“You don’t want to know,” Ty replied, in what was quite possibly the least friendly tone she’d ever heard him use—including when he’d pretended not to know who she was and kidnapped her.
Ena had to hold back her eye roll.
“Okay…” Cris said, mistrust in his voice.
She needed to rescue this situation—fast.
“Cris, look,” she began. “I’m about to tell you something that you might not believe at first, but I want you to remember that you know me. I’m not a liar, and I’m not a fool.”
“Of course I know that, Ena,” he said, reaching out to take her hand. “I may not trust them at all, but I’m here, I’m listening.”
Ena felt comforted by her friend’s presence, and his willingness to listen, so she began.
“The things we’ve been taught about daemons aren’t true,” she began. “Well, some of them are true, but not all of them.”
Cris was quiet, his brow furrowed as he listened, but he didn’t ask any questions, so Ena continued.
“Before I was…taken by these daemons, Heran told me that daemons and witches actually come from the same source of magic. That Gaia and Iblis came together to grant us our magic,and that some Gifts and Powers can be shared among them. Did you know that?”
“No,” Cris said, shaking his head in confusion. “But I did hear about your unusual Gift. Thyla told me on Samhain, before Heran’s house caught fire and you disappeared.”
“Yes, exactly. It’s because of this shared source of magic that I have my Gift. But there’s more… The split we’ve been told about, the fact that daemons chose to serve Iblis and not Gaia, is a lie. They didn’t choose to serve Iblis alone, they were forced.”
“Forced?” Cris asked, scoffing. “Who could possibly force them?”
“Witches,” Ty said from where he stood, raising an eyebrow in challenge at her friend.
“Witches forced them to serve Iblis? You really expect me to believe that?” Cris said mockingly.
“I had a vision,” Ena said, drawing his attention back to her. “From Gaia. I saw the past. The witches used a magical amulet to bind the daemons to Iblis and cut them off from Gaia’s magic. And Heran confirmed it. It’s the truth.”
“You’re serious?” Cris asked, his face turning grave. “You really received a vision from Gaia?”
Ena nodded, pleased that she seemed to be getting through to him.
“Why in the Underworld would witches even do that?”
“Because they didn’t trust us,” Ty chimed in again. “And they wanted to maintain their power over the mortal villages.”
Ena could see that Cris’s immediate reaction was to defend witches as he opened his mouth, and she didn’t want this to deteriorate, so she gave Ty a shut-the-fuck-up look and drew Cris’s attention back to her. “Look, I know this is hard to believe. But I saw it, and Heran confirmed it. It was witches who forced daemons into the Underworld.”
“Okay… Say I believe you,” Cris began. “That doesn’t erase all the evil things daemons have done—disrupting the balance, killing, thieving, destroying. Maybe they do deserve to be there.”
Ty chuckled, low and menacing.
“What?” Cris asked, looking up at him with hatred in his eyes. “You disagree?”
“Would it surprise you if I said no?” Ty replied, staring daggers at the man.
“Yes, actually,” Cris replied matter-of-factly.
“Look, no one here would deny that daemons have done some bad things,” Ena said, once again chiming in to keep the tone civil. “But there are many in the Underworld who want things to be different.”
“Different how?” Cris asked, his curiosity piqued.
Ena took a deep breath. This was big—revealing their plans to someone else, to another witch who could run and tell his matriarch and spoil everything. But it needed to be done—they needed his help—so she took a leap of faith.
“Different like break the bond to Iblis and allow them to access Gaia’s magic once more.”
