by Jessica Gunn
I shot Kian a single look, then we both jumped for Mason. If I could just get him on the ground and slam a requirem somewhere on him—
But Mason lifted his hands and a barely-visible wave of orange Ember ether shot out from his fingertips. It sent Kian and me stumbling backward into the construction fence.
“Until we meet again,” Mason said, his fiery gaze lingering on me. “Be well, Ava. And tell your friend Will to rest. He’s going to need it.”
And then he, and every single demon along this street, disappeared in a teleportante all at once. Like they’d never been there at all.
Chapter 9
I grabbed for Kian’s hand and brought us back to Fire Circle Headquarters right away. If Mason had felt safe enough teleporting in the middle of the day, then it must have been okay.
Mason was Veynix’s apprentice?
Then everything happening right now—Talon’s crusade and Mason’s targeting of me—was as much about revenge as it was finishing Talon’s plan to attack the Hunter Circles. But Mason had said they weren’t the only target.
Who the hell else were they planning on attacking with a horde of forcibly-turned Ember witches?
“We need to talk to Dacher immediately,” I said, racing across the first floor to the main staircase. I’d brought us to the freelancer job board, figuring that if Brian and the other Hydron representatives were still here, they wouldn’t be in this area.
Kian nodded but didn’t move to follow me. “There’s still a good chance he’s speaking with the Hydron agents.”
“Guess I’m facing that then.” I didn’t want to talk to Brian, especially not after the conversation I’d just had with Mason regarding Veynix. Even though I knew Veynix was dead, hearing someone else speak his name had still sent shivers coursing through me.
As we crossed the first floor of Headquarters, sounds started filtering in from upstairs. Heavy footfalls, like people were running, and screams, shouts. A group of people hurried down the stairs. One Hunter even jumped from the landing where the staircase turned.
“Watch out!” they called as they landed. “Get out of here, go!”
Kian pulled the Hunter aside. I vaguely recognized him as Steve Neil.
“What’s going on?” Kian asked.
Steve’s eyes went wide and he shook his head. “They’re evacuating the upper floors. The poisoned Hunters are attacking everyone.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
Steve tore himself from Kian’s grip. “Gotta go.” He took off toward the stairs leading down into the great hall without another word. Others followed him, as if that were the designated evacuation point. A few months ago, when Veynix and Talon had attacked Headquarters, it had been.
“Let’s go,” Kian said, his eyes focused on the staircase leading upward.
I swallowed hard. If they’re evacuating, there wasn’t much we could do. But if it involved the poisoned Hunters, that meant whatever fight that might have been happening upstairs was taking place in the Infirmary. Will was up there.
Kian led the way up the stairs. We dodged fleeing Hunters at every turn. Heavy thuds sounded, followed by the sounds of magik impacting walls and people. The air smelled as though something were burning, like several fires had been lit.
“Keep going,” Kian said. I hadn’t realized I’d slowed down. “Unless you don’t want to go help?” He pressed himself close to the wall as another wave of Hunters rushed by.
“I’m saving Will at the very least,” I said as we continued onward.
When we crested the top of the stairs at the third floor, we appeared behind a wall of magik-users, including both Ben and Krystin. She had drawn her three-piece-sword and was ducking instead of wielding the magik she was famous for.
Ben turned and saw us. His eyes narrowed on Kian. “Get out of here. It’s not safe.” The words for anyone without magik hung in the air, but I was starting to get the distinct impression Ben really meant it wasn’t safe for anyone, period.
“What’s going on?” I asked, taking in the scene before me.
An impromptu wall of ether stood between the entrance to the Infirmary and the main waiting room area. Ben, Krystin, and the other magik-users huddled around it, taking turns lobbing shots inside. Beyond it, the poisoned Hunters paced back and forth, their eyes wild and glowing red-orange. Almost demonic but still solidly…
Ember witches. Glowing red-orange ether flames danced in each of their hands. Behind their front line stood Will in the entrance of one of the first exam rooms. His eyes weren’t glowing as bright—or, at least not as bright as they had in Veynix’s lair under Midnight. But Ember witch ether swirled around his hands, too. I’d known the poison had awakened that magik in him, but seeing him work it was another thing entirely.
