17 - Alone
“Three years after your mother’s escape, she returned,” Magnus continued her tragic story quietly, “The pack’s guard was down and she tried to get to you. Your father got to you in time but Adriana... she killed him,” he whispered, grief cracking his voice. “Again, she got away from the pack, and again she waited. It was another four years... she returned for you, but Albus was ready and he sent you and Irini into hiding under Marion and Daylight protection. Albus, as you know, went after your mother and she killed him. That’s when Lucien went after her.” Magnus looked up at Lucien and Caia followed his gaze. Lucien stared back at her, his jaw clenched, his fists tight, pain screaming across his eyes.
“It took me five years, Caia,” he croaked, “but I finally got the opportunity, and I killed her... to protect you, to protect the pack.”
She felt her head shaking back and forth as if trying to shake their words, the truth, right out of her ears. All the secrecy, the vague comments, the weird crap that she had been going through, all had been this, lies covering up the awful truth.
“So, I’m what... a magik?” Her voice sounded dead to her. “Am I a witch?”
Ella leaned forward. She could smell her, could see her hand reaching to clasp her own, but she couldn’t feel her touch. “Yes. You’ve been showing signs towards the approach of your majority. Your eighteenth birthday. That’s why Marion is here.”
“By the sounds of it,” Marion added, “You’re a water witch.”
She pulled out of Ella’s grasp to hug herself, to keep herself from falling apart. A water witch?
She felt like laughing hysterically, what does that even mean?
The table in the centre of the room began to shake as she watched it, and she felt everyone’s eyes fall on her worriedly.
“My mother killed my father. Tried to kill me?”
“Yes,” Lucien answered her softly. His strong hand reached for her, and she could hear him telling her to stay calm, but the words didn’t sink in.
“And you killed my mother?” The table started shaking uncontrollably now.
“She has a lot of raw power,” Marion murmured in surprise. Caia could hear her telling her she needed to stay calm. Was that her? Was she making the table do that? Of course, why not? She’d made Alexa fly, burst water pipes!
A wave of nausea swept through her entire body, and with her lykan reflexes she ran from the room, out onto the porch, where she leaned over the railings to vomit the horrific truth into the bushes below. She couldn’t seem to stop, until eventually all she had left were dry heaves. It wasn’t until she came up for air she realised someone was holding her hair back. Lucien. She sighed, feeling his warmth at her back. Too exhausted to be angry at him right now, she couldn’t help but lean back into his comforting heat. “I’m OK,” she whispered, feeling the tension in his body.
She felt his lips in her hair, and then his strong arm came around her waist and she was pulled tightly against him. He hushed her, and she suddenly realised she was crying. “It’s going to be OK,” he whispered soothingly.
Caia shook her head. “How?” She heard the weakness in her voice and hated it.
“I’m sorry,” she could hear the sorrow in his words, “I’m sorry that I killed her, but I had to.”
Angry now, Caia pulled from his arms and spun to face him, batting furiously at her tears. “I’m not,” she growled loudly, the sound of the wolf distorting her voice like she had never heard before. “I’m not sorry you killed her! She was a monster, Lucien!”
Of a sudden Marion appeared, her hand reaching to Caia beseechingly. “Caia, you have to calm down. Your power is based in your emotions, you must calm down.”
She shook her head. “My parents... in my head. They were the one thing...” She couldn’t finish, the pain... it seemed to hurt all over. Splinters of wood had started ripping up off the porch, one slicing her cheek. “And you didn’t tell me!”
“Caia.” Lucien tried to reach for her but the world suddenly got very loud. All she could hear was this monstrous, soul-wrenching sound filling her ears, as if the world was falling apart. A wooden floorboard began jerking up from the porch.
“Caia, you have to pull it together.” She saw Marion mouth. No she was shouting, she just couldn’t hear her voice. The woman stepped towards her, and she seemed to say something else, but Caia couldn’t lip read those words.
And then she didn’t care about not knowing. She didn’t care about anything as the world turned black.
18 - Unravelling
Lucien was lost in his own thoughts, his eyes gazing at the ceiling, worrying about Caia knocked out on her bed. Her reaction to the truth was the worst he could have feared; it had bled all her usual strength from her; obliterated the cool, tranquillity of her character that he had come to find so soothing. He was oblivious to the others and their conversation until Magnus had looked worriedly at Marion and asked, “Will she be alright?”
“Yes. It was a pretty powerful spell. She will be out for a while, but she’ll be fine.”
Lucien sighed heavily, his eyes sweeping his family. “I knew she would take it badly, but I wasn’t prepared for that reaction.”
