They all fell silent as they watched Cris take in this revelation.
“That’s…” he began, shaking his head. “How would you even do that?”
Ena stood up and went to her saddlebag, pulling out the wooden box inside. Focusing her Knowing on the metal mechanisms, she spoke her spellword to unlock it.
{Clavis}
Slowly, she raised the lid, holding the open box towards Cris. “With this,” she said.
Cris’s eyebrows flew up as he looked at it. The deep-purple amethyst glowed in the firelight, and the silver setting seemed to shine like new, despite its age. Ena knew that, like her, Cris could sense the power rolling off it.
“Where did you…? How…?” Cris seemed floored.
“The Occidens Coven had it, but that’s a story for another time.” Ena closed the lid on the amulet, breaking its spell over Cris. “The point is, I’ve seen how much we’ve been lied to, Cris. And daemons…the ones I’ve gotten to know? They don’t deserve it. Many of them are good, and decent, and the way things are now, it’s just wrong, and Gaia wants me to set it right. Not just for them, but for witches too. We deserve to know the truth and decide about daemons on our own, not from lies we were fed.”
And there was more, too, so much more that was pushing her to do this. Everything she’d learned about Iblis, and the freedom and necessity of being able to access his will. All the things she’d experienced in the Underworld, and the way Iblis’s magic sometimes felt as natural to her as Gaia’s, and how she wanted the freedom to explore that without shame. But she didn’t want to scare him off, so she’d save that for another conversation. Baby steps.
Cris seemed receptive as he contemplated this. He wasn’t running away. He was bouncing his knee a bit, as was his habit when nervous, but other than that, he just stared into the fire. “Say I did believe you. Why do you even need me? Why are you even telling me all this?” he asked, distress playing over his face. This was a lot to take in so quickly, and she understood his resistance to it, but she couldn’t back off—they needed him.
“We need one witch from each Coven to break the spell, and I was hoping that you’d help us, helpme, to do it.”
Cris was silent. He rested both arms on his knees as he stared at the fire again for what felt like an eternity. Ena tried desperately to read him, and was tempted to use her Knowing to ascertain with more certainty his feelings, but kept it to herself out of respect.
Eventually, Cris sighed and shook his head ever so slightly. “Ena, I’m sorry, this is a lot. I—I don’t know. I need to think about this,” he said.
Ena’s heart sank, but she understood. Thiswasa lot to just dump on someone out of the blue. She’d had months to come around to the idea and still struggled to believe it sometimes.
“I understand, Cris. Really, I do,” she said, making eye contact with him and reaching out to give his hand a reassuring squeeze. She could see the guilt and overwhelm warring in his eyes. “And I hate to rush you, but we need your answer soon. There are those who may be…following us, and we need to keep moving. But we’ll be here for a couple more days before we move on, so just come find me once you’ve made your decision, okay?”
Cris stood up, holding out a hand for Ena to help her up too. “Okay,” he said, nodding his head. He looked to Ty and Turner. The former was staring suspiciously at him still, his arms folded across his chest, but Turner, bless him, gave him a friendly smile and nod.
Cris looked one more time at Ena, pulling her in tight for a hug, before hesitantly turning and walking away into the forest back towards his village.
“Fuck,” Turner said, once he was safely out of earshot. “That didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.”
“It’s okay. I don’t think it went too bad, actually. I understand if he needs to think things over,” Ena said, trying to be optimistic. Inside, though, her heart sank. What if he didn’t come around? She didn’t have anyone else to really go to. No one else would trust her the way Cris would.
“What if he doesn’t? Could you ask someone else?” Turner asked, voicing her inner thoughts.
“I—I don’t know,” Ena said truthfully.
“Don’t worry,” Ty spoke, breaking his silence. His voice was hard, but at least he’d uncrossed his arms. He walked over tothe fire, his face glowing from its light as he spoke to Ena and Turner, his eyes serious. “He’ll come either way, even if Ena has to use her Gift on him.”
Ena froze.
“What?” she asked incredulously. “I didn’t agree to that.” There was no way she would use her Gift on a friend like that. It was one thing to use it on people trying to harm her, or in relatively harmless ways for the greater good of their goal, but to force someone against their will into this whole mess…that seemed like a step too far.
“He knows way too much now. What are the chances he’s running and telling his brothers everything right now? How long until the Aquilo matriarch knows and comes after us?” Ty said.
Fuck. He was making a lot of good points. She didn’tthinkCris was telling his brothers right now. She thought she knew him better than that, but a tiny part of her now regretted not using her Knowing on him to get a better idea of his intentions before he left.
Ena sank back down onto the ground, resting her head in her one good hand.
“I know you don’t like it, Ena, but it might be the only way.”
Ena was silent. Yes, Ty was definitely being an asshole, and part of her wanted to smack him on his smug-ass face, but it didn’t mean he was wrong.
She sighed, her lack of response indicating her implicit agreement. She really hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but only time would tell, and part of her was shocked to know that if push came to shove, if Cris didn’t willingly help, and she couldn’t think of any other options, she might do it. And she didn’t know what that said about her.
