by Jessica Gunn
Chloe’s mouth thinned into a line for a moment as traces of some sort of emotion flashed across her eyes. Regret? Fear?
Guilt?
I wasn’t sure. Before I could decipher it, she took my hand once more and together we ran to the door.
“Hey!” a demon shouted behind us.
I turned as her fingers brushed the door handle. “Go!” I told her, then settled in for a fight, lowering my stance and bracing for impact.
There was no response.
I glanced back over my shoulder and found the door already open.
Chloe was already gone. And I could not, injured and unarmed, fight a Talon bounty hunter alone.
The demon, with fire building in his palms, was barreling down the hallway toward me.
God dammit.
Never. Trust. A. Demon.
Chapter 10
I turned and sprinted through the door, my lungs heaving to keep air in. I kept running, kept moving. There was no point in stopping.
Dammit, Chloe, I thought as I ran. Demons were demons and would never be anything but self-serving, single-minded creatures with twisted souls and magik. We needed to work together to escape and now that we’d done so, there really was no reason to stick together.
Still, a part of me—very tiny, though incredibly vocal—wished Chloe were still here. Just in case they followed me too far before I could teleportante to Fire Circle Headquarters. Because unlike me, Chloe had magik. All demons did. And alone, injured, and unarmed, I was nothing more than limping prey.
Keep. Moving.
My feet pounded against the wet, mossy ground. I dragged my scarred and still open-wounded forearm against my face to get my hair out of my eyes. Just a couple hundred yards. That was as far as I had to make it. Then I’d be past the magik barrier as long as it wasn’t solid.
My heart sank for just a moment. What if it’s not passable?
Cliché as it was, I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. I had to make it that far first.
Pain bit at my sides as my lungs struggled to keep up with the punishment movement was bringing them. Just a little farther.
The magik wall was in sight now. Light came through it, as the wall was see-through, but the light seemed to catch a bit, causing a shimmering effect. I slowed my pace as I approached it. I knew nothing about magik like this. Not much about magik on the whole, actually.
“What the?”
I glanced behind me to make sure no demons were catching up before gingerly touching the tip of my pointer finger to the magik wall.
With a rough yank backward, I fell, face-first, to the ground. Dirt piled into my mouth as I was pulled roughly backward. The open wounds on my arms and legs caught gravel and small rocks, digging in deeper and returning the pain anew.
“Not so fast!” It was another demon, this one clawing into my sides to pull me back toward the compound.
I twisted, writhing beneath him, until I managed to catch my knee between us, pushing into his gut with all I had. The demon held on and we tumbled end-over-end. A roar built in my throat and I released it, pushing down pain that burst across my entire body, every second of it spent focusing on stopping the demon and using anything I had at my disposal to do so. I clawed right back at him, scratching my fingers down the sides of his face, reaching past him on the ground as we tumbled for a rock, a branch—anything. A search that grew more desperate as the demon’s hands gathered around my neck and squeezed.
Panic spiked, lighting my system like fire on gasoline.
This was it. This was the end—Yes! My fingertips brushed something hard. Stone.
I wrapped my fingers around it and roared again, slamming a rock the size of a baseball, jagged and harsh, into the side of the demon’s face. An awful, gut-twisting crunch resounded and the demon slumped over me as his eyes rolled backward into his head. His deadweight felt like a hundred massive boulders crashing on top of me.
Still, I found the strength to heave him away.
Slowly, painfully, I crawled back to my feet. My heart pounded with every step, and my lungs threatened to give out.
I had to keep going. I had to get free.
And this was my only chance.
I made my way back to the magik wall as quickly as I could—which was at an injured snail’s pace—placed my whole palm against the wall, and pushed. My fingers slipped through first, then my hand up to my wrist. With renewed hope swelling inside me that maybe all of this was over—or better yet, nothing but a dream—I walked farther into the magik wall and through it. Once on the other side, I pulled in a deep breath. It felt more refreshing than it should have. The air on the outside was a bit colder and crisper. Trees rose out of the ground all around me. I had no idea where I was, not with any certainty.
“There he is!” a demon shouted.
I spun back, jolting so hard that my tired body shook with pain. “Shit.” I closed my eyes and willed any gods out there, any being in charge of magik, to let this work. Please let this work. I opened my eyes once more and as a pack of demons came running at me I said, “Teleportante.”
