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Chapter Eighteen

Everything was quiet for a minute. Maybe two.

Ena had no idea how long it was quiet, actually.

All she could hear was her breathing. All she could feel was her fear.

Every nerve in her body felt alight and ready to fight.

Her Knowing was alert, waiting for more threats, but her eyes remained focused on the man she’d just killed with her Gift.

“Ena?” Ty spoke gently, like he was speaking to a spooked horse.

Her mind barely registered the strain in his voice as she dragged her gaze from the dead man to look at him. He was kneeling on the ground, surrounded by bodies. He was clutching his side with both hands, and his face was a mixture of pain and concern. “Are you okay?” he asked.

Was she okay? She didn’t know.

“I think they’re gone. We’re safe now.”

Safe. Was she safe? She didn’t feel safe. She didn’t think she’d ever feel safe again.

Ty tried to stand and let out a pained groan with the effort. The pitiful sound somehow snapped Ena out of whatever trance she was in and she rushed over to him.

He was breathing hard and Ena placed her hands on his wound. Standing closer now, she could see it was gushing blood. Had the attacker gotten him in a vital organ of some kind?

But Ty wasn’t looking down at his wound. He was looking up at her. “What in the Underworld was that you just did?”

“I-I don’t know,” Ena said. Her voice was shaking and sounded weak. So different now from the one she’d just used to kill that man.

She felt the fog of her fear lifting slowly and her brain began to put thoughts together.

“It was my visanis . I’ve never used it before. I…didn’t know what else to do. It just came out.”

“Your Gift is visanis ?” Ty asked, his eyes wide with shock.

“Yes, but now is not the time, Ty. You’re hurt.

” She had a million questions, too, as she knew Ty did, but his blood gushed over her hands where she placed them at his side, and she could tell his body was going into shock as he started shaking.

“We’ve got to cauterize this wound to stop the bleeding, I don’t think stitching it will be enough. ”

“I know.” Ty groaned as she made him sit back against a nearby tree. “But we should leave. I don’t know if there’s any more nearby, and we’re in Occidens territory now. If anyone was attracted by the commotion…we can’t be found here.”

Ena nodded in understanding. What they’d done would attract attention eventually. It was best they were far away before anyone found the evidence.

She ran over to one of the dead men that lay on the ground and removed his shirt.

The man was heavy and it took longer than Ena wanted to lift the dead weight of his limbs.

She ran back over to Ty and had him press the shirt over his wound, then grabbed his discarded dagger.

Rushing over to the remains of the fire, she shoved it deep into the burning hot coals.

Every second seemed to last an eternity as she waited for it to heat.

She could tell every breath was causing Ty pain as he bled into the flimsy shirt in his hands.

Deciding she could wait no longer, she pulled the dagger out of the coals and brought it over to Ty.

She lifted the stolen shirt away as well as his own, revealing the wound as it seeped blood.

It wasn’t too wide, only about the width of the blade itself, but she could tell it went through several layers of skin and muscle.

She would need to cauterize inside it as much as possible.

“This is gonna hurt, I’m so sorry,” Ena said, her voice shaking.

“Just do it,” Ty said, gritting his teeth.

Ena shoved the hot dagger into his wound as deep as she dared. She heard his blood and flesh sizzle around the hot knife as it burned his skin, sealing the open wound inside his body. Ty’s eyes were clenched shut tight as he breathed and whimpered through gritted teeth.

By the time she was done, he was drenched in sweat, his body shaking from the trauma. Ena took the blood-soaked shirt and tore it into strips before wrapping them around the freshly cauterized wound. Ty groaned as his head drooped back against the tree. Was he about to pass out?

“Fuck,” Ena said. “Can you stand? Can you walk? We need to get to a safer place and then I can clean and stitch it.” She knew Ty had a needle and thread in his pack—she’d seen him use it to repair a button on his coat a few days ago—so she grabbed his pack and put it on her back before coming back to Ty.

“Yeah, yes, I can walk,” Ty said, but his voice was shaky.

