by Jessica Gunn
I sputtered, the whiplash from his subject change like a physical blow. “Excuse me?” I turned to Rachel, whose gaze flitted between me and Jaffrin.
Jaffrin nodded, a hard stare settling on me with a silent order. Go with it. “You deserve it. I do not plan on retiring anytime soon, but it’s good to get these things in order ahead of time.”
I gulped. I’d never wanted to become a Circle Leader, although I knew my position as a team leader automatically put me in the running for candidacy—whether I liked it or not. And I could back out at any time. But for Jaffrin to use this as a hidden reason for us meeting?
He’s petrified.
Jaffrin clapped me on the shoulder again. “Tonight. We’ll start tonight. I’ll make sure we lay out the easiest path for you.”
I nodded mutely. “Yes, sir.”
Chapter 3
KRYSTIN
I ground my jaw shut. That was the key. I’d learned it too late to keep from spewing insane talk at the guards during the first month of my imprisonment. But afterward, it’d saved me from speaking too much.
Keep your mouth shut. Endure whatever pain they might inflict. And no matter what, keep your chin up.
Those were my rules.
So, chin up and jaw locked, I stared straight ahead to a point on the wall above Chairman Otto’s head. I’d never give him or any of them the respect of meeting their gazes. Not after they’d locked me up in here for no good reason.
Giyano had been right all along. The Hunter Circles’ motives about me—whatever they were—weren’t the same as Jaffrin’s or Ben’s or anyone else’s. And if the Hunter Circles were screwing me, I didn’t want to know what the Powers thought about all of this.
You know, if they ever got off their lofty asses and did something. But considering they’d let Alzan fall the first time…
“Ms. Blackwood,” Chairman Otto said. “Please answer the question.”
I lifted an eyebrow. There’s your answer.
Chairman Otto’s Command, those also in charge of the Ether Head Circle and their prison, looked on in annoyed amusement. They’d never break me, not if my magik’s flare didn’t.
Chairman Alina shifted in her seat, the Ether Head Circle medallion around her neck jingling against the table. “If you were not working with Kinder, then what happened in Boston that night?”
I’d answered this question and variations of it so many times over the past three months, and yet they still asked it. Were they hoping I’d finally admit to siding with Kinder?
“What about Giyano?” Chairman Otto asked.
My wrists grew suddenly itchy, bound by magik-infused steel handcuffs that anchored me to a heavy oak chair in the center of the room. I hoped the Chairmen and their Command got a kick out of this—the Daughter of Alzan bound by fucking metal.
“If you do not answer the questions, we cannot move this to trial,” Chairman Alina said.
Okay. Enough.
I glared at her, trying incredibly hard not to set fire to her robes, although I very much wanted to see all of these assholes burn. “I told you, I’ve been telling you, that Kinder used her magik to shove all the magik in the room into me. It drove me insane, it allowed her to take over me. And in doing so, I lost control. I completely and utterly lost it. That’s how people died.”
“Because you killed them,” Chairman Otto said.
“Because Kinder’s magik overruled my ability to think. To function. To comprehend anything that was going on. Did I kill those Hunters? I suppose so—not all of them and none of them by choice. But for your picky-ass records, yeah. I did. You win. Screw you.”
“Enough!” another of the Command bellowed. “Your insolence is trying.”
“My insolence? How about your idiocy?”
The guard standing next to me dropped his ether stick to the chair, sending a shock of it into my system. I gritted my teeth past the pain, focusing my thoughts on anything but this situation.
When the shock ended, I glared back up at Chairman Otto. “Why do this? Why sit there and question me when you’ve already made up your damn minds? You think I’m guilty, so sentence me already. I’m done with this fucking game. You and I both know that you need me—the trial is a way to keep me here as long as you want.”
“Innocent lives were lost—”
“Then maybe you should have shown up a lot sooner in that fight!” I screamed at them, rage filling my chest. My arms burned as though they were wings of fire. Giyano’s mark on my hand throbbed and glowed red like a giant warning light. “You’re the biggest hypocrites I’ve ever met.”
