“Ty…” she began cautiously, noting his silence. “Please say something. I know this is…that this might change things and—”
Finally, the meaning of what she’d said dawned on him, and his heart shattered into a million pieces, each one sharp and painful as he realized the consequences of it all. The pieces cut him, tortured him. There was fear and trepidation, anger and grief all at once, but underneath the pain, there was something else…a glow.
Something warm, something hopeful, grew inside him. It was so incredibly beautiful, like this tiny eternal flame—a bright light in the darkness.
Ena was going to have a baby.Hisbaby.
And it was settled for him.
“Stop fucking talking,” he said, silencing her anxious thoughts immediately as he hauled her into him. He wrapped his arms around her, hoping his body could communicate what he was still struggling to say out loud. He held her tightly, infinitely, as he stroked the back of her head, then kissed the top of it.
“Ena,” he began, his own voice breaking with emotion now as he felt tears well in his eyes. “I swear to you there is nothing I won’t do to protect you and our baby. I know I failed you before, but that will never happen again. Do you hear me? Never. I’m not going anywhere. I will be wherever you are and I will loveyou and our child, endlessly. I am yours, and now, I am theirs too.”
He felt her break down in his arms, her body shaking with her sobs until she cried them all out. He couldn’t even imagine how much she’d been dealing with on her own, with this knowledge, on top of everything else that had happened in the last few hours. Iblis, she was strong. He loved her even more for that.
Gradually, her sobs quieted down, and she looked up to face him. “You really mean that, Ty? You won’t leave me alone?”
“I promise, Ena. Never again,” he replied, his words a vow.
She smiled at him—a gentle, trusting expression of relief that warmed his heart to see, though her eyes were still filled with sadness. “You never failed me, you know,” she said.
“I did, but only because I didn’t have my priorities straight. I do now, and I’ll never let anything distract me from them again,” he spoke soothingly, pushing her hair off her damp face.
Iblis, how was she so fucking beautiful, even after she’d been crying? Her blue eyes and pale skin reflected the light of the stars, and he wanted nothing more but to kiss her perfect lips and let her know everything would be alright. He would make it alright.
“And besides, if I do anything you don’t like, now that your magic works on daemons, I give you permission to use yourvisanison me,” he added, the corner of his mouth tipping up as he tried to break the sad tension.
She huffed a small laugh, and the corners of her mouth tilted up ever so slightly. There was his prize again. “But Ty…what are we going to do? Everything was already complicated enough, and now this. I have no idea how my Coven will react to a mixed child. Greya is matriarch but she can’t convince everyone to accept me, and if they overrule her and it goes like it did for your mother, then I could be banished.”
“Shh, viper, calm down. We’ll figure it out together. I promise.”
“No, Ty, you don’t understand,” Ena responded, refusing to be soothed. “It all makes sense now—why we saw the Canus Elk.”
Ty felt his entire body turn to ice.
He’d nearly forgotten about the Canus Elk. The one they’d seen right before they arrived at the Underworld, the one that died giving birth.
“You don’t think…?” Ty asked, his voice dripping with fear.
“I don’t know,” Ena said. “Not for sure, but it can’t be a coincidence that we saw her just weeks before I, myself, got pregnant. And whatever it means, whatever it portends for the future for us and our baby…it can’t be good.”
She was right. Whatever that meant, whatever was coming for them…they had to take action to protect themselves. Whether it was Cole and his followers in the Underworld, or the Covens and the ways they might act against Ena and their child, one thing was clear—they needed to find somewhere safe to go, and he wasn’t sure the Auster Coven was the place for that.
“You’re right. I don’t think we should stay here,” he said to her, gripping her face in his hands and stroking her cheeks with his thumb. “At least not now, until we see how things settle. We’ll talk to your sister, see what she thinks, and then we’ll leave.”
She nodded in his hands, her eyes aflame with the same fearful certainty as his. “Where do we go?” she asked, her voice still shaky, but she wasn’t terrified. Facing the unknown didn’t scare her as much as it used to.
“I might be able to provide some guidance on that.”
The voice came from the edge of the forest, and they turned to see Mel approaching, their slight figure shrouded in darkness at the edge of the tree line. “Let’s go talk with the new Auster matriarch and then I’ll tell you what I’ve seen.”
Chapter Thirty-nine
Ena
Ena,Ty,andMelmade their way back to the Sacred Grove. Ena was wobbly on her feet—all the emotions of the last several hours had taken a significant toll on her. She needed to rest, but she wouldn’t be able to until they came up with a plan for what came next—for all of them.
Blessedly, Ty was there to steady her, his grip steadfast and warm around her hand. Her heart was still distraught and full of guilt about Heran, confused and overjoyed about the breaking of the bond, and simultaneously terrified and hopeful about the prospect of a child. It was almost too much to process, and she didn’t know what to focus on.
