Hunter Circles Series Complete Boxset: An Urban Fantasy Adventure

by Jessica Gunn

  Throughout the entire walk back to the house all I thought about was how to find him. Nate had said Krystin was able to make him appear, probably because of the mark on her hand. But that was months ago and I hadn’t known Giyano was back in the area until we’d broken into Ether Circle Prison. But since he loved tormenting me too, maybe I could also just walk around and make him appear.

  I’d kill him, and we’d finally be done with this game. That was the only option.

  The team and I got back to the house around midnight. The Ether Circle twins paused in the living room, inspecting us all.

  “Was that a typical night for you all?” Alexander asked.

  I nodded. “We don’t see tons of activity every night. We’re usually more concerned with raiding demon dens.”

  “Hm,” Iris said, judgment rolling off of her in waves. “Very well.”

  “We’re tired,” I said quickly. “Everyone should hit the sack.”

  “Good idea,” Rachel said. She retreated up the stairs first, followed by the others.

  Krystin remained by my side, eyeing me as though waiting for me to join the others.

  “We would like to speak to Ben,” Iris said. “You’re excused, Krystin.”

  “Excused?” she asked. “It’s our house.”

  “Actually, it belongs to the Fire Circle,” Alexander said, his eyes seemingly empty of all emotion. “And since the Fire Circle is currently employing us to—”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Krystin said, waving them off. “Goodnight. Holler if you need anything, Ben.”

  I nodded. “Will do.”

  But all I needed right now was a drink and to sleep. Not necessarily in that order.

  As soon as Krystin was out of earshot, the twins approached me in weird unison. Robots. They had to be robots. That was the only explanation.

  “What’s up?” I asked them.

  Iris glanced up at me. Despite her small stature, her gaze suddenly held a fierce, powerful undertone that made me back up a step. “We’d like to discuss the meager protections given to your son Riley by the Fire Circle.”

  My stomach plummeted, brow slicking with sweat. “Excuse me?”

  “We do not believe the protections are strong enough,” Alexander said. “For someone with the Power, a simple country line will not keep Darkness at bay for long. Especially if Lady Azar is at the helm.”

  “Jaffrin has sworn Riley’s protection detail is filled with top-notch Hunters, and that the Canadian teams are handling the situation,” I said. “Not that you two are even supposed to know about him.”

  How did they? Jaffrin had kept Riley a secret from everyone who hadn’t been there the day my team had brought him home from Shadow Crest’s lair. And no one outside of my team, Jaffrin, and his Command, even knew Riley had the Power. And I didn’t know exactly where Riley was.

  “The Ether Head Circle knows all,” Alexander said.

  “And even if they didn’t, it’s not hard to figure out,” Iris said. “You’ve called a Canadian number several times over the past few months. You’ve applied for a passport that Jaffrin knows nothing about, or he wouldn’t have let it get approved. And you’ve been conducting Internet searches looking for—”

  “Enough!” I shouted, swiping my hand through the air. “Fucking enough of this game. You’re here to supervise Krystin—unnecessarily, might I add. You are not here to pry into anyone else’s business, especially mine. Back the hell off or I’ll have Jaffrin remove you.”

  The twins laughed in unison, the sound so creepy, I thought I was in a horror movie for a moment. Then Iris stepped forward, looking up at me again with those terrifying eyes. “Jaffrin only wishes he had that authority. We will leave when we are told to. Until then, everything that happens in this house affects Krystin’s standing. Therefore, everything in this house is our business.”

  “Even your son and his incredibly dangerous magik,” Alexander added.

  Jaw tightened, hands balling into fists, I said, “His magik is bound. You have nothing to worry about.” And if you try to hunt them like the Circles did to the others, I’ll kill you both myself. I bit down hard on my tongue to keep from saying those words aloud, in case it hurt Krystin’s chances at freedom or got me reprimanded. But that I didn’t speak them despite the pain of the bite or the slight coppery taste coating my mouth was a god-given miracle.

  “Good,” Alexander said. “We’d hate to have had to bring in a child for magik he can’t control.”

  Iris nodded. “It’d be most unfortunate.”

  Anger flared in my mind, my vision washing over in red. My fists curled and uncurled, but I bit my tongue harder. Breathe, Hallen. “Yes. It would. Are we done here for tonight?”

  The twins nodded and Alexander spoke. “We are. See you in the morning.”

  “Yeah. Morning.”

  I spun and hightailed it up the stairs before I ensured neither of them would make it until sunrise.

  No one threatened my family and got away with it. No one.

  I made it up the stairs without incident. Krystin was waiting for me at the top, her expression weary. I shook my head and pointed down the hall toward my bedroom. Not that I thought the twins could hear us whispering from downstairs, but I wasn’t unconvinced they hadn’t bugged the place. Jaffrin had been worried about it at Fire Circle Headquarters, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to think they’d done the same here. At least behind a closed door I’d feel somewhat safer.

