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Chapter Twenty-Four

In the morning, the rain finally stopped. It felt strange waking up alone after so many nights next to Ty, but at least Turner, who was already awake, was there to instantly distract her from the small ache that grew in her chest.

“Sleep well?” he asked as he built up the hearth with logs.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that? You’re the one who slept on the floor after all,” Ena replied groggily.

Turner smiled at that. “I didn’t mind it. It was warm by the fire,” he said.

Ena watched as he used his Power to light the fire. His hand seemed to glow and burn as if it were the hottest coal in the hearth. For a second, she was captivated watching it. It was similar to what a witch could do with a spellword, but also different, and she couldn’t stop her curiosity.

“How does that work? Your Power, I mean... I thought daemons mostly had Powers of the mind,” she asked.

Turner looked at her in surprise, but answered kindly.

“We call it incendia ,” he said. “And yes, that’s true.

Powers of the mind are more common, but some of us have corporeal Powers too.

They’re an extension of our other corporeal abilities, like speed, strength, and healing.

I’m able to generate additional heat in my body, and concentrate it into my hand. ”

“Oh,” Ena said, feeling fascinated despite herself. “So you don’t have to draw on the environment around you like I do when I use my spellword?”

Turner shook his head.

“Fascinating,” Ena mused.

Turner smiled at her. “Ty always said you were smart. I’m surprised you didn’t know that already.”

Ena’s stomach jolted at the mention of Ty. He’d talked to Turner about her? He’d said she was smart? Fuck, the mushy feelings that brought up in her were the last thing she needed right now.

“We weren’t taught much of anything about your kind,” Ena said shortly, the statement a harsh reminder of the separation between their peoples.

Turner left to give her privacy to dress, and after a hearty breakfast eaten in relative silence, she and Turner met Steig and Ty by the stable to ready their horses.

Ty was busy tightening the saddle on a beautiful mare with a glossy black coat and a long mane, and he didn’t acknowledge her approach.

She hadn’t seen him since yesterday afternoon, and he’d clearly been busy securing supplies for the rest of their trip, because the horse’s saddlebags were packed full.

The sight of him, as always, caused her heart to jump, but she didn’t show it.

He was keeping his distance, and so would she.

Ena focused on the new horse as she approached it.

She read its signs and Knew it was calm and good-natured.

It loved to gallop and could do so for miles without tiring, but it would respond quickly if redirected to slow down.

The horse also really wanted an apple. Ena stroked its neck gently and turned to Ty.

“Did they tell you her name?” she asked, breaking their silence. There was no way they’d be able to get through this without at least exchanging a few words.

“Apparently, it’s Mahnin,” he said, not making eye contact.

“Hello there, Mahnin,” Ena crooned to the beautiful horse as she offered her hand for it to sniff.

“Ah, I see,” Steig said as he approached. “This one you’re friendly with. Does that mean you won’t lure it into the woods to get eaten by a wolf?”

Turner laughed behind her, and Ena shot him a dirty look, but she didn’t have much of a retort. She still carried guilt for what her actions during her escape had caused.

Ty gestured to her that the horse was ready, so she mounted up on her own. She was expecting him to mount up behind her, but instead, Turner did, as Ty took Turner’s usual brindled horse.

A sharp bolt of rejection and disappointment shot through her, but she quickly pushed it aside. It was for the best, for both of them. Like Steig had said.

Once they’d all mounted, they rode out of the village and back onto the Western Road.

Ena was terribly sad to see Attax go. She didn’t know when she’d be able to stay in such nice accommodations again.

Maybe not until after she made it back home.

She had their word now that they’d let her go once they searched the house from her vision, so she’d be home in no time, she told herself. Soon, this would all be a bad memory.

They rode along the Western Road for most of the morning.

It was fairly busy with travelers going to and from the coast, but their little group, with no cart and only a few riders, didn’t seem to attract much attention.

Steig and Turner had told them that the Occidens Coven’s village was only about half a day’s ride away, so Ena was not surprised that by the afternoon, they branched off from the road to travel the rest of the way through the backwoods.

