by Jessica Gunn
Then a knife swung at my face and I had barely any time to duck or identify the source.
I wasn’t sure what happened next, but suddenly the demon was gone, my head was pounding, and my knees knocked against the pavement. I bit back a cry of pain when they connected.
“I’m going to kill him,” Ben growled. He wandered out of my line of vision. “I’m going after him.”
“Wait,” said Rachel. “What about Krystin?”
Nate’s face swam into view above me. “She doesn’t look so good.”
Ben peered down at me again. “Fine. You’re right. We need to get her home. What’d he do to you?”
I shook my head, an action that sent the world spinning. “I don’t know.”
But I did feel Giyano’s magik enter me and mix with mine… and that couldn’t be a good sign.
Chapter 8
BEN
For all the fire she carried, Krystin seemed innocuous in my arms as I carried her back to the team’s house. It was almost as if, when asleep or unconscious, she was a normal woman. No powers. No Hunter tendencies. Just a woman. A beautiful one.
But then I’d look down at her hand, see the tiny flame mark that asshole Giyano had left on her, see the magik throbbing and twisting beneath the surface of her skin, and I’d remember: Krystin was no normal woman.
Why did Giyano protect her from that demon?
The question boomeranged in my head as I lay her on the couch in our living room. The same demon that’d kidnapped Riley had protected Krystin. And those demons at Arnie’s had all known her. Yeah, we’d all done things underage but… A demon haunt? Why go there and deal dharksa to demons tied to the Trade?
“Jaffrin will want to know about Giyano showing up,” Rachel said as she sat on the arm of the reclining chair.
I nodded, fists clenching at my sides. I hated Fire Circle Headquarters. Not because of some bucking authority reason, but because Jaffrin set me on edge every time I talked to him. And any building that looked like a white-collar business from the outside but contained training rooms and classrooms, a weapons closet, and office suites didn’t sit well with me. “I know. I’ve half a mind to go now—alone. Before she wakes up.” What the hell was Krystin’s actual story?
Rachel’s jaw tightened. “It could have been a coincidence.”
“That the demons in there knew her?” Nate asked. “Doubtful.”
“I’ll go alone,” I said. “Unless she wakes up soon. I want to see her reaction when Jaffrin loses it about Giyano knowing her.”
“Did he, though?” Nate crossed his arms over his chest, his brow furrowing. “She looked terrified of him. He caught all of us off guard.”
“Maybe.” Or maybe she was a fantastic actress.
Krystin stirred on the couch, her hands curling into fists. She winced as the burn on her left hand twisted. Still, I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“Damn.” Her eyes fluttered open, then narrowed. “What happened?”
“Arnie’s,” Rachel said, as if that’d explain everything.
Krystin’s eyes lit up. “Oh. Shit. I needed that demon hangout.” Her gaze snapped to mine. “Happy now?”
“That you’re well-known amongst demon circles? No. I’m not.”
“Ever think my reputation might be because I used to hang out there to try gleaning information from those bastards and not because I’m a Blackwood witch and a Hunter?” she asked. “Not like my kind and the Fire Circle are known to get along.”
That I did know to be true. Something had happened with the Blackwood witch line during the Salem Witch Trials that the Fire Circle either had had a hand in starting or had failed to stop. No one liked to talk about the details, and I didn’t care enough about the history to look it up.
“Fine,” I said.
This conversation had to end before an argument broke out again. As team leader I was supposed to keep everyone happy and working together—and to keep them alive—and so far I’d managed to fail almost all of those duties. But I got the feeling that no matter how hard I tried, I’d never level with Krystin. We’d both been cut from too much of the same arrogant, angry cloth.
“You and me are going out this morning,” I told her.
“Where?” Krystin asked.
“Jaffrin will want to know what happened earlier.” I glanced to my cousin. “You and Nate can handle cleaning up.”
“What Jaffrin doesn’t know won’t kill him,” Krystin volleyed back. “He’s gotten into enough of my business lately.”
