“Are you feeling alright?” Greya asked as she pulled back, looking Ena over more thoroughly.
“For the most part, yes. Just tired,” she said, giving her sister a reassuring smile. She didn’t want Greya to worry. She was doing that enough for the both of them. “There’s more, though,” Ena said, addressing the group once more. “A month or so ago, before Ty and I arrived at the Underworld, we saw a Canus Elk.”
“Wow, really?” Cris asked, his pale eyebrows jumping up. “That’s amazing.”
“It would have been, except it was in childbirth, and I…I tried to save it, but it died. And the calf was stillborn.”
Ena watched Mel’s brow lower on their face. Their focus on the conversation clearly came and went, but this had gotten their attention.
“Ena,” Greya said, reaching out to comfort her where she knelt at her feet. “Just because you saw them die does not mean you will too. Do you understand me? Yes, Canus Elks are auspicious and hold meaning, but that meaning is not always clear.”
“I know,” Ena replied, feeling slightly relieved to hear Greya say that. “But still, I don’t want to take any chances. What if it’s a warning? What if it means our child is in danger? Cole could be coming for me. He knows I was involved in whatever Ty was planning, and even if he’s not, although I know you and Perse will support me no matter what, I can’t say the same thing about the rest of the Covens. Either way, I can’t stay here.”
Greya closed her eyes, the reality of her situation sinking in, but when she opened them, she was all fierce loyalty. “You’re right,” she said. “You can’t stay here. Not now, not until I have a chance to clear the way for you.”
“Where will you go?” Cris asked. “You can’t travel alone. It’s not safe.”
“She won’t be alone,” Ty said, replacing his arm around her shoulders now that Greya had released her. “I’ll be with her.”
“What do you mean?” Turner chimed in, his brow furrowed in confusion. “You’re not going back to the Underworld?”
“No. I’ve decided that my place is with her, and not in the Underworld. Not anymore.”
Turner grit his teeth slightly and looked away, and Ena could tell that he felt some type of way about that declaration from Ty, but he didn’t say anything.
“As to where we’ll go,” Ty continued, ignoring Turner’s negative reaction for now, “it seems our seer might have some insight about that.”
Ena looked to Mel then. “So, are you ready to tell us what you’ve seen?”
Mel nodded at her. “I’ve seen where you go, where you’re supposed to go—both of you—but I don’t think he’s gonna like it,” they said, gesturing at Ty.
“What do you mean?” Ty asked, his brow deepening in wariness.
Mel sighed, as if steeling themselves for an inevitable reaction. “You remember the others I told you about, the group that worships Omnis?”
Ty and Ena nodded in unison.
“I’ve seen you with them, and with her. Your mother.”
Ena’s jaw nearly hit the floor.
“My mother is with the group that worships Omnis?” Ty asked quietly, his brow furrowed but his face otherwise unfeeling. The only indication that this troubled him was the sensation of his arm tightening around her.
“Yes,” Mel replied simply.
“And you think we need to go to them too?” Ty asked.
“All I know is that I’ve seen you with them, so I would assume you doneedto go there, but I’m not sure.”
Ena supposed that made sense but she didn’t like how uncertain Mel sounded.
“Where is there? Where are they?” Ty asked.
“Somewhere on the other side of the Chasm Mountains.”
Ena stiffened. The other side of the Chasm Mountains? No witch that she knew of had ever been there. There were rumors about what was on the other side, and up until just a few months ago, she’d thought Ty was a rare mortal from there, but, of course, that had turned out to be a lie, so who’s to say what were truths and what were falsities spread by daemons. And then, of course, there was that story Greya used to tell her when theywere children…but she’d always assumed that was just a child’s overactive imagination.
“Why would they need to go there?” Greya asked Mel.
