Finally Lucien had sent them all to bed, while he himself hadn’t been able to sleep, at all. And that was why he found himself alone in his kitchen at 5am, dressed and drinking coffee, his stomach rolling at the deed that was to be done as soon as Caia woke up.
At 6am he heard the sound of a car approaching, heavy feet on the porch steps, and the front door swinging open. Lucien trudged out to investigate.
There before him was Ryder, his face tight with anxiety, and next to him Marion. She was a small woman with flaming red hair that reached her buttocks. She had the largest pair of violet eyes Lucien had ever seen, and pixie features that gave away her heritage as a magik.
“That was fast,” he said in appreciation.
“It sounded urgent.” Ryder grimaced.
“It’s time.”
“Apparently so,” Marion’s voice was like a wind chime, a tinkling, musical sound so in contrast to a husky lykan’s. Lucien watched in bemusement as she looked around the home, wandering from room to room, and eventually falling into an armchair in the main sitting room. “I can feel her.”
Lucien was unsurprised by her comment, having expected that kind of power from her and from the little he knew of magiks. He turned back to Ryder. “Why were you already on your way back? Seb said you had some news.”
“That would be because of Saffron,” Marion replied instead.
“Saffron?” His face was scrunched in confusion. When no answer was forthcoming he turned to Ryder with a growl curling his lip. He wasn’t in the mood for a mystery. Sleep deprivation and his worry for Caia didn’t exactly bring out his sunny side.
Ryder sighed. “Saffron. She’s Marion’s faerie.”
“And?”
“She was the one who came for me to tell me about the rogue. Well, she waited until we got back to Marion to tell us she had felt energy in our town.” Ryder’s eyes snapped to Marion in irritation. Lucien could feel an argument brewing between them and managed to refrain from yelling at them to explain to him what was going on. Instead he said it slowly and quietly, with a growl coiled around the last few words, “Would someone please explain to me, in full detail, what the hell is going on?”
Marion’s eyes flashed. “There’s no need to be rude, Lucien.”
He growled again.
“Oh, alright.” She sighed. “Saffron, my faerie,” she now spoke slowly as if to a moron, “She came to get Ryder for me because we’d encountered another pesky rogue lykan, and when she came back with him – after some ill-treatment from your lykan there by the way -” she gestured to his friend with a look of reproof, “she told me that she had sensed the energy of another faerie in town.”
“Another faerie?” The blood drained from Lucien’s face. “As in an enemy faerie?”
Her face was grave now. “Well, the Daylight Coven would know if we had a faerie in town with you.”
“You’re sure this Saffron is right about this?”
“Of course I’m right!” A voice squeaked from behind him. He whirled around but could see no one. He looked at Ryder in confusion, but his friend merely rolled his eyes and shrugged.
“Where are you?” Lucien snarled.
“I’m right here,” the voice answered just as testily. His lykan ears strained, swearing the voice was coming from the window, but he couldn’t see anything.
“Marion,” he growled, warningly.
She sighed again. “Saffron, stop playing games. I’m afraid our young friend is in no mood for it.”
“The window!” The voice cried.
Lucien took tentative steps towards the large window in the sitting room, his eyes straining to see anything.
“Here!”
That time he caught a flicker on the pane and his eyes narrowed on the small face smirking at him. He should have known. The faeries’ face was in fact a spot of sun dapple filtering onto the window through the branches of the surrounding woods. “Goddess,” he muttered, amazed by their abilities and how treacherous they could really be as spies. Turning back to Marion he glared. “Make her appear.”
“They do like to show off, don’t they?” Marion chuckled and then turned to the window. “You heard him, Saffron.”
He heard a weary sigh, and in the matter of a few blinks a tall, willowy blonde stood before him, her hands on her hips, her ice-blue eyes glaring between him and Ryder. “Your kind needs to learn patience.”