25. Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ty
The day after Xena’s Awakening, a severe storm set in, forcing Ty, Ena, Turner, and the stryx to hunker down in their shelters.
It was difficult to leave even to get wood to maintain their fires, and hunting was out of the question.
The wind whipped so hard, with ice and snow pelting their tents for days on end, it was as if Iblis himself had conjured a storm set only for destruction.
At first, Ty didn’t mind it. It gave him uninterrupted time to spend with Ena—getting to appreciate her growing, changing body, and it gave them time to catch up and experiment with her new needs, which he delighted in.
They even visited with some of the others too—when they felt brave enough to switch tents. But after a while, it became somewhat disconcerting, as their supplies began to dwindle, and they all began waiting impatiently, day by day, for the storm to pass.
It was one such day in particular, almost a week after her Awakening, when Xena stopped by.
Ty, Ena, and Turner were sitting snug in their tent while Ena tried to teach them to play Three Covens—a game that was apparently common among witches and mortals—using pieces of hide they had drawn on as makeshift cards, when they heard Xena announce her presence above the whipping wind.
“Come in!” Ena called.
Xena popped her head in, her snow-covered body following after.
Ty would be lying if he said he didn’t still feel uncomfortable as fuck around her now that he knew what she was to him. Just like with Kaya, he didn’t exactly know how he felt about it all, and that made it hard to know what to do.
“Thank you,” Xena said, somewhat awkwardly, looking between them. “I wondered if I could speak with you for a minute,” she said to Ena.
“Of course,” Ena said, shifting slightly to make room for Xena around the central fire.
Xena’s eyes darted to Turner, who sat across the fire, before quickly shifting away, almost embarrassedly, and refocusing on Ena.
What in Iblis’s name was that about?
“Thank you,” Xena said. Ty had never heard her be so polite. It was weird and off-putting to say the least. What was going on? “I wanted to ask you about your…Gift,” she continued.
“What about it?” Ena asked, her brow furrowing in that cute way Ty loved.
“Well, from what my mother told me, it’s not really a Gift. It’s a Power. Is that true?”
“Sort of,” Ena explained. “It is a Gift, because I’m a witch, but the ability is something a daemon can have too. In fact, it’s more common in daemons as a Power.”
Xena nodded, looking like she was mulling something over. “And how did you realize you had this…Gift that is also a Power?”
“The matriarch of my Coven sensed it using divination, and then Ty,” she added, looking over at him, “was the one who explained to me how it worked, and how to use it.”
Ty remembered that. All her questions about his Power of furor. At the time, he’d assumed she was scared or curious about daemons. It wasn’t until later that he’d realized she was simply curious about herself.
“Why do you ask?” Ena inquired.
Xena tucked her hair behind her ear, as if trying to think how best to explain.
“Since my Awakening, I have been vigilant, wanting to know if Omnis Awakened a Gift, in addition to my Change, but I hadn’t felt anything until…
” She looked briefly over at Turner, before darting her eyes away again.
“I was awake one day—having trouble sleeping with the storm—so I wanted to work on my bone carving, but I didn’t want to wake Xoe.
I was trying to be quiet, willing her to not hear me, when I felt…
I felt almost as if I could feel her. Her mind, asleep. Does that make any sense?”
“That sounds like a mind channel,” Ty chimed in, drawing Xena’s attention to him. “The way that daemons’ Powers work, and Ena’s visanis.”
“But his Power does not work that way,” Xena said, gesturing toward, but avoiding eye contact with, Turner.
“My Power is corporeal,” Turner explained, and she looked over at him reluctantly. “But not all daemons have Powers like me. Most have Powers of the mind, using mind channels, like Ty said.”
“But why would I have a Power? I am not a daemon,” Xena asked him, raising her brow in challenge.
“Neither am I,” Ena responded for him. “But I am part witch, and part stryx. Maybe something about the bloodlines crossing makes the magic we are granted…not follow the rules. We know that all magic comes from the same source, so maybe that’s just…
Omnis. And we’re able to tap into different parts of Omnis than other witches. ”
“What Gift did your father have? He was part witch and part stryx too, no?” Xena asked.
“I was told he had a form of animalium—that’s a Gift that allows you to communicate with certain animals.”
“And that is not a Power?”
“No,” Ena explained. “It’s not necessarily common among witches, but there are others with that Gift. And my sister…she would be part stryx, too, and she still has a Gift.”
