“Caia.” Lucien tried to reach for her but the world suddenly grew 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 - Unraveling

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, and obliterated the cool, tranquility of her character that he had come to find so soothing. He was oblivious to the others and their conversation until Magnus 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 while 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 in the least. She 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.

“But how is she awake?” Marion cried, her hands flailing in frustration. “That is one of my very powerful sleeping spells.”

“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 Ethan’s the Head of the Coven now and a very powerful warlock.”

“So he’s after me,” Caia 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 humorlessly. “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, the accusation in her words slapping the smile right off his face. “You’re afraid of me, afraid that... whatever is inside me might be evil. That I’ll help them win the war.”

Everything inside Lucien cried 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, and 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.”