Page 51

Chapter Twenty-Eight

It was the early evening when Ena found herself in the bath. Heran had led her through the house she’d been held in and down the street to a larger home where they had been given a nicer room. Ena’s legs moved automatically, but she didn’t see or feel a thing.

Ty was to be put to death. He was to be drowned.

She was given food, which she ate out of habit, barely tasting a thing. Then she was shown to the bathhouse, where she was provided with a warm bath and a clean dress, one of her own that had survived the fire. Greya had brought it with her from home.

She sat in the bath and stared at the water, and all she could think was that soon, the water would drown him.

The water would fill his lungs and he’d stop breathing.

His beautiful eyes would close forever. He’d never laugh at her again.

Never touch her again. Never look at her with those eyes that saw everything—even the words she couldn’t say.

Ena silently began to cry, her tears falling into the water.

Why did she care? He was a daemon and she should hate him. He had abandoned her and lied to her and she should hate him. They could never be together. She owed him nothing. She should let him go and move on.

But it wasn’t that simple. Yes, he was a daemon, and yes, she had plenty of reasons to hate him, and yet she didn’t.

The way he made her feel…like she was powerful, and beautiful, and brave.

The way his laughter drew out her own. The way he had fought to get back to her, despite everything.

The way he was reckless and pushed her to do more than she ever thought she could.

The way he understood her, and always, inexplicably, made her feel safe.

There was a magnetic force that pulled her to him, even after all this time, and she’d be a fool to deny it.

No, she couldn’t let him die. She wouldn’t.

Everything Heran had told her ran through her mind, and she started to plan.

If daemons succeeded in breaking the bond to Iblis, if they were able to access Gaia’s power, who knew what they would do.

She’d always been told that they couldn’t be trusted and that they would inevitably bring destruction and devastation to her world.

But what if it wasn’t that simple?

She couldn’t shake the feelings she’d experienced in her vision.

The wrongness of it all. She didn’t believe that cutting off the daemons from one half of their natural magic had been Gaia’s will.

And for some reason, she remembered all those years ago, when she’d first met Ty, and how fascinated he’d been when he saw that Canus Elk in the woods.

He was half witch. Was it right that he remained cut off from Gaia’s power just because of his daemon blood?

What about Turner? And Steig, with his family?

What might they be free to do with access to Gaia?

All at once, she was filled with certainty. She had to speak to Ty. Tonight. She needed to understand and hear it from his own mouth.

And if it was true, then she needed to say goodbye.

***

Later that night, she feigned sleep in her bed. When she was certain that Greya and Heran were asleep in the beds next to her, she slipped on her boots and her borrowed cloak and grabbed the saddlebag filled with food and clothes that Greya had prepared for her for their journey home tomorrow.

As quietly as possible, she slipped out the door. Gaia be blessed, now that they’d agreed to her release and were assured that she wasn’t a threat, they weren’t watching her so closely anymore, because the door was unlocked and there was no one outside her room.

She walked quickly down the hallway. Her Knowing assured her that the witches whose home it was were blessedly asleep upstairs on the second floor, and the kitchen was quiet and dark, but a fire burned in the sitting room and she Knew someone was awake there.

She’d intended to make her exit out the front door, but there was no way the witch wouldn’t sense her as she crept past the sitting room.

What were the chances there was someone at the back door too?

Fuck. She changed course and timed her steps to the loud pops of the hearth fire and instead moved to the washroom to regroup.

She’d been worried that they might still be guarding the entrances to the house.

Even though they’d been assured that Ena was no threat, she, Heran, and Greya were still from an enemy Coven—they still could not be trusted.

She opened the door of the small chamber that contained a pitcher, ewer, basin, and tub, and tried to steady her breathing as her heart pounded.

She could use her Gift on them, of course.

She knew she should feel guilty about being so willing to do that, but she was too deep into this to care now.

All that mattered was getting to Ty and getting him out.

But she also knew there’d be similar circumstances wherever they were holding Ty, and the more she used her magic, the more it would drain her, so she wanted to save it as a last resort.

She wracked her brain, thinking of a way to escape the house without having to use her Gift.

Then her eyes landed on the window.

It was small, but maybe just big enough for her.

She tried not to think about the irony of sneaking out of the bathroom window when Ty had given her such shit about potentially doing it in Attax.

Instead, she stepped into the dry bathtub at the base of the window and lifted the well-oiled latch.

Gaia be blessed, it was naturally windy this close to the ocean, and just as a particularly large gust rattled the house, she swung the window open, letting in the cold night air.

The drop from the window onto the ground of the garden below looked manageable, so Ena tossed the saddlebag she carried through the window, hearing it land with a gentle thud on the soft soil.