To his annoyance Saffron snorted, shifting her weight on the arm of the chair she was perched upon. “Yeah.” She shook her head, her eyebrow raised sardonically. “Man, was that an overreaction. I mean, come on, it’s not as if she woke up one day in a dysfunctional pack of lykans - who as far as she was aware were keeping her from the inner circle of the pack like she wasn’t really one of them– and then they tell her that she’s only part wolfie because the rest of her is part evil witch, and oh, that’s cos’ her mommy and daddy didn’t die due to some weird hunter guy, but actually her mommy killed her daddy and then tried to kill her, too. Oh, and that whilst all of you were going about your daily lives, she was frightened to cry in case the house flooded... scared, not knowing what the hell was happening to her, when right next door her Pack Leader had all the answers for her. Not to mention the icing on the cake... being prophecy girl an’ all...”
He was proud of his own restraint; rather than lunging at her he merely curled his lip back and growled. He wasn’t the only one.
The faerie wasn’t intimidated one bit, just shrugged her elegant shoulder. “What?”
Ryder beat him to the punch. “Can you shut up for just one second, never mind a minute?”
“Why would I do that when you so obviously love the sound of my voice?”
“One day you’re going to turn into something real small, and I’m going to be there... to put a cup over you, and trap you... forever.”
“Look, don’t push your weird, sexual, ‘I dream of Jeannie’, fantasies onto me OK. I’m not interested.”
“Sexual f-,” he spluttered, his face growing dark red with anger.
Lucien raised an eyebrow. It really took a lot to get under Ryder’s skin but obviously this faerie had the knack.
“I despise you,” Ryder growled.
Saffron clutched her chest mockingly. “I’m wounded. Really. Ow. My heart is breaking.”
“Would you two quit it,” Lucien sighed. “We have things to sort out. Like another faerie in town.”
“Caia should know.” Magnus pierced him with a fierce stare.
“I don’t know about that.” Lucien shook his head. “I don’t think she can deal with it right now.”
“Try me,” her soft voice cut straight through him. He turned to see Caia leaning against the door frame – exhausted, but looking calmer. She refused to meet his gaze and he frowned, remembering to be confused by the fact that she had been cold towards him before she knew he had deceived her.
“How did you...” Marion squeaked. “How can you be awake?”
“Caia, maybe you should lie down.” His mother stood up and went to her, drawing her against her side protectively. He watched her eyes. She looked so wary of them. If only she knew how much they had all come to care for her.
“Marion. Please,” he shushed her, and turned his attention back to Caia. “Are you OK?”
“I’m calm, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“No. It isn’t.”
“Look, just explain to me what’s going on. I think I’ve been lied to enough for one lifetime.”
“Caia-” Ella began, her eyes full of apology, but Caia shook her off, pulling from her embrace and walking slowly, further into the room.
She looked directly at him, her green eyes so damn unreadable. “We should put this behind us and just get on with it. From the sounds of things there’s more to this story.”
“OK,” Dimitri spoke before Lucien could, “Then you should know that there is another faerie in town.”
She frowned in confusion, rubbing her forehead in tiredness. He wanted to reach for her and hold her close, but he knew she would only reject him. “What does this mean?”
“I felt another faerie’s trace here. It’s energy. It’s from the Midnight Coven,” Saffron explained.
“And?”
Lucien cleared his throat, “It can only mean that you’ve been found. We all have.”
He watched her grapple with his statement. “I... I’m confused. I thought that what happened... that woman,” she seemed to choke on the word, refusing to call her mother. “I thought...” She stopped, and her eyes widened. “Is Devlyn still after me?”
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 immediately tightened at the news. “My uncle? My moth- Adriana’s brother?”
“Yes. Ethan. Devlyn died so he’s the Head of the Coven now and a very powerful warlock.”
Caia seemed to comprehend. “So he’s after me,” she whispered. “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,” he found himself promising fiercely, desperately wanting to reach out and ease her worry.
She ignored him again, and again he felt it like a pierce to his heart, rubbing his chest as if she really had hit him.
“So this prophecy... what does it mean exactly?”
Magnus looked to the others and then back to her. “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 and she told Marion’s family about the prophecy. Gaia wants the war ended.”
“And I’m... supposed to be able to do that how?” Caia whispered, fear in her voice.
Marion shrugged. “Your mixed race must do something to your powers. I’ve already witnessed first-hand 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. For having a number of years on her identity, they were as clueless as she was.