I arched an eyebrow. Oh, really?
Krystin must have taken my expression as me issuing her a challenge rather than asking a question, because she stood from the couch. “You lead the way, then. If you want to see that jerkwad, you’re going in first.”
I shook my head at our shared opinion. I wouldn’t tell her we agreed on something, though. I wasn’t ready to give up that power yet. “Give me a few minutes. Check your hand while you wait.”
She glanced down at the twisting magik burn. “What’s this?”
“Giyano marked you somehow,” Nate said. “It’s faded since he did it.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Shit. I think it’s a tracking mark. That’s a hard magik to work over far distances.”
“That means he’s staying close by, then?” I asked. Fantastic. Because I wanted Giyano close before I was ready to strike.
She nodded. Then, to my surprise, she said, “For now, at least. Even more reason to get to Jaffrin.”
“Right. Give me five minutes.”
I ran upstairs to change. If Krystin had changed her mind about wanting to see Jaffrin, then our run-in with Giyano must have bothered her more than she’d let on.
Instead of using teleportante to get to Headquarters, Krystin and I took the long way by foot. Not out of need for a bonding experience, but because the sad fact was that the only people who actually wanted to spend time in that building was the Fire Circle’s flagship team. Avery and his powerless groupies could keep that title. They’d supposedly taken out over six hundred demons across Boston and its surrounding areas throughout the past seven years or so, but I wasn’t sure I believed that number.
For one, the Fire Circle had about three dozen teams of five in its company. This didn’t include the groups of contracted individuals—like the witch lines—who sometimes stepped in to help out. For another thing, there also simply weren’t enough demons to go around if every team of Hunters took out a few hundred a year. Creating a demon wasn’t easy work, and many of them didn’t live long enough to give birth to more. And I’d heard that demon babies’ magik was so unstable, not many survived infancy.
Riley’s face flashed through my mind. He’d barely survived infancy before Giyano had taken him.
My guts twisted, another knife into my back. I’d just stood there, powerless against Giyano that day. And he’d taken Riley as payment for my cowardice. My inability to act.
“I did take the dharksa,” Krystin said as we passed by various sky-rises and businesses.
A chorus of car horns and squealing brakes filled the air around us. Fall had set in quickly—harder to see here in the city than up north, where I was from. But it felt the same with people in heavy jackets and boots carrying pumpkin lattes and hot coffees as they hurried past.
Cool air swept through the wind tunnel created by skyscrapers and whipped across my face. I tucked my nose into the top of my jacket. “Figured as much. And before you say it, it’s not because I think you’re in bed with the demons.”
She scoffed. “I’ve never—”
“Joke,” I said.
“Clearly,” she said dryly.
“I’m aware I’m not a funny person. I’ll refrain from trying in the future.”
Her boots clicked along the uneven sidewalks. She had holes in her jeans. I wasn’t sure if it was a fashion statement or if she couldn’t afford new clothes. Hunters in the Circles didn’t make a ton of money—enough to live o
n, while the Fire Circle paid for housing.
“Probably for the best,” Krystin said. “And I’m not funny, either. We have that in common.”
I nodded her way, watching her walk on ahead of me. Her tight jeans hugged her in all the right places, combining with her strut to give off a “take no prisoners” vibe. “Are you always on? Or do you shut down and stop chasing demons at any point other than to sleep?”
Her gaze cut over her shoulder to mine. “Do you?”
I looked straight ahead. “Touché. And yes, I do. I have to.”
She laughed. “Or what, you’ll go crazy?”
“Sort of.”
More like I’d get obsessive. Right after I joined the Circles, after Riley had been kidnapped, I didn’t come home all night. I’d ditch my trainer team and go on hunting sprees that usually ended with me in the ER or in the Infirmary at Headquarters. Either way, I’d never gotten the answers I’d gone after or the demon-killing high I’d thought would snuff out my pain.
