by Jessica Gunn
“Then what?” Ben asked.
Jeremiah shook his head. “I don’t know. Something—anything. I think we’re back in the same impasse as we were last year with Lady Azar.”
“Act and risk too many casualties, or incite war?” Avery asked, though his tone was much calmer than the words he spoke. How someone could be so cool in the face of this was beyond me.
Nodding, Jeremiah said, “Precisely. And what worries me is that if this was Talon’s plan all along, Jerrick is not just going after the Neuians. I fear he may be looking for total domination, the kind Lady Azar did want but never got. And given Cinaed currently has control over the courts of Darkness…”
“Oh,” Krystin said, her jaw locking as if she’d come to the same realization. Whatever it was. “Yeah, that could be a problem.”
“What?” Kian asked.
Puzzle pieces clicked together in my head. “We know Talon doesn’t have a huge army of witches. And if some of them have this corruption, saving them all might actually do the Fire Circle more harm than good.”
“Then don’t need an army,” Krystin said. “The only way to reverse what’s happened to the Ember witches is with the antidote Hydron hasn’t yet figured out. Talon doesn’t care about that, but they can’t mass-produce all these witches either because they’re so volatile, even for them.”
She sighed a little, then continued. “In which case, they’re not going for a full-on assault. If their witches have this corruption, they just need a few. Go in for a surgical strike. Fewer witches means less chance of them crossing a cianza, which means less chance of one exploding…” She twirled her finger in a circle in front of her.
“Exactly,” Jeremiah said.
“Can demons have backfires too?” Avery asked.
Krystin paused for a moment, considering, then nodded. “Yes. Any magik-user, although I doubt any demon of Darkness would like that information getting out. And to be honest, I don’t think it happens terribly often to begin with.”
“But it does mean everyone is at risk,” Ben said. “Jerrick is probably hoping to test-run this whole plan on the Neuians or the Hunter Circles first. The Circles are an easier target, but we have more ways to counter. After he’s cleared both of us and gained renown from it, what’s to keep him from taking out Cinaed, White Flame, and Aloysius?”
“Jerrick would never have to worry about the witches setting foot on cianzas except for the Neuian plane of existence.” Jeremiah’s face had paled. “And even then, considering Veres’s presence in Landshaft, what they went through to capture and keep her… If they’re still going through with this plan, they must have another person with the Power.”
“It’s the only way we stabilized Alzan,” Ben said. “Without Riley helping Krystin and Shawn, we would have failed and likely wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now. So the question really is: how many individuals with the Power do they have?”
“I don’t understand,” I said as I shifted my weight from one foot to another. “I thought the Power was some super unique thing that doesn’t exist anymore.”
Krystin’s eyes darkened. “It’s supposed to be. Over time, those individuals went from plentiful to myths. I… fear what this might mean for the coming war. The final conflict.”
“No kidding,” Ben said, dropping his face into his hands.
Kian looked to me, then them. “What do you mean?”
“It’s a balance,” Krystin said, “introducing more people with the Power. Their magik is neutral in the war and to cianzas. It could be that remnants of the Entity remain, and that because of it, the Entity is now trying to balance itself out. It is a sentient being, after all.”
“We need to act.” Jeremiah’s sharp, curt tone drew everyone’s attention. His balled fists white-knuckled as he stood there, glaring at the ground. His brow drew downward with anger. “But not without a plan to counteract this. I’m not risking more Hunters on a whim if every single one of the magik-users we have can die by a single touch. Give me a day to think. You’re dismissed—all of you.”
Chapter 4
“I don’t know what to do,” Kian said as we made our way through the café line for dinner. We each had binders under one arm, paperwork to be done from now until possibly the end of next year.
I reached for an apple from a basket full of them. “It’s okay—no one does.”
He shook his head as he reached the end of the line and stopped to wait for me. “No, about the magik thing in general. Everything always seems to come back to it. I have to wonder how the Hunter Circles ended up recruiting and training people like me at all, knowing how weak we can be to demons.”
I gave him a deadpan look and stepped out of the line as well. “You are not weak.”
Kian pressed his lips together into a thin line. All he did was stare at me for a long moment. “Weaker, yes, without magik against demons who all have it. You know that just as well as I do.”
A sigh worked its way to my lips, but I stifled it. There was no sense arguing with Kian over something like this. Between the Demon’s Blood he’d gotten himself addicted to and what had happened with his old team of Hunters, nothing would change. “Kian, the point is this is a little out of everyone’s league.”
“I’m aware,” he said. We moved to a table before he continued. “That doesn’t bother you at all? Did you see the way they were acting up there? They have no idea what to do.”
I shook my head and poked my dinner with my fork. “I think it’s like last year, where they have plans to resolve the issue but are afraid of whatever red tape is standing in the way.”
“Not like Ether Head Circle ever gets involved,” Kian muttered.
“Unless they’re arresting one of their own Hunters.”
It was hard not to agree with him. As far as my experience went, the only thing the Ether Head Circle did right was help contain all the force-changed Ember witches. Without their magik-zapping cells in Ether Circle Prison, the witches might have accidentally killed who-knew-how-many people.
