17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
Ena
Ena awoke to the feeling of her tiny passenger squirming around in her belly. Unconsciously, she reached down to caress her lower stomach—feeling the parts of her and Ty that were growing there. A person who would one day emerge and be hers to love and cherish.
The idea of being a mom was still foreign to her, but amidst all the chaos of the last several weeks since they’d lost Ty, she was so grateful for the baby. It had begun to feel like an anchor—keeping her moored amongst the chaos. Without it, and its reliance on her…she didn’t know where she’d be.
She rolled over to see Turner readying himself to leave the tent. The sun was up fully outside, and she guessed it was about midmorning, but there wasn’t much activity. Though she supposed it made sense—who knew how late the stryx had been up after the Change ceremony last night.
“How are you feeling?” Turner asked, noticing she was awake.
“Okay,” she answered truthfully. Physically, she felt fine. She’d rested enough and eaten enough. But mentally…
“There were a lot of revelations last night,” Turner said kindly. “And then the whole…blood-drinking thing. It would be entirely reasonable for you to be freaking out, you know.”
Ena huffed a small laugh, and it felt good to do so. “I know. Thanks for the permission. I’ll let you know if a freak-out seems imminent.”
Turner smiled at her, but he didn’t look away. He continued to stare at her, studying her.
“What?” she asked, feeling self-conscious under his gaze.
“Dunno,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Just trying to see the stryx in you.”
Ena rolled her eyes at him. “There’s nothing new to see,” she said. “I guess…I guess I’ve just always been this way and never knew.”
A surge of anger, confusion, and sadness swelled up in her at the thought, but she shoved it down. She’d had enough of those feelings, and she couldn’t handle any more.
“It makes a lot of things make more sense, you know,” he said. “How pale you are…your Gift…why you and Ty were so perfect.”
The mention of Ty’s name seemed to sit like a stone between them. It still hurt to think of him. To talk about him. To breathe without him.
“What do you mean?” she asked, trying to ignore that feeling too.
“You’re both half-breeds,” Turner said, smiling teasingly. “A perfect balance…a match made by Gaia. Or Iblis. Or Omnis, maybe, I don’t know. But you know what I mean.”
Ena paused at that. She’d never thought of it that way before…
both she and Ty represented all three races of magic, in a way.
She didn’t know that much about Omnis yet, but she did know how to interpret Gaia’s will.
And something inside her told her…yes. There was something special about their union.
A part of her had always Known that. And now…
Her hand went to her lower stomach. What would their baby be like?
Kaya interrupted this new, troublesome thought as she opened the tent flap and poked her head in, carrying what Ena immediately recognized as another jug of blood.
“Good morning, Ena. How are you feeling?” Kaya asked.
Ena could barely take her eyes off of what she held to greet her, but she managed it.
“Alright,” she answered. She didn’t mean to sound cranky.
She really was so grateful for all of Kaya’s help, but she couldn’t help the general sense of malaise that had seemed to permanently settle over her the last few weeks.
She knew she was still grieving, and that was okay, but she wished she had the energy to get to know Kaya better.
“And…the baby?” Kaya asked, looking pointedly down at her midsection.
“It seems good too,” Ena said, touched at her concern.
“Good,” Kaya said, seeming satisfied. “I’ve brought you some more blood, if you’re interested?”
“Yes,” Ena said, trying not to seem too eager.
She took the jug that Kaya handed to her and brought it to her lips immediately, letting the taste of the fresh blood wash through her mouth. She drank so quickly she almost didn’t realize it was gone until the flow of it stopped, and the sudden cessation of blood made her irrationally angry.
She lowered the jug from her lips and looked around for more. Was that all Kaya had brought?
“Do you feel more satisfied after the blood?” Kaya asked, seeming to notice Ena’s agitation.
Did she feel satisfied? If she were being honest, she did not. Drinking the blood—both times—seemed to only increase her desire for blood, not soothe it.
“Not really,” she answered truthfully, not having the energy to hide it.
“That’s strange,” Kaya said, her brow furrowing as if she were considering something.
“Maybe I need to drink more,” Ena said, hoping that might make her feel better. More sounded good.
“I don’t think you should have any more, Ena,” Turner said, looking at her cautiously.
He didn’t think she should have any more?
She looked over at her friend, and the thought came unbidden to her mind: if he tried to stop her from having more, then she’d have to stop him first. Maybe she would use her visanis to stop him from moving, take her knife and plunge it into his neck so more blood would spill from—
Ena shut her eyes tight.
