River Cast: Part Two in the Tale of Lunarmorte (19 page)

A moment of awkward
silence ensued.

Vanne cleared his throat
and glanced from her to the marble statue.“I didn’t mean to
disrupt... I like to come in here and gaze at her when things
feel...”

“
Overwhelming?”

He threw her a
self-deprecating smile. “Yes. Overwhelming. She has such a soothing
presence for a piece of a marble.”

Caia nodded. “I thought so
at first.”

“
Caia.” He
suddenly leaned in close, his strong hand gripping her upper arm
intently. She felt herself flinch back merely from the change in
his demeanour, which was usually so light-hearted, as if he didn’t
take any of this seriously.
Now
he was serious. “I think She would tell you the
one simple truth that we all like to pass off as
cliché.”

For some reason she found
herself leaning closer to him, desperate for any kind of guidance,
no matter the source.

“
She would
tell you that in the end we only have ourselves, no matter how many
friends, allies, or loved ones are in our lives. You have to trust
yourself before you can trust anyone else. Trust yourself, Caia. Do
what
you
think is
the right thing to do.”

“
And the
prophecy?”

“
Why don’t
you stop looking so far ahead? Stick with the now and see where
that takes you.”

***

Vanne was
right. Caia had already decided she needed to find the boy,
Vilhelm, so she could determine how he felt about Laila; maybe find
an ally in him and get him to help her free Laila. The last few
days that resolve had withered under paralysing self-doubt, but
surprisingly, and completely out of nowhere,
Vanne
had helped her.

Who saw that
coming?

“
Ooh,
Caia!”

She turned and pasted a
bright smile on her face as she entered the communication hall only
to be beset by a couple of her groupies. Desdemona and Ophelia were
nineteen year old twins who looked a little like her. They were
both small in stature with long blonde hair and green eyes, and had
decided that this made them all like sisters.

Eek.

Caia wanted to grimace at
their puppy dog enthusiasm but managed to control the urge. The
girls were Caia’s complete opposite, bubbly, outgoing, perhaps a
little annoying… but they were sweet. And they actually thought
they had something to learn from Caia, which was just
so...

“
Ooh, Caia!”
Desi repeated, rushing at her and throwing her arms around her,
causing all of her classmates to stop and stare. Once Caia was free
from her, Ophelia entrapped her in one of her own girlish
hugs.

“
I can’t
believe you’ve to come to one of our classes!”

It was true she had spent
all of her time in the advanced classes, such as natural
materialisation and water element lectures, but after spending the
last day and a half strolling through them all, trying not to make
it obvious she was looking for someone, she still hadn’t found
Vilhelm. It was then it had occurred to her at lunch yesterday,
when Ophelia had bemoaned her and her sister’s loser-like place in
the Centre’s posse system, Caia had only been in the beginners and
intermediate classes for communication spells. Apparently at the
Centre there was an advanced communication spell class and an
advanced specialist communication spell class. Desi and Ophelia
were advanced specialists, meaning that neither of them had shown
much aptitude in natural materialisation or glamour. They were
extremely adept at utilising their element, which for them was air,
and excellent at communication spells. They were what the Centre
called Travellers. Whilst most magiks used the communication spell
to journey quickly between places they were familiar with in order
to relay information, Travellers could journey anywhere for long
periods of time whether they had been there before or not. Caia
thought it was pretty damn neat, but other magiks were kind of
snobby. Because they couldn’t really do much of anything else they
were, well, outcasts.

Hence why they were so
eager to please Caia.

Caia shrugged, smiling.
“You know I’m in awe of you people.” She swept her arm around the
room, trying not to be embarrassed that she was the centre of
attention. She really should be used to it by now. “I just wanted
to stop by, thought you could introduce me to your
class?”

In truth, I
just wanted to stop by and see if there was a tall, cute
Scandinavian kid hanging around.

Desi laughed excitedly.
“Uh ye-uh!”

With that she found
herself doing the uncomfortable task of pretending to be the most
sociable person on the planet. But whilst investigating, it
suddenly occurred to her that dropping by had its added
upside.

Allies.

The
whispering that met her sensitive ears told her she had just become
the coolest kid on the block for these guys. No other VIP magik had
ever taken an interest in them before. That
she
had, for some reason gave them
hope that maybe things could change around the Centre. Maybe people
would open their minds and stop clinging to traditional
thought.

I couldn’t
agree more.

Moving on to another group
of magiks, Caia began to feel... good?

Yeah,
good.

She almost laughed out
loud at the thought. These guys were exactly the kind of people she
needed on her side: non-traditionalists who were prepared to
welcome a new outlook.

OK, so maybe they were
only referring to the inner workings of the Daylight Coven, but if
they weren’t completely satisfied with how things were running at
present, then who knew... maybe they would be the first to believe
the war with the Midnights was based on misinformation and
misunderstanding. She smiled brightly, genuinely, as she talked
with the Travellers, a small weight lifting from her
shoulders.

She could do
this.

She had to believe she
could do this.

“
And, Caia,
this is Vil.” Ophelia turned her around to face a tall magik. “He’s
my secret crush,” she giggly whispered in her ear.

Her heart began to pound
immediately as she took in the sight of the Scandinavian. His ice
blues eyes were nothing like their colour; instead they were soft
and shy, as was his smile as he reached out a nervous hand to shake
hers.

“
It’s an
honour.” He shrugged uncomfortably and quickly pulled back from her
clasped hand.

“
Vil?” Caia
breathed. “Is that short for Vilhelm?”

