Ena blushed at the mention of their past trysts and looked away. She really hoped Ty wasn’t somewhere overhearing this conversation.
“But I see the way you look at him—the way you look at each other—and I know that’s not us. You and I, we’re something different, and I just want you to know I’m grateful for what we are.”
Ena was touched. She couldn’t put into words how much it meant to hear him say that, to have him understand.
“I’m grateful for what we are too,” she said.
Cris gave her a tight-lipped, slightly forced smile, but she could tell this closure had been good for him. He seemed to relax more as they watched the flames of the fire dance and spit in silence, and she hoped this could be a new chapter for him.
“You know,” Ena said, wanting to lighten the mood. “Maybe once this is all over, you could give Thyla a chance. You know she’s always had a thing for you.”
Cris whipped his head towards her. “What?” he asked, his brows jumping up. “Are you serious?”
Ena laughed, and Gaia, it felt good to do so. “Yes, of course. You really never knew?”
“No,” Cris said, his face still in shock.
“Wow, Cris, you are…really bad at reading others’ signs without your Knowing.”
“Fuck,” he said, laughing slightly and covering his face in his hands. “I guess you’re right.”
Ena felt lighter, laughing and joking with her friend, and she clung to that feeling. Because while she was glad to be on good terms with Cris, and Greya, and to be on the path to breaking the bond, she was also hurtling towards something she dreaded.
She hadn’t missed what Cris had said about her and Ty—how he could tell just by watching them that they were something else—and it hurt to hear them described in such a way. Because even though she didn’t want Cris, she and Ty couldn’t bethat wayeither. And every day brought her closer to the moment she feared—having to say goodbye to the one person who looked at her the way she wanted, who made herfeelthe way she wanted, and she knew it would be the hardest thing she’d ever had to do.
Chapter Thirty-six
Ty
Thefiveofthemtraveled as quickly as possible over the next three days. It was brutal on all of them after being on the road so long already, but time was of the essence if they were going to get to the Sacred Grove in time to meet Greya.
Ty was still skeptical that Ena’s sister would show up. His ingrained mistrust of witches—and her sister, especially, after the way she and Ena had left things in Occidens—ran deep, but Ena seemed confident that she would.
Of course, there was always the chance that others would show up too and disrupt them. Ty knew what would be necessary then—for his people’s sake—and he was ready, but he knew Ena and the other witches would not be okay with it, so he really fucking hoped it wouldn’t come to violence.
On the evening of the new moon, three days after they’d left the Sacred Pool, they found themselves on the outskirts of the Auster Coven. Ena knew the area like the back of her hand, so she was able to navigate them through the backwoods towardsthe Sacred Grove, making sure to steer them away from any heavily used paths.
They traveled in absolute silence, listening for any snap of a branch, or wisp of a scent on the wind. But there was nothing, and as they wound their way through the darkening woods, Ty began to hear the overwhelming sound of rushing water.
The River Wry.
The noise was so much louder and more powerful than he remembered. It had been almost a decade since he’d last been in the Sacred Grove—since he’d met Ena there—and as the five of them finally broke through the trees into the wide-open space, he was struck by its majesty all over again.
The clearing was large—much larger than one would expect in the middle of such a dense forest—and the ground was mostly bare dirt in the center, repeated use by the witches having destroyed the ground plants that once grew there. The remnants of past bonfires scattered the space, their ashy residues making dark smudges on the ground.
All of that was dwarfed by the towering evergreen trees that encircled the space, naturally forming a near-perfect ring. Their size was intimidating—like they guarded this space and would protect it unto death.
Ty watched as Turner’s neck tilted back, straining to look at the giants that surrounded them, but Mel—the only other one among them who had yet to see them—seemed in their own world as usual, barely seeming to notice that they’d finally arrived.
Ty dismounted and tethered his horse just at the edge of the grove, the others following his lead.
Walking into the center, he could see the sky above his head. It was dusk now, but dense gray clouds obscured the emerging stars, and he was struck by an overwhelming sense of déjà vu, remembering the last time he’d been here at dusk.
It had been summer then, and he’d been just eighteen, accompanying his uncles on his first mission. He’d seen a beautiful girl with dark-brown hair on the edge of the clearing, and in his youthful bravado, had gone up to ask her to dance.
Then she’d looked at him with those eyes, and the rest was history.
He watched as Ena approached him now, her face pensive. He wondered if she, too, was being haunted by memories of this space, though which ones, he wasn’t sure. Either way, a sense of melancholy hit him so deep in his bones he almost couldn’t breathe—because after tonight, if they succeeded with the spell, everything would be different.
