27. Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ty
Ty tried to shake off his lingering anger as the three of them made their way over to Max’s tent.
He didn’t relish fighting with one of his best friends, but Turner had to understand that this was the only way forward.
He couldn’t put his child and Ena in danger, and he couldn’t keep splitting parts of himself, dividing his loyalties.
He wanted to be all of himself—the way Ena allowed him to be—and he couldn’t do that as King of the Underworld.
They found Max sitting with Kaya and Xoe outside their tent around a fire, everyone relishing the rare, stormless weather as they worked on various projects—maintaining their clothing and bows, making new arrows, and chatting amicably.
“Max,” Ty greeted as they approached. “Do you have a minute? There is something we would like to discuss with you, and the others.”
“Of course,” Max said, seeming surprised by Ty’s formality as he gestured to the spot next to him around the fire.
“We’ve been talking and we have a proposal for you and the rest of the stryx. I know you don’t speak for them, so I’m hoping once you hear what I have to say, you can bring it to the rest of the group.”
“Okay, tell me,” Max said, all businesslike. Ty appreciated that about him—although he wasn’t a leader in any formal way, he behaved like one and was always ready to do what was best for his people.
“I shared with them what you and I discussed the other day and we’d like you all to come back to the other side of the Chasm Mountains with us,” Ty said, getting right to the point.
“You know there is a king there, in the Underworld, whom we disagree with. He needs to be deposed, and we were hoping that if you help us, then the daemons can help you. We can make sure you have a safe place to relocate.”
Max looked over at Kaya, some unspoken communication passing between them, then he sighed heavily. “The idea of leaving our home, our land, does not please me, but…I fear it may be time to consider this. What do you think?” he asked Kaya.
Kaya sighed, shaking her head. “I agree that it may be time to leave, but as for the other part of your proposal…you have no idea how dangerous Cole truly is. Any of you,” she said in warning. “There is no doubt in my mind that he needs to be removed from the throne, but it’s incredibly risky.”
“What do you mean we don’t know how dangerous he is?
” Ty asked Kaya, feeling like there was something she wasn’t saying.
It felt a bit strange to speak with her directly still.
He hadn’t necessarily been avoiding her these past few months—they coexisted peacefully enough, but he still had never given her the opportunity to say the things she wanted to, and that unspoken weight of the past sat between them every time they spoke.
Kaya hesitated, as if reluctant to explain, and she looked away from Ty.
“You need to tell them what happened,” Max said to her gently.
“What happened with what?” Ty asked, his stomach clenching at where this topic was likely headed.
“With me, and Cole, and…your father,” she said, her tone heavy.
Ty stiffened. He was correct about where this was heading—to the past, his past—and he still wasn’t sure he wanted to hear it.
“Excuse us for a second,” Ena said, tugging on his arm and dragging him away from the group so they could speak privately.
“What?” he asked, caught off guard at the sudden disruption.
“Enough is enough, Ty,” Ena said speaking gently but firmly. “You need to let Kaya explain what happened all those years ago. You’ve been avoiding it way too long, and now we actually need to know—especially if it’s important information for overthrowing Cole.”
Ty sighed, stroking his beard, before meeting Ena’s gaze. He wasn’t the only one who was annoyed—he could tell she was too—but he couldn’t hide from her. He never could.
“What are you so afraid of anyway?” she asked, her blue eyes filled with a vulnerability that invited his own.
“I don’t know,” he said truthfully, and it frustrated him. “It’s not like I hate her or anything. She seems like a nice enough person, I just…”
“You’re mad at her,” Ena finished for him.
“Yes,” he said emphatically. “Of course I’m fucking mad at her. The choices she made…no matter what the reasons, even if they were justified, still ended the way they did. Leaving me without a mother, and eventually, without a father too. They left me at Cole’s mercy.”
“I’m not telling you to not be angry, Ty, I’m just telling you to listen. I think, deep down, if you’re ever going to let go of your anger, you need to understand what happened,” Ena said, her tone even and fair.
Fuck. He hated it when she was right. Which was often.
Ty sighed again, shutting his eyes for a moment. “You’re right,” he admitted, opening them. “I have been running from this.” He felt defeated even saying that. He felt cowardly—and he fucking hated feeling that way.
