“Shouldn’t you send more?” Caia practically whispered, concern crinkling her forehead.
He shook his head. “No. I don’t know what Ethan’s plans are. She refused to say anything more-”
“Refused?” she interrupted, noting his use of past tense.
He shrugged, obviously no longer bothered by what he had had to do now he understood the reality of the faerie’s crimes. “Marion’s spoken to the Daylight Coven. She’s not a useful POW if she’s not talking, so they told Saffron to take care of her.”
Her eyes widened and she gulped, glancing towards the hallway. After everything she had been through it took the fact that downstairs in the basement there was a dead faerie - an executed faerie – for her to fully comprehend what their war meant. She had a feeling that this was just the beginning.
“Anyway,” Lucien sounded weary now, “She wouldn’t tell us what he plans. So I’m staying here, and so is Magnus, to protect the pack. I’m afraid it will just have to be enough that I’m sending my strongest males out to find her.”
“It is,” Dimitri assured hoarsely.
“Right, we better get ready then-”
“I’m sorry to stop you all,” Marion interrupted again in that soothing voice. “But you all seemed to have missed a very pertinent fact. Understandable under the circumstances.”
Annoyed at the interruption, no one said anything. Caia tensed up, however, when Marion’s gaze rested on her once again.
“If you have learned anything in the last few days, you should remember that only a faerie can sense another faerie’s trace with the exception of the Head of the Coven it belongs to.”
“What are you getting at?” Dimitri snapped, his patience nonexistent.
“Caia sensed the faerie’s trace.”
A silence descended across the room as the weight of her meaning fell upon their shoulders.
“It’s not possible,” Caia whispered.
Marion nodded, a smile playing on her lips. “Not only sensed the faerie, but with a single touch, garnered much about that faerie including the conditions of Jaeden’s kidnapping.” She shrugged. “Adriana was the heir to the Midnight Coven and you are her daughter.”
“What does this mean?” Ella asked flabbergasted.
“It means we know how desperate Ethan is.” Marion strode further into the room. “He’s not the Head of the Midnight Coven, and the Coven has no clue. It also means that he has none of the powers which accompany it.”
“Such as?”
Caia wasn’t even sure who asked that. Her brain was overloading on information and a cold sweat was breaking out across the top of her skin.
“In time Caia should be able to trace every member of the Midnight Coven, no matter where they are.”
It was like a bomb that kept on exploding.
“Don’t you see?” Marion was getting excited now. “This is Gaia’s plan. The Midnights won’t be able to attack anyone without Caia knowing exactly when and where. The war will eventually come to an end once they know there is no hope of victory.”
Caia trembled at Marion’s announcement. “Wait. Wait.” She shook her head, terrified by the hope that seemed to be blooming in all of their eyes. “I don’t feel anything. I only sensed some trace. I can’t even tell you where Ethan is. If what you say is true I should be able to do that!”
Marion shook her head refusing to be wrong. “It’s something that will come with time, I don’t know how long. But you are the rightful Head of the Coven.”
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
She felt Lucien’s hand clasp her shoulder and in her weakness she took comfort from him.
Dimitri cleared his throat, “This is good news. But I need to move and get my daughter back.”
Caia was busy reeling, her gaze on the floor, as she heard him stride towards the hallway. “Caia?” She looked up at him as his eyes blazed back at her from the doorway. “If what Marion says is true... if these powers come to you... you’ll inform me right away of Ethan’s whereabouts?”
“Dimitri-” she wanted to protest. She didn’t want anyone’s hopes high because she didn’t believe for one second she was capable of the kind of power that Marion was hinting at. However, one look at those eyes, eyes that not too long ago had held strength and warmth and were now shattered by guilt and fear, Caia could only nod. “Of course.”
Knowing members of the pack were out searching for Jaeden and she could not made Caia feel useless. She had changed and run through the woods for hours in the hope that it would do something for her angry restlessness, but by the time she crawled through her bedroom window she was even angrier, felt even more useless. But most heavily weighing on her shoulders was the guilt. If she hadn’t returned to the pack none of this would have happened. Sighing, she peeled back her covers and slid in between her cool sheets. If only there was a way to get in contact with Ethan. To trade herself for Jaeden. Surely he would go for that. If what Marion said was true then Ethan needed her out of the picture in order to be the true Head of the Coven. She moaned and turned onto her side, gazing out into the woods. Could she sacrifice herself for the pack? An image of Jaeden in the cage sent pain shooting through her chest. The image was replaced with something that knocked the breath right out of her body.
Lucien. Dead. Trying to protect her.
Hell yeah, she could sacrifice herself for the pack.
“Jaeden, where are you?” She tried to see through the darkness. Wherever she was smelled of sewage, but underneath the stench was the smell of damp earth and... fear. “Jaeden!” she yelled now.
A flame suddenly lit up in front of her, illuminating a small part of the room - enough to show the corner of what looked to be a cage to her far right.
