Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-four
Ena
The five of them traveled for several days.
It was strange at first, having two new additions, but Ena found that she appreciated the company of other witches.
She didn’t realize how much she’d missed the ease and comfort of being with her own kind.
And she felt it all the more acutely as they got closer to the Sacred Pool, and to speaking with Greya.
On their fourth day of travel, when they were only a couple miles away, memories began flooding her of the last time she was here. How frantic she’d been to speak to Greya then too, and how scared she’d been traveling alone in the freezing rain with no supplies.
This time was blessedly different in some ways—she had a horse, they had ample supplies, tents, and a witch with the Gift of calor to warm them despite the slushy snow that covered the ground.
But she still felt just as anxious to speak to Greya—only now she was nervous about the daemons she’d brought with her, and not the ones pursuing her.
Still, the sight of the delicate, bubbling stream—so clear she could see the multicolored pebbles along the bottom—lifted her spirits. The Sacred Pool was a place of great reverence and beauty, and though she was nervous to speak to her sister, she felt empowered just being in its presence.
Just like before, they followed the crystal-clear water to its source—the murky blue pool, framed by low-hanging, moss-covered tree branches.
This time of the year, its banks were covered in snow, making the water appear even bluer than last time.
The sun had emerged from behind the dense gray clouds about an hour ago, and was now reflecting off the snow and water, giving the pool an ethereal glow. It was utterly breathtaking.
She heard Turner, Mel, and Cris give audible gasps and murmur words of wonder as they approached.
None of them had been here before, even though Cris had certainly heard a lot about it from other witches.
She could tell its beauty impacted them just as it had her, and that brought a smile to her face.
Together, they took their horses to the rocky overhang where she and Ty had dried out after their last visit. The memory of him crashing into the water after her, pulling her back into his safe, warm body, flooded through her, confusing her with conflicting emotions, but she pushed it aside.
In unspoken agreement, the others got to work starting a fire and setting up their bedrolls, allowing Ena to make her way over to the pool’s edge alone. She would need silence to concentrate on the spell, especially since she’d never done it before.
She wandered over to the water, a cold breeze rippling across the surface. Butterflies swam in her stomach, both at the prospect of attempting an unknown spell, and at seeing her sister. Would this be the reconciliation she hoped for, or just add another stone in the wall between them?
She heard someone approach and turned to see Ty.
He stood a few feet behind her, his large frame shading out the sun like an eclipse.
All she could see was him. Their eyes met as he reached into the sheath at his side, pulling out his dagger before flipping it in his hand and holding it out to her handle first.
“You’ll need this, won’t you?” he asked.
Did he remember that from last time? Had he watched her try to cut her palm with a jagged stone, only stopping when the shock of his voice caused her to tumble into the pool?
“Thanks,” she said, accepting the knife.
There was a heavy silence between them, as if they both wanted to speak more but neither of them knew what to say.
“You can do this, Ena,” he said, breaking their quiet. But whether he was talking about the spell itself or convincing Greya to help them, she wasn’t sure. “I’ll be over here if you need anything.” He nodded at her reassuringly, then turned and walked away, leaving her alone to face what came next.
Lowering herself down to her knees, she peered over the edge of the pool, staring deep into the water.
She allowed her Knowing to come alive, sensing the intention of the pool’s water, bubbling up from underground.
Not dissimilar, she realized, from the hot springs she and Ty had swum in in the Underworld.
Her heart ached at that memory, too, but, again, she pushed it aside.
She focused her thoughts on Greya instead.
Her sister, her best friend. The person who knew her best in this world, and whom she missed so much.
She allowed her heart to feel that yearning, to remember once more what it felt like to be in the presence of someone who was so much a part of her.
The warmth in her eyes, and her laugh. The way her hands moved when she cooked, and the way her smile lit up her face.
The way she smelled and the exact color of her hair—pale and golden in the sunshine.
