And he meant it—he really would be fine. Because despite all his anger, despite all the rage and regret he had about his life and the world, she was here now. They had a chance now, to fix everything, to be together—and he would never let her go again.
And if beating up a couple of daemons to send a message was what it took to keep her safe, andhis, then he’d do it again, and again, and again.
But as he moved to pick up his shirt, and the three of them readied to leave, he suddenly remembered the feeling of Chans’s anger—the dark rot of hatred that he’d had for Ena, just because she was a witch—and he worried that maybe the message would not be enough.
Chapter Thirteen
Ena
Enafellintoaroutine over the next several days. She spent her mornings looking through books in the Archives, while Ty was busy tending to the mine, or the forge, or one of the many other things that seemed to require his attention. Then, in the afternoon, she exercised with her daggers with Ty, or sometimes just Turner, in the fighting ring.
She found she actually liked the act of letting go and being present that fighting entailed. She needed to maintain concentration, yes, but it was also freeing to shut off all other thoughts and focus only on the task at hand, losing herself in the flow and chaos of the fight.
And she certainly needed it as an outlet for her frustration.
It wasn’t like she thought she’d figure out the entire binding spell in one week, but she would have liked to have made more progress by now. She’d already read all ofTheEvolution of Magicand started on some of the other books from Petyr—which turned out to be a witch’s journals, though she couldn’tquite figure out whose—but had discovered nothing concrete. She planned on expanding her search into some of the daemonic books in the Archives soon, especially those focusing on runes, because she knew she also needed something to sell their cover to Cole at theonatacelebration next week.
She’d planned to give Ty an update on her research this morning before he left, but he’d been summoned by Cole before the timekeeper arrived. She was starting to realize how critical he was to the functioning of the Underworld, how much people here relied on him, and while she fully admired him for that, she resented the way those duties kept him from her.
They’d barely had time for anything but passing kisses and quick fucks in the morning before he was called away, or sometimes in the dark and quiet middle of the night, both of them half-asleep. He often didn’t come back to his rooms until Ena was asleep, but he always sent Turner to escort her to and from the Archives, and he always had food sent for her. And the nights when he wasn’t available to join her for dinner, she’d been invited to Lara and Steig’s, which was always a good time, but still…she missed him.
One morning, after a few days of this routine, Ena was dressed and waiting for Turner to arrive when she heard a knock on the door. Assuming it was the daemon in question come to escort her to the Archives, she opened it to instead find Lara standing there, her auburn hair braided over one shoulder.
“Hiya, sunshine,” she said, grinning at Ena’s appearance.
Ena felt a slight pang go through her at the greeting. Greya used to call her that sometimes, and the memory of it hurt to recollect.
Brushing the feeling aside, she mustered a smile for her new friend. “Hey,” Ena said, surprise in her voice. “What are you doing here? I was expecting Turner.”
“I asked him to relinquish his witch-slave duty to me for the day. I wanted to show you around a bit more, if that’s okay with you?”
“Absolutely,” Ena said. She was a bit disappointed that she wouldn’t get to enact her research plan, but that could wait a day. Shewascurious to see some of the other areas of the Underworld. “Where did you have in mind?”
“I thought we could stop by the mid-level kitchens first, since you had such a fascination with mine, and then we could go see Ty in the forge.”
Her heart leaped. They were going to visit Ty?
Lara rolled her eyes. “Well, we can skip the kitchens if you’re that excited to see the guy,” she teased.
“No, no,” Ena said, laughing at her offer. “Let’s see the kitchens first.”
Ena joined Lara in the passageway, where they headed toward the Great Antre. Ena was starting to figure her way around alittlebit. She at least knew what direction the Great Antre was and how to get to the Archives from there, but everywhere else was mostly a blur.
“So my reaction was that obvious, huh?” Ena asked Lara as they walked.
Lara looked over at her, one eyebrow raised. “Oh yeah,” she said. “Your face lit up like a darkrock lantern.”
Ena buried her face in her hand, but couldn’t help but smile underneath.
Lara laughed. “Don’t be embarrassed. I think it’s sweet,” she said. “Ty’s been…well, he’s been grumpy for a long time. I can tell you make him happy in a way I’ve never seen before.”
Ena blushed. “He makes me happy too.”
She changed the topic then, asking about Steig, who was apparently also off doing Cole-mandated duties while an olderdaemon woman watched the kids, until they reached the Great Antre.
Taking one of the ground-level passageways, they went down a stairwell to the mid-levels. Ena had yet to see much of the mid-level yet, aside from the fighting ring, since the Archives and Ty’s and Lara’s rooms were all on the upper level.
As Lara led her through the mid-level passageways, she could tell a difference almost instantly. The rooms were clearly smaller, with more doorways lining the halls, and the passageways were narrower, too, the ceilings not as high.