“Jae.” She stumbled towards it, but the flame went out, bringing her to a standstill in complete darkness again. “Jae?”
A whimper.
“Oh goddess,” Caia breathed, her panic easing somewhat at the sound of her friend’s nearness. Carefully, she lowered herself to the damp floor and started crawling on her hands and knees towards where she thought the cage was.
“Ow,” she whined, as her nose came up against cold bars, bringing stinging tears to her eyes. “Jaeden?” She couldn’t see anything but she could smell Jaeden, and the area in front of her was rife with fear.
Another whimper. Closer now. Much closer.
“It’s me. Caia.”
Suddenly another flame burst inside the cage illuminating Jaeden, who was curled up in a fetal position at the back of the cage, her back beginning to heal from long diagonal burns that scored her from shoulder to hip.
“Oh... Jaeden!” Caia cried, pulling at the bars in desperation. She scrambled around the cage looking for a way in, but there was no doors, no lock. She braced her feet against the bottom of the cage and pulled at the bars with every last drop of strength she had.
“Aaahhhhrrrrggggh!” She growled in frustration as the bars refused to give.
“Jaeden?” She heaved out of breath. “Jaeden, it’s Caia. Can you hear me?”
Her friend made no move, just continued to shudder and whimper, unaware of her presence.
“Jaeden!”
“Caia,” a voice called from behind her. She turned to look but there was only darkness. “Caia.”
“Caia, wake up.”
Slowly the dankness of the basement faded to nothing and she pushed her eyelids open with effort. Lucien stood looking down at her, his forehead creased with concern, his silver eyes sad.
“What?” She shook her head in confusion and pushed herself up against her headboard. Lucien was on her bed, his hands stroking her hair back.
“You were shouting in your sleep.”
I was? “I was?”
He nodded and sympathy melted into the sadness. “You were shouting for Jaeden.”
Her dream came back to her immediately and she scrambled excitedly for Lucien’s arm without thinking. “I dreamt of her.”
“What?”
“Jaeden.”
“What was the dream about?”
“I think I was where she was.”
“What was it like?”
Caia couldn’t help but smile softly in gratitude. He wasn’t even questioning the madness. He believed her. With that she sighed and went on to tell him of her visions.
22 - Revelations
“So, are you still pissed at Lucien? Cos’ it didn’t look that way this morning,” Sebastian asked quietly, almost tentatively, as they walked towards the main entrance of the school.
Caia sighed. Before her powers had suddenly shifted into gear she would have unobservantly answered Seb’s question. Unfortunately, now she could feel the jealousy rolling off of him and she winced. Their relationship had been so much easier when she hadn’t known he had feelings for her. She blanched at all the times she had playfully shrugged off his embraces. Could she be any more of a bitch?
“We’re OK,” she answered carefully, ignoring the smirks she was receiving from her human school mates. They were whispering about her alleged attack on Alexa. Well not so much ‘alleged’ as actual. She huffed. “I’m trying to forgive him for deceiving me. I know he only did it to protect you all.”
Sebastian nodded but wouldn’t meet her gaze.
Dammit. It was going to be difficult if he kept this up, and frankly he was the only friend she had right now. Mal and the others were suspiciously off to class when Sebastian, who had decided to drive Caia to school today despite her protesting that she had shiny new Ford, had pulled into the parking lot. They weren’t standing in their usual spot around Mal’s SUV waiting on them.
Caia had laughed. “What, are they scared of me or something?” She had indicated the abandoned SUV.
“Actually, yeah.” Sebastian had chuckled and taken her book bag from her like a true gentleman. She had let him. It was easier that way...and kind of nice.
As they approached Caia’s locker, Sebastian sighed. “So, no word yet from Dimitri and the others?”
More comfortable to be on safer ground she nodded. “Actually, yeah, but no good news. They’ve searched the eastern and southern boundaries but nothing. They’re going to cross state lines next. But Lucien seems happy with the speed of their progress in the search.”
“Yeah, they’ve accomplished quite a lot in a few days. They would have accomplished even more if they had let me in on the search.”
Caia touched his arm, drawing him to a stop. “Lucien wants you here, protecting the pack.”
That garnered a snort. “Yeah right. He thinks I’m a useless young male.” His golden eyes flashed. “I’m not useless. And...” he growled, not meeting her eyes. “She was my best friend, Cy.”
“Is. Not was,” she warned him.
He nodded, although his jaw clenched in anger. “Sure.”
The bell for first period rang and Caia impulsively pulled him into a hug. “I’ll see you at lunch,” she mumbled in his ear, and then immediately regretted the hug when his arms tightened around her. She felt his anger dissipate into comfort mixed with lust. Teenage boys, she huffed inwardly, even immediate danger and war doesn’t cool their libido. Pulling away from him gently she sent him her most platonic smile and wandered off to class.