He nodded, blushing as
Ophelia sidled up to him to squeeze his arm affectionately.
“Vilhelm is the best Traveller here. We can all go places we’ve
never been before, but we can’t track a person or anything using
the communication spell. Vil can.” Her eyes glittered with
awe.

Caia’s mouth fell open a
little as her eyes washed over him, “Like trace?”

“
No, no,” he
was quick to refute, his eyes wandering around nervously, “I can’t
feel a person’s thoughts or energy… but if you tell me to go to
someone in particular, I get the impression of them from you and I
can travel to wherever they are.”

Was that
right
, Caia mused,
well that might just come in handy
.
“Impressive.”

“
I told you
he was like totally cool.”

A queasy, icy feeling
suddenly enveloped her as Desi and her sister chattered away; her
brain and all her senses battered by new information from Nikolai.
Jeez! She sucked in a huge gulp of air. She fought to catch her
breath. This was good news, she shook her head, good news. Or was
it? It kind of meant her time at the Centre was up.

Her eyes snapped up to
Vilhelm and the girls, who were staring at her
wide-eyed.

“
Caia, are
you OK?” Desi whispered.

She managed to nod,
throwing them a tremulous smile. “Just tired. It was nice meeting
you Vilhelm. Ladies, nice to see you again, but I’m going to go lie
down for a while.”

“
Do you need
anything-”

“
Can I get
you-”

“
No!” She
raised her hands in supplication. “Please. No. I’m just... gonna...
go.”

Outside of the
communication hall, Caia strode determinedly to the telecom system
mounted on the wall next to the elevator.

“
Centre
Reception, Chloe speaking.”

“
Chloe, it’s
Caia Ribeiro. I need to speak with Marita immediately.”

“
One second,
please.”

This gave her very little
time to rescue Laila. OK, she had to think fast, think fast, think
fast, think fast, think fast....

“
Miss
Ribeiro, Marita will see you. If you please make your way to the
Reception someone will be there to escort you up.”

That someone was
Marion.

“
What’s going
on?” She asked immediately, her pixie face creased in
concern.

“
I’ll explain
once we get there.”

“
Lucien and
Anders were with me when Marita called to say you had news. Lucien
is already up there waiting. I didn’t know what it was about so I
didn’t see the point of letting Anders in on it.”

“
This affects
Anders.”

“
The
MacLachlans then?”

“
The
MacLachlans.”

Marita and Vanne were
standing around the dining table in their suite, Lucien standing
off to the side, his dark face brooding and troubled. Caia had only
seen him during training sessions for the defence of the
MacLachlans and had skilfully avoided talking to him. Not that it
mattered since Rose was constantly attached to his side. In fact,
this was the first time she had seen him alone since Rose’s
arrival.

Avoiding his eyes, she
strode resolutely to stand at the head of the table, Marion’s
soothing presence right beside her.

“
What has
happened?” Marita frowned impatiently.

“
The attack
is off.”

A shocked silence
resonated around the room.

“
How?” Lucien
managed.

“
Nikolai must
have become aware of Du Bois’ plan. He’s rounded up Du Bois’ rebels
and given them immunity in exchange for their evidence against Du
Bois. Du Bois is now in prison and the attack has been
stopped.”

Marita moved forward, her
lips pinched together in anger and confusion. “And you can’t feel
any plans from any other Midnight for the go ahead on the
MacLachlans?”

Caia shook her head. “I’ve
been searching, but there is nothing. The attack is definitely not
going forward.”

Lucien shrugged now.
“Well, that’s good news.”

Marion seemed to agree.
“Indeed.”

“
Caia and I
will return to the pack tomorrow.” Lucien began striding towards
her, and at his declaration she couldn’t stop herself from raising
her eyes; they clashed with his. He seemed tired, angry,
frustrated, and concerned all at the same time. Surprised at his
words, she could only stand gaping at him with her jaw slightly
dropped. She thought he’d want to stay for Rose. His impatient
bristling, however, told her that Lucien was clearly missing the
pack and ready to get back to them as soon as he could.

The problem was that no
matter how much she might want to go back with him, she had a
little prison break she needed to orchestrate, and leaving before
that wasn’t really part of the plan.

***

“
Leave?”
Marita snapped. “I don’t think so.”

Lucien felt his hands curl
involuntarily into fists at her tone.

“
We came here
to do what were asked to do... now we’re leaving,” he said between
clenched teeth, watching in annoyance as the Head sauntered past
him with barely a glance and came to a stop before Caia. Her
usually frozen face had softened in a way he hadn’t seen before, as
her eyes washed over his mate imploringly.

“
Caia, you
can’t leave yet without considering a proposition I have for
you.”

“
Proposition?” This was asked by himself, as well as Marion
and Caia.

The witch nodded, never
taking that sharp gaze from Caia. “I wasn’t going to mention it
until after the defence of the MacLachlans, but since that’s not
happening... Anyway I wished to sit down and discuss the
possibility of you staying at the Centre.”

Caia narrowed her eyes.
“For what?”

Relief washed over Lucien.
It was good she was just as suspicious and unsure of the magik as
he was. He didn’t want her rushing into anything that might say...
take her away from the pack. And these days who knew what was going
on in her head. He hadn’t been able to get a hold of her for one
second to discuss, well anything. Caia was constantly bombarded by
magiks, lykans and vampyres alike, all eager to befriend her. Not
to mention the fact that she had been avoiding him. Something more
than just the Rose situation was plaguing Caia and the fact that
she wouldn’t talk to him, confide in him, trust him… killed him.
That she might be running to her precious pretty boy, Mordecai,
with all her troubles made him want to go for the jugular, but he
was holding back until he had hard evidence that his mate was
really slipping from his grasp.