Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-two
Ena
Ena awoke the next morning next to a snoring Cris.
She’d reluctantly agreed to sleep in his tent with him, even after the failed almost-kiss, because she had no good reason to say no except that she didn’t want to be that far from Ty.
Which was ridiculous because they were no longer together like that—a fact that she had to painfully remind herself of almost every hour of every day.
Besides, after her outburst last night, she thought maybe it would be good for her to get some space from him.
She cringed with embarrassment just thinking about what she’d said.
There was no way everyone, including Ty, hadn’t heard her innermost thoughts spill out after Cris had tried to kiss her.
Not that any of what she’d said was necessarily a secret, but still.
It was all so fresh, she just didn’t want to continuously open that jar of hurt for both of them.
Sitting up and emerging from under her blanket, she began to put her boots on.
She’d admit it was rather nice to have the tent warmed by Cris’s calor, but his presence wasn’t the same as Ty’s.
Not by a long shot. Even though Turner had taken to sleeping in between them, she could still sense Ty, just on the other side of him.
She could hear his breathing, smell his scent in the tent, and it always soothed her.
Without that, this morning she had woken up agitated.
The air was cold and she could see her breath instantly upon emerging from the tent, so she went to build up the fire. Soon, everyone else began to stir, too, and she was glad that no one asked her to talk about last night.
After eating a quick breakfast from their provisions—because unfortunately, Ty hadn’t had any luck with his traps last night, probably thanks to all the noise she’d made—they packed up and continued heading west.
They rode for several days, carving their way through the backcountry, and began to fall into a rhythm.
Cris seemed to be on pleasant-enough terms with Turner, and coexisted with Ty, so they all chatted together companionably.
When she could, Ena explained more about everything to Cris, filling him in on the binding spell and what to expect for breaking it.
He was endlessly curious about her experiences in the Underworld, too, which she also shared, although she kept some of the more traumatic ones to herself so as not to scare him away.
And, of course, she told him about Occidens, given how crucial that information was for their next task.
Every night, she, Ty, Turner, and Cris sat around the fire planning—trying to think through different scenarios for how they could contact an Occidens witch and sway them to their side.
But every situation they envisioned seemed nearly impossible.
Not only did Ena and Cris have zero contacts at Occidens, because of the rivalry, but she and Ty were most surely wanted by them because of their escape and theft of the amulet.
They agreed their best hope was to identify a witch who maybe knew Ty’s mother and held sympathy for daemons like she most likely did, but how to go about finding someone like that was the tough part.
They planned to send Cris and Turner in, since they wouldn’t be recognized, to hopefully start some conversations with people while pretending to trade, and go from there, but Ena felt like there was a good chance that might not amount to anything.
They continued on anyway, clinging to that fool’s hope, until they were only about a day or so away from Attax—the last mortal village before Occidens.
They were planning to camp one more night in the backcountry, and join up with the Western Road tomorrow, before they made their way into the village, but Ena slept fitfully that night, despite the warmth of her tent, and again awoke earlier than the others.
Putting on her boots, she emerged from her and Cris’s tent, letting her eyes adjust to the dim morning light, and let out a small, startled cry at what she saw.
A small person with a slight, somewhat androgynous figure and short brown hair sat at their mostly dead fire, poking it with a stick as wisps of smoke curled into the cold air.
“Excuse me!” Ena said, shock and confusion warring in her tone. “Who are you?”
Ena Knew almost instantly that they were not threatening.
Instead, they seemed almost relaxed, which was extraordinarily weird.
She hadn’t seen a single other person outside their group in almost a week, and yet here was this stranger sitting around their fire?
How did neither she nor Cris hear them coming with their Knowing?
Or Ty with his venator? Not to mention, having a stranger just barge into an unknown campsite and make themselves at home was unheard of.
The person looked at her. Their eyes were big, brown, and friendly, though something about them was a bit…odd. A bit unfocused.
“Oh, good morning,” they said. “I’m glad you’re finally awake. I’m Mel, short for Melas.”
The stranger stood, approaching Ena with their hand extended as if to shake. But Ena didn’t offer hers in return and didn’t intend to until she knew what the fuck was going on.
“Ty!” Ena called, but she knew their voices had already awoken him. She could hear him shuffling inside the tent, likely throwing on his boots.
