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Grabbing Ty’s arm, she stopped him. He looked down at her in question as she silently put a finger to her lips, telling him to be quiet. She didn’t miss the way his eyes stared at her lips a beat longer than necessary.

She used her Knowing to read the signs of the forest, and then she spotted it and had to hold in her gasp.

A gigantic Canus Elk stood about ten horse lengths away from them, nibbling at plants in the dirt.

Ena stared at it in wonder, not daring to move a muscle.

Its hide was covered in fluffy, stark-white fur, with not a drop of mud or crust of dirt anywhere to be seen.

Its huge, branching antlers, which began as a light-brown color at the base and gradually turned silver at the tips, seemed to shine and sparkle in the light that filtered through the forest canopy.

Not only that, but the Canus Elk was enormous.

It was larger than most horses, and the breadth of its monstrous antlers spanned her entire body length.

She turned to Ty to find him staring at it in complete awe.

He looked down at her and smiled so widely, with such boyish charm and excitement, that it caused her own smile to break across her face, taking joy in his joy.

They stood silently and watched it for a while, until it wandered away on silent hooves.

Once it was out of sight, Ty signaled to her that they should keep walking, and they continued along the path.

“That was incredible,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. What was it?”

“A Canus Elk. I’ve never seen one before either, but I’ve heard tales of them. They’re incredibly rare. Have you never heard of them in Yalta?” Ena asked.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “The land is less forested there, so we don’t get creatures like that. What else do you know about them?”

“Well, Canus Elks in general are said to be immortal—they’re impossible to hunt and kill, so they just never die.

Seeing one is supposed to bring good fortune—it’s a blessing from Gaia.

They’ve often been seen before major events, like the alliance between the Aquilo and Auster Covens, and before certain handfastings between powerful witches.

And I know this one in particular was hungry and looking for chickweed. ”

Ty laughed at that. “How do you know what it was looking for?”

“It’s…my Knowing. That innate sense that witches have. It allows us to…understand animals, plants, even water and rock to an extent. We can sense where they are, sometimes their intentions, by reading their signs.”

“What signs?”

“The signs that are all around—noises, movements, colors, that kind of thing. Mortals can sense them, too, but they are just heightened for witches, allowing us to read and understand their meanings more easily.”

“Huh,” Ty replied, as if he was processing this information. “Is there anything your Knowing doesn’t work on?”

“Daemons.”

“Really?” he said, glancing cautiously at her. “That seems…inconvenient.”

“It is, that’s why they’re so dangerous.

It’s said that their magic is such a foil opposite to ours that the two systems cancel each other out, rendering our magic completely unusable against one another.

The Covens want to help mortals, heal them, obviously, but when daemons get involved and use their Powers to disrupt Gaia’s balance, witches are often unable to help or prevent it because we just don’t Know they’re there. ”

“Hmm,” Ty said, going quiet for a minute. “Have you ever met a daemon?”

“No, thank Gaia. I don’t think there’s very many of them left anymore,” Ena replied, huffing a laugh.

Soon, they approached a narrowing of the path that forced them to walk single file, and their conversation halted again as they trudged up the steep slopes.

“How much farther?” Ty asked from behind her.

“A little bit. Why, getting tired? This can’t possibly be harder than the trek over the Chasm Mountains,” Ena teased, glancing back at him with a wry grin.

“No,” he replied, smiling back, “not at all. That took weeks. Although, we did have horses,” he added as an aside. “But wouldn’t it be faster if we just climbed this way?” He gestured to a face of bare rock that stretched to the top of the cliff, bypassing the steep switchbacks.

“Well, yes, but we’d have to climb.”

“So let’s climb.”

Ena’s heart beat faster at the idea. She wasn’t much of a climber. The path was the safer route.

“I don’t know,” she said hesitantly, eying the rock face.

“Oh, come on. You can do it.” Ty looked at her as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. As if he had absolutely no doubt that she could. “You go first. I’ll coach you as you climb up. And I’ll catch you if you fall,” he added, grinning at her.

