“Yes, I think so,” Greya said. “But what about—”
“Ena,” the old woman gasped, her face desperate as both Greya and Ena focused on her. “Do not…let…Iblis…triumph.”
“I swear I serve Gaia, Heran. I swear,” Ena replied.
“His…Power…destroys… Please, my child,” Heran whispered frantically.
“Heran, please, hold on, and I’ll explain,” Ena begged, her voice childlike and afraid. “Greya, go—”
Ena’s words cut off as Heran’s eyes drifted closed and she lost consciousness.
“Heran?” Ena called, putting her hands on the old woman’s face. “Heran!”
Her voice echoed around the dark clearing, her helplessness cutting Ty to the bone.
“She’s not moving,” Greya said. “Ena! She’s not moving anymore.”
Ena reached out to feel the old woman’s pulse, grabbing her wrist and placing two fingers atop it. “I can’t feel her pulse,” she said quietly, her voice shaking.
“Are you sure?” Greya asked in disbelief. “Heran? Heran!” she called, wrenching her wrist away from Ena to feel for the pulse herself.
Ena looked up at Ty, desperation on her face. He watched helplessly, not knowing what to do. Not knowing if there was anythingtodo.
“Lay her down. We need to compress her chest,” Ena said to Greya.
The woman complied instantly, laying Heran on the cold dirt.
Ena moved over to her, placing her hands in the center of the old woman’s chest, lacing her fingers together. Ty had no idea what she was doing—he’d never seen anyone do this before. Was it a witch thing?
Rhythmically, Ena began compressing the old woman’s chest, moving her body with the force of her motions. She did that several times before tilting the woman’s head back, lowering her mouth over the old woman’s and breathing into it.
Then she repeated the process. Again. And again.
The silence of it all was deafening—everyone frozen as if still trapped in the woman’s Gift, watching, waiting for her to move, to breathe.
Eventually, Ena stopped, breathing heavily, her own body shaking with the effort.
“Why did you stop?” Greya asked, her voice a panicked sob.
But Ena didn’t reply. Instead, she looked up at Ty, searching his eyes for absolution.
He shook his head solemnly at her. Did she know it was over? It seemed like it to him, but he didn’t know how to tell her that.
How do you tell someone the woman that raised them is dead?
She looked away from him, the realization clearly dawning on her, too, as she turned back toward her sister.
“Greya,” Ena said in a broken whisper. “She’s gone.”
Chapter Thirty-seven
Ena
DisbeliefhitEnalikea ton of bricks. Was this really happening? This felt like a dream.
Heran’s body lay before her—unmoving on the ground. She looked so…still. Not the stern yet kind and full of life woman Ena had known her whole life. Here now was just a body—getting colder by the second in the frigid winter air.
Ena was shocked by how small she seemed. How frail she looked like this. This vessel looked like her, and yet it wasn’ther, and it was so confusing.
