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“It’s wonderful, thank you,” Ty said, smiling widely and turning on the charm.

“We also have some soup if you’d be interested? I think it’s vegetable barley.”

“Thank you kindly, good sir, we would love some,” Ty replied.

“Of course, of course,” the man muttered, bumbling off through a doorway which must have led towards the kitchen. Ena watched Steig eye him as he left, clearly tracking the location of the kitchen.

Within a few minutes, the friendly bartender returned, carrying three small bowls of soup and a basket of bread in his large hands.

This village clearly didn’t have much, but social conventions dictated that visitors be offered food, drink, and shelter for a reasonable length of time, without requiring a trade of equal value.

This, of course, was predicated on the assumption that visitors were there to foster beneficial relationships which could be drawn upon for trade in the future, which they weren’t.

Ena gave the man a watery smile as she took the bowl of soup, her guilt eating at her yet again.

After placing the basket of bread in the center of the table, the bartender turned to Ty.

“I hear you’re metalworks traders. We don’t get many of those around here.

I’m sure Tomas, the head horseman, would be delighted to meet with you to discuss what we might offer you in exchange.

” The man gestured at the table in the corner, where the three men were playing cards.

“He’s the bald one in the hat just over there. ”

“Excellent. Thank you kindly, good sir. I think I will go introduce myself.”

Ena nearly rolled her eyes at Ty’s over-the-top good manners. He rose to standing and patted the bartender on the shoulder in thanks before he strode off to talk with Tomas.

Turning her attention away from Ty, she focused on her soup—her hot, delicious-smelling soup.

Eagerly raising her spoon to her mouth, she blew on it before taking a bite.

Unlike the ale, the soup was…not good, to say the least. It was overly salted, with way too much barley and not enough vegetables.

Next to her, Turner took a cautious bite and visibly gagged.

Ena had to stifle a laugh at the pained expression on his face.

He pushed his bowl away from him and reached for a piece of bread instead.

Ena continued to take a few more bites until Turner quietly asked her, “How can you stand to eat that stuff?”

Turning to look at him, she finally registered his face up close.

He was definitely younger than Ty and Steig, but older than she’d originally thought.

He was probably around her own age, but he had an innocent-looking face with soft features that made him appear younger.

His blue eyes were large and prominent on his face, but up close now, she saw that there was an edge to them—a hardness which wasn’t all that surprising, given the way he’d callously burned down Heran’s house.

His dirty-blond hair was slightly too long, too, and mussed in much the same way that Ty’s used to be when they first met, which also contributed to his child-like appearance.

The recollection sent a pang of hurt through her, so she looked away and focused back on her soup.

“It’s rude to reject an offer of food as a visitor. Even if it tastes like shit, you should eat the entire bowl and wipe it clean with your bread or you’ll offend them,” she said.

Turner sighed and glared at his bowl, but he brought the spoon to his mouth again and continued eating. Maybe he just wanted to maintain their cover and not ruffle any feathers, but Ena was surprised he chose to do so, given he seemed unfazed that they were here to steal from these people.

Theoretically, she realized, she could simplify this whole operation—and bypass whatever plan Ty was enacting—if she were to use her Gift.

All it would take was compelling the bartender to give them what they wanted, and to keep quiet about it.

Of course, she’d never used her Gift before, but if what Heran had said about it was true…

then maybe she could. But Heran had also told her to never use it unless given explicit permission, and even though she was serving Gaia by trying to figure out what they were up to, she hadn’t been given that permission.

Besides, there was already far too much of Iblis’s will at work here, and she did not want to lose control and unwittingly add to it, so she turned back to her food in resignation.

When she and Turner had eaten their bowls of soup and finished off the entire basket of bread, she turned back to her ale and nursed it slowly, taking in the room.

Ty had joined in the card game with Tomas and the others and was busy making small talk with them.

In between rounds, she saw him pull out the bejeweled dagger he’d brought in with him, likely lying through his teeth about all the metal objects he wanted to trade.

By the time most of her ale was gone, Ty had the men laughing in stitches at a joke he’d told, and Ena couldn’t hold in the scoff that came out of her.