“They’re all Ember witches,” Kian said, taking in the warzone-like scene with me. The walls had been painted in scorch marks. Even part of the doorway had been blown away.
“I’ve tried to contain the area,” Krystin said. “But I’m not the witch I once was.”
Another Hunter about their age nodded. I’d seen her here before only a few times. Serena was an ether-shaper freelancer who mostly worked international jobs on behalf of the Fire Circle. She must have been recalled when this attack had started.
“Trying,” Serena said, her eyes squeezed shut. “It’s hard to keep their magik from knocking down my ether walls.”
“They’ll burn themselves out,” Ben said. “They have to.”
“That’s what you think,” Krystin grunted. “What’s with everyone attacking Headquarters lately?”
But we all knew the answer to that one: that war everyone from the Ether Head Circle to the Powers to Aloysius, Emperor of Darkness himself, kept warning everyone about was finally on its way. The Headquarters and other facilities that used to be no-go zones were now nothing but pawns to be taken.
“Call Shawn,” Ben said to Krystin. “Get him here to help. Maybe there’s something the two of you can do.”
Krystin regarded him with a look that appeared to hold a thousand unsaid words. “Are you sure about that?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Ben said. “I want a non-lethal response to this. As would Dacher.”
“And where’s he?” Kian asked.
“Safe with the Hydron agents downstairs,” Ben said.
Dacher didn’t have magik and so wouldn’t be able to help in this situation. It’d also confirmed my suspicions that the Hydron group, Brian included, was still here.
Krystin frowned but nodded anyway, a dark look falling over her features. “If you think it’s worth it.” She closed her eyes. A moment later, she said, “He’s on his way.”
The air beside her shimmered as a teleportante trail landed. A man walked out of it and Krystin immediately pulled him to the floor with us. He was wearing tan pants and a long tunic that didn’t look like something someone from Boston would wear. He had dark hair that curled over his forehead and darker eyes, and a mask of seriousness about him that clamped my mouth shut.
“That was fast,” Krystin said to Shawn, her teammate and fellow Ember witch. I hadn’t seen him in months, since back when Veynix had first attacked my old team.
“Areus sensed something was wrong,” Shawn said. He nodded at Ben. “What’s going on?”
“Ember witches,” Krystin said. “Their power, at least.”
“Hunters with magik were poisoned with Talon’s latest concoction,” Ben explained. “Which apparently turns normal magik-users into power-crazy Ember witches.”
Shawn’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell?”
“Pretty much,” Krystin said as she lifted herself up to peek over the wall of ether keeping us safe as more shots of Ember ether volleyed overhead. “Anything you can think of that might help us?”
Shawn looked at her, deadpan. “Yeah, let me just quickly discover the cure my entire witch-kind have been searching for to stop our magik from taking control of us.”
Oh, great. N
one of them had any idea how to fix this situation. Which didn’t surprise me so much because it seemed like no one in the Fire Circle ever did.
“I’m going to assume running in and trying to hit them all with a requirem might be too dangerous,” Shawn said.
Ben nodded. “Basically.”
“I think Ben wants us to try neutralizing them with our ala-ether,” Krystin said dryly.
Shawn glanced up at Ben. “That desperate, are we?” He reached a hand out to Krystin. “If it’s an order…”
“It is,” Ben said. “Stop this.”
Shawn and Krystin closed their eyes as they joined hands. I gulped. I’d heard plenty of their shared power, but, like everyone except for the few teams responsible for saving Alzan last year, I’d never seen it in person. A warm, white glow of ether magik grew between their joined hands, expanding as they stood and faced the crazed, newly-made Ember witches. The ether collided with their red-orange magik, creating a kaleidoscope of fiery colors, all of it swallowed up by the white ether of Krystin and Shawn’s magik.