“Right, well, I did do dharksa,” Krystin said. “And it wasn’t because I was trying to fit in with the demons at Arnie’s and elsewhere. I mean, that was a good part of the reason.”
“Why tell me this?” It definitely didn’t do wonders for my opinion of her.
She looked up at me as we walked. “I’m trying to be honest here, build trust. We clearly got off on the wrong planet and despite the fact that I don’t know if we’ll ever be friends, we need to be able to at least work together.”
“Let’s just talk to Jaffrin.” I pointed to a shorter building stuck between two high-rises a block ahead of us. Fire Circle Headquarters. “Cheers to this going quickly.”
I wanted what Krystin did, a working relationship, but until I knew why Giyano had stepped in to protect her, all bets were off. The last thing I needed was a minion of his under my roof. No more members of my family would be claimed by him, blood-related or not.
“It’s partially my fault,” Krystin admitted as we stood before Jaffrin for a second time since she’d joined the team. He wasn’t surprised when we’d showed up again, but Jaffrin wasn’t pleased to hear about the dead body Shadow Crest had sent us. “Ben got some video that irked him and before I realized where we were going because of that video, we were at Arnie’s. And I know you’re aware of what I did there without orders.”
Jaffrin didn’t so much as flinch. Had he known about Krystin’s activities at Arnie’s? I thought she’d said he hadn’t. “Shadow Crest sent you a message and you went asking questions that got you recognized,” Jaffrin said, as if we were the dumbest Hunters on earth.
Krystin shrugged. “I mean, yeah. It wasn’t the best career move ever.”
I wasn’t sure if she specifically meant this morning or the fact that she ever went there and posed as a demon at all.
“Giyano sure knew you,” I said.
Krystin stiffened. “Don’t think it’s Giyano that Jaffrin’s particularly worried about.”
Jaffrin’s gaze jumped between Krystin and me. “I know why Krystin’s pale about that, but what’s this about a video?”
Jaffrin knows. So there was something legitimate behind Giyano stepping in to save Krystin from the water wraith. Why? My initial guess—that her ties to Darkness ran deeper than a few teenage mistakes—couldn’t have been right if Jaffrin knew and condoned it. So what was her damn story already?
“Shadow Crest is taunting me again,” I said, fists clenching. “They wanted me to trade a ‘her’ for Riley. I knew it was a trap, but I bit. But Riley wasn’t there.” He never is.
Jaffrin slid his chair forward so the arms touched his desk, as if he felt a need to restrain himself. “But?”
I swallowed hard. “Giyano was there. He’s the one who saved Krystin from being wraithed to death.”
Jaffrin’s eyes hardened. “I see.”
“See what?” she asked, looking down at her hands. “Are you saying our issues are connected?”
“Possibly,” Jaffrin said. “Although I’m not sure what use Giyano would have saving you from another demon.”
“Who is this ‘Giyano’ anyway?” she asked. “I know he murdered my father, and Nate’s parents, and obviously he’s tied to that ‘Riley’ on the video, but to what end?”
I said nothing. She didn’t need to know that Riley was my son, not yet. Maybe not ever. I was a fool. If Giyano had resurfaced, things were bad. Riley might already be—
No. Stop thinking those things.
“It’s complicated,” I said at the same time Jaffrin said, “He’s a powerful demon affiliated with Shadow Crest. Lady Azar saved him from certain death a thousand years ago, turned him, and has held sway over him ever since.”
“He’s also the demon that killed my father,” she said through gritted teeth. When she looked up at Jaffrin, it wasn’t with unsure features like I’d expected from her downward gaze. Her blue eyes were on fire. “I recognized his tattoo and his magik. Did you know?”
“Know?” Jaffrin asked.
Krystin stood from her chair, the legs sliding along the wooden floor with a screech. “Did you know that you put me on a team with people who are tied to the same demon that killed my father—sir?”
I closed my eyes. Apparently bucking against authority, or anyone and anything that stood in her way, was simply Krystin’s personality. Part of me admired her for giving Jaffrin the middle finger. But the other part of me, the leader side, knew that if Krystin wouldn’t respect and listen to him, she’d never follow me.
