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Chapter Twenty-Six

Ena slowly opened her eyes to reveal a strange room.

Her head was throbbing and her throat was dry.

Looking around, she saw that the room she was in was small, almost the size of a closet.

It held a simple table and chair, and the walls were bare.

There was no fireplace, so it was cold, and as she raised herself up to sitting, she realized she was laying on a small, hard bed.

There were no windows in the room, but light seeped in under the doorframe, and she could tell that it was daytime.

Where was she?

Using her Gift to put those women to sleep. Finding the amulet. Her vision of the past. The attack in the woods. Ty.

It all came back to her in a series of swift realizations. She was with the Occidens Coven. They’d captured her, and where was Ty? The last she’d seen him, he had been fighting off the witches single-handedly. Had he gotten away? Had they killed him?

Ena’s heart started to pound as she stood up, fear gripping her once more. She went to open the door, but it was locked.

{ Clavis }

She spoke her spellword quietly, but nothing happened. She tried it again, jiggling the door handle and pulling with all her might, but still, nothing happened.

She forced herself to calm and investigate her surroundings. There was a candle on the table, and she tried to light it with her spellword, but again, nothing happened.

They must have spelled the room against the use of magic.

She’d heard of it being done before, oftentimes to protect young children who hadn’t yet learned to control their magic, but she’d never felt the effects of it herself, and usually it required the person’s blood.

Ena reached up to touch the back of her head where she had hit it in the woods, feeling a large, tender lump. She winced at the pain, and saw on her hand the dried remnants of her own blood.

She went over to the door again and knocked gently. “Hello?” she called, her voice sounding small and desperate. “Is anyone there?”

There was no response.

Ena began to feel claustrophobic. It was dark. She was trapped. She started to pace frantically, searching for a way out of the room, feeling the walls and testing the floorboards. She felt so helpless without her magic.

Why were they keeping her here? Where was Ty? Was he okay? Had Steig and Turner gotten away with the amulet?

Suddenly, the door opened and light flooded the room. Ena shielded her eyes as they adjusted to the change.

A figure walked into the room holding a lit candle. She walked over to the table and used it to light the one already sitting there. With the candles now brightening the room, Ena found herself staring into a familiar face.

It was the woman from the kitchen that she’d used her visanis on. Seeing her more closely now, she saw that she was probably in her mid-forties. Her face had gentle lines around her eyes, and she was thin. Her dark-blonde hair was tied back into a bun and her hazel eyes watched Ena like a hawk.

“It’s good to properly meet you, Ena. My name is Syrelle,” she said.

Ena stared at her cautiously, not knowing what to say. How did she know her name?

“Are you feeling alright? You took quite a fall in the woods, I’m told.” She paused, waiting for Ena to respond, then continued when she didn’t. “Of course, I wasn’t there. I found myself incapacitated until the sun rose this morning.”

The woman looked at Ena knowingly, clearly trying to gauge her reaction. But Ena gave nothing away.

“Where am I?” Ena asked. She had many questions, but asking this one seemed like a good place to start.

“You’re still with the Occidens Coven. I apologize for the sparse accommodations, but we needed to make sure you were secured for now.

The room is spelled against magic. But something tells me you already figured that out.

” The woman gave Ena a tight smile and moved to sit down in the chair.

“Please, sit,” she said. “I think it’s time we had a conversation. ”

Ena sat on the edge of the bed, her body tense and ready to run or fight. She waited for the familiar surge of her visanis , but she couldn’t feel it at all.

“We’ve contacted your Coven,” Syrelle said. “When it became clear to us that you were a witch, we sent Aquilo and Auster a message asking if either of them claimed you. Your matriarch, Heran, and your sister, I believe, are on their way here as we speak to negotiate for your release.”

Heran and Greya were on their way here? Ena was immediately filled with an intense feeling of relief, followed by guilt, shame, and trepidation. How in the world was she going to face them after everything?

But another concern crowded that one out.

“Where’s Ty?” Ena asked, her tone deathly serious.

“The daemon you were with? Interesting that you would ask about him,” she said, tilting her head to the side and examining Ena like she was a curiosity.

“Your matriarch explained that you were taken from your home a few weeks ago and haven’t been heard from since.

Daemonic activity was suspected. But…” She peered studiously at Ena.

“I was told about the way he defended you when my people found you in the woods… Maybe all is not as it seems.”

Ena did not want to antagonize this woman.

She could not be seen as having been in league with daemons.

Her position was already precarious, but if she could convince them that she was forced to go along with the daemons’ plan, maybe they would let her go.

That was the truth, after all. They just couldn’t know that there was… more between her and Ty.

“I was taken by them,” Ena explained. “They forced me to come here with them and told me they would not release me until I helped them…steal something.”

“Ah, yes. The amulet. It seems they succeeded in that. While your…friend—Ty, was it?—was captured, the other two got away. Do you know why they were after it?”

“No,” Ena answered truthfully. She still did not know what they hoped to accomplish. But her vision had left her with so many questions, and she knew she needed to be cautious with what she revealed to this woman.

