River Cast: Part Two in the Tale of Lunarmorte (34 page)

And then…

“
That’s when
I first knew.” His voice had gone hoarse. “Caia,” he breathed
reverently, “I love you.”

Her heart rate picked up
as a sharp ache shot out of it and across her chest.

Love me? He
loves me?

A sense of unreality
descended over her and she felt incredibly lightheaded. It couldn’t
be true.

Lucien seemed to sense her
disbelief and he squeezed her even closer, his lips sending
goosebumps down her spine as he pressed them against her ear.
“Caia, I love you. Look at me.” He sighed when she made no move,
and then whipped her around to face him, gripping the top of her
arms and glaring sternly into her face as he shook her. “Do you
hear me? Say something.”

As she gazed,
stunned, up into his eyes she saw his fear. It was etched in every
one of his features and she could feel it in his painful
grip.
He loves me
. Like a much need thaw, those words melted her defences, and
tears streamed down her face of their own accord. Caia sank into
him, her arms wrapping around his waist and gripping him to her.
Relief poured through her. Lucien would never lie about this, she
was sure.
He loves me. He has always loved
me.
Pain receded.

“
I love you,
too,” she whispered against his chest.

Lucien trembled beneath
her touch and exhaled a sigh of relief, before bending his head,
pressing his lips to hers, tugging her feet from the floor so he
could devour her more comfortably. Caia sighed happily into his
mouth, relishing the taste of him, the burning heat he managed to
elicit from her in seconds. It wasn’t a soft kiss. It was hard and
deep and asked everything of her. His grip on her hair tightened
and he pulled back from the kiss to nip at her swollen lips, his
eyes narrowed slits, his face drawn and tight, “I thought you’d
never be mine,” he growled, and for once Caia gloried at his
possessiveness, excited by how out of control he seemed as his
mouth found hers again, his tongue forcing her lips apart to stroke
her own in deep, drugging kisses. Her whole body felt like it was
on fire and she shivered uncontrollably. At that, Lucien finally
seemed to calm, and he stopped kissing her mouth,
reluctantly.

“
Caia,” he
groaned, trailing hot kisses across her face and neck, his arms
still crushing her almost painfully, “Never leave me.”

She grinned so ecstatic,
feeling as if a war was finally over. “Never,” she promised,
curling her fingers in his thick hair.

They held each other for
what seemed forever, murmuring love words and promises in one
another’s ears, their relief palpable in the little bubble they
shared.

Lucien was hers. Finally
hers. And she wasn’t alone anymore.

***

“
Lucien.” Caia
pulled back reluctantly from his hug, his hard warm body the safest
place she had ever known. “I have a lot to tell you. To explain.
Some things you might not want to hear.”

As if sensing her fear, he
cupped her cheek in his hand. “You can trust me.”

“
I’m more
worried about you trusting me.”

“
Caia, I
trust you completely. I thought you knew that.”

She shrugged helplessly.
“I guess we’ve both been a little blind.”

“
Oh, just a
little,” he muttered sardonically.

“
OK.” She
took a deep breath, preparing herself. “I’m going to tell you
everything. No interruptions until I’m done.”

He grinned at her
authoritative tone. “Yes sir,”

“
Lucien.”

“
I’m kidding.
Please, continue.”

“
OK. OK.
OK-”

“
Caia.”

“
OK. Here
goes. The girl that escaped, the Midnight... I felt her trace when
we got here and didn’t like what I found. She was,
is
, one of the purest
souls I’ve ever encountered.”

He frowned. “What do you
mean?”

“
No
interruptions.”

“
Sorry.”

“
I mean,
she’s good. I mean that for the last few months I have been feeling
traces, Midnights, who aren’t bad people. A lot of them even feel
indifferent towards the war. And Laila, the girl, she... I won’t
tell you exactly what happened to her, that’s her business, but I
can tell you that the Midnights did a lot of bad things to her,
experiments, torture. She honestly sought refuge here, with
Daylights; with Vilhelm, the boy who brought her here.”

“
The guy that
broke her out?”

“
Yes. Only...
he had a lot of help. From me.”

Lucien jerked away from
her in shock. “You broke that girl out of prison?!”

Caia felt her heart begin
to thump uncertainly. “Oh man, if you think that’s a problem you
might not want to hear the rest.”

Although he looked
incredibly worried, he shook it off, pressing her to go
on.

“
OK, so Vil,
the guy, he’s a Traveller and I sent them to Ryder.”

“
What?!”

“
He’s the
only one I could trust. He doesn’t know that Laila’s a Midnight, he
just thinks I’m helping them. And he’s strong enough to take care
of them. Anyway.” She smiled tremulously. “There’s that. And also I
found out that Marita and Mordecai bugged my room. They were trying
to discover secrets. Something about Jaeden.”

His brow cleared with
dawning realisation. “That’s why you asked that question about her
abilities in the library.”

“
Yeah.” She
nodded, taking his hand in hers unconsciously. “They were talking
about Jaeden’s abilities, if I knew anything about them. I don’t. I
have no idea what they were talking about. Anyway, after that I was
suspicious about them both. Marita was definitely up to
something.”

“
You don’t
know what that is?”

Caia braced herself for
the worst part of her news. “The other day, the morning I woke up
after our battle with Du Bois, I saw Marita outside of the Altar of
Gaia. She was acting... strange. I was already suspicious of her so
I followed her inside. She disappeared under the floor.”

Lucien looked at her as if
she was speaking Chinese. “Huh?”

“
There’s a
trap door in the altar. One of the marble slabs is a door. There
are ladders that lead down into a basement.”

