Turning away from the fire and telling them she had to relieve her bladder behind a nearby tree, her thoughts whirled furiously.
There was no way around it, no putting it off anymore. She couldn’t stay with them. Staying left her with no good options.
It was time for her to escape. Tonight.
Chapter Twelve
Enapretendedtosleepon her side, facing away from the fire. Unfortunately, Turner stayed awake to take watch. She shouldn’t have been surprised; it was the smart thing to do. There was always the chance that her Coven would catch up to them, or that those bandits she’d heard about might cross their path, but she’d passed out so quickly and thoroughly the previous night that she wasn’t sure if any of themhadactually stayed awake to take a watch. Now she knew, and it made things infinitely more difficult for her.
Her thoughts whirled furiously, flicking from plan to plan, trying to determine her best method of escape. She contemplated trying to start a very small, hopefully manageable forest fire as a distraction, or maybe she’d wait for Turner to take a pee break and then sneak away as fast as she could. Her mind went through plan after plan, discarding them as too unrealistic or dangerous. Soon, the sun started to rise and Ena lay frustrated and exhausted, no closer to freedom than she’d been the night before.
The next day passed in much the same way. After a heartier breakfast consisting of the roasted remains of the rabbit carcasses, Ena mounted up in front of Ty and the four of them again headed west. Ena was keenly aware that every step they took was one further from her home, and closer to the dangers of the Occidens territory. Not only that, but she was getting sick and tired of trying to ignore the stone wall of a body behind her. Every step of the horse rocked Ena’s body back into contact with Ty’s. She felt his thighs flex every time he spurred the horse on, and his arms grazed her waist every time he lifted the reins to direct the mare. It was a constant reminder of things she needed to forget, of things she never should have done, and the extremely masochistic feelings that haunted her still.
While she yawned and scowled in the saddle, the daemons seemed to be in better spirits than ever before. Up until now, the three of them had been fairly stoic, only exchanging a few words to each other out of necessity. But clearly, now that they had a new destination and renewed hope for finding the amulet, they had loosened up a bit, and proceeded to laugh and joke with one another incessantly on the journey.
Apparently, Ena learned, Steig had a wife and several unruly kids back home, and Turner was explaining to Ty how the youngest of them had taken to causing absolute chaos during meals by dumping her food on the floor and then climbing on the table to stomp on everyone else’s food the second Steig or his wife moved to clean up. This had happened again and again over several nights, with the other children encouraging her and laughing it up, until Steig’s wife, Lara, stormed out of the room declaring she was never cooking again and that they could all eat cold, uncooked vegetables for all she cared. Steig didn’t participate in the telling of the story, but Ena saw the warm smile that graced his face at the mention of his family.
“Sounds like she takes after you, Steig,” Ty declared, chuckling at Turner’s story.
“Pfft, what are you talking about? I was the well-behaved one. It was you who was the troublemaker,” Steig retorted.
Ty barked a laugh. “That I won’t deny, but who was right there with me half the time?”
Steig rolled his eyes but couldn’t hide his smile. “Only because you convinced me, and I didn’t want to see you get killed.”
“Right, sure… I distinctly remember it being your idea to go, and I quote, ‘deeper than we’ve ever gone before’ into the under caves.”
“Yeah, only after you convinced me you had an infallible sense of smell and would be able to follow our scent trail back out. The irony of that has never escaped me.”
The two friends laughed together at that, although Ena wasn’t sure what was so ironic about that. But it struck her again how normal their lives seemed to be. She had never given much thought to the lifestyle of daemons in the Underworld, but from their description, it was maybe not actually the place of nightmares that she’d been told it was.
Not only that, but she’d never forgotten the story Ty had told her about getting lost in the caves with his best friend, who she jarringly realized must be Steig. She remembered how she and Ty had laughed together that night about it, how they’d scooted closer to one another afterward, sending a jolt of butterflies to her stomach as their arms brushed, and how connected she’d felt to him. And now…
The pang to her heart overwhelmed her for a second, and she had to look down at her hands where they rested on the pommel to hide the tears that filled her eyes. She had to get away, not just for her physical safety and to disrupt the daemons’ plans, but for her own sake. She couldn’t be around Ty anymore. She couldn’t look at his face, her mind and heart filling with memories, andbe reminded at every turn how little she meant to him. How he’d used and discarded her like trash. She just couldn’t take it anymore. She had to be done with him, once and for all.
That night passed much the same as the one before, except that when dawn neared, Ena had so exhausted her mind and body that she actually fell asleep for a few hours. When she woke up, she cursed herself thoroughly. Since she hadn’t been able to come up with a foolproof pre-planned escape, she figured she would play it by ear and seize an opportunity when it presented itself. She trusted that Gaia would do this for her. But what if she had missed her opportunity to escape the second she fell asleep and another one never presented itself? She grumbled all through the ride the next day. Luckily, the men didn’t address her much, except to offer her food and give her instructions about where and where not to pee when they stopped for breaks.
As she sat atop the horse, steadfastly ignoring the men around her, she found her mind turning to her visions of the amulet. The combination of the symbols that surrounded it was so unique, and she wracked her brain, trying to recall anything she could about them. There was the triquetra, the Goddess, and the horned God, which she knew of. But the Goddess and the horned God, representing Gaia and Iblis respectively, were never used together. That went against everything she had been taught about maintaining the balance. And the triquetra was only used when drawing on the magic of the three Covens, something which hadn’t happened in centuries because of the rivalry. And then there was the last one…it had looked like four interlocking petals surrounded by a circle, but she didn’t recognize it at all. She was certain Heran would know of it, and could give her some answers when they were reunited. Not for the first time in her life, she was so grateful for the matriarch’s guidance. She missed her and Greya painfully. Perse and Thyla too. What were they doing now? Were they worried about her? Looking for her? Shewas certain Jon, an older male witch in their Coven whose Gift ofarsamade him especially skilled at building houses and other structures, was probably well underway rebuilding Heran’s house. Her heart ached at the thought of them all.
She laid down by the campfire that night, dirty, tired, and sad, but she forced herself to stay awake, more motivated than ever to get home to her family.
Hours passed yet again while she pretended to be asleep, using her Knowing to listen and feel for any sign that now was her chance. It wasn’t until the others—besides Turner, who was awake yet again keeping watch—were fast asleep that she heard a wolf howl in the distance. The sound echoed through her bones, chilling her to her core, and she Knew—
Gaia had granted her.
It took her all of one minute to figure out her plan. She had to act fast, before the wolf wandered too far away.
She focused her gaze on where the three horses were tethered to a tree, huddled together for warmth. She reached down into her Knowing. She could sense the charges of energy in the air, the way they bumped up against each other. The same way she could sense the water present there, and draw it out using her spellword, she Knew how to arrange them to create the spark she wanted.
Using a particularly loud pop from the fire as cover, she quietly spoke her spellword.
{Ignis}
Halfway down the tether connecting one of the horses to the tree, a small spot of light and heat erupted, causing the tether to break and flop to the ground. The horse, spooked by the appearance of the flame on its tether, reared back and fled into the darkness of the woods, its hoofbeats clomping through the downed leaves. The others, sensing that something was off, thrashed uselessly on their tethers, unable to flee.
“Damn,” Turner said, noticing the commotion. He quickly walked over to Steig’s sleeping form and nudged him awake. “Take over the watch, Steig. One of the horses spooked and broke its tether. I gotta go get it.”
Steig grumbled something in affirmation as he sat up, looking bleary-eyed. He moved to add a few more logs to the fire, which had burned down to a hot bed of coals, as Turner jogged off into the woods after the horse.
