Page 31

“Daemons believe that in order to prove ourselves worthy of Iblis, we must face our own suffering and chaos. The Trial, as we call it, is where we do that. All daemons go through it at age twenty-seven, and if we survive, we are granted a Power from Iblis and are bound to serve him forevermore.”

“Face your own suffering and chaos? What does that mean?”

“Essentially…we are left alone in the deepest part of the Underworld for days on end. No light, no food, no water. It…does things to you. To be alone, in the dark, that long.” Ty’s face took on a haunted look, like he had been dragged into the memories of his own Trial.

“After a time, if Iblis shows himself to you, you receive your Power. Only then are you allowed to emerge.”

Ena paused at that. That sounded…horrific.

The worst she’d had to do was drink the burning psilovenom.

Granted, it had made her hallucinate and then feel like shit the next day, but to essentially be left to go mad in a dark cave for days on end was unimaginably cruel and terrifying.

Ena couldn’t believe Ty had gone through that. Turner and Steig too.

“So when…” Ena hesitated, not wanting to dredge up painful memories. “When you went through that, you emerged with a Power and a Gift?”

“Yes.”

“But how is that possible? Did Gaia come to you too?”

“I don’t know,” Ty replied. “I don’t think she did, but I’ve never… I don’t know much about her, really.”

This whole conversation was starting to make Ena’s head hurt.

How Ty, a half-witch, could have received his Gift from Gaia without her directly Gifting it to him made no sense.

Ena went silent as she contemplated this new information.

Once again, she was struck by how similar daemons and witches were.

Both received their magic when they were twenty-seven.

Both had to undergo a special ceremony of sorts to receive it.

She guessed it made sense, given what Heran had told her about all magic coming from the same source.

She wondered what else they might share in common.

They continued on the rest of the afternoon in relative silence, stopping to rest once or twice more when they came across a water source.

Ena was pleased that her fingers and toes seemed to have returned to normal today, and her muscles were clearly adjusting to the long days of walking, because they didn’t hurt quite so much anymore.

Still, Ena was grateful when the sun began to get low in the sky, and Ty declared that they should stop and make camp.

Ena built the fire herself this time while Ty went off to set a trap for small game—if Gaia granted them, they could have something other than dried jerky to eat in the morning—but Ena didn’t try to escape while he was gone. She knew it was futile after hearing about his Gift.

By the time he returned, Ena had cleared the area of sticks and pokey plants, then made a small nest of leaves on a bed of moss and was getting as comfortable as possible.

Everything was a bit muddy still from the heavy rain, but it was better than nothing.

Gaia, she was getting incredibly tired of sleeping on the ground, and she thought that she might just spend an entire week in bed when she got home.

The plus side of falling into the Sacred Pool, however, was that her dress and cloak were slightly cleaner than before.

She’d take what she could get right now.

Turning her back on Ty and the fire, she started to lay down.

“Uh-uh, little viper. You’re sleeping with me tonight.”

She jerked back up to find Ty beckoning her over to where he was sitting on the other side of the fire.

“What?” she asked incredulously. He had to be joking.

“You’re. Sleeping. With. Me,” he said slowly, over-enunciating every word like she was hard of hearing.

“There’s no chance in the Underworld I’m sleeping next to you.” She realized the irony of invoking the Underworld, given that this man was a daemon, but still, it got her point across.

“Look, I spent all last night keeping watch so that you, little miss flight risk, would not take off again. I need to sleep tonight. And the only way I’m doing that is if you’re right next to me.

I sleep lightly, so I’ll know if you move even an inch.

And if you need more motivation, you should know I still have those ropes, so we can do this the easy way or the hard way. ”

Ena swallowed. This man was her enemy, and not to mention they had an incredibly complicated and fraught history, so she absolutely did not want to sleep next to him.

Still, she couldn’t help the way her body reacted to the thought. Her heart beat a little faster and butterflies filled her stomach. Fuck .

She thought about telling him that she wasn’t going to try to escape again. Maybe she could convince him it was the truth. But what reason would he have to believe her? No, she knew Ty well enough at this point to know that there would be no dissuading him from this.

“Fine,” Ena said, rolling her eyes to disguise her body’s brief lapse into what had to be insanity. “But if you’re forcing me to sleep next to you, the least you could do is come over here. I made a makeshift bed of moss and leaves. It’ll be much more comfortable.”

“Alright,” Ty said, seeming way too pleased with himself.

He stood up and walked around the fire to where she’d made her nest, then he paused for a second as he stood over her.

His eyes seemed to glow in the light of the fire as he stared down at her with that intense gaze of his. Always so intense.

From where she sat on the ground, he loomed above her, his body tall and menacing, his bearded face half-shadowed in the light. Looking up at him, an energy passed between them as she met his gaze. One that she hadn’t felt in a long time. Nine years to be exact.

Ena quickly looked away, clearing her throat. The spell they’d been under mercifully broke, and she curled up on her side facing away from him. She felt Ty lower himself and lay down behind her on his back.

She thought he’d stay that way, keeping as much distance between them as possible, but then she felt him turn towards her, so their bodies were only separated by a few inches of empty air.

She could feel his warm breath on the top of her head, feel the heat of his body coming off him in waves.

She knew that if she were to shift her body just the tiniest bit, she could nestle back into him like a spoon.

But the time for that closeness between them was long past, and even then, it had been a mistake, as Ty had so thoroughly reminded her last night.

So she stayed exactly where she was and closed her eyes. But just as the exhaustion overtook her and she drifted off to sleep, she heard him whisper.

“Good night, Ena.”