Page 11

Chapter Seven

Nine years and four months ago…

The morning after Litha, Ena flitted around in a state of intense excitement.

She tended to her chores, helping Greya make breakfast for the two of them and Heran, collecting eggs from the chicken coop, and milking the goats in the barn, but her mind was fervently replaying the events of last night.

Had that all really happened? It seemed like a dream. She clearly couldn’t stop smiling like a fool because pretty soon, Greya noticed.

“Why do you look like that?” she asked.

Ena was busy washing laundry in a giant barrel behind the house while Greya hung the clean clothes up to dry on a line. The smell of the harsh lye and wood-ash soap filled Ena’s nose as she used a giant paddle to dreamily stir the soiled clothes around in the hot water.

“Huh?” Ena looked up, shaken from her reverie.

“You look all…dopey. And you’ve let the water get cold. What’s up?” Greya asked, gazing at her suspiciously.

Ena just shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant, and refocused on the washing. Reaching down into her Knowing, she sensed the heat of the sun that lingered in the air. It was a warm day, so she didn’t have to work very hard as she touched the side of the barrel and spoke.

{ Fervis }

She felt the water reheat instantly to the perfect temperature, just shy of scalding. Keeping her eyes firmly on the washing, she kept stirring, hoping Greya would drop it.

“Oh, Gaia, it’s that boy, isn’t it?” Greya said, her eyes going wide. “I knew when you wandered off from the celebration yesterday that something must’ve happened!”

Damn her. Greya was way too perceptive for her own good, even without using her Knowing.

“Fine, okay, yes,” Ena admitted sheepishly. “He found me down by the river last night and we ended up…talking.”

“And…?” Greya prompted, grinning from ear to ear.

“Swimming.”

“ You went swimming?” Greya asked incredulously.

“Yes…sort of.”

“Wow, you must really like this boy if he was able to convince you to get in the water,” Greya teased. “Are you gonna see him again?”

“He wants me to meet him again this afternoon.”

“That’s so cute! Little Ena, falling in love,” she said dreamily.

Using the paddle, Ena flung droplets of hot water towards Greya in retaliation.

“Hey!” Greya yelled, dodging the hot water, and laughing.

“Leave me alone,” Ena ordered, but couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of her too. “Besides, you’re one to talk. You’ve got Perse following you around like a lost puppy. Want to talk about that?”

“What? No, Perse and I are just friends,” Greya replied, shaking her head and refocusing on the clothes Ena had finished scrubbing.

“Mmhmm, sure,” Ena said skeptically.

“What are you talking about? He’s never shown any interest in me whatsoever. He didn’t even ask me to dance last night.”

“Greya, come on. He’s clearly obsessed with you and is just too shy to do anything. You should make a move.”

Greya rolled her eyes, but Ena could see the blush that crossed her face. “Gaia, fine, just go ahead and go already if you’re gonna give me a hard time. I’ll finish this washing on my own.”

“Seriously?” Ena asked. She’d love to stay and continue to convince Greya to work her shit out with Perse, but she was also really eager to go see Ty. When her sister nodded in the affirmative, she didn’t argue.

“Thanks, Greya! You’re the best!”

Dropping the paddle like it was hot, Ena rushed back inside to change and fix her hair. Ty had said to meet him at midday, and the sun was already past its highest point, so even if he wasn’t there yet, she figured she’d go hang out down by the river until he showed up.

She stripped off her water- and soap-soaked dress and pulled on a clean, light-brown linen dress with a dark-blue bodice on top.

She brushed out her hair as best she could and braided it down one shoulder before securing it with a piece of dark-blue ribbon.

She still looked sweaty and her hands smelled like lye, but it was the best she could do.

After slipping on her light leather shoes, she practically ran out of the house and then tried to look casual as she walked down the main path through the village and towards the river.

When she got to the beach, he was there already, sitting casually with his back leaning against a tree and using a whetstone to sharpen his surprisingly high-quality knife.

“Hey,” Ena said, hoping she’d be the one to startle him this time.

Looking up at her, definitely not startled, he smiled, and she felt a million butterflies gather in her stomach. “Hi,” he said.

Gaia, he was just as gorgeous as she remembered from last night.

Averting her eyes lest she start staring like a fool, she took a quick scan around the beach.