I thought of Fire Circle Headquarters. The way the old wooden panels and pillars lined the building. The way wood fires still burned within. How even though it sat in the middle of the financial district of the City of Boston, hidden away by magiks and power I didn’t understand, it looked as old as time on the inside. Even with the modern improvements on basics.
Relief bloomed within me as the teleportante landed me in the middle of the lobby on the first floor. My shaking legs almost gave out, but I grabbed on to the nearest person’s shoulder—a Hunter I hadn’t seen before. She looked down at me with wide, afraid eyes.
“Whoa there. Are you okay?” the blonde woman asked.
“No.” A simple answer, but the truth. And the rest of the truth was that my injuries were too numerous to list. “Jaffrin.”
“You don’t need Jaffrin,” someone said from behind the desk. Lissandra. She was there, a staple of Fire Circle Headquarters. Now she stood with one hand on her phone system. “You need the infirmary.”
“What’s left of it, you mean,” the female Hunter said.
That was when the smell of burning wood intensified. And as I looked around trying to pinpoint the source of it, I realized Headquarters… had been burned. Or attacked. Something. Some of the walls had scorch marks on them. Other patients sort of padded around the bottom floor of the building with sad, despondent looks.
“What happened?” I asked, my gaze switching between Lissandra and the Hunter.
“How do you not know?” the Hunter asked.
Lissandra looked me over. “Mr. Farley, you need to follow me upstairs to the infirmary before I send someone to take you up there. You look as if you’re about to fall over.”
And Headquarters looked like the infirmary might be the only fully operating part of the building right now.
I nodded but couldn’t take my eyes from the carnage. We’d been attacked. That was the only explanation. It also sort of gave a reason for why no one had come searching for my team and me… assuming they were still alive. Judging by Lissandra’s concerned expression that was turning more dire by the second, I was beginning to think they weren’t.
Shit. Four of my… well, we weren’t really close enough to be called friends, but my teammates might have been dead. How the hell had only I survived that initial fight?
“Okay,” I said. “But as we go, someone better tell me what happened here.”
Lissandra herself led me up to the infirmary on the second floor. Which was strange enough because she usually never left her desk while on shift. Stranger yet was what she told me. “Kinder attacked. The Fire Circle’s most wanted criminal. She came in here with one of the Fire Circle’s best Hunters and attacked us all. Traitors, both of them. I just can’t believe it was Ms. Blackwood.” Lissandra frowned.
The name sounded familiar, but I was too tired to place it right now. Instead, I followed Lissandra
upstairs and into the infirmary. There, the medical staff tended to my various wounds, acknowledging that the markings on my arm would probably scar.
Finally, Jaffrin arrived. Deep purple bags hung beneath his eyes, sleepless and stress-filled. “Kian. I’m glad to see you… alive and well.” His brows knitted together.
It’s true, then. They’re dead. “How?” I asked, hoping he understood what I was asking. How did they all die?
Jaffrin shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “They’re alive, Kian. But…” He sighed and leaned against the open doorway. “I’m sorry. It’s been a very trying few days. I’m glad you’re alive and well because your team didn’t know what happened to you. They weren’t sure you were even alive.”
I blinked, not processing his words. “I don’t understand.”
“When you were attacked—”
“We weren’t attacked,” I corrected, images of that night flashing through my mind. “We jumped in to save a human from being trafficked into Landshaft.” Human. My mind caught on the word and repeated it over and over again. According to the Talon soldiers, their captive hadn’t been human at all.
Jaffrin nodded knowingly and sighed a little. “I gathered as much from their report. The good news is, Kian, they’re alive. But they’re no longer Hunters. In addition to abandoning you, they also quit.”
“They what?” I sputtered.
Jaffrin’s lips pressed together into a thin line. “They returned to Headquarters and reported in before turning in their Fire Circle knives. Whatever you guys saw out there was enough to scare them away for good.”
My fists clenched at my sides as I slammed my mouth shut. My molars ground together. “I went through hell. Talon would have killed me in there had I not escaped.”
Jaffrin’s eyebrows raised. “Talon?”
I nodded.
“Looks like you’re lucky to have escaped at all then,” Jaffrin said. “Well done.”