“So stop, and just face what you need to face,” Ena said. “I know you can.”
The way she looked at him then—her eyes filled with love and faith in him—made him feel like the strongest man in the world. He knew in that moment, that he’d do anything to make her proud of him. To please her.
“Okay,” he said. “For you.”
“Uh-uh,” she said, shaking her head and smirking at him. “For yourself.”
He growled playfully at her, which only made her smile wider. “Fine. For myself, then. Lead the way, viper,” he said, gesturing back towards the group.
“Our apologies for the disruption,” he said as they rejoined the others around the fire.
“Not a problem,” Turner said gleefully. “Did you successfully talk some sense into him?” he asked Ena.
Ty side-eyed him as Ena responded with a satisfied, close-lipped smile. The two of them were so smug, he made a mental note to kick Turner’s ass at cards later and deliver a spanking Ena would never forget.
Ty cleared his throat meaningfully. “Kaya, if you wouldn’t mind telling us what happened with Cole, especially if it’s relevant for our plans, then…we’re listening,” Ty gritted out, his heart pounding harder than normal.
Kaya’s eyebrow quirked up in surprise. He’d been avoiding this topic for so long, he was sure it was jarring for her to finally be invited to speak on it.
“Well,” she began. “I don’t know if it will be relevant for deposing him, but you do need to understand what he’s capable of—how badly he likely resents you. ”
Ty knew that Cole hated him—that had always been clear—but he always thought it was out of jealousy, since Ty was the rightful heir, not just a placeholder like Cole was.
He nodded for Kaya to continue. “Go on,” he said, steeling himself. “I need to know.”
“Cole was there, from the very beginning. He was there when your father and I met,” Kaya began.
Ty’s brows flew to the top of his head. He’d never heard any of this before.
He’d known that his mother was a witch, and that she had come to the Underworld with his father for a while, and had refused to be witch-slave and wear an imperae collar, but that was pretty much it.
He’d never heard the circumstances of their meeting before.
“Your father and Cole were out on a mission, visiting Attax—the closest major village to the Occidens Coven. I was there, doing some trades for the Coven, and that’s how we met. In the guesthouse, late one night, over a mug of ale. The two of them came over and struck up a conversation with me.
“I was drawn to your father right away. He was so handsome. So strong, and steady—just like you,” Kaya said wistfully, as the past seemed to fill her present. “I fell for him—hard. Of course, I thought he was just a mortal, until we were intimate, and he admitted to me what he really was.”
Ty listened raptly, despite himself, because he couldn’t help but notice the similarities between his and Ena’s situation. They overlapped in the most painful of ways.
“I don’t know how much you know of Occidens,” Kaya continued, looking at Ena, “but we have known all along about the amulet, and the binding spell on daemons.
I was raised not to trust daemons, of course, but also, in a way, to pity them.
And since I was so young, and naive, I thought that I could change Haden.
Help him resist his chaotic urges, and that maybe we could be together.
“He visited several times over the course of the next few months, and it wasn’t long before we found out I was with child.
My Coven was furious and banished me—a half-daemon child was considered a threat, because it would be impossible for them to serve Gaia, and my loyalties were called into question as well—so I agreed to go with Haden to the Underworld.
“Haden had recently been crowned king after the death of his father, so he was new to the throne, but he was working so hard to take the Underworld in a new direction—to reshape things. He tried to expand the mines, and redirected more labor to the forge, and he was often gone, negotiating with daemons from the different levels, or completing missions himself to get the goods the Underworld needed. It was in those long days and nights of his absence that Cole started to…visit me.”
Ty felt his stomach tighten sickeningly. He dreaded to hear where this was going.
“At first, it was small things, like bringing me trinkets from the forges, or inviting me to dine with him. I thought he was just being nice at first, welcoming. Until…he tried to kiss me.”
Ty felt his rage bubble up inside him. He’d known that Cole was a sick fucking asshole, but this—going after his brother’s pregnant girlfriend—was a whole new level.
“I rebuked him, of course. And he…he didn’t take it well. After that, he became my enemy. He convinced the other daemons to pressure Haden to put me in an imperae collar, saying that I was a witch and couldn’t be trusted, urging those who wanted to to take their rage out on me, or…share me.