Page 71 of The Arcane God

“Sort of,” Ena explained. “It is a Gift, because I’m a witch, but the ability is something a daemon can have too. In fact, it’s more common in daemons as a Power.”

Xena nodded, looking like she was mulling something over. “And how did you realize you had this…Gift that is also a Power?”

“The matriarch of my Coven sensed it using divination, and then Ty,” she added, looking over at him, “was the one who explained to me how it worked, and how to use it.”

Ty remembered that. All her questions about his Power of furor. At the time, he’d assumed she was scared or curious about daemons. It wasn’t until later that he’d realized she was simply curious about herself.

“Why do you ask?” Ena inquired.

Xena tucked her hair behind her ear, as if trying to think how best to explain. “Since my Awakening, I have been vigilant, wanting to know if Omnis Awakened a Gift, in addition to my Change, but I hadn’t felt anything until…” She looked briefly over at Turner, before darting her eyes away again. “I was awake one day—having trouble sleeping with the storm—so I wanted to work on my bone carving, but I didn’t want to wake Xoe. I was trying to be quiet, willing her to not hear me, when I felt…I felt almost as if I could feel her. Her mind, asleep. Does that make any sense?”

“That sounds like a mind channel,” Ty chimed in, drawing Xena’s attention to him. “The way that daemons’ Powers work, and Ena’s visanis.”

“But his Power does not work that way,” Xena said, gesturing toward, but avoiding eye contact with, Turner.

“My Power is corporeal,” Turner explained, and she looked over at him reluctantly. “But not all daemons have Powers like me. Most have Powers of the mind, using mind channels, like Ty said.”

“But why would I have a Power? I am not a daemon,” Xena asked him, raising her brow in challenge.

“Neither am I,” Ena responded for him. “But I am part witch, and part stryx. Maybe something about the bloodlines crossing makes the magic we are granted…not follow the rules. We know that all magic comes from the same source, so maybe that’s just…Omnis. And we’re able to tap into different parts of Omnis than other witches.”

“What Gift did your father have? He was part witch and part stryx too, no?” Xena asked.

“I was told he had a form of animalium—that’s a Gift that allows you to communicate with certain animals.”

“And that is not a Power?”

“No,” Ena explained. “It’s not necessarily common among witches, but there are others with that Gift. And my sister…she would be part stryx, too, and she still has a Gift.”

“So maybe, when the bloodlines cross, it can just go either way?” Turner offered. “Depending on the person.”

Ty thought that he was likely right—maybe there was no pattern to any of this. All of this complicated business about Iblis, Gaia, and Omnis—that was beyond him. Ena had explained what she’d learned from Kaya and Max the other night, and he appreciated it, but he normally left that kind of thinking to her. Not because he didn’t care, but just because it didn’t affect him. Not really. He was glad to be free of serving Iblis exclusively. Glad to have access to Gaia, or full access to Omnis, or however you wanted to look at it. Beyond that, it didn’t fucking matter to him what was out there. What mattered was right in front of him.

“I suppose so,” Ena said. He could see her brain turning over this new information, trying to make it fit. “So what is it you think your Power can do?” she asked Xena.

“I don’t know,” she replied, seeming slightly frustrated by the idea.

Despite himself, Ty had sympathy for her. As much as the idea of a sibling was foreign to him, he could understand how difficult it was to have two parts to you, one of which was hard to understand. It was part of why he still couldn’t deal with Kaya. Because unlike Xena, he’d had no one to explain his Gift, to guide him when he’d discovered it, and he resented the fuck out of that. He’d never been able to learn about his witch half, until he met Ena.

Then, like an arrow nocking into place, he realized what it was about Xena that made him so uncomfortable.

He was jealous.

Deep down, he was jealous that she’d gotten their mother, while Ty had been left alone. And that made him not only resent Kaya, but Xena too.

But, logically, he also knew that that was not Xena’s fault. He groaned internally.

Fuck. Maybe he should try to be nicer to her.

He cleared his throat pointedly. “What were you trying to do when you felt the mind channel appear?” Ty asked, deciding he should offer what guidance he could. “That usually happens when your Power’s purpose is close.”

Xena looked at him, seeming pleasantly surprised. “Like I said, I was just trying not to wake Xoe. Trying to be quiet,” she said.

“That sounds like…” Turner began, looking over at him.

“Invisibilitas,” Ty finished, nodding with a smile. “It’s a Power that allows one to distract someone else. Make them not notice you. It’s pretty rare.”

Xena’s eyebrows rose excitedly, and damn her, the look buoyed his spirits.