“For what, though? To come back to a disbanded team?” I lifted my arms so Jaffrin could see the scarring and exactly what I’d gone through just to get free. “They did this to me because they think the Fire Circle aligned with some weird power they’re scared of. I thought the rest of my team was captured. But they turned tail and ran?”
“Yes,” Jaffrin said.
I looked up at him. “I never want to Hunt on a team again.” I never wanted to give someone power like that again. Never wanted to trust anyone ever to have my back. “I honestly don’t know if I even want to be a Hunter anymore.” But even as I said it, I knew those words were lies. And so did Jaffrin, judging by his unchanging expression.
“Rest, Kian,” Jaffrin said knowingly. “And after that, maybe take a few days while I try to reassign you to a new team.”
“I said I don’t want to be on a team anymore,” I said. “I’ll go freelance. Work on my own.”
“That’s extra training time.”
“Then I’ll do it. I’m not risking it again, Jaffrin.” I glanced down at my arms. “I’ll stay long enough to give a full report.”
The Hunter Circles had become my life ever since I’d first discovered demons existed. When I’d first learned I could do something about it.
But after finally almost losing my life for my old team—any—team… because of cowards… I wasn’t sure.
Jaffrin nodded once more and left me to the medical staff. And my thoughts.
Chapter 11
They released me from infirmary care by late afternoon. I snuck out of Headquarters shortly thereafter and used teleportante to take me right back to my team’s house. Or former team’s house. It was pretty empty now, save for my things or things that were collectively ours. Which meant that in addition to chickening out at nearly the cost of my life, Zach and the others had cleared out pretty fast from housing too. They’d likely already made it to their new homes and onto their next adventure before I’d even escaped from Talon.
Not that any other adventure would be as exciting or fulfilling as being a Hunter.
Even as I walked through the empty, quiet house, I knew deep down nothing would ever fill this void. Even if I left and found some fulfilling work doing something with my life, hunting demons and trying to make the world a bit safer would always be more important.
Even if I’d nearly died for it.
But in the end, most Hunters nearly died at least once. Or so I was told.
I grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the team’s collection and popped open the top before sipping straight from it. Maybe I could go home and forget. Even if just for a while. My life would be safer away from the Hunter Circles, there was no doubt about that.
But the truth of mortality was that we all died eventually, no matter what we did. Even Aloysius, creator of Darkness, who claimed to be immortal, would likely fall one day. All that mattered was how we spent what time we had.
I wasn’t a coward. Never had been. And I wouldn’t start being one now.
I glanced down at the scars on my arms, knowing more lurked on my legs beneath my jeans.
They’d marked me, those Talon demons. They might have even made me one of them in the end. Only pawns were marked and toyed with, placed in the right place at the right time.
I shifted, pulling my new Fire Circle knife from the sheath in my boot. My old one had been lost in the scuffle that’d seen me captured by Talon. This new one’s shiny red marble handle called to me, pulling my attention to the gold enamel blaze of fire marked in the marble for the Fire Circle.
Rest, Jaffrin had said. And I needed to. For a few days. Then I’d be back to work.
I made an oath. I pledge to fight the Darkness… never leave a Hunter or innocent to the clutches of Darkness. I pledge my life before my fear and my blood before retreat.
And deserted by my team or not, I intended to keep that oath. So that no one else would be deserted.
Also by Jessica Gunn
The Hunter Circles Series
The Hunted | The Traitor | The Changed
The Hero | The Power
Hunter Circles Series Books 1-3 + Prequel Boxset
Deadly Trades Series (Hunter Circles World)
Venom in the Skin | Embers in the Blood
Poison in the Well
Hunter Circles World Standalone Novellas
The Hunter | The Healer | The Ghost
The Atlas Link Series (New Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy)
Gyre | Landlocked | Driftwood
Riptide | Countercurrent
The Atlas Link: Complete Series Boxset
About the Author
Jessica Gunn is an avid science-fiction and fantasy fan. Her favorite stories are those that transport the reader to other, more exciting worlds. When not working or writing, she can be found binge-watching Firefly and Stargate, or feeding her fascination of the ancient world’s many mysteries. Jessica also holds a degree in Anthropology.
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www.jessicagunn.com