“It’s annoying, isn’t it?”

She whipped her head to Turner as he spoke, seeing that his own ale was drained now too. “What is?”

“How good he is at lying.”

Ena raised her eyebrow at him. Did he know how intimately aware of that fact she was? She didn’t think so, but either way, she was surprised that he would talk about his friend this way.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he continued. “It’s a necessary skill in our line of work. But man, what I wouldn’t give to be that smooth with it.”

“You’re not smooth with it?” Ena asked curiously.

Turner scoffed. “Please, with this face?” He gestured with one finger at his big, innocent-eyed face. “I can’t hide a damn thing.”

Ena smiled despite herself. “Why’d he let you come then, if you’re such a liability? A lying liability, I mean.” The ale had definitely gotten to her a bit as she giggled at her own joke.

Turner side-eyed her companionably. “He’s my cousin, and he’s always looked out for me. There’s no way I would’ve let him do this alone.”

Turner spoke with such admiration and…love in his voice that Ena didn’t know what to say.

She was silent as memories from long ago resurfaced.

She remembered that night by the beach…remembered Ty telling her all about his cousins, and especially his younger cousin who followed him around like he was a god among men.

It clicked for Ena that Turner was probably that cousin.

Clearly, Ty hadn’t lied about that, and she didn’t quite know what to do with that information.

She’d been so caught up, rightfully, in her anger at Ty and his companions, wanting to see them only as the evil creatures they were, that it caught her off guard how human Turner seemed in this moment, and how…

normal his familial relationship with Ty seemed.

Ena was shaken from her thoughts as she suddenly heard raised voices coming from the men playing cards.

They had all been playing companionably with one another, but now one of the older men, who was lean with gray hair, seemed highly upset at the other.

His weather-worn face was screwed up in anger as he pointed a bony finger and yelled at the one the bartender said was named Tomas, accusing him of cheating.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ena saw Turner surreptitiously make eye contact with Steig.

Something was happening.

Ena glanced back over at Ty, who was leaning back serenely in his chair, holding his cards.

At first glance, it appeared he was bored and uninterested in the argument, but looking closer at him, she saw that he was, in fact, concentrating heavily on the man pointing his finger.

His gaze was unblinking and slightly sinister. What was he doing?

The argument between the two men escalated, as the one yelling at Tomas stood up, walked around the table, and grabbed Tomas by the shirt collar.

Ty’s gaze flicked to Tomas as Tomas abruptly stood up and shoved the other man back.

There was more yelling and shoving until Tomas reared back and punched the other man in the face, sending blood flying across the table.

Oh, shit. This must be the distraction.

The fight between the two men escalated as Tomas was thrown down onto the table, his face bloodied by the repeated punches raining down on him.

The bartender approached, attempting to get between them.

The third man who’d been playing cards, who, up until now, had been watching the argument like a deer caught in a hunter’s sightline, finally stood up and tried to help the bartender pull the men apart, only to get caught in the fray himself when Tomas kicked him in the gut.

All the commotion was now drawing the attention of the other couple in the guesthouse, who were quickly gathering their belongings and fleeing the area, lest they get in the way of the brawl.

As if this was what he’d been waiting for, Ty glanced briefly at Steig, who quickly went around the bar and through the doorway to the kitchen. Ty retreated from the altercation surreptitiously and walked over to Ena and Turner. “Time to go,” he said, with menacing calm.

Ena was still trying to figure out exactly what had just happened when Ty grabbed her arm and led her outside.

Walking quickly to the stables, Ty yelled loudly for the stable boy, demanding he fetch all three of their horses as quickly as possible.

Feigning outrage, he ranted indignantly that they wouldn’t be doing business in a place such as this, that treated visitors with such disgrace.

The stable boy clearly didn’t yet know what he was referring to, but he muttered his hurried apologies and went to the stalls to retrieve their horses.

Turner, Ty, and Ena quickly led the horses back through the village and into the woods.