And that might have been fine, except for what she’d just said.
“That’s twisted.” I turned to Krystin. “What’s the deal with Giyano being very specific about not hurting you? About the other demon being way in over his head?”
“That’s complicated,” she snapped. “Isn’t it, sir?”
Jaffrin had somehow managed to not react at all to Krystin’s outburst, not even a raised eyebrow or hitched breath. But to her question, the tension from his body melted. “To some degree, yes. To others, no.”
Krystin rolled her eyes and paced away from Jaffrin. “I knew it wouldn’t be safe for me to be on a team, Jaffrin. And my mother knew it wouldn’t be safe for me in the Fire Circle. And yet you two insisted on forming my fucking life into this Hunter-based paradigm. Congrats. All those years of keeping me on a leash were for nothing.”
“And yet here we are,” he said as he stood too. I followed suit. “You’re safer with these Hunters than on your own. Their magik should conceal yours, and you can teach them to be as talented in their own abilities as you are in yours.”
“But why? Why risk it?”
Jaffrin’s eyes flared. “Because I need a magikal failsafe to protect this Circle from the coming war, Krystin. You know that. You’ve known that your entire career with us. It’s no coincidence the Fire Circle has more magik-enabled Hunters than all of the other Circles combined.”
“Aside from the Ether Circle,” she snapped.
“Yes,” he said, his face hardened. “Except them. And they’re not happy about it. But with the prophecy and Cianza Boston, I need magik-enhanced Hunters.”
“Except Shadow Crest—”
“Never mind Shadow Crest,” he spat. “They’re dangerous, but they’re not stupid.”
“Do I get to know what you’re both talking about, or is your connection to Giyano not important enough to share?” I asked. Not that Krystin knew about Riley yet beyond the incident this morning. I didn’t like talking about it, much less to strangers. Which Krystin was. She might also be a Hunter, and she might also dislike Jaffrin, but beyond that, I didn’t trust her. Not as a person and definitely not on my team—especially now that she was connected to that asshole.
“Giyano… the guy who killed my father,” Krystin explained. To Jaffrin, she said, “At Arnie’s this morning he stepped in to tell the wraith demon to back off. He alluded to my… special circumstances.” Her voice and gaze dropped like she were ashamed of those “circumstance
s.” But then she gritted her teeth, her jaw working hard, and I realized that she was angry about it. Whatever it was.
“And what might those be?” I asked. “Are they why Giyano went after your father?” If that was the case, at least she knew. I hadn’t the faintest idea what had made Giyano and Shadow Crest want to take Riley. He’d only been only a few weeks old when they’d attacked me in the park—in broad daylight.
What could Riley, an infant, possibly possess that was that important to Lady Azar, Darkness’s second heir? If it was that I was a lightning-elemental user and that Riley might one day be, too, at least that was an explanation. But I wasn’t super powerful, and no one else in my family besides Rachel had magik.
Krystin nodded in tight motions. Strained. “Probably. No one knows for sure, least of all my mother.”
“I’d bet on it being true. Giyano might have known, which means Shadow Crest might, too.” Jaffrin sighed. “This is concerning.”
“You think?” she quipped. “It’s not like you guys kept the prophecy a fucking secret. I knew this would happen. I knew becoming a Fire Circle Hunter was a terrible idea.”
Hello, insubordination. “Krystin—”
She cut me off with a swipe of her hand through the air. “I get it—whatever Giyano is to you and that guy from the video, I get it.”
Fire flared behind my eyes. “I highly doubt that.”
Jaffrin stood, a referee. “The point is that we have to be careful. You especially, Krystin.”
“Yeah, the cianza, I know,” she said. “I’ll stay out of the downtown area for the next few days. I already felt the magik tipping when we were at the second attack scene the other night.”
“You’ll have to stay out of the cianza’s area for weeks,” Jaffrin said. “Or longer.”