Ena looked up at the rock wall, then back at Ty. Again, he was giving her that challenging look. Are you gonna back down from this? his eyes seemed to say. Ena got the sense that he thoroughly enjoyed pushing people—or at least, pushing her. And she’d be damned if she didn’t push back.

“Okay,” she said, her competitiveness kicking in. “But if I fall and die, I’ll be very upset with you.”

Ty laughed and came to stand behind her as she faced the rock wall.

She quickly knotted her dress above her knees so she had better freedom of movement.

There was a very good chance he would soon be able to see straight up her dress from his vantage point as she climbed, and she wondered how he would respond to that challenge.

Grabbing a good handhold on the stone, she slowly started to work her hands and feet up.

“Good,” Ty said.

His praise filled her with warmth and determination as she continued to climb. She felt steady for the first few handholds, looking up to chart her climb as she went, her confidence growing with every foot she climbed.

Once she passed the halfway mark, she felt her fingers begin to cramp.

She continued on for a few more feet, pushing through the pain, and then she made the mistake of glancing down.

She was high—very high. Looking around, she suddenly didn’t know where to put her hand next.

She was already almost fifteen feet up the rock face—far enough that if she fell, Ty might be able to catch her, but she also very well might just crush him with her body weight and hurt them both.

“Uh…Ty?” she asked, her fear starting to creep into her voice.

“You’ve got this,” Ty said calmly. “Put your foot on that little step up to your right.”

Ena looked down and saw the step he was talking about. She did as he said and cautiously put her foot there.

“Good. Now you should be able to push up and reach that small rock jutting out to your left.”

Ena cautiously let go with her left hand, put her weight on her right foot, and pushed up until she could reach the tiny bump in the cliff face that he had indicated.

Her toes gripped the rock through her thin leather shoes, and she was eternally grateful for all the finger strength she gained from kneading dough.

“Perfect. Now you’re almost there.”

Looking up, Ena saw that she was just a couple feet from the top.

She was able to locate her last couple of hand and foot placements herself, and soon, she was pulling herself over the ledge and slumping down onto the cliff top. Her heart was pounding and her body was throbbing with adrenaline.

She couldn’t believe she’d just done that.

She couldn’t believe she’d agreed to do that.

She panted on her hands and knees for a minute until her heart calmed down, and then, silently thanking Gaia for not letting her fall, she brought herself to her feet and turned around to look down to where Ty still waited.

He was grinning up at her so widely it warmed her heart all over again.

“I did it!” she called down to him, starting to feel incredibly proud of herself now that the adrenaline was wearing off.

She’d never done anything like that before, and even though her arms were weak and her fingers would certainly be sore tomorrow, she felt infinitely stronger.

Gaia help her, but earning the admiration of this boy and meeting his challenges was becoming addictive.

“See? I was right,” Ty said cockily as he approached the rock wall and started to climb.

Ena rolled her eyes in response, but quickly couldn’t look away as Ty scaled the cliffside like he was made for it.

His large hands gripped the rocks as his forearm muscles tightened, ascending the rock wall like it was as easy as walking.

In an embarrassingly short amount of time compared to how long it took Ena, he pulled himself over the top just as she had.

“Wow, you must climb a lot,” Ena said, not bothering to hide the admiration in her voice.

“Yeah, there are a lot of…caves and stuff back home. I grew up climbing,” he said nonchalantly as he caught his breath.

Ena was once again filled with curiosity about Yalta and what it was like, but the questions died in her throat as she watched Ty take in the view from the top.

Trees as far as the eye could see blanketed the valley floor.

Far below them, the river gorge cut a dark, meandering ravine through the sea of green until it ended in the blue, flat haze of the Endless Ocean in the distance.

Looming tall behind them were the Chasm Mountains, their snowy peaks cutting through the horizon, dwarfing the cliffside they stood on.

“This is gorgeous,” he said, looking out across the landscape with a contented look on his face.

“I know,” Ena said, matching his reverential tone. “I come up here sometimes just to look at the mountains and the ocean. They make me feel…” Ena trailed off, not knowing how to put the feeling into words.

“Make you feel what?” he asked, turning to look at her.