Page 47

Chapter Twenty-Five

They walked as quickly and quietly as possible, keeping to the sides of houses and avoiding open spaces, trying not to attract attention as they entered the village.

They saw a few other folks outside, closing up their garden gates or wrangling children inside, but no one seemed to pay them any mind, likely thinking they were travelers returning to their camps for the night.

As they approached the large house from her vision, Ena started to reach down into her Knowing in earnest, listening and watching for any signs that might give them away. She felt her Gift there, too, waiting inside her, but she didn’t reach for it yet.

They’d debated at length whether the Occidens witches’ Knowing would alert them to Ena’s presence.

But, deciding there was no way around that, the daemons hoped that being with them would mask Ena’s intentions somewhat.

This thought occurred to her again as they entered the back gate of the garden surrounding the house.

What if they sensed her coming and were prepared? What if they attacked her?

Turner walked up to the wide cellar door at the base of the house and opened it, revealing a steep staircase leading down into darkness.

He slipped inside, and Ena, Ty, and Steig followed him wordlessly, Steig closing the door silently behind them.

Once they reached the bottom, Ena found herself in a dark, cold storage room filled with potatoes, onions, baskets of freshly cut herbs, and other foodstuffs. It smelled like earth and rosemary, and the familiarity of it all calmed her a bit.

Then, coming from up the short set of stairs that connected the cellar to the rest of the house, she heard the muffled sounds of talking and laughter. That was where they needed to go.

Holding Ena’s hand protectively, Ty led her quietly up the stairs and through the door at the top.

It opened into a dark hallway, but there was a doorway to the left through which she could see light and heard the sounds of chopping.

Ty clearly heard that, too, indicating silently with his head that they should follow that sound into the kitchen.

Steig and Turner would be on their own finding their way to the sitting room.

Ena’s heart was pounding and she had to swallow the saliva that pooled in her mouth several times, keeping herself in check. She felt her Gift on the tip of her tongue, begging for her to reach for it, all the way, to unleash it, but not yet .

They pushed through the doorway into the kitchen to find the space was sparsely lit with a few candles, illuminating a large cooking hearth, a dining table with chairs, and extensive wooden counters cluttered with dishes and jars.

Ena’s eyes scanned over these elements only briefly before they went to the middle-aged woman with dark-blonde hair piled high on her head.

Her back was to them as she stood at the counter chopping garlic, but upon their entry into the room, her head turned to them.

Just as her eyes widened slightly in alarm, Ena reached for her Gift, letting it flow through her, and like slipping instantly into a long-neglected instinct, she spoke.

{ Do not move. }

She heard her voice emerge in the same eerie way it had in the woods when the bandits had attacked. It sounded like her and not like her at the same time.

{ Put down the knife and lay on the floor. }

The woman did as she was told, putting the knife down on the counter, and laying on her back right there on the dirty floor of the kitchen.

{ Sleep until the sun rises. }

Ty looked over at her. His eyes were filled with some mixture of admiration and horror, but Ena couldn’t focus on that right now.

Her visanis was surging through her and she felt powerful—completely lost and utterly in control at the same time.

Her nerves had been replaced with clarity as she gave herself over to the magic, and with every beat of her heart, she felt the warmth of her Gift tingling through her. She wasn’t done.

Barely glancing behind her, she abandoned the woman she’d forced into sleep on the floor and strode calmly back into the hallway, looking around for the sitting room. Ty was forced to follow her now, and he did so without a word.

The voices she’d heard from the cellar had stopped talking, replaced with the minor noises of a struggle—feet shuffling and a small squeak of fear.

She walked down the hallway, following the sounds and the dim light of the fireplace, to find Steig and Turner holding the two other witches in the sitting room.

Their eyes were wide with fear as they struggled against their captors, the daemons’ hands covering their mouths and preventing them from using any spellwords.

Ena vaguely registered how young they were—both were in their early or mid-teens, and clearly didn’t have their Gifts yet.

They were most likely sisters, given the way they resembled one another.