“So maybe, when the bloodlines cross, it can just go either way?” Turner offered. “Depending on the person.”
Ty thought that he was likely right—maybe there was no pattern to any of this.
All of this complicated business about Iblis, Gaia, and Omnis—that was beyond him.
Ena had explained what she’d learned from Kaya and Max the other night, and he appreciated it, but he normally left that kind of thinking to her.
Not because he didn’t care, but just because it didn’t affect him.
Not really. He was glad to be free of serving Iblis exclusively.
Glad to have access to Gaia, or full access to Omnis, or however you wanted to look at it.
Beyond that, it didn’t fucking matter to him what was out there.
What mattered was right in front of him.
“I suppose so,” Ena said. He could see her brain turning over this new information, trying to make it fit. “So what is it you think your Power can do?” she asked Xena.
“I don’t know,” she replied, seeming slightly frustrated by the idea.
Despite himself, Ty had sympathy for her.
As much as the idea of a sibling was foreign to him, he could understand how difficult it was to have two parts to you, one of which was hard to understand.
It was part of why he still couldn’t deal with Kaya.
Because unlike Xena, he’d had no one to explain his Gift, to guide him when he’d discovered it, and he resented the fuck out of that.
He’d never been able to learn about his witch half, until he met Ena.
Then, like an arrow nocking into place, he realized what it was about Xena that made him so uncomfortable.
He was jealous.
Deep down, he was jealous that she’d gotten their mother, while Ty had been left alone. And that made him not only resent Kaya, but Xena too.
But, logically, he also knew that that was not Xena’s fault. He groaned internally.
Fuck. Maybe he should try to be nicer to her.
He cleared his throat pointedly. “What were you trying to do when you felt the mind channel appear?” Ty asked, deciding he should offer what guidance he could. “That usually happens when your Power’s purpose is close.”
Xena looked at him, seeming pleasantly surprised. “Like I said, I was just trying not to wake Xoe. Trying to be quiet,” she said.
“That sounds like…” Turner began, looking over at him.
“Invisibilitas,” Ty finished, nodding with a smile. “It’s a Power that allows one to distract someone else. Make them not notice you. It’s pretty rare.”
Xena’s eyebrows rose excitedly, and damn her, the look buoyed his spirits.
“Let’s test it then,” Ena offered to Xena, her face a mirror of his sister’s excitement. “You should try to leave without me noticing and see if the mind channel appears, and if it does, use it to…distract me, or whatever.”
“No, no, no,” Turner said vehemently, shaking his head. “She’s gonna use it on me.”
Xena looked over at him, arching her eyebrow. “Are you sure?” she asked silkily, a devious smile forming on her face.
“Yes,” Turner said, his face going slightly red. Was he hot or something? “Of course. It’s safer anyway, with Ena in her current condition. Just in case, you know.”
Ty thought that reasoning was a little flimsy, but Turner seemed determined, and it made no difference to him.
“Alright,” Xena said, holding Turner’s eye contact a few seconds longer than normal.
What the fuck was going on between the two of them? Had they gotten into it or something? Xena could definitely be a rude pain in the ass, but Turner was so friendly, he could usually handle people like that.
“Okay then,” Ena chimed in, breaking their staring contest. “Turner, you organize these cards, and Xena, you see if you can slip out unnoticed while he’s doing that.”
Turner took the crudely made cards from Ena’s hands and started organizing them, but Ty kept his eyes on Xena.
It was clear she was concentrating on Turner—her brow furrowed as her mismatched eyes followed his movements.
Suddenly, Turner seemed to become even more engrossed in his task, as if he’d entered a flow state—like Ty often did when he was fighting someone or working in the forge.
He was so concentrated on the task, he lost awareness of the world around him, and he didn’t notice when Xena slipped from the tent, a gust of cold air flooding from the entrance at her departure.
“Turner,” Ty prompted, reaching out to pat him on the shoulder.
“Huh? Did she try yet?” Turner asked, looking confused before glancing over to where Xena had sat just moments ago. “Oh. Damn, she got me,” he added, smiling widely, looking almost…awed.
Two seconds later, Xena popped her head back in the tent, her normally impassive face alight with curiosity. “Did it work?”
The three of them answered her with satisfied smiles, and Ty felt his heart swell just the tiniest bit with pride.
***