Ena understood that this was for the best; they couldn’t be seen riding into the Occidens Coven.

They’d have to find a way to enter the village undetected, and to do that, they’d need to keep their distance from the main roads.

Turner was pleasant enough to ride with.

He kept her busy with idle chitchat—stories about learning to ride horses in his youth, and his deep love for spice buns, which were apparently a daemonic delicacy.

Ena could tell he had a kind heart, and honestly, that confused her.

Steig and Ty, while they each had their moments, were both harsher, harder, and more what she expected daemons to be like.

But with Turner, well, she’d never expected a daemon to be so… nice.

But despite his attempts to keep her engaged in conversation, Ena’s eyes kept drifting unbidden to Ty—his broad back and the way his muscles rippled on his forearms as he gripped the horse’s reins.

Her mind conjured up images of the two of them in bed together the night before last. The way he’d comforted her, pleasured her.

For that brief time, she’d felt so safe, and, if she were being honest, it had felt right . Like coming home.

She found she missed his sturdy presence behind her on the horse.

She missed being surrounded by his scent.

She missed the new understanding they had come to, their pseudo-friendship.

A lot had changed between them, especially after the attack.

And somehow, he had come to be the only person who understood all the conflicting feelings she wrestled with about her Gift.

And now that she thought about it, maybe he was the only person to ever really understand her at all.

She knew this new separation was for the best. But still, it hurt to look at him.

The way he’d avoided her last night, and again this morning.

The way he was treating her, once again, as if she were nothing.

It brought back those old feelings of rejection, reopened those nine-year-old wounds that had never fully healed.

The other night, they’d been so close to going so far…

Ena wasn’t sure when she would’ve stopped herself if they hadn’t been interrupted.

And the things that he’d said to her… That he’d dreamt of her.

Yearned for her. Had he meant it all or had he just been caught up in the passion of the moment?

How could she trust anything that he had said when he could just go back to ignoring her so easily?

Maybe he was just doing the right thing and keeping his distance, or maybe that night was just another thing about her that he regretted.

But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it. Any of it. She never could. Maybe once she was away from him, she would. Maybe then, she could finally, finally, move on.

All roads led to the same place: she needed to get the amulet and end this.

***

They stopped once along the way to relieve themselves and eat some of the provisions they’d brought for lunch.

As the sun got lower in the sky, Ena thought the air started to smell…

different. It was fresher somehow, and salty.

A more significant breeze was blowing through the trees now, whipping her hood back so she had to pull it up constantly.

Then she heard it before she saw it: the smooth crash of waves in the distance. At first, it sounded like the wind, but as they got closer, she could distinctly hear the persistent ebb and flow of water on sand, louder and more constant than anything she’d heard from the River Wry.

One step, the forest looked normal, and the next, as the trees gradually began to thin, she suddenly saw nothing but blue beyond them.

As if this world abruptly ended, and a new one began.

Ena sat forward in the saddle, excitement gripping her. She’d never seen the ocean before, never seen where the land ended. A loud, large white bird that she’d never seen before flew overhead, squawking. She felt the breeze whipping against her cloak as they reached the end of the forest.

And that’s exactly what it was—the end. The trees simply stopped, and the land dropped down into a sandy cliff. Below, Ena could see rolling dunes of light-brown sand, decorated with tufts of grass and scraggly, beach-dwelling plants.

And beyond that was endless blue.

The ocean was huge, bigger than she could possibly have imagined. Staring at it, she couldn’t see where it ended, or discern if it ever did.

She stared at it in awe. She’d seen it at a distance, of course, from the top of the gorge near her village, but its presence in person surrounded her.

Overwhelmed her. The waves crashed into her very being, her Knowing inundated with new signs and intentions.

There was so much life here. Staring at it gave her the same feeling she had looking out at the mountains that dwarfed her: like she was a part of it, and it was a part of her.

She looked over to find Ty studying her from atop his horse, his face unreadable as always. But was that, possibly, a hint of tenderness she saw?