Kian only nodded, his attention drifting away to eating his dinner. I let mine go the same way. Together, there was not much Kian and I could do but wait and be ready for whatever action the Command wanted to make. Until Jeremiah’s order came through, we were benched.
Every few minutes, Kian’s gaze flitted to the front door, barely visible from where we sat in the dining area. No wonder he’d picked this table near the archway connecting this room with the lobby.
I looked down at my phone. “Relax, Kian. It’s not even eight o’clock yet. They’ll be out for hours still.”
“Fantastic,” he said, his voice low.
I reached across the table to hold his hand, which he had flat against the wood. As if doing so anchored him somewhat. “Kian. They’re going to be fine.”
His eyes narrowed as they focused on the front door to Fire Circle Headquarters. “How do you know that? In fact”—he looked to me—“you know anything can happen, Ava. Your best friend is out there.”
Leaning in, I squeezed Kian’s hand and looked him directly in the eyes. “He has good instincts and my boyfriend, one of the best Hunters I know, trained him. They will be fine.”
He exhaled heavily, his shoulders relaxing as he did. “I don’t know how anyone does this.”
“What?” I asked. “Train?”
“Have people they care for in the Fire Circle.”
My brow furrowed. “You did before now.”
He nodded. “Yeah, and they all ditched me and left me behind.”
My lips pressed together. “Well, I’m here now and I don’t plan on doing that. As for how you handle your friends and loved ones going out and doing the same things you do? You trust them to handle themselves on their own.”
Kian dropped his gaze to his plate and busied himself with another bite of dinner. “Easier said than done.”
A sudden wave of dread hit me as Kian spoke. I sighed and leaned back in my chair, dropping
my fork to the table. Thing was, I was worried about Will. But Kian was a fantastic teacher and an even better Hunter. More than that, they were out with Avery. If anything went wrong, Avery would handle it.
But I supposed the difference between me and Kian was that I could trust other people to handle a situation regarding someone I loved.
To an extent.
Instead of trying to console Kian further, I pushed my dinner aside and opened up my binder. Inside were report logs from the past month. Any confrontations with demons that had occurred on Hunter patrols had been recorded here. Kian had a binder from two months ago. We’d been tasked with combing through them for any weird instances or patterns, and so far, luckily, we hadn’t found anything of note.
Still, rather than try to talk Kian out of an anxiety that would be solved only by his team of trainees coming in through the front door, I carried on with the work.
Sometime later, after Kian had finished his dinner and also opened up his binder of logs, he finally looked back up at me.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
I met his brown-eyed gaze. “For what?”
“For being so worried about them. And all of this.”
I reached for his hand again. He caught mine and interlocked our fingers. “Kian, don’t—it’s fine. I’d be worried too if Avery weren’t with them. I’m sure they’ll be back soon—”
The front door to Headquarters spun fast, Avery shouting as he led the others inside. Kian’s chair squealed along the floor as he slid it back and stood. I followed behind him on quick feet, through the café into the lobby in a matter of seconds.
“And that is why you never split the party!” Avery shouted as he turned back to inspect his trainees. “Jean, go get a healer for Will. Although I’m tempted to just let him bleed.”
Bleed? I pushed Kian out of the way so I could see what the hell had happened to Will. His face was clenched in pain as he looked down at his blood-soaked arm. Blood poured out from between his fingers, dripping onto the lobby floor.
“Will!” I ran over to him and added more pressure to his arm. “What the hell, Avery?”
Despite the mask of concern sliding over Avery’s features, he said, “He’ll be fine. It’s just a scratch.”
Kian seethed behind me. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew him well enough to feel the anger emanating from him even at this distance.
“That is not a scratch.” Will’s blood was seeping out from around my hand.
Will tried to meet my eyes, but his face had paled and his eyelids drooped. “I’m fine, Ava.”
“Sure you are,” I said as I guided him to the ground against a wall.
Will laid his head back against it and shut his eyes.
“What happened?” I asked.
“We split up the team,” he said. “Demon chase. Asshole.” His eyes narrowed on a point behind my shoulder. Probably wherever Avery was.
“Right,” I said. “A healer will be down in a minute. You need to stay with me until then, got that?”
Will nodded, his eyelids falling completely now. “Got it.”
“Avery!” Kian shouted.
“Not now,” came Avery’s curt response. I looked over my shoulder and found him pacing back and forth, his expression darkening. Whatever had happened, Avery knew it was his fault.
What felt like hours later, Jean came running down the stairs behind Marcus, another Hunter and a healer. At his waist, beneath the white coat he was wearing, was an Air Circle knife.
“Where is he?” Marcus asked as he scanned each person over until he came to Will. His eyes widened as he took in Will’s state before he rushed over. His hand had already begun to glow with a light blue ether. “What happened?”
“Laceration to his arm,” I said as I scooted out of the healer’s way. “It’s bleeding pretty bad. I’m afraid to take my hand away.”
Marcus nodded. “Don’t worry. I got this. On three.”
I nodded and waited for him to count down. When we got to ‘one,’ I lifted my hand from Will’s arm. Blood flooded the area almost immediately. I gagged. “Will?”