As she grabbed Ty’s forearm and lifted him to standing, he put his arm around her shoulders to support some of his weight on his injured side, and they hobbled slowly into the woods.

They walked like that for about a half hour before Ena had to stop.

Ty was very heavy, and the weight of him had her thighs shaking and her back aching after only a few minutes.

She didn’t know how much farther she could go supporting his weight.

She guided him gently down to the forest floor, where he sat and leaned against a tree.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I can walk on my own for a bit. I just need to rest for a minute.”

“No, you can’t,” Ena said harshly, looking at him. He was still clutching his side and his face was pale, but he looked at her and gave her a pained smile.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were worried about me.”

Ena didn’t respond. She just sat for a minute before lifting Ty up again and continuing on. They kept walking for another hour until they reached a decent-sized stream.

Hoping that they’d made it far enough, Ena suggested that they rest here so she could assess his wound better. They were deeper in the forest now, miles away from the Western Road. She hoped it was enough and that no one had tried to follow them.

Ty collapsed on the bank of the stream and closed his eyes, leaning against a large stump.

Ena set to work building a fire next to him— small enough to avoid attracting too much attention, but big enough that it would provide enough light to see his wound better.

Now that they were in the clearing of the stream, Ena could blessedly see the moon.

It was waning, but only a few days past full, so it, too, provided some light to see by.

Starting the fire was harder than she thought. Her body and her magic were so exhausted. She’d never felt this drained before. It took her several tries to get the spark she needed, but once the fire was alight, Ena perched down next to Ty.

“Here, have some water,” she said, offering him the waterskin from his pack.

He took the waterskin and drank deeply. Even the act of lifting the waterskin to his lips seemed to tire him, though, and he collapsed back against the stump.

Ena went to lift his shirt. “Are you ready?” she asked gently.

He closed his eyes and nodded in response.

After untying the crude wrapping she’d done, she lifted his shirt to reveal the deep stab wound. It was crusted with burned skin now, but it looked like the bleeding had slowed.

“I’ll need to stitch it,” Ena said, trying to keep her voice steady.

“And then hope that it didn’t do any significant damage internally.

” Ena knew that it very likely could have, and if the cauterization hadn’t done its job, stitching up the wound on the outside wouldn’t do much to help him, but she would do all she could.

“Just stitch it. I’ll be fine,” Ty said. When Ena stared at him skeptically, he continued. “Really. It’s not my first stab wound. I heal fast,” he said, trying to smile but grimacing instead.

Ena went into his pack and pulled out a small leather folding case that contained a bone needle and two wooden thread winders with simple black silk thread.

She also took out one of his spare shirts and tore it into strips.

She desperately wanted something to disinfect the wound with, but there were no pots with which to boil water.

She didn’t dare pour river water over it. That would be asking for infection.

As if sensing her train of thought, Ty gestured at his pack again. “Grab the flask in there.”

Flask? Ena had never realized he had a flask.

She dug around in the bag until she pulled out a small metal flask with a cork stopper that was attached to the bottleneck by a sturdy string.

The craftsmanship was beautiful. It was decorated intricately with whirls and dots, not dissimilar from Ty’s onata .

Ena figured daemons could likely get whatever they wanted in return for trading these in the mortal villages. She’d never seen anything like it.

She cautiously removed the cork. Wine would certainly be better than river water for disinfecting, but why would he carry such a small amount of wine around?

As soon as the cork popped off, she knew it wasn’t wine. A spicy, smoky aroma drifted out of the flask, and she brought it to her nose to take a bigger sniff. The scent instantly burned her nostrils, and she had to cough and snort to clear it from her sinuses.

“What in Gaia’s name is this stuff?”

Ty, despite his weakened state, seemed highly amused by her reaction. He even tried to chuckle, but it quickly turned into a cough, and then a pained whimper. Once he’d made it through all that, he explained. “We call it woodwater. It’s alcohol, stronger than wine or ale.”

“Okay…” Ena said cautiously. If she hadn’t been fervently trying to stop Ty’s wound from bleeding, she would have asked how it was made. She’d have to save that for another time.