There were clearly remnants of a small campfire, along with an apple core, and what looked to be Ty’s discarded shoes by the riverside.

He clearly had been here for a while already.

“So, been waiting here for me all day, have you?” she asked, teasing.

“Well, it’s a beautiful spot and you’re…a really beautiful girl,” he said seriously.

Ena blushed. Damn, this boy was charming as fuck.

“So,” she started, changing the subject. “Did you have something in mind for this afternoon?”

Ty stood up and put his knife back in the sheath at his side. “I was hoping you could show me around a bit. The landscape here is…different from what I’m used to back home.”

“Sure, I could do that,” Ena replied, nodding at him.

For a brief moment, they locked eyes, and she remembered what it felt like being pressed up against him in the water last night.

Her face flushed all over again and she had to look away.

“Let’s go this way,” she said, gesturing upriver.

“The river becomes a gorge as you get closer to the foothills of the mountains, and there’s a path that leads through the forest and around to the top of a cliff. The view from up there is gorgeous.”

“Okay, that sounds great. Lead the way,” he said, gesturing for her to go first.

Following the bank of the river, they walked side by side, both of them stealing quick glances at the other.

Ena was not particularly short, being about average height compared to the other girls her age, but walking beside Ty, she was struck yet again by their height difference, and she all of a sudden felt very small.

They’d spent most of their time the night before face to face in the water together, so this was her first time really appreciating his height, and it was… attractive, to say the least.

The land began to slope up the farther they got from the village, and the river lowered gradually below them as the deep gorge formed. They moved in companionable silence for a while, but soon, Ena’s curiosity got the better of her.

“So, you’re here with your uncles, you said?”

“Yeah,” he replied, as if they hadn’t just been walking in silence for fifteen minutes. He was clearly a man of few words and Gaia, he was making her work for them.

“Where are they?” she asked.

“They’re negotiating a trade deal with the matriarch. My village is in need of medicinal potions for healing burns, broken bones, and the like.”

“Oh, great. Heran will give them a fair deal. She’s very generous,” Ena replied.

“Are you close with her?” he asked.

“Yes, very. She raised me and my sister Greya after our parents died. I’ve lived with her practically my whole life.”

Ty was quiet for a beat, as though he was debating what to say. “How did they die? Your parents.”

“It was a fever, or so I’m told. I was only two, so I don’t really remember it.”

“Don’t you witches have potions for fevers? The way you’re talked about in Yalta, you’re practically immortal.”

Ena laughed lightly at that. “No, unfortunately not. We do have many potions for many illnesses, but sometimes they are not ready in time to heal those who need healing, or sometimes the sickness is just too strong.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ty said in all seriousness. “Were they both witches too?”

“Yes, my mom was from Auster and my dad was from Aquilo, but they lived here.” She could have left it there, but there was something about Ty’s stillness, the way he listened intently, giving her the opportunity to say more, that made her keep speaking.

“I don’t know much else about them, really, only what Heran and the other members of my Coven have told me over the years.

I know my mom looked like Greya, and I take after my father.

She had the Gift of arbores and maintained the fruit grove, and he had a form of animalium that allowed him to communicate with birds, but just facts like that.

There’s a lot I don’t know. A lot I’ll never know. ”

Ty nodded silently in understanding. “I know what that’s like. Losing your parents, I mean,” he offered, speaking hesitantly, as if sharing this was new for him. “I lost mine as well. Well, I lost my dad a few years ago. I never knew my mother.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ena replied. As tough as it was for her to not have known her parents, she couldn’t imagine having grown up with them for years, forging that bond, only to lose them.

Ty’s loss seemed all the more cruel. “How did your father die?” she asked gently, posing the same question he had to her.

“A stomach ailment,” Ty responded stoically.

“And your mother…?” Ena asked cautiously.

Ty looked away, as if hiding a shameful secret. “She left when I was a baby,” he said.

Ena had more questions, but she knew how to take a hint. The pain that tightened Ty’s voice, the way he looked away—he clearly didn’t want to go into more details, so she didn’t push, and soon the conversation stalled as the land became steeper and they both breathed heavily.

Eventually, they left the riverbank and moved into the forest where there was a path that cut back and forth up the ridge to the top of the cliff. As they rounded a switchback, Ena’s Knowing alerted her to a presence.