“Yes.” Ty took a step closer to her, clearly mistaking her hesitation for fear. He peered down at her menacingly with that intense gaze of his. “Does that scare you, little viper?”
Ena paused.Wasshe scared? Knowing a bit more about how her Gift might work was comforting, but hearing about all the rage Ty must have inside to be able to do what he did…she answered his question truthfully.
“No,” Ena said, meeting his gaze unerringly. “I just feel sorry for you. Being that angry all the time must be a hard way to live.”
Ty stared at her as his brow furrowed, like he didn’t even know what to say to that, when they heard a rustling through the woods, and Steig emerged. He was red-cheeked and out of breath, and he was carrying a sack full of goods.
“How’d it go? Did you get everything?” Ty asked quickly, turning away from Ena and all that had transpired between them.
“Yes,” Steig replied, as he started digging around in the sack for something. “The fight was calming down by the time I was finished, so I had to go out the back and loop around the outside of the village. Here,” he said, tossing something to Ena. It was a dark-blue women’s cloak.
Ena was surprised. He’d taken this for her? “Thanks,” she said, staring at the cloak. It was slightly worse for the wear, but the quality wasn’t bad.
“Don’t thank me. I only did it because he insisted you’d freeze to death without one,” Steig replied harshly, gesturing at Ty.
Ena looked over at him in shock.
“I just don’t want you dying before we can get what we came for,” Ty said dismissively. “Now let’s go,” he ordered before Enacould respond. “We gotta get back and check those traps before it gets dark.”
Not knowing how to even begin to process this new information, Ena quickly tossed the cloak around her shoulders and secured it tightly before pulling up the hood. Ensconced in her new warm cocoon, she followed the daemons’ lead as they all mounted up and headed back the way they’d come.
Chapter Eleven
Itwaspastdarkby the time they made it back to where they’d camped the previous night. How they navigated to the area in the dark, and without a witch’s Knowing, Ena had no idea, but the remnants of their campfire and the imprints they’d left on the ground plants and leaves proved it was without a doubt the same spot. After dismounting and tethering the horses nearby, Steig went off to check the rabbit traps while Ty and Turner gathered dry branches and leaves to start a fire. Turner, of course, was able to light it quickly using his Power.
Ena wrapped herself in her newborrowedcloak—she insisted to herself that she would return it when all this was over—and tried not to read too much into why Ty had had Steig take it for her. The gesture was thoughtful, yes, but it was also in his best interest. She shouldn’t feelgratefulto him for doing the absolute bare minimum to keep her, their captive, comfortable.
She pushed her extremely confusing feelings towards Ty aside and instead contemplated what was coming next. It had been several years since she’d completed a locator spell. The last time she’d done one had been when one of their best sows had run off,and they’d used the spell to find her. It had been tricky because the animal was on the move, so Ena had only been able to see where the sow was at that precise moment, and then they had to track her from there. They, of course, found her safe and sound, farrowing under a hollowed-out tree stump, but the litter of pigs she’d given birth to there had grown to some of the biggest her Coven had ever had, so it was a memorable event.
Ena remembered the ritual well. She knew the ingredients, the process, the spellword. But she knew it would require great concentration and calm to do it right, so she began now by staring into the fire and reaching down into her Knowing. All spells and potions required connecting with one’s Knowing and moving through the ritual of the spell or potionmaking with intention and purpose. It was only through this intense concentration and connection with Gaia that her magic could be reached and harnessed.
Her preparations were temporarily disturbed when Steig came tromping back through the woods, holding two dead rabbits in one hand. He wordlessly tossed them at Ena’s feet, then went to sit around the fire with Ty and Turner, who were huddled together talking quietly. All three of them now sat around the fire, staring at her expectantly.
She looked down at the two grayish-brown rabbits. Their fur looked so soft, and she Knew when she reached down to pick them up, they would feel like silk in her hands. Their black eyes were open and still, and their necks were elongated in an unnatural way where they had been broken. Ena used her Knowing as much as she could to sense what their lives had been like, but dead things did not have nearly as many signs as the living.
After a few moments, she finally raised her head to look at the daemons as they watched her. “I will need absolute silence while I prepare these rabbits and complete the spell. The ritual beginsas I gather the ingredients, and any distraction that breaks my concentration could cause it to fail. Is that understood?”
They looked seriously at her with bated breath, and one by one, nodded in understanding.
“Okay, good.” Then she spoke to Ty directly. “I’ll need a knife.”
They looked at each other in unspoken communication. Giving her a weapon, she knew, was a risk for them. Her Gift may not work on them, but a knife to the gut would sure as shit do some damage. Would he take the risk? Whatever this amulet could do, whatever they needed it for, seemed important enough for him to have taken several risks already.
Ty stood up, slowly removing the large dagger from the sheath at his waist and flipped it in his hand, passing it to her handle first. He watched her like a hawk as she grabbed it.
But she wasn’t an idiot. One knife would not be enough to take down three large daemons on her own. Still, she loved the glimmer of fear she saw in Ty’s eyes as her hand wrapped around the hilt, and she contemplated for a second what it might feel like to shove it into his cold, unfeeling heart.
Taking the dagger, the rabbits, and the sack filled with the other ingredients Steig had stolen, she set to work preparing the spell.
She began by slitting the throats of the rabbits and dribbling the blood that emerged in a wide circle around her. She heard the blood drip, drip, drip into the dirt on the forest floor, just as it had dripped down her face during the Summoning. She felt Gaia in the presence of death. The death was her sacrifice and it showed Gaia that she respected the balance.
Laying one of the rabbits on the ground in front of her, she used the dagger to cut off each of its feet, and then its head. Then she cut a small slit in the loose fur on its back, and ripped hard with both hands, peeling its skin off its body in one fell swoop. The wet, ripping sound of the hide parting from themuscle underneath was as familiar to her as breathing, and she lamented that she likely wouldn’t be able to save the hide for future use in these conditions. Wasting it felt like an affront to Gaia and disrespectful to the rabbit, but none of this was in her control, so she pushed those feelings aside and did what she had to do.
She flipped the rabbit onto its back and sliced it down the center. The headless, footless, skinless carcass hardly resembled a rabbit anymore, and she unfeelingly cracked its breastbone and removed its heart. Then, starting with the lungs, she scooped her hand through the cavity and removed the entrails. She tossed those parts outside of her circle in a tidy pile, Knowing that the coyote whose scat she’d seen in the area would find them tomorrow and feast.
Now came the tough part. The rabbit was prepared for cooking, but she still needed to remove the leg bones. The bones had to remain fresh and uncooked for the spell to work, so she cracked each joint, separating the rear legs from the pelvis, then used the dagger to cut them clean off. She delicately slit the dagger into the muscle surrounding each of its rear leg bones. It was slippery, so she had to be careful lest she cut herself. The muscles there were dense and tough. She Knew that the rabbit had lived a relatively long life of running from predators. Using her hands, she poked the end of bone through the muscle and sinew, and clawed it the rest of the way out.
It was messy and not graceful. Her hands were slippery with blood by the time she was done, and the leg muscles were mangled beyond usefulness. She gently placed the rest of the rabbit carcass outside of her circle, hoping she’d get to enjoy the fresh meat cooked over the fire after this was done.
