Ty turned to her, catching her staring. Ena would’ve been embarrassed, but instead, she realized the turn in his attitude could be a good opportunity to get some more information out of him. Though his beauty was…distracting, she couldn’t forget where they were headed, and why. Not for one second.
“What are your tattoos?” she asked.
He eyed her skeptically. “You really want to know?”
“Yes,” she replied. “They’re…unique.”
Ty looked at her again, as if assessing whether or not she was telling the truth, before he spoke. “We call themonata. They’re given to us each time we complete a mission from Iblis.”
Ena almost stopped in her tracks. For some reason, she hadn’t been expecting that, and she was suddenly appalled that she’d been admiring them so much. She figured they had something to do with daemonic culture, but not this.
His tattoos were a visible reminder that he was a servant of Iblis. They were a written record of all the chaos, discontent, and discord he had spread, of every time he had disrupted the balance that witches worked so hard to maintain. Ena began to wonder how many of the horrible events she’d heard of in recent years had been caused by Ty’s own hand—the famines, wildfires, earthquakes, population collapses, violent incidents. Given his Power offuror, he would’ve been able to provoke mortals or animals into conflicts that could lead to all sorts of terrible outcomes. She knew, theoretically, that he had done those sorts of things. But now, seeing the evidence of it, it all seemed so…real.
“Oh,” Ena replied lamely. And then something else horrific occurred to her. “And is that what this is? A mission from Iblis to find the amulet?”
Ty was silent for a second, as if debating whether or not to answer. “No,” he said. “I guess you could say it’s…extracurricular.”
Ena didn’t know what to make of that. She had so many questions. What could they possibly want with the amulet that didn’t have to do with Iblis’s mission? Ena opened her mouth to ask more questions, but Ty shut her down before she could.
“Don’t even try it, viper. That’s all I’m going to tell you. For your sake, and mine.”
Well, that was cryptic as shit.
Forbidden from asking what she wanted to know, Ena turned silent again until the sun had fully set and they stopped to make camp.
That night, as she laid down beside him, sleep took a long time to come to her. She replayed what he’d said over and over again in her mind. She’d always thought that they’d been planning to do something nefarious with the amulet, something utterly destructive and chaotic. And that had always worried her. For Gaia’s sake, the evidence of all they had done was written right there on Ty’s body. It was highly likely they’d use it to do more of those things. But she couldn’t shake the feeling after what he’d said that there was so much more going on than she knew.
So tonight, for the first time, she was both deeply afraid and completely unsure of what he intended to do with the amulet.
Chapter Seventeen
Thenextfewdayspassed similarly. They walked as far as they could each day, trapping and eating what they could along the way. They continued to sleep side by side every night, and every morning, they awoke entwined in some new, embarrassing way that they both refused to acknowledge. Ena blamed the cold weather and the natural morning tendencies of the male physique for the bulk of the awkwardness.
She was fairly certain that they were now traveling parallel to the Western Road and were only a few days away from their destination, but she didn’t exactly know how to feel about the prospect of joining back up with Steig and Turner. She and Ty had developed a truce of sorts. He’d been kinder to her, more friendly, and less guarded. She worried that joining back up with the others would ruin their newfound…well, friendship wasn’t the exact word she would use, but it was certainly a new understanding.
But she also knew this feeling of…comfort with him was dangerous. It reminded her too much of the way things had once been between them. Ty saw their time together as a mistake,and for that reason alone, she needed to protect herself from dredging up old feelings, not to mention the whole mortal enmity thing. So maybe reuniting with Steig and Turner would be for the best.
Either way, she’d come to accept that escaping wasn’t in the cards for her, and she was committed to seeing her plan through, but she dreaded leaving the safe anonymity of the forest and venturing into unfriendly Occidens territory. She hoped to Gaia that she was able to keep her head down and get through whatever plan they had to steal the amulet without much trouble. But in truth, that was likely a fool’s hope.
One night, when they were only a day or two out from Attax, Ena slept nestled into Ty like a spoon. They’d pushed themselves to their limit the day before, walking even past sunset, so she didn’t have the energy to resist when Ty placed his arm over her waist and tucked her into him. She gave herself over to the warmth and fell asleep instantly.
There were still several hours until dawn when her Knowing woke her. She couldn’t exactly say what was wrong, only that there was a sudden sense that something was not right.
Her eyes flew open, but she didn’t move. She looked across the coals of their fire into the dark woods, but couldn’t make anything out besides the endless vague shapes of trees. She reached down into her Knowing, focusing intently on any and all signs around her. She heard a stick snap in the darkness, and then she Knew.
There was something nearby with a dangerous intention.
Ty’s arm was slung across her middle, and she squeezed it firmly, digging her nails ever so slightly into his flesh. She felt him stir awake just as the sound of a shuffled footfall echoed through the forest.
She felt Ty’s body go taut behind her as he, too, instantly realized that something was off. His muscles coiled around her,pulling her ever so slightly tighter to him. Then she felt his breath over her ear. “Don’t move until I say,” he whispered so quietly she almost couldn’t hear him.
Ena lay still, pretending to be asleep, even though her heart was pounding in her ears and her legs ached with the urge to jump up and run, run, run. She couldn’t shut her eyes though. No—those she kept wide open, watching from the dark cave of her cloak’s hood, waiting in fear for what might emerge.
Slowly, out of the woods appeared several human figures. It was nearly pitch black in the forest, the only light the glow of embers from their nearly burnt-out fire and the glimmer of the moon through the trees. She couldn’t tell much about the figures, but by their size and gait, they appeared to be male.
And there were a lot of them. Seven at least. They moved quietly, slowly surrounding Ena and Ty’s campsite. Were they witches? Mortals? Her Knowing was screaming at her now to move, move, move. These men wanted to take, to hurt, to kill.
One of them was close enough now that she saw he held a knife in his hand. Its sharp edge glinted in the low light of the fire.