Cautiously, she lifted one leg through the window, using the edge of the tub below to awkwardly straddle the sill.

Then, crouching low, she ducked her head through the window and slid down until one leg landed ungracefully on the ground, the other still caught on the edge of the sill.

She lost her balance and fell as she pulled her other leg down to meet her, her hands slamming into the sandy, rocky dirt as her body smashed the woody sage plant below.

But she didn’t stop to worry about the damage as she stood and closed the window behind her.

She fled silently through the house’s garden and out the small gate that led into the forest. Once in the dark of the woods, she followed a light path through the trees until it wound between two of the houses next door, leading her back to the main road that ran down the center of the village.

She wasn’t entirely sure where Ty was being held, but she followed her instinct as she crept down the road to the small house that she’d been held in.

She’d figured out through observation that no one currently lived there, and that was why it had been chosen as the easiest place to house her as the Coven’s unexpected prisoner.

She’d bet everything that Ty was being held there too.

She slowly opened the front door, which unfortunately gave a loud creak. Ena winced as she slipped into the house, then closed it quickly behind her and froze, listening. There was no way someone hadn’t heard that. They’d be ready for her now.

Her heart pounded in her ears as she walked down the hallway.

The door to the first room on the right was open, and she saw light coming from within.

She Knew someone was there. She had no idea which room Ty was being held in, and there was no way to get to the rest of the house without passing by the witch in that room.

So as she walked towards the light, she reached down into her Knowing, feeling for her Gift.

Guilt over using her forbidden Gift didn’t even touch her as a plan formed in her mind.

Besides, if she played her cards right, no one would ever know.

A man in his fifties with short black hair speckled with gray sat in a large, upholstered chair in front of the fireplace, a discarded book in his lap.

Ena wasn’t even scared as his eyes landed on her, confusion filling his face.

She reached for her Gift and it flooded through her, swamping her like a wave, and before he could speak, Ena did.

{ Don’t move. }

The eerie voice of her visanis echoed around the room as the man’s movements froze.

{ Tell me where the daemon is. }

The man stared at her, confusion locked on his face and his body frozen in his last position. Only his mouth moved as he answered her question.

“Upstairs, the third room on the right,” he replied, his voice afraid.

{ Tell me where everyone else is in the house. }

“Ben is at the back door and Elyse is outside his door.” The man’s voice shook, but not a muscle in his body moved.

{ Ignore any sounds you hear until morning. Forget that you saw and spoke to me. }

After finishing her instructions, Ena gasped for breath. That was the most commands she’d given using her Gift, and she felt the strain on her magic already, but she kept going.

The man instantly turned back to his book as if nothing had happened, and Ena walked quietly towards the back of the house.

She saw Ben there, sitting in a chair that had been dragged next to the door, whittling something out of wood.

She recognized him as one of the witches who’d been bringing her food the last few days, and he stood up at her approach, realization dawning on his face.

He moved to speak, but Ena was faster.

{ Forget you saw me. Sit down and sleep until someone wakes you.}

He sat down in a trance and closed his eyes instantly.

Turning her back on him, Ena returned to find the stairs. She hoped her movements hadn’t already alerted the final witch’s Knowing, but that hope was dashed as she crested the top and heard Elyse speak.

{ Aeris }

A gust of air threw her off balance and she fell halfway back down the stairs, landing awkwardly on the saddlebag she carried as it partially cushioned her fall.

She scrambled to right herself, ignoring the throbbing on the side of her head where she’d whacked it on the banister, and looked up to see Elyse glaring down at her.

Ena felt her Gift surge through her anew, her anger rising.

Before Elyse could do anything else, Ena spoke.

{ Lay down, close your eyes, don’t move.}

The woman froze, her face screwed up in anger, before laying down and closing her eyes.

Ena righted herself the rest of the way and walked up the stairs to stand in front of her.

She breathed heavily as she drew on her exhausted magic to finish the commands.

She was dizzy from her fall, but she hoped this effort would cover her tracks.

{ I was never here. When someone finds you, tell them a daemon came and forced you to unlock the door. Then he knocked you unconscious and left with the prisoner. }

The woman didn’t move or show any acknowledgement that she’d heard Ena, but she wasn’t asleep, so Ena hoped the compulsion would work as intended. She released her grip on her Gift in sudden exhaustion, then stumbled to the door of Ty’s room.

Her magic was nearly exhausted, even her Knowing seemed dimmed, but she dredged up what she could to feel for the metal in the lock on the door and spoke her spellword.

{ Clavis }

Thankfully, she heard the lock click. She turned the handle slowly, and stepped into a dark room.