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 watershould 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 theUnderworld 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 actuallyhavebeen 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 youeverhelp 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?”
Ena hated hearing the hurt in her sister’s voice—the betrayal—but she took a deep breath. Somehow, this felt harder than explaining everything to Cris. She and Greya had known each other their entire lives; they had a history. Ena had always been the younger sister, deferring to Greya’s knowledge and wisdom, following in her footsteps. And Greya knew all the ins and outs of her relationship with Ty and how much his abandonment had hurt her. But this was something Ena knew she was right about, and she needed to do her best to not be detracted by her sister’s skepticism.
“Greya, please,” she replied calmly. “I need you to listen to me with an open mind. Can you do that?”
Greya paused, closing her eyes for a second like she often did when she became overwhelmed. When she opened them, she spoke again. “Yes. Please,” she said, her face still conflicted, but calm once more. “Tell me what is going on. I need to hear it from you.”
“Remember that vision I told you I had, when I touched the amulet?”
Greya nodded.
“I know what it was now. It was a vision of the past, given to me by Gaia. And what I saw, what I know now, was that centuries ago, witches—one from each Coven—drew on Iblis’s chaos magic to unwillingly bind the daemons to Iblis. They removed their natural ability to access Gaia’s magic and interpret her will. The split—their exclusive servitude of Iblis—was not natural or chosen by them. It was forced. And not only did I see this, but Heran herself confirmed it to me before I left Occidens. This is the truth.”
Greya’s face scrunched in horrified disbelief, her head shaking as she tried to process what Ena had just said. “Why?” she asked, sounding sickened by the idea. “Why would witches do that?”
“Well, there are different opinions about that. According to Heran, it was because daemons couldn’t be trusted with Gaia’s magic. But if you ask the daemons that I know, it was because witches wanted more control and influence over the mortal villages. And, if you ask the seer from Occidens, it was because one of the witches had a personal vendetta against a daemon who she claimed seduced her husband with her Power.”
“The seer from—” Greya massaged the space between her eyes with her knuckle, closing her eyes again. “Okay, I’m gonna come back to how you met the seer later. I want to believe you—Idobelieve you—but I still don’t understand how you could go with them. Regardless of how they got that way, daemons are servants of Iblis and sowers of chaos. I don’t see how you cantrust them, even Ty. I know you have feelings for him, but Ena, you can’t change what he is.”
“I know it’s a lot to process,” Ena said, trying to sound reassuring and not annoyed that she was throwing her feelings for Ty in her face again. She knew better than anyone that she couldn’t change what he was, and it hurt every blessed day. “And you’re right, many daemons do use their Powers to serve Iblis in ways that are disruptive. But I think—no Iknow—that not all daemons are the same. Not all want to serve Iblis in that way, and some would like the chance to serve Gaia. And…”