She watched the water ebb and flow to the bank, rippling across the reflection of her face. She felt the breeze swaying in the trees around her, and looking down at her palm, she felt her blood moving—pumping—through her veins, the same blood that flowed through Greya’s veins.
Taking Ty’s knife in her hand, she sliced her palm. Not too deep, but just enough for the blood to well up. Holding her hand over the water, she squeezed her palm and watched as the crimson liquid dripped into it, swirling into the murky blue before disappearing. Then, she spoke her spellword.
{Sanguis}
The blood that continued to drip from her hand into the water began to swirl, creating a delicate whirlpool independent of the water’s current, right atop her reflection.
Ena focused her thoughts. Greya. Where was Greya? What was she doing? She kept them regimented, kept them focused on her sister.
Several seconds went by, and Ena began to feel concern creep in. What if it didn’t work? But then—
There.
Her own reflection in the water began to disappear, and another image started to replace it—blurry at first, but becoming clearer with each drop of her blood.
Squeezing her hand to increase the flow of it into the water, the image clarified.
A flash of blonde hair appeared, then the glimpse of a slightly darker-blonde eyebrow, with a brown eye beneath it.
“Greya?” Ena spoke loudly, as if her sister were far away, hardly able to keep the excitement from her voice. “Oh Gaia, it’s working. Greya! Can you hear me? Can you see me?”
The spell was working! It was—
The image stopped moving, and suddenly, two brown eyes stared back at her.
Right where her own reflection in the water should be, there was now Greya’s face—her reflection—fully visible and rippling with the movement of the water.
It was as if the two of them had swapped places, each seeing what the other normally saw when she stared into the water on her own.
Greya’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “Ena?” she asked cautiously. Her voice sounded muffled, as if she herself were underwater, but Ena could still hear her clearly enough. “Ena, is that you?”
“Yes! Yes, Greya can you see me? Can you hear me?”
“Yes. Oh Gaia, Ena, how am I seeing you right now?” Her sister moved closer to whatever water she was looking at, making her reflection larger to Ena. “Where are you? Are you okay?”
The sound of her sister’s voice, both overjoyed and filled with concern, brought tears to her eyes. A sudden rush of grief for all that she had been through since they parted hit her, and they overflowed instantly. Ena tried not to, but tears ran down her cheeks, choking her voice.
“Yes, Greya, I’m okay. I’m at the Sacred Pool. I did a blood-to-blood spell. I’m just—” She cut herself off, trying to get her emotions under control so Greya could understand her. “I’m so glad to see you.”
Her tears dripped into the water, disappearing into her sister’s reflection.
“I’m so glad to see you too,” Greya said, backing her face away again. “I’m trying not to burn myself on the steam coming from this pot of boiling water. One second, let me remove it from the hearth.”
Ena watched as Greya brought her pot-holder-clad hand up over the edge of her reflection, presumably moving the pot over to the kitchen counter.
“That’s better,” she said, smiling weepily down at Ena once more. “Ena—I don’t even know where to start. Where in the Underworld have you been? I know you said you’re okay, but are you really? Are you safe?”
Ena nodded her head. There was so much to answer in those questions she didn’t know where to begin, so she decided to start with the most important thing.
“I am safe, yes. And as to where I’ve been…I actually have been in the Underworld.”
“Gaia…are you serious? Did Ty force you there? I figured he must have escaped from Occidens somehow and kidnapped you again, even though none of the Occidens witches believed that. They all thought you’d let him go, but I told them you would never.
How did you escape?” Greya’s questions grew frantic and Ena had to cut her off.
“No, no, Ty didn’t force me there. I went with him willingly. And as for Occidens…they were right. I was the one who let him go.”
She saw her sister hesitate, her face screwed up in shock and confusion. “Ena, what? Why would you ever help a daemon, and willingly go to the Underworld with him? After everything they did to you, burning down Heran’s house, all the harm they’ve caused…how could you choose that?”