it would be his own actions that would bring me into creation.”

“No.” Dimitri shook his head. “But he and his family wanted you gone, not just because they think of you as an abomination, and not because they were even considering how powerful you’d be. They want you gone because the prophecy didn’t say which side would win when you ended the war.”

Her mouth fell open in disbelief as she began to understand the significance of his statement. The table shook again, and Lucien felt like cursing. They were putting too much on her too soon. He was about to say so when she fixed her eyes on the table and it stopped. She took a deep breath.

Lucien smiled, proud of her. She was learning to control it already.

“That’s why you didn’t tell me the truth from the very first day I got here,” she accused. “You’re afraid of me, afraid that … whatever is inside me might be evil. That I’ll help them win the war.”

Lucien felt everything inside him cry out. He didn’t believe that of her. “Caia, no.”

“Not now, though,” she snapped, her eyes full of a betrayal. “Not now, that you’ve kept a careful watch on me, spent time with me … like you were my friend.”

He sucked in his breath. She thought that was it. She was accusing him of pretending to feel something for her in order to spy on her. “Caia …” his wolf said her name, rising to the fore with his indignation.

“Stop. I don’t want to hear any more of your lies.”

Ryder cleared his throat, trying to ease the tension between the two of them. “Do you really think this guy wants the pack gone as well?” He directed his question at Marion.

The witch replied, “It’s what we assume.”

Saffron stood up in agitation. “You all know the truth. If I were him, I’d want you gone.”

“Thanks,” Ella snapped, “that’s very comforting.”

“I do try.”

“Seriously,” Ryder muttered to Ella. “Cup.”

“What was that?” Saffron asked sweetly, knowing full well what he’d said.

“I said, why don’t you do something useful for a change and try to find this other faerie?”

Her face turned puce. “I already told you I can’t. I can feel the energy, but I wouldn’t know who it was until they were in the same room as me.”

“Marion.” Lucien blew air out between his lips. “Isn’t there something we can do? We have to know what his next step is going to be.”

“Usually I would send Saffron in to spy on the coven, but since they don’t know anything about it, that would be pointless.”

“But Ethan obviously has someone working for him.”

“Yes. I imagine just a few that he trusts.” She stood with a shake of her head, her mouth set in determination. “No. I think our best course of action right now is to train Caia.”

“Speaking of which”—Ella smiled nervously—“the school called about an incident between Caia and Alexa in a classroom, and Caia leaving the school grounds during class time.”

Caia grimaced. “What did you tell them?”

“Alexa was smart enough to lie and tell them that she tripped, which, well, the teacher didn’t seem to buy, but what else can she say? I lied and told them there’d been a death in the family and that Caia was very upset, that she would be out of school for a few days.”