“And you as well, for seeking out Giyano,” said Chairman Alina.
“Because you assholes were MIA with answers when he wasn’t. Maybe if you all left your damn bunker every once in a while—”
The guard touched his ether-stick to the chair once more and zapped me—with more ether-voltage this time.
I cried out and slammed my head against the back of the chair. “Screw you, asshole.”
If they’d already made up their minds about me, what was the point of all of this? They should just lock me away for good, never to see the light of day or their ugly faces ever again.
I hoped Jaffrin was happy right now. The leash he’d held around my life just got finitely shorter. I’d never go out hunting again. I’d never see another Hunter or “corrupt them, too” as long as I lived.
Unless Giyano managed to save me. The mark on my hand grew brighter as my fingertips started to spark with flame.
“Chairman,” the guard next to me said, his stare on my fingers, “she’s going to—”
An explosion rocked the wall behind me, huge chunks of stone flying forward. One hit the guard in the back and sent him sailing toward my interrogator’s table. They blocked their faces while all I could do was close my eyes and grit my teeth. The explosion rang my ears and sent my chair skidding sideways.
I braced myself for impact, likely on my face, but none came. “What the—?” I opened my eyes and found myself tipped halfway forward, a thin white barrier between my face and the floor. An ether barrier.
“What is this?” Chairman Otto shouted over the din.
Another much smaller explosion ahead of me sent smoke into the air. Water zipped by me in ice missiles, followed by a whole lot of ether of different colors being thrown back and forth. I couldn’t see much because of the way I was tilted toward the floor, but the auras of magik swam around me. Reds and blues and yellows, a tinge of green.
This whole room was filled with magik users, each flinging their powers the other way.
But then one aura stood out—a warm, white light shining against them all. A magik that called to my own.
Shawn’s face appeared near my head, cringing while he ducked out of magik’s way. “Hey. Sit tight. I’ll get you out of here.” He looked over his shoulder. “I’ve got her. Drop the shield, Nate!”
The film of ether keeping my face from hitting the floor disappeared and the chair fell an inch. Shawn grunted, presumably catching it, and then righted it altogether.
“You okay?” he asked.
I… didn’t know. “How?”
He shook his head as he reached for the handcuffs binding me to the chair. “No time. I—shit. Magik?”
I nodded. “You won’t be able to undo it. Not before—”
A wave of light purple fell over the room, a calming spell from one of the Ether Head Circle’s ether-shapers. Shawn froze, and so did I as a wave of utter peace and calm washed over me.
A pretty lie.
“The others?” I asked Shawn, hoping to keep his focus on getting me out of this chair.
He blinked, then resumed work on the handcuffs. “They’re here, too.” He grunted. “I can’t get them undone. Not without my magik.” He reached down his shirt and yanked off the crystal hanging around his neck, then threw it to the floor. He crushed it beneath his foot and a wave of yellow and red flames flashed across his eyes. “Here we go.”
He pointed a finger at one of the cuffs and his Ember witch ether magik flowed out of it, a laser cutting me free. He had both cuffs undone in a matter of seconds, but I couldn’t look away from him.
“They’ll find you—The Trade,” I said. Those bounty hunters, and Cianza Boston, were the reasons we’d bound his magik again three months ago. “You can’t unbind your magik like that.”
His eyes locked with mine, a determination shining within them that froze my breath. “For you, to get you out of here, I can. And I did. Let’s go.”
Shawn helped me out of the chair, my stiff muscles rejecting all motion. I pushed through, stretching them, as the magik war continued around me.
“How the hell did you break in to Ether Circle Prison?”
“Not now, Krystin,” he said as he tugged me along toward Ben. “Got her.”
Ben turned his attention from showering the Chairman and his Command with lightning and for one single moment our eyes met. A moment that stretched an eternity as I found relief, not hatred and disgust, reflected in his gaze.
