The brown-haired witch she’d mentioned, Ena had seen her in her own vision. She was the one who’d seemed much too pleased with herself after conducting the spell. The one who seemed to enjoy watching the female daemon suffer.
“So, long story short, it was never Gaia’s will that the spell be enacted in the first place. My Coven has always known that,” Mel finished, as if that explained literally everything.
“Occidens has? Really?” Cris chimed in. He was clearly having just as much trouble absorbing all of this information as she was.
“Yes. Our ancestor, the Occidens matriarch, was pressured to do the spell, but immediately regretted it. She could tell it was wrong, and she tried to convince the other two to reverse it, but they refused. Luckily, she got away with the amulet andhid it. She was brave for doing that. But the other Covens werenothappy,” Mel said, laughing a little at whatever memory of a vision she was reliving.
“That’s what caused the rivalry between the Covens, right?” Ena asked, seeking confirmation of what she’d already suspected.
Mel nodded, and satisfaction filled Ena at having at least figured that part out already. But the rest of what they’d said…
“Do you mean to say that all Occidens witches know about the amulet and the bond to Iblis? Not just the matriarch?” Ena asked, her mind spinning at that revelation.
“Mmhmm,” Mel answered simply. “Of course, we don’t go blabbing it around. That wouldn’t be helpful for relations with the other Covens. And it’s not like we trust daemons any more than everyone else anyway, especially since they’re incapable of channeling Gaia. But we at leastknowthat what was done is not what Gaia wanted. And at least from my perspective, I do feel quite sorry for them.”
Mel looked at Ty and Turner then, their brow furrowing in pity, as the two daemons exchanged a what-the-fuck look with one another.
“I think I need to sit down,” Turner said. “This is a lot to absorb first thing in the morning.”
Ena felt much the same. She looked over at Cris, who had paled and was standing there just as dumbstruck as the rest of them. The poor guy had had a lot of information dumped on his plate lately. Maybe she should encourage him to sit down too.
Then she looked at Ty. He, at least, didn’t look overwhelmed, just contemplative. What was he thinking?
He approached Mel. Not in a threatening way. For the first time, it seemed as if he really wanted to address them. Not suspiciously, but respectfully. “Thank you, for all this information,” he said slowly, sincerely. “And for coming all thisway to help us, on your own. That was an incredibly brave thing to do.”
“Nah, I’m not brave,” they said, waving away Ty’s compliment. “I knew I’d get here okay, like I said—I’ve seen it.”
Ty smiled at them in a friendly way, clearly warming up to them now, and Mel smiled back, staring at him intently.
“Nowshe, the one you look like, she was brave,” Mel added, as if communicating something big and important to Ty. But Ena was, once again, lost.
“Who?” Ena asked, wondering how many questions she had left to ask before more stopped emerging.
“Kaya,” Mel responded, looking over at Ena. “Ifinallyfigured out it was her I was seeing. Then a lot of it made sense,” they said, sounding relieved.
“Who’s Kaya?” Ena asked them, shaking her head in confusion.
“My mother,” Ty responded. His voice was hard, and his expression more so.
“Yes! Exactly. I thought so,” Mel said, clearly giddy at this realization. “I told you, you look like her. It’s the eyes,” they said, gesturing at Ty’s face. Then they looked around to the rest of them, as if seeking confirmation of this, but no one could give them any.
“What?” Turner asked from where he sat. “You knew Ty’s mother?”
“Well, I didn’t know her. I was a child when she left Occidens, but I remember her. I mean, who wouldn’t, what with her absconding with a daemon and stealing historic journals and all,” Mel said. “And, of course, I’ve seen her,” they added offhand.
“You’ve seen her, like, in your visions?” Turner asked.
“Yes,” Mel answered simply.
Ena was floored. Not only was this another one of her theories proven correct—that Kaya, Ty’s mother,hadbeen the one to take the journals from Occidens and give them to Petyr—but this witch had seen Ty’s mother? Maybe knew where she was or at least knew more about her? That was…huge for him.
She desperately wanted to ask more questions, ask all the things that she wanted to know about the last witch before her to visit the Underworld, but she knew that wasn’t her place. It was Ty’s.
Ena looked over at him to see what he was thinking, but his face was carefully blank.
Everyone was silent, waiting for him to continue, but all he did was clear his throat.
“Well, thank you, again, Mel, for joining us. We’ll let you finish your food and then we can all take a second to figure out what’s next.”
