(Note: This rune is defunct since Gaia’s abandonment and is no longer effective)
Running over the spellwords in her mind, she tried to make sense of these meanings.Diabolus vocare.Chaos…summon. To summon chaos? Create a mind channel with chaos? Or maybe with…Iblis. That had to be it. Iblis was chaos incarnate. The witches must have summoned him, in a way, using those spellwords to directly channel his will.
A chill passed over Ena. Because that meant, in order to recreate the spell, that she would have to do that too. Summon Iblis. Not just get closer to him, as she had when she’d done theallucinae, but be filled with his presence, just as she had with Gaia’s during her Summoning. It made sense when she thought about it—disrupting the status quo of magic had required summoning Iblis the first time, and now changing it back would be another disruption of the status quo.
The thought of summoning him lit a tiny spark of fear inside her, but there’d be time to dread that later.
She still needed to figure out the last part.Tellus separae. Equilibrium…sever.
Well, that one was more obvious, and it absolutely made sense. Ena already knew from what Heran had told her that the binding spell had severed the daemons from Gaia, who was equilibrium incarnate, effectively ending their ability to channel her will or access her magic.
So that was it. Summon Iblis. Sever Gaia.
The witches had summoned Iblis to sever the daemon woman’s connection with Gaia, drawing on the enhancing magic of the amulet to bind the spell into place among all those who shared her daemonic blood.
Ena couldn’t help herself—she laughed. She laughed big and joyfully as tears filled her eyes.
From across the Archives, Nial stared at her inquisitively, but she couldn’t help herself. Waving him off with her hand, she tried to calm herself down, but her insides were galloping.
This was it. This was the remaining piece of the ritual they’d needed. The entry onseparussaid right there that the opposite wasrestoras. All they had to do was recite the spellwords, subbing outseparaeforrestoraeto match the altered style of the spellwords and that should do it. They should be able to restore daemons’ connection to Gaia, again drawing on Iblis’s chaos magic to do so.
Ena looked around. She had no idea what time it was. How long would it be until Turner came to get her? This was huge. She didn’t want to wait until then. She needed to tell someone now. Should she go find him on her own?
Just then, Ena heard male voices. Peeking her head out of her alcove, she saw two men entering the Archives, and her stomach sank.
It was Gunnar and Chans.
What were they doing here? They didn’t seem like the type to spend time reading books.
Gunnar’s hulking form paused in the center of the chamber as he and Chans looked around for something.
Then their eyes landed on Ena.
Fuck. They were looking forher.
The two of them walked over, a sneer blanketing Chans’s features, while a satisfied smile graced Gunnar’s.
“Witch-slave,” Gunnar called, his deep voice grating over Ena’s ears. “The king wants to see you.”
Fear locked up Ena’s insides. Cole wanted to see her? But Ty wasn’t here. Was this allowed? Wasn’t she supposed to be Ty’s witch-slave and only follow his commands? Should she refuse them?
She desperately wanted to, but refusing them didn’t feel safe. Cole was the king, after all, and could do what he wanted, as long as he had cause.
Ena tried to keep her composure as she closed the book in front of her. Whatever this was about, she’d just have to bullshit her way through it, and hope for the best.
Tidying the books into a stack for Nial and thanking Gaia she hadn’t had him get out the books from Petyr today, she glanced once at the old daemon before she made her way to the door of the Archives, Gunnar and Chans shadowing her on either side.
Nial’s eyes were full of concern, and she tried to communicate to him with a look that this didn’t feel right.
Get Turner. Get Steig and Lara, she wanted to say.
But what could they do anyway? Ty was gone, and no one could stop the king.
Ena was at his mercy.
Chapter Twenty-two
Ena