Dread settled over his
features and she knew he felt that something irrevocable was
coming. “What kind of basement?”

“
The kind
with laboratories.”

Emotion she hadn’t been
allowing herself to feel swept over her like an avalanche and she
found herself stumbling to find a seat as her eyes clouded with
tears. “I saw Marita inside one with a guy in a lab coat. There
were five lykan children in cages.”

“
Oh hell,”
she heard Lucien say gruffly and she felt the sofa dip as he
settled down beside her, his hand rubbing her back
soothingly.

“
I don’t know
what she’s doing.” She shook her head and turned to face him, his
skin ashen from the news. “Do you remember she asked me to stay and
help train an elite lykan unit?”

He nodded and slowly his
eyes widened. “You don’t think...?”

“
There’s a
possibility that she’s trying to create a super army by
experimenting on other supernaturals. There was another lab further
up the corridor but I couldn’t get to it. I had to leave before
Marita saw me.”

“
What the
hell are we going to do, Caia?”

She turned towards him
now, never so grateful for the use of ‘we’ in that question, her
hand gripping his knee as she spoke intently, “I had to lie and
tell her I would stay at the Centre; that I was going back to the
pack with you to say goodbye and then returning to her. I had to
lie, Lucien, because I think she would have done anything to keep
me here.”

His face darkened. “As in
threaten you? That’s against the law.”

“
I think we
can assume she doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the law.”

“
Right.”

“
Lucien...”

He squeezed her hand. “Say
it.”

“
The war is a
lie.”

A cold, uneasy silence
rippled out of him, before…“What?”

“
The war...
it doesn’t make sense. I can’t knowingly help kill magiks who are
innocent or just misguided. And I can’t help someone who professes
to hate a race of people for doing things that she’s so intent on
doing herself. This war is so twisted... the reasons for it don’t
even exist anymore.”

His grip tightened. “So
what are you saying?”

She searched his eyes and
took hold of the trust she found there. “I’m saying that I need
more power in order to begin peace negotiations with the Midnight
Coven.”

“
Caia...
peace negotiations? Are you sure that’s not a little
naive?”

Her gaze dropped to her
feet uncertainly and she shrugged, feeling like a little girl in
her mother’s high heels. “Maybe. But... if they knew that I’m the
Head of the Coven, that I can find them anywhere... a little fear
might go a long way to negotiating.”

Lucien nodded slowly. “OK,
true. But they might also just try to kill you.”

She frowned in annoyance.
“It’s all I’ve got. I won’t fight for a lie.”

His shoulders slumped when
he saw how determined she was. “So what’s the plan?”

“
Vil... the
Traveller.”

“
Yeah?”

“
When I was
in the library-”

“
I was
wondering what you were up to in there.” He tugged her
close.

“
Well, I was
researching a spell. But also the library has schedules for
everything as a public reference. Classes, ceremonies, holidays
and... the days on which the Council convene.”

“
The
Council?”

“
Yes. Did you
know that they have the authority to permit a challenger for the
position of Head of the Coven if they have evidence that the
current Head is not the best magik for the job?”

“
What are you
saying?”

She gulped. “I’m saying
that I’m the most powerful weapon they have, and Gaia put me here
for a reason. I’m saying that if they knew what Marita was up to...
Vil can to take me to the Council, and I’m going to challenge
Marita to the post. If they agree, a political campaign will begin
and the Coven will vote for their choice of candidate.”

“
Caia, if the
Council discover what Marita is up to there will be no election.”
Lucien shook his head. “They will kill Marita.”

“
No, no,
we’re better than that, than her.” She jerked her head. “I would
ask for them to keep her alive. She could keep the trace, work for
me, do for me what I’ve been doing for her.”

He snorted. “Yeah, I can
see that happening.”

“
She would
have to. It would be her only choice.”

Lucien ran a frustrated
hand through his hair as his silver eyes drank her in. He was quiet
for so long, and she knew he wasn’t as convinced as she was. Still,
he kissed her softly, and wrapping her in his arms he whispered in
her ear, “I’ll make the badges and banners, you can write the
speeches.”

Caia smiled slowly, relief
flooding her, and she pulled him in for a grateful kiss.

***

They somehow managed to
disentangle themselves from each other to make the difficult
decision to lie to Marion. When they found her waiting in the
Reception for them, her bright eyes wide with hope, Caia felt awful
duping her. She and Lucien walked with a deliberate distance
between them, fake frostiness preceding them to the waiting magik.
Caia winced, watching Marion slump in disappointment, glaring at
Lucien as if he were to blame.

Tactful as always,
however, she didn’t mention the state of their
relationship.

“
Ready then.”
She heaved an exasperated sigh, gesturing to the portal awaiting
them past the security.

Lucien surprised her by
pulling her into a hug. “Thanks for everything, Marion.”

Caia wanted to slap him;
he was going to give them away.

Sappy
idiot.

The witch giggled
unexpectedly at his affection and pushed him off. “I didn’t do
anything apparently,” she tut-tutted him and pushed him gently
towards the portal, missing the mischievous grin he threw over her
head at Caia.

Trying her hardest to
ignore him, a herculean task since the very thought of him made her
want to melt into a puddle, Caia hugged Marion and prayed to Gaia
that her friend would forgive her as she lied, “See you in a few
days.”

“
Hmm, yes you
will.” Marion shook her head at her as she pulled back. “Silly
girl.”

With a vague gesture, Caia
smiled wryly at her and headed towards Lucien, who waited by the
portal for her.

Wary of Marion’s eyes on
them Caia stuck her hand out to him as if it was the last thing she
wanted to do. He reached for it tentatively but gripped it
tight.