No. No. No. No.
Why was she thinking like that? Imagining those things? She couldn’t do that to Turner.
“M-maybe you’re right,” Ena admitted, reaching for her water jug instead and standing up. “I should go outside, get some fresh air.”
“That’s a good idea. Maybe I could show you around a bit, and we could talk?” Kaya offered. “Most of the stryx won’t wake up until the late afternoon—they’re a fairly nocturnal bunch—so we have some time to ourselves until then.”
“Sure,” Ena said, trying to shove the cravings from her mind. “That’d be nice.”
Kaya stepped out while Turner and Ena readied themselves—changing their clothes and freshening up as best they could—before emerging from the tent to join her.
Kaya showed them around the small stryx camp, though Ena quickly found there wasn’t much more to it.
It consisted of about a dozen or so snow-packed shelters like the one they’d been staying in, mixed in with some open-air gathering areas with firepits, and subterranean food and blood storage caches—all easy to construct, and easy to abandon.
Once they’d finished that, they took a walk through the surrounding woods. It was cold still, with no sign of the coming spring, and as beautiful as it was, Ena found herself missing home—again.
“I never asked, but how did you find the journey here?” Kaya asked kindly, perhaps sensing Ena’s melancholy.
“Harsh,” Turner answered. “We were delayed several times due to the worst snowstorms we’ve ever experienced. Is that normal for this side of the mountains?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Kaya answered. “Like Max told you last night, there’s been increasingly bad storms over the last several decades.
And not only that, but strange behavior from animals too.
There have been aggressive attacks from creatures who are usually docile, nocturnal animals seen during the day, and some species who’ve had difficulty breeding or birthing their young.
It’s part of why the stryx…well, they’ve struggled, and they’ve been looking to go elsewhere for a long time. ”
“Strange behavior from animals?” Ena asked. “Maybe that explains the bear that attacked us.”
“You mentioned that last night,” Kaya mused. “Were any of you hurt?”
“We were mostly unharmed—well, except for Ty, but it was relatively minor for him,” Ena answered, then she paused, swallowing. The subject of Ty was tough for all of them, and an awkward silence fell over the group.
“What was he like? My son,” Kaya asked, her voice tight with sadness.
Ena sighed. How could she even begin to describe the man who had changed her life forever?
The person who was imprinted so deep onto her very being that she didn’t know how she was surviving without him?
She couldn’t—it was impossible to describe him fully.
But…she looked over at Kaya’s face and saw her own sadness reflected there, and realized how tragic it was that she had never gotten to know Ty.
So she thought maybe she should try, for Kaya’s sake.
“He was…reckless,” Ena said, a small smile coming to her face. “Brave, and selfless too,” she added.
“A true fighter,” Turner chimed in. “And a loyal friend.”
Kaya smiled at their description of him.
“And he would have made a wonderful king, too. Even better than Haden,” he added.
A ghost of…something passed over Kaya’s face at the mention of Ty’s father. “And Haden, is he well?” she asked cautiously.
“Oh, no,” Turner answered, his face falling. “You don’t know? Haden died almost fifteen years ago. Cole is king now.”
“He’s dead? How?” Kaya asked, her hand going to her heart.
“A stomach ailment—rare for daemons,” Turner said. “It was tragic—Ty was so strong during his passing, though.”
Kaya closed her eyes, a look of guilt washing over her, before she opened them again suddenly, realizing the second part of what Turner had said. “And now Cole is king?” she asked incredulously, as if the idea disgusted her.
“Yes,” Turner explained. “Ty wasn’t old enough to assume the role at the time, but I’m glad you seem to understand how horrible that’s been without me having to explain it to you.”
“How did you ever break the bond then? There’s no way Cole would have wanted Gaia’s will restored to daemons.”
“Ty,” both Turner and Ena answered together, then turned to one another and smiled at their synchronicity.
“He befriended Petyr on a mission, and figured it out, like we told you,” Ena explained. “He found me, too, and told me about it, and I went to the Underworld with them to figure out how to break it.”
“‘Found’ is a generous way of putting it,” Turner said, smirking at the memory. “‘Took’ is more appropriate.”
“Wait—you went to the Underworld? As a witch-slave?” Kaya asked, ignoring Turner’s snark.
“Yes,” Ena answered.