She saw the panic in their eyes, but it barely impacted her; she was too caught up in the flow of her magic. She focused on them and spoke.

{ Stop moving. }

The women went limp in Steig and Turner’s arms and they proceeded to lay them down with care on the floor.

She noticed that focusing on both at once with her visanis felt difficult, and her magic seemed strained.

So instead, one by one, she gave them the same command as she had to the woman in the kitchen.

She watched as the witches’ eyes slowly closed and their breathing evened out.

Within seconds, they appeared to be in the deepest kind of sleep, their bodies calm and their faces peaceful.

She knew in the back of her mind that her job was done, but she didn’t know how to loosen her grip on her Gift.

It burned through her still, and she loved the feeling of power it gave her.

She felt drunk on it, and a part of her never wanted to let it go, wanted to live in the ordered chaos of it forever.

He must’ve recognized her struggle, because Ty stepped into her line of vision. Gently, he grasped her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “You can let go now, Ena,” he said. “It’s over.”

Seeing those familiar green eyes and the calm they held somehow broke her hold on her visanis .

She felt her magic start to fade slowly from her body, retreating to where it dwelled deep inside her.

Her breathing slowed and her mind cleared.

She dimly started to become aware of the horror of what she’d just been able to do to the three witches. So quickly. So easily .

Before she could feel anything more, Ty grabbed her hand, gently stroking his thumb over the back.

“Nicely done,” he said, giving her a small, cautious smile.

“Turner and Steig, you start searching upstairs.” He gestured for them to return to the hallway.

“Ena, you stay close to me and we’ll search down here. ”

Steig and Turner exchanged a look, seeming to notice how Ty had gravitated back towards her the moment they’d entered the danger of the enemy village. Neither of them called him out on it, though, they simply nodded and left to go find the stairwell.

Ena followed Ty out of the sitting room and down the dark hallway towards the front door of the house. Holding a candle in one hand that he’d grabbed along the way, Ty opened and closed a few the doors that lined the hallway, clearly looking for one room in particular.

Eventually, he opened a door that led into a large altar room. He obviously believed this was the most important room to search first, and he wasn’t wrong. This was the most likely place for a witch to keep ceremonial objects.

Ena stood hesitantly in the doorway as Ty entered the room and immediately started looking over the bookshelves.

In the low light, she could see that there were several of them all around the room, adorned not only with books, but various trinkets used for potions and ceremonies—ceremonial chalices, animal skulls, ornately carved wooden boxes, and various glass bowls sat packed three rows deep on the shelves.

There were several low tables covered in decorative cloths, as well, the remnants of potion ingredients laid out in bowls and mortars, and spellbooks opened to the last pages referenced.

Several large trunks lay around the room, too, and Ty began throwing them open at random, digging around inside cursorily before moving on to the next.

Then she saw it.

There, tucked into an obscure corner of the room, lay the large leather-bound trunk Ena had seen in her vision. Glancing over at Ty, she found him distracted, digging through a trunk on the other side of the room, opening and dumping out every possible receptacle that could hold an amulet.

This was her chance.

Ena walked cautiously to the trunk, hoping he’d think she was simply helping him in his search.

The lid was unlocked, so she lifted it. Inside, it was filled with folded lace tablecloths—high-quality ones—and the same style of handfasting ropes her Coven used.

There was also a trove of candles of every shape and size.

None of the contents seemed particularly special or unique.

She wondered why they would keep the amulet here, of all places.

Rifling through the contents, Ena felt around for the large wooden box she’d seen in her vision, but she found nothing of the sort. Was she mistaken? None of the other trunks in the room looked at all similar to the one she’d seen. It had to be this one.

Stepping back to assess it again, she glanced over her shoulder to see that Ty was blessedly focused on pulling out all the drawers in the writing desk at the other end of the room, and that made her think.

Feeling around on the bottom of the trunk again, her finger found a small notch in the wood, just big enough for a finger to slip in. Doing just that, and tugging lightly, she felt the bottom of the trunk move.