Ben’s breath hitched as he watched his teammates. My own was lost the second their magik had appeared. But I forced new air into my lungs and launched myself over Steve’s ether wall.
Ben followed, and together we weaved in and around each of the beams of ether magik. I moved as quick as I had in Midnight’s ring against demon fighters. Kian was behind me, the reassuring weight of his presence implying he’d follow my lead. I didn’t need to glance behind me to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.
A shadow grew overhead as a newly-minted Ember witch stepped into my space, towering over me. I dodged their first attack, swung up and landed a requirem to their side. Their Ember witch ether disappeared in the next breath. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kian doing the same. Between the three of us, and the half-distraction, half-neutralizing effect of Krystin and Shawn’s magik, we managed to subdue the Ember witches without casualties.
Except one.
Will paced at the end of the long hallway of exam rooms, his eyes awash with red-orange ether, the same magik dancing in his palms.
“Will,” I said. “It’s me.”
His eyes met mine and he lifted his hands. “It’s out of control,” he said, his voice wavering. “This magik feels like it’s burning me from the inside.” Will bent over and cried out as the magik in his eyes pulsed.
I stepped closer to him, my hand out and ready. “I can help you.”
He straightened in a flash, sending magik flying out of his hands. A shot of it grazed my shoulder. I bit back the searing pain burning through my skin and kept my eyes on him.
“Oh, god,” he said, backing up against a wall. “Ava—I’m sorry, I—”
I swallowed the throbbing pain in my shoulder. None of that would matter if Will was hurt here because I couldn’t get to him in time. “It’s okay. It’s nothing.”
He shook his head again and again. “No, no, no. It’s not nothing.”
“Shh.” I was almost to him now. Just another few steps. “I can help, but you have to let me near you.”
His gaze shot to mine with fury. “I’ll hurt you!”
“Not willingly. Your magik is out of control, Will. It happens to all Ember witches.” Just not this much, this badly. Not from everything I’d ever heard. I reached out my hand to Will. “Take my hand.”
Will’s eyes focused in on my fingers, but when he lifted his own, they were awash with red-orange ether. He brought his hand back to his chest. “No.”
The air next to Will shimmered and Kian appeared in the next moment. Before Will had time to react, Kian pressed a hand to his arm and hit him with a requirem. Both Will, and his magik, were out.
Will began to collapse to the floor, but Kian caught him. I hurried to him and Will and helped Kian bring Will back down the hall to the others.
“Thank you,” I said to Kian.
He nodded. “Didn’t think he’d forgive himself for hurting you if you couldn’t get to him.”
I glanced down at my shoulder. It had stopped hurting at some point between subduing Will and bringing him down the hall. Probably not a good thing, since the burn appeared to be deeper than skin. “Yeah. He wouldn’t have.”
Ben paced up and down the room, looking to Krystin and Shawn, then to all the unconscious Ember witches. “I don’t know what just happened here, but until further notice, everyone poisoned by this bullshit weapon from Talon is to be quarantined.”
Krystin and Shawn shared a serious look. Krystin’s mouth tightened. “We can fit maybe a dozen in the two quarantine chambers we have. After that…”
Ben nodded. “I know. But it’s all we can do. I’ll inform Dacher of what’s going on, but I’m sure both he and his Command will agree. If we get any more poisoned Hunters, we’re going to have to start moving people to Ether Circle Headquarters, or maybe even the prison, to keep everyone safe.”
Krystin’s face paled as she stepped back from Ben. “The prison?”
“I don’t like it either,” Ben said as he turned for the door. “But I can almost guarantee that’s what Dacher is going to suggest. I’ll go inform him now. Ava, Kian, help Shawn and Krystin get these Hunters to the quarantine chambers. Then find the other two Leader candidates. Let’s get a handle on this before it gets worse.”
Chapter 10
Over an hour passed before I was allowed to see Will. Ben and Dacher, along with the Fire Circle Command and the Leader candidates, kept everyone waiting as they tried to discover what had happened. Likely that “stage two” Mason had mentioned, continuing on with whatever plan Veynix had enacted. Including poisoning Will.