She chuckled humourlessly. “Devlyn had no idea that 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 thinking about what your powers were. They want you gone because the prophecy didn’t say which side you would bring an end to the war on.”
Her mouth fell open in disbelief, her eyes wide with pain as she began to understand the significance of his statement. The table began to shake 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 softly, pride shining in his eyes; 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 whispered, and quite abruptly the smile left his face. “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 against that. He didn’t believe that of her. “Caia, no.”
“Not now, though,” she snapped at him, her eyes full of a betrayal that ripped at him. “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…” he growled, his anger boiling over.
“Stop. I don’t want to hear it,” her voice broke with exhaustion as she looked anywhere but at him.
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 Lucien and Marion. Lucien shrugged.
The witch sighed. “It’s what we assume.”
Saffron reiterated her sigh and stood up in agitation, “You all know the truth as well. If I was him I’d want you gone.”
“Thanks,” Ella snarled, “That’s very comforting.”
“I try.”
“Seriously,” Ryder muttered at 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?”
She turned red in the face. “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 in an attempt to ease the tension gripping his entire body. “Isn’t there something we can do? We have to know what his next step is going to be.”
Marion sighed. “Well, 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 up with a shake of her head, her mouth set in determination. “No. I think our best course of action right now is to get Caia trained.”
“Speaking of which.” Ella smiled nervously. “The school phoned about an incident between Caia and Alexa in a classroom, and Caia leaving the school grounds.”
Caia groaned. “What did you say?”
“Well, Alexa was smart enough to lie and say she had tripped which, well... the teacher didn’t seem to be buying it, but what else can she say?” Her smile was sheepish. “I lied and told them there had been a death in the family and that Caia was just very upset; that she would be out of school for a few days.”
Lucien nodded, glad he didn’t have to deal with inquisitive humans. Before he could say anything on the matter Ella asked, “Caia, why did you... magikally puff Alexa across the room? She wouldn’t say.”
It looked to him like Caia blanched, her gaze flicking to him nervously. “Uh-”
Well this is interesting.
“-I Uh...” she shook her head as she struggled to explain, and finally snapped her head back defiantly. “You know what? I’d rather not say, and given your own little penchant for secrets, I’m sure you don’t mind if I keep my own.”
Damn, that was annoying.
***
Caia received a phone call from Jaeden shortly after, begging Caia to forgive her for her own part in the deception. But it wasn’t Jaeden she was mad at, neither was it Sebastian or Magnus. Her anger was directed solely at Lucien and the other Elders. As everyone else in the pack had to do what they and Lucien advised, she realised how difficult it must have been for her friends. As she remembered past conversations with them she realised they had even hinted at the truth. Sebastian had almost said it to her on Saturday evening when he had been drunk, but Lucien had intervened at the moment of truth,
and then kissed her. Which brought her to the question of why he would do that, but then sleep with Alexa? She concluded that he was trying to a) distract her from Sebastian’s faux pas and b) butter her up and keep her on their side so that she wouldn’t fight against them with the Midnight Coven in the war.
“Do really believe Alexa?” Jaeden asked her softly.
Caia glanced once more at her door. She was paranoid that the pack would be keeping an ever careful eye on her now, to even go so far as to spy on her. An annoying thought suddenly occurred to her. “Saffron?” She asked, her gaze scouring the room. She heard nothing, and felt no one else’s energy.
“What?” Jaeden asked in confusion.
“Oh sorry, not you. And to answer your question, no, I’m not positive that Alexa was telling the truth. But if so, she’s a helluva liar and well... you know how cosy the two of them were in his shop and she’s been there every day of the week since.”
“Yeah but, Cy, Alexa is the mistress of lies and manipulation. She could cover the lie easily... I just don’t see Lucien sleeping with her.”
Caia heaved a massive sigh. “I don’t want to believe it either but I’m not exactly going to ask him about it. I’m not really in a talkative mood with the master of lies and manipulation. See, they’re perfect for each other.”
“I don’t believe her.”
Caia groaned and slumped back on her bed. “Well, it doesn’t matter at the moment. Right now I have uncontrolled powers and a prophecy to deal with. The part where my mother murdered my father is getting tucked to the back of my brain for now.”
“You’re compartmentalising the situation.”
“Is that what you call it?”
“Sure,” Jaeden said with a smile in her voice. “It’s what Sydney does in Alias all the time. Talk about dysfunctional families. Woof.”
“I thought you didn’t watch that much TV?”
“I don’t, but Alias isn’t just any old TV programme. It’s Alias.”
Moon Spell: Part One in the Tale of Lunarmorte Page 17