“You know, we were lucky you were with them, actually. Without your involvement, the seer in our Coven would not have been able to foresee the attack. Of course, they were not able to warn us about everything, but they saw enough that when my husband arrived home from his travels to find us lying on the floor, they knew where to find you in the woods.”

Hearing that description of events, Ena was struck with a deep pang of guilt. She didn’t trust these witches, but she still had not wanted to do what she did. Even if she could still recall the pleasurable feeling of power that had enthralled her, it had come with consequences.

She cleared her throat lightly and tried to let the sincerity of her next words come through.

“Syrelle, I deeply regret what I did to you and your family. I was hoping that the use of my Gift would remove the necessity for bloodshed and violence while the daemons searched for the amulet. I only agreed to it because…because they said they’d let me go.

But I know it must have been terrifying for you and those girls. For that, I am truly sorry.”

“I believe you,” Syrelle said gently. “My Knowing tells me that you are being sincere.”

Ena flinched slightly. Of course she was using her Knowing on her.

They were from enemy Covens, and she’d come here with nefarious purposes.

But it still grated on Ena’s sense of propriety to know another witch was violating her privacy that way.

She hoped she couldn’t discern her feelings for Ty—that would only complicate matters—but she feared that that was exactly what was happening here.

“Now,” Syrelle said, standing up as if to leave before Ena could say anything else.

“I’ll have someone bring you some water and food.

There’s a chamber pot beneath the bed if you need to relieve yourself.

I’m sorry to say you’ll have to remain in here until the members of your Coven arrive, for security’s sake, but I’ll leave the candles. ”

Ena nodded in resignation. Syrelle moved to the door, and Ena knew it wasn’t smart, that asking likely revealed too much, but she needed to know. “And…the daemon? Does he still live?” she said quietly.

Syrelle gave her a pitying look. “For now,” she said. “But he took something powerful from us and wounded several of our people in the process. The Coven is debating what to do with him. I don’t think he’ll live long.”

Relief filled her to hear he was still alive, but was quickly snuffed out at the prospect that, soon, he might not be. What could she say to sway her that Ty should live? Would anything she said matter?

“He’s half witch, you know,” Ena blurted out.

She hoped he would forgive her for telling them this.

He might have had his own plans to escape and needed his Gift to remain a secret, but maybe if she could show them that he wasn’t all bad, if she could communicate that somehow, they would be more lenient.

Syrelle looked at her knowingly. “Oh, we know. It’s one of the only reasons he still lives,” she said.

They already knew? Had Ty told them? Why would he have done that?

“If I may be so bold,” Syrelle added, a cautioning look on her face.

“There have been witches before you, some from this very Coven, who have been led down a dark path by daemonic intervention. It can be natural to…pity them, but it never ends well. You’d do well to let go of whatever sympathy you may have for him, before it festers and grows. ”

With that, Syrelle closed her in once more. Ena leaned back on the bed, her mind whirling.

He was alive. For now, at least. And Heran and Greya were coming for her. They’d be able to sort it out. Syrelle had seemed like she believed Ena, and hopefully didn’t blame her for everything that had happened. They might be able to get her out of this.

But Ty…how would he get out of this? Did Syrelle and the other members of the Occidens Coven know about the amulet and what it was for?

Did they know why he’d taken it? And what was that about other witches from their Coven being led down a dark path?

She’d never heard another witch express pity for daemons before. Did Syrelle know something she did not?

Ena couldn’t shake the feeling that there was way more going on than she knew.

The witches she’d seen in her vision had done something extraordinary with the amulet, something that had felt wrong.

And Ty had mentioned that getting the amulet was not Iblis’s will.

Then Steig had said that whatever they wanted to do with it would help daemons…

That could mean anything, of course, and was not necessarily good for mortals or witches.

But everything she’d seen and learned since the daemons had taken her made her realize that maybe not everything she had been told about them was true. And maybe, just maybe, Ty didn’t deserve to die for this.

Or maybe she just didn’t want to let him go.

She knew it was wrong on so many levels to feel this way, but even after everything, she still cared for him. And she knew it was foolish, and na?ve, and something she’d thought had died in her long ago, but a small, desperate part of her wanted to trust him.

She needed to talk to Heran and get more information about the amulet.

Maybe then she’d be able to help Ty. Maybe if she could prove that taking the amulet had not been in service of Iblis, they’d let him live.

He’d clearly already told them he was half witch, and that revelation had swayed some to his side.

But why would he have done that? It didn’t seem like him to reveal that information willingly.

Unless…maybe he hadn’t told them. Was it possible they knew his mother? Was that what Syrelle meant by witches from Occidens walking a dark path? Ty had never said what Coven she was from. Did he even know?

If that was true, if his mother was an Occidens witch and they somehow recognized him, then clearly some members of the Coven were hesitant to put him to death because of that. And maybe, if Ena could figure out what he wanted with the amulet, it would be enough for them to let him go.

In her heart of hearts, she knew that was a fool’s hope.

Half-Occidens witch or not, he was still a daemon; there was very little chance the Coven would allow him to live, especially not after what he’d done.

But it was the only hope she had right now.

She was not ready to face the possibility of losing him.

So she would cling to this hope like it was the only buoyant thing in the Endless Ocean, and pray to Gaia it kept them both afloat.