Seconds later, he emerged, his hand on the knife at his belt as he sized up Mel. “Who the fuck are you?” he asked, not even trying to be polite the way Ena had.
“Oh wow, you do look like her,” Mel said, smiling widely and seeming extremely unconcerned about Ty’s menacing attitude.
“Look like who?” he asked, confusion and caution etched on his face.
“My bad. I get things out of order sometimes. Did I already tell you my name?” they asked, looking between Ena and Ty.
“Yes, your name is Mel, short for Melas. You just told me.” Now it was Ena’s turn to be confused. “Would you mind telling us what you are doing here in our campsite?”
“I was looking for you,” they said. “I Knew you would be here.”
“What? Why? How?” Ena’s mind spun with questions, she couldn’t get them out fast enough.
Turner and Cris had emerged from their tents at this point, too, and were standing next to Ena and Ty, forming a wall of witches and daemons as they questioned the newcomer.
“Sorry, let me back up,” Mel said, holding up their hands in apology. “My name is Mel. I’m a witch from Occidens. I came to find you because I saw that I already found you. And that you’ll need me for what’s to come.”
They were an Occidens witch? Oh no—did this mean the Coven already knew of their approach?
“What do you mean you saw that you already found us?” Turner asked, his brow so furrowed he looked like he already had a headache from all this.
“In one of my visions. I already mentioned that, I thought…or I guess not,” they said, grasping their chin in contemplation. “Either way, I’ll say it again. I have the Gift of omen.”
“Omen? Wow,” Cris said, his brows jumping up. “So you’re a seer? That makes a lot of sense now.”
“Yes, good, I’m glad that makes sense to you,” Mel said, smiling and nodding.
“Wait a minute,” Ty interjected. “What did you mean we’ll need you for what’s to come? What do you know?”
Ty was right to be concerned—did this person somehow know about the amulet and what they planned? If so, did the rest of Occidens know already too?
They exchanged a look with Ty, raising their eyebrow at him. “I know a lot of things. You’ll have to be more specific,” they said. “But hurry up, in case another one comes.”
Now Ena’s eyebrows raised. What in the actual fuck was going on?
In case another what came? A vision? She’d heard of the Gift of omen, but had never met a witch with it before.
It was fairly rare, like Greya’s vita, though not as rare as her own visanis.
The last witch she’d heard of that had it was her own grandmother, her father’s mother, who was an Aquilo witch.
Ty sighed, clearly feeling rather frustrated himself. “What do you know about us and what we’re…doing?”
“Oh, that, okay. I know about the amulet and that you’re going to break the spell binding daemons to Iblis. I’ve seen that I will be a part of that, so that’s why I came to find you.”
Ty looked over at Ena again, both of them wide-eyed and unsure of what to do with that information.
“Mel, if you could just excuse us for a second,” Ena said, trying to sound kind and not completely overwhelmed like she was actually feeling.
Mel nodded and sat back down by the fire, continuing to poke it with the same stick they’d had before.
Ena turned to the others, jerking her head towards the woods, indicating they should follow her. Once they were reasonably out of earshot, the four of them stood in a circle to speak in hushed tones.
“Well, this was quite the surprise to wake up to,” Turner said, rubbing his face. “I don’t know whether to be relieved or suspicious.”
“Me neither,” said Ty, stroking his beard nervously. “Ena, can you use your Knowing on them? See if they’re being sincere?”
“I already did,” Ena admitted. From the second she found the person sitting there, she’d allowed her Knowing free rein to interpret their signs and intentions.
“They didn’t seem to be lying, or to have intentions of harm, but their signs were confusing.
Like…jumbled. As if they were reacting to things that hadn’t happened yet. ”
“That makes sense given that they’re a seer. They clearly know a lot of what’s to come, and that would affect the signs they’re giving now,” Cris corroborated.
“Well, should we believe them?” Turner asked. “I mean, it certainly makes it a hell of a lot easier if we don’t have to find our own Occidens witch.”
“Yes, but why would they want to help us? What do they have to gain? We don’t know if it’s a trap set by Occidens for us somehow,” Ty asked, clearly not ready to let go of suspicion. But his concerns were valid.