Page 77 of The Knowing Witch

Ty looked back at her as he led the saddled horse out into the night. She kept telling herself she should turn back now. He was far enough away, he was safe. They walked into the dark woods behind the village, and started heading deeper into it. Soon, she could barely make out the houses in the dark. She could still hear the ocean, but it was getting fainter. And yet she walked, and she walked.

She couldn’t stop. She couldn’t say goodbye. And Ty, sensing this, didn’t mount his horse. He simply walked beside her, just as afraid to let her go. And in that moment, Ena realized what that draw to him was, the one she’d always felt, because she realized how much they’d alwaysfit. Like when she looked at the vastness of the mountains, or the endlessness of the oceans, and knew she was a tiny piece of a bigger whole. Just like those, it was as if she and Ty were a part of each other, ebbing and flowing together like one being, one whole.

Realizing this, she stopped in her tracks, and Ty stopped too.

Turning to look at her, his eyes were filled with sorrow. “So this is it then?” he asked. Steeling himself, he looked at her and said, “Ena, I—”

“You’ll need a witch.”

“What?” he said, his brow furrowing in confusion.

“You’ll need a witch. Likely more than one, to break the bond.”

“Ena, what are you saying?” His face lightened with hope.

Ena took a deep breath, and dredged up her courage. She looked into the face of the man who’d always made her feel powerful and alive. A man who felt like home, and who was, and always would be,hers. And although she knew she should return to her path, standing beside him in the dark of the woods, she was suddenly filled with a sense of clarity.

She didn’t want to return to that path. She didn’t know if she fit there anymore, not like this, not after everything she’d done and learned. Maybe she’d never really fit there. And shewantedto help him break the bond. Wanted to right this wrong. Maybe that was why Gaia had given her the vision.

So she would follow a different path. An unknown one.

“You’ll need me to help break the bond,” she said. “So I’m coming with you. To the Underworld.”

END OF BOOK ONE