At first, I thought Veynix had poisoned my best friend as another way to get under my skin. But after today’s events, I was beginning to wonder if Veynix had—somehow—known all along about the Ember witch heritage in Will’s family.
Maybe poisoning him and adding Will as another soldier in Talon’s war had been on purpose.
Finally, after Bria, the healer on duty, had fixed up my shoulder, Krystin had appeared and escorted me to the quarantine chamber Will was being held inside.
“I can’t get you in to see him alone,” she said as she watched the Hunters on the other side of the glass. “But hopefully they’ll at least give you the illusion of privacy.”
“Thank you.” It wasn’t enough. I wanted to talk to Will alone, to make sure he was actually okay. But this had to be good enough for now.
Krystin left the room. I walked toward the glass.
Each of the two quarantine chamber rooms at Fire Circle Headquarters were the same. A single room split by a half-wall that had glass running up the other half. The glass was enforced by magiks similar to the protection ones guarding Hunter’s Guild, keeping magik from being used inside the quarantine chamber itself. Switches located on a panel near the door in the half-wall turned on the audio and microphone options, allowing one to close out the ability to communicate across the magik-enforced glass. Right now, two tiny green lights indicated that two-way communication was possible.
Will looked up as I entered, as did a few of the other Hunters inside. His eyes lit up at seeing me, but as soon as they traveled down to my bandaged-though-nearly-healed shoulder, he frowned.
“How bad is it?” he asked as he approached the glass.
“It’s fine,” I said. “Bria took care of most of it. Be sure not to actually touch the glass, Will. It’ll shock you.”
His frown deepened as though I’d stolen his favorite jacket and lost it. “So I’ve heard. What happened?”
I pressed a hand to my side of the glass. No shock. Not from this end. I wanted to hug Will, to reassure him that everything was going to be fine. But I wasn’t sure of anything anymore, least of all that. My fingers curled into a fist against the glass. “The poison Veynix infected you with three months ago, it wasn’t just his platypus venom. It’s a poison Talon was working on when my team discovered their plan to attack the Hunter Circles last year.�
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Will’s brow furrowed. “How do you know?”
“I wasn’t sure at first because there weren’t mentions of Ember witches until after my team died.” I looked down to my feet and sighed heavily. “To be fair, the Trade has trafficked Ember witches for so long that no one remembers when it started. And no one has ever questioned how there could even still be Ember witches for them to capture. The Blackwood and Cassano witch lines are so limited. But now…” I shook my head. “Maybe Talon’s been creating them all along.”
“For me, the poison awoke a long-dormant heritage,” Will said slowly. “For others, it created Ember witches?”
I nodded. “Must have. The other victims were of different magik types before all of this started. Now…”
“Is that common, people having their magik types changed?” Will asked.
“I…” Closing my eyes, I pulled in another deep breath as I remembered back to my initial magik lessons during my training period to become a Hunter. “No, not really. As it is, a person can’t have ether magik and elemental magik in the same body at the same time. It’ll destroy you from your soul outward. So how some of these Hunters who used to have elemental-based magik are even alive right now, I have no idea. Maybe that’s why the awakening of this Ember witch magik was so volatile. It wasn’t the normal shift to Ember ether, but a reckoning of great proportions inside each individual.”
Will’s eyes fell. He ran a hand through his short hair. “Sounds fantastic.”
I pressed my fist against the glass. “I wish this wasn’t happening to you.”
“I wish it wasn’t happening to anyone,” Will said.
I leaned my forehead against the barrier between us. “If I’d made enough money faster, we could have been in Europe right now.”
“But Talon would still be doing this, right?” Will asked. “Veynix would still be alive and spearheading this campaign against the Fire Circle?”
“He might as well still be. Instead, Veynix’s apprentice is heading up this operation.” I lifted my gaze to Will. “It’s not just that, Will. I didn’t get a chance to tell you last night because I basically ran away from the problem.”