Relief.
That was when a third explosion went off, much larger than the first two. I was sent flying through the air, losing grip of Shawn’s hand, and landed with a hard thwack against the marble floor. Stars danced along my vision, which narrowed with every passing second. My lungs seized, unable to take in fresh air.
A shadow loomed over me, bent down next to me. It took my hand and whispered, “Don’t worry. We’ll get you out of here.”
I closed my eyes as darkness pulled me into unconsciousness and trusted Ben’s words. He’d been relieved to see me.
He’d get me home.
Chapter 4
KRYSTIN
I lay on something soft. Comfort, for the first time in too long. I hadn’t slept on anything remotely resembling a cushion or pillow since I’d burnt up the mattress in my cell. But this comfort wrapped around me lovingly, cocooning me on all sides.
I kept my eyes shut, enjoying the lavish feeling of relative safety. Anything this soft, this comfortable, had to be safe. Whatever reality awaited me outside of this comfy darkness could wait.
My back went rigid. Reality. An attack. Shawn’s face. Ben’s relief. Then darkness.
What’d happened? Slowly, I peeled open my eyelids to sunlight filtering through sheer, decorative curtains. And froze.
Our house had black-out curtains on every window.
My brow furrowed, breath hitching. Where had they brought me?
I sat up and looked around the room, a small, simple space with beige walls, no other furniture but an empty writing desk and a bookshelf filled with books with worn, dark red and blue spines.
“What the…?”
This wasn’t our house. Why had they finally rescued me after three long months?
“Ben?” I called, inching my way to the edge of the queen bed. “Ben, are you there?”
When no one answered, I swung my legs off the bed and padded to the door of the bedroom. I still wore my prison outfit, a now-charred off-white jumpsuit, the ends of which had been frayed by flame. The tips of my fingers were red and a black dust had etched underneath each fingernail. And my ankle… a tattoo I’d almost forgotten about now showed thanks to my burned uniform. A snowflake that did nothing but mock me.
I looked down into the empty hall lined with various modern art paintings. Not the team’s house. Not Mom’s house. Where am I?
“Don’t panic.”
I swung around, my heart in my throat. Standing behind me, hands in his pockets, was… “Giyano.”
He wore dark slacks, a dark red sweater, and a relatively new gash down one side of his handsome face. His jaw hadn’t seen a razor in a few days and, when he stood straight, he favored one foot over the other. And his aura, it burned like a flame in the wind all around him. A deep red with the scent of cinnamon. “Don’t panic, Krystin. I will explain everything.”
But my heart rate had already tripled within seconds, banging a double-time beat in my wrists and chest. My hearing became muffled, as though my ears had been stuffed with cotton.
“I don’t understand. My team—”
He lifted a bandaged hand from his pocket and held it in the air. “Don’t make any sudden movements. I learned earlier that you’ve… acquired magik you can’t control.”
I chuckled darkly. “‘Acquired,’ really? That’s what you’re calling it? You used me.”
Giyano lowered his hand. “No, I saved you. You were going crazy in that prison and you likely would have burned the whole thing to the ground, knowing the power of your magik before it was changed. You’re not in control.”
“The team saved me.”
“They tried. Unfortunately for them, they were caught when doing so. But when they attacked, they temporarily took down the magiks surrounding Ether Circle Prison and I was finally able to teleport in. To get you.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I hated it for it. “You were coming.”
He lifted a brow. “You knew?”
I showed him my hand, his mark still glowing red. “It’s been doing that for three months now. We knew that it’s a tracking spell. The Ether Head Circle didn’t seem to care.”
“They were likely too busy trying to keep you from burning their guards,” Giyano said, his bandaged hand curling into a fist. “I don’t know what she did to you, or how. I’m sorry, Krystin.”
My eyes narrowed. “Is this your magik?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Why’d Kinder do this?”