She tried hard to keep her eyes straight ahead and not look behind her at the guesthouse, although she could still hear the sound of crashing furniture and raised voices coming from inside.

She was tempted to glance around for a sign of Steig, too, but she kept her eyes straight ahead.

She was still frantically trying to understand what had just happened when they arrived at the agreed-upon meeting spot in the woods. Once she looked around to make certain they were well out of ear and eye shot of the village, she whirled on Ty.

“You did that. Didn’t you?” she asked, not bothering to hide the accusation in her voice.

“Did what?” he said, not looking at her and instead tightening the girth on his saddle.

“Started that fight somehow.”

“Yes,” he said flatly, still not looking at Ena.

“How did you do it? Some kind of…mind control?” Ena asked, hoping they didn’t notice the way her voice wavered on those last two words.

This was the first time Ena had met a daemon with a Power similar to her visanis .

She’d heard that daemons often had Powers of the mind, and Heran had told her that her Gift was likely shared by daemons, but to see it in practice was something else.

“Do you really want to know?” Ty asked, finally looking at her.

“Yes,” Ena replied sincerely.

“Fine. I guess there’s no harm in telling you now you’ve seen it. Yes, I started the fight. I have the power to…incite rage, anger. I feed on what little is there and escalate it until—well, you saw. We call it furor .”

Ena stared at him. It was not the same as her visanis , or what little she knew of it, but it was still the most similar Power to hers that she’d heard of. Somehow knowing that made her feel slightly less afraid of her Gift, and infinitely more…curious.

“How does it work?”

Ty stared at her, looking thoroughly surprised at the question. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Ena paused, trying to figure out how to put her curiosity into words. “How does it feel when you use it?”

Ty narrowed his eyes at her, assessing her intentions, but it wasn’t a trick. She was curious to know how a mind Power like her own worked, what it felt like, how she could…control it so it wouldn’t overwhelm her like it had been about to do during her Summoning.

Clearly realizing it wasn’t a trick, he answered her.

“It feels like…a tiny spark inside someone, that I can sense. And if I focus on them, I can form a thread between us. A channel. I use that channel to feed them my own rage and anger, stoking their spark into a flame, and then a wildfire, until they can’t think straight.

All they can do is lash out like a wild animal. ”

“So…” Ena hesitated, seeking to understand. “It was your own anger that started that fight. Your own rage that you fed to those men.”

“Yes.” Ty took a step closer to her, clearly mistaking her hesitation for fear. He peered down at her menacingly with that intense gaze of his. “Does that scare you, little viper?”

Ena paused. Was she scared? Knowing a bit more about how her Gift might work was comforting, but hearing about all the rage Ty must have inside to be able to do what he did…she answered his question truthfully.

“No,” Ena said, meeting his gaze unerringly. “I just feel sorry for you. Being that angry all the time must be a hard way to live.”

Ty stared at her as his brow furrowed, like he didn’t even know what to say to that, when they heard a rustling through the woods, and Steig emerged. He was red-cheeked and out of breath, and he was carrying a sack full of goods.

“How’d it go? Did you get everything?” Ty asked quickly, turning away from Ena and all that had transpired between them.

“Yes,” Steig replied, as he started digging around in the sack for something. “The fight was calming down by the time I was finished, so I had to go out the back and loop around the outside of the village. Here,” he said, tossing something to Ena. It was a dark-blue women’s cloak.

Ena was surprised. He’d taken this for her? “Thanks,” she said, staring at the cloak. It was slightly worse for the wear, but the quality wasn’t bad.

“Don’t thank me. I only did it because he insisted you’d freeze to death without one,” Steig replied harshly, gesturing at Ty.

Ena looked over at him in shock.

“I just don’t want you dying before we can get what we came for,” Ty said dismissively. “Now let’s go,” he ordered before Ena could respond. “We gotta get back and check those traps before it gets dark.”

Not knowing how to even begin to process this new information, Ena quickly tossed the cloak around her shoulders and secured it tightly before pulling up the hood. Ensconced in her new warm cocoon, she followed the daemons’ lead as they all mounted up and headed back the way they’d come.