Will’s lips moved in a wordless whisper. But at least he was still with me. Barely.
“This is bad,” Marcus said.
“Oh, good. I hadn’t noticed.”
He didn’t so much as spare me an exasperated look. “Watch out.”
The Air Circle healer set his hands an inch above Will’s wound and enveloped the area in bright blue healing ether. A soft light glowed against Will’s skin, turning the blood from crimson red to a more muted color. After a few moments, Marcus winced. “Dammit.”
“What?” I asked, looking up at him.
A warm hand touched my shoulder. I quickly peeked back and found Kian standing beside me.
“He’s an Ember witch,” Marcus said.
My eyes narrowed of their own accord, a twist of fury borrowing within me. “And your point is?”
“His magik is fighting me,” Marcus said, actually sounding winded.
“It’s not a mortal wound, doc,” Avery said.
“I know, I—”
Will jerked forward in his slumber, cutting off Marcus’s words. But when he moved, his arm rubbed against the healer’s magik-covered hand. Blood coated his palm and Marcus reeled back.
“Dammit!” the healer shouted.
Kian spun on Avery. “This is your fucking fault.”
I moved, placing my hands on Will’s shoulders, and pinned him lightly to the wall. “Here. Try again.”
Marcus nodded, lifting his hands to Will’s arm once more. Ether wrapped around his fingers, distracting me momentarily from the smell of my best friend’s blood as it poured out of him. I looked away, trying to swallow my urge to vomit. This was so weird. Blood I could handle. But apparently not Will’s.
“Shit!” Marcus shouted, whipping back away from Will.
I turned back. “What?”
Marcus seized up and tumbled sideways to the ground. His face was laced with pain and agony. As his head hit the wooden floor, his eyes shot open wide and glowed the same color of his ether. Then he began seizing.
“Avery!” I called.
What the hell was—
My stomach sank. Deep and far into an abyss.
Marcus’s magik was backfiring.
I glanced back at Will. His arm had stopped bleeding, but Marcus hadn’t gotten far enough to close up the wound completely. How had Will’s Ember magik been corrupted like the book had talked about? Was it some conscious choice?
But then I remembered who’d poisoned Will in the first place.
I turned to Kian. “Veynix. He must have known about the corruption Ember witches could do. His magik is backfiring.”
Avery ran over and tried to hold Marcus to the ground while he seized, but the longer it went on for, the brighter Marcus’s eyes got. In a matter of moments, the light coming from them was so bright that I threw my arm over my eyes.
Then darkness settled in around us.
Marcus was dead.
Chapter 5
“What the hell just happened?” asked one of Kian’s trainees.
Kian shook his head and stepped toward them, his hands up. “Everyone back up. All of you. Ava?”
I nodded and moved away a couple of feet, though my aching heart hated every motion. Will wouldn’t hurt me, not intentionally.
Will’s eyelids fluttered open again.
“Will?” I asked.
His eyes wandered until they met mine, and he tried to push away from the wall. “Ava, what…?”
“Don’t, Will.” He froze and gave me a weird look. I continued, “There’s something wrong with your magik. Something Veynix did.”
Will’s brow furrowed. “Is that why you’re looking at me like I have a bomb strapped to my chest?”
“I mean, you sort of do,” I said carefully. “Don’t touch anyone, especially not another magik-user.”
“Why?” he asked, panic wrinkling the corn
ers of his eyes. He looked down, as if remembering for the first time about his injured arm. His chest rose and fell with quick breaths as he took in the amount of crimson on his skin.
“Easy,” I said to Will. “I think you’re going to be fine. Marcus, a healer, closed the wound before…”
My gaze trailed to Marcus’s body as Avery covered it before running in search of help.
“Before what?” Will asked. “What happened to him? Why is everyone looking at me like that?”
I turned and looked at Will’s training team, at Kian. Each and every one of them had fear in their eyes, although I couldn’t tell if it was because of Will or realizing they could accidentally do the same thing with their own magik.
I smiled softly at Will, hoping to calm him down. “Marcus was healing you. You jerked forward while you were unconscious and your blood mixed with his magik.” My smile faded with the stark reality of the situation. “His magik backfired because of yours.”
“And he’s dead?” Will asked, his eyebrows lifting, sorrow twisting his expression. “I did that?”
I inched closer to him again, reaching out. But I stopped short. “Yes. Not intentionally, but yes.”
Will’s eyes narrowed and filled with tears. “What the hell?”
“It’s okay.” I reached for him again. It was such a natural thing to do, more natural than breathing. Will had been my best friend for longer than I could remember. So this, not be able to comfort him, tore me apart inside. My heart clenched as again I stopped my hand short of Will’s arm.
“How? How is this okay?” he asked, looking at me for all the world like I was a stranger.
That was when I realized what was really wrong. Will had never killed before.
A thundering of footsteps echoed down the stairs. They came to a stop somewhere between the front door and Lissandra’s desk.
“What the…?”
I glanced up and found Jeremiah, already exhausted, standing there with wide eyes as he took everything in. Avery was at his side.