“I don’t think she wants you dead, if that’s what you’re asking.”
I charged a few paces toward him. “I’m asking you why she slammed half a dozen types of magik into my system, resulting in me having fire and air-elemental abilities.”
Giyano held his ground, unfazed even as my fingers warmed with flames. “I think that part was an accident, caused by whoever healed you and how.”
I looked down at my hands, willing the fire to disappear. It didn’t. “I just want the flames to stop.”
“Then snuff them out,” he said. “It’s that simple.”
“Do you see my outfit?” I pointed down at my frayed pants. “I’ve set everything on fire. Everything. I can’t control this magik.”
Ether magik was smooth, naturally flowing. It was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. But this elemental power, it was raw. Unforgiving. Driven by strong emotions, of which I had plenty. Anger. Betrayal. Guilt and shame.
The flames grew in proportion to my thoughts, spiraling above my palms like tiny torches.
“Stop thinking, Krystin,” Giyano said. “Breathe. Calm your mind.”
“How about when you’ve been used by a demon, slammed full of magik, then left to rot in a jail cell for three months for something you’re not guilty for, then you tell me to calm the hell down.”
His eyes narrowed. “Do you want my help with this or not?”
“I never said I wanted anything from you.” Not verbally, anyway.
“Then why haven’t you teleported home yet?” He gestured to the house at large. “You’re not my prisoner, and we’re still on the normal plane of existence.”
The flames around my hands died down a little, as opposed to my growing curiosity. “Where are we, then?”
“Maine,” Giyano answered as he trailed to the closest window and pulled open the curtain. A rush of bright white sun and blue ocean greeted me. “On the coast.”
Maine. How normal. How human.
I backpedaled, picking up speed as I backed down the hall and into a larger living space. A single couch next to another bookshelf was all that was in the room. Where was the team? They had been there, breaking me out of prison, hadn’t they? Maybe that entire interrogation had never happened—just another hallucination.
“I need to get out of here.” I scrambled around the room, searching for any more clues that might exist. If Giyano was telling the truth, then there shoul
dn’t be magik barring my exit or any teleportante out.
Giyano strolled down the hall and joined me in the living room, his face a mask of calm. “The door’s in the kitchen, if that’s what you’re looking for.”
I froze. “No, you know what? I’m not. Why did you take me here?” Turning on him, I put my hands on my hips. “You were MIA for that final fight with Kinder. The building we were in? It nearly leveled the entire street when it came down because the cianza couldn’t handle that many people on it. Demons, Hunters, witches. Shawn and me. And her. Lot of good your magik in my system did me then, huh?”
“I’m surprised Cianza Boston didn’t explode,” he said coolly.
“Where were you?”
Giyano looked off to the side and it took me a moment to realize he meant to draw attention to the side of his face. “Kinder had taken me somewhere… unpleasant. I was otherwise occupied.”
“Getting your face torn apart? That’s great.”
He leveled me with a look, the shock of his burgundy eyes sending a chill down my spine to my toes. How easy it’d become to forget his true nature. “By that point, I’d done all I could do. Nothing can save you from what Kinder did. All of that magik. My focus was on keeping you balanced.”
My fists balled at my sides. “Why? I’m so tired of this game, Giyano.”
“Your magik is volatile to cianzas by nature. You’re good, Krystin. By blood, by association. A witch. A Hunter. The Daughter of Alzan. But your other half? Shawn’s half-demon by a fate not of his own choosing. You needed to balance each other out if you had any hope of saving Alzan—a desire we both share.”
“So you pump me with dark magik and then stay hidden while Kinder nearly sinks all of New England?”
“Like I said, I was occupied.”
I nodded. “Right. So was I—in jail. Why’d you suddenly show up to save me?”
His lips pressed together into a thin line. “It wasn’t meant to take as long as it did. For that, I apologize. I wanted to take you away from Ether Circle Prison for the same reason I mixed my magik with yours.”