“Huh,” Ty replied, as if he was processing this information. “Is there anything your Knowing doesn’t work on?”
“Daemons.”
“Really?” he said, glancing cautiously at her. “That seems…inconvenient.”
“It is, that’s why they’re so dangerous. It’s said that their magic is such a foil opposite to ours that the two systems cancel each other out, rendering our magic completely unusable against one another. The Covens want to help mortals, heal them, obviously, but when daemons get involved and use their Powers to disrupt Gaia’s balance, witches are often unable to help or prevent it because we just don’t Know they’re there.”
“Hmm,” Ty said, going quiet for a minute. “Have you ever met a daemon?”
“No, thank Gaia. I don’t think there’s very many of them left anymore,” Ena replied, huffing a laugh.
Soon, they approached a narrowing of the path that forced them to walk single file, and their conversation halted again as they trudged up the steep slopes.
“How much farther?” Ty asked from behind her.
“A little bit. Why, getting tired? This can’t possibly be harder than the trek over the Chasm Mountains,” Ena teased, glancing back at him with a wry grin.
“No,” he replied, smiling back, “not at all. That took weeks. Although, we did have horses,” he added as an aside. “But wouldn’t it be faster if we just climbed this way?” He gestured to a face of bare rock that stretched to the top of the cliff, bypassing the steep switchbacks.
“Well, yes, but we’d have to climb.”
“So let’s climb.”
Ena’s heart beat faster at the idea. She wasn’t much of a climber. The path was the safer route.
“I don’t know,” she said hesitantly, eying the rock face.
“Oh, come on. You can do it.” Ty looked at her as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. As if he had absolutely no doubt that she could. “You go first. I’ll coach you as you climb up. And I’ll catch you if you fall,” he added, grinning at her.
Ena looked up at the rock wall, then back at Ty. Again, he was giving her that challenging look.Are you gonna back down from this?his eyes seemed to say. Ena got the sense that he thoroughly enjoyed pushing people—or at least, pushing her. And she’d be damned if she didn’t push back.
“Okay,” she said, her competitiveness kicking in. “But if I fall and die, I’ll be very upset with you.”
Ty laughed and came to stand behind her as she faced the rock wall. She quickly knotted her dress above her knees so she had better freedom of movement. There was a very good chance he would soon be able to see straight up her dress from his vantage point as she climbed, and she wondered how he would respond tothatchallenge.
Grabbing a good handhold on the stone, she slowly started to work her hands and feet up.
“Good,” Ty said.
His praise filled her with warmth and determination as she continued to climb. She felt steady for the first few handholds, looking up to chart her climb as she went, her confidence growing with every foot she climbed.
Once she passed the halfway mark, she felt her fingers begin to cramp. She continued on for a few more feet, pushing through the pain, and then she made the mistake of glancing down. She was high—very high. Looking around, she suddenly didn’t know where to put her hand next. She was already almost fifteen feet up the rock face—far enough that if she fell, Ty might be able to catch her, but she also very well might just crush him with her body weight and hurt them both.
“Uh…Ty?” she asked, her fear starting to creep into her voice.
“You’ve got this,” Ty said calmly. “Put your foot on that little step up to your right.”
Ena looked down and saw the step he was talking about. She did as he said and cautiously put her foot there.
“Good. Now you should be able to push up and reach that small rock jutting out to your left.”
Ena cautiously let go with her left hand, put her weight on her right foot, and pushed up until she could reach the tiny bump in the cliff face that he had indicated. Her toes gripped the rock through her thin leather shoes, and she was eternally grateful for all the finger strength she gained from kneading dough.
“Perfect. Now you’re almost there.”
Looking up, Ena saw that she was just a couple feet from the top.
She was able to locate her last couple of hand and foot placements herself, and soon, she was pulling herself over the ledge and slumping down onto the cliff top. Her heart was pounding and her body was throbbing with adrenaline.