  We padded down the carpeted hall into my bedroom, luckily at the farthest point from the stairs.

  I shut the door behind us. “They know about Riley.”

  Krystin nodded, stepping closer to me. “I heard. How do they know, Ben?”

  “I don’t know.” I scrubbed my face with my palms and paced the short distance between Krystin and the door. “I don’t fucking know. But where Jaffrin was all for hiding him away and pretending he didn’t have the Power, I don’t know that the Ether Head Circle will play ball.”

  Her nodding increased along with the intensity in her eyes. “Do you know where Riley and Sandra are? We could go up to Canada and move them ourselves.”

  I spun on her. “To where? Seems like nowhere is fucking safe for them.”

  Krystin held up her hands. “I don’t know, Ben. Somewhere new. Anywhere new.”

  “This is beyond stupid.”

  If I’d been able to fight off Giyano three years ago, none of this would have happened. Or if I’d never been struck by lightning. Or if Sandra and I had used a damn condom. But now that Riley was in my life, however little that time with him might be, I couldn’t imagine him ever not being there. This wasn’t his fault. It was mine. Entirely fucking mine.

  My hands fell to my sides and I looked at Krystin. “I don’t even understand how Shadow Crest knew about Riley in the first place. I’d only had my magik for a year when he was born. And my sister doesn’t have any. Michael, Rachel’s older brother, doesn’t either. And it’s not like Riley’s aura shows the Power, right?”

  Krystin looked aside, remembering, then shook her head. “No, not that I can recall.”

  “Exactly. So how do they know?”

  The obvious answer was Giyano. He’d known about Krystin’s destiny when she’d been a baby. And his ex had the Power too, right?

  “It’s not him,” Krystin said, watching me with cautious eyes.

  I lifted a brow. “I thought you didn’t have any of your old magik anymore?”

  “I don’t need to be able to read your mind to tell what’s on it, Ben,” she said as she laid a hand on my arm. “You’re a pretty open book most days.”

  “Of course I am.” I closed my eyes and forced a deep breath into my lungs. The new oxygen reignited my determination. “I can’t help it, Krystin. They threatened Riley.”

  She squeezed my arm. Just knowing she was there settled my angry mind. It was hard to remember how mad at her I’d been only months ago. I tried to summon some of that anger now, the hatred of h
er seeking out Giyano for help instead of us. None came, not while she was touching me.

  “They won’t hurt him.” Her voice was firm, reassuring. “I won’t let them.”

  “Assuming there’s enough left for you to hurt after I’m done.”

  She leveled me with a look. “We should probably stop talking about attacking fellow Hunters.”

  “You’re right.”

  We fell into a comfortable silence as we stood there. I didn’t want to open the door to let her out of here, if only because it’d mean opening the door to the reality waiting outside. The war, the threat to Riley. The twins spying on us at all moments of the day. I just wanted this quiet, this peace, forever.

  But peace was a lie in this war.

  “We should go to bed,” I said.

  Krystin nodded. “Probably.” She scooted past me to the door, but she paused as her hand clasped the doorknob. “Thank you for not telling the twins about the body we found. That it… might be Giyano’s work.”

  I held her gaze, two sides warring with myself. The part of me that wanted to play by the rules despite the rules constantly changing, and the part of me that wanted to keep feeling something for Krystin. But maybe we’d both gotten too deep into this war for anything other than friendship to develop.

  Even friendship was too much to lose in the inevitable end. And I’d already gone through heartbreak enough times.

  “You’re welcome,” I said. “It’s not fair what they’d assume of you if we did.”

  Krystin nodded. “Even if I deserve it.”

  “You don’t.”

  She shrugged. “Thank you anyway.” She turned the doorknob and left the room, headed for her own.

  I didn’t get to thank her for waiting for me after I’d talked to the twins. For making sure I was okay even when she wasn’t.

  Chapter 10

  KRYSTIN

  Shawn’s hands clasped around mine, his fingers warm and shaky. Though we were both supposed to be meditating, or something close to that, he still had one eye open. I only knew because so did I.

  He frowned. “Stop worrying. I know you’re not going to hurt me.”

  “Willingly.” No, the problem was that I still couldn’t control my magik. Irritation wormed its way up into my back. I stretched, popping it. “I need to go somewhere and learn how to control this fire without burning anyone or anything down.”

  “I can keep it in check, Krystin,” he said.

  I gave him a blank stare. “Not without revealing your own magik. And last I checked, Jaffrin didn’t tell many people about you being an Ember witch.”

  “And like you said, it shouldn’t matter.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Look, I didn’t create those biases. And I don’t care about the people who think your magik is demonic. I was pissed you lied about it. But I’ve had time to think about it all.”

  “And develop your own magik problem.”

  “Yeah, that.”

  He closed his eyes and straightened his back. “Focus on finding that white light you felt inside me once before. Find it and hold on to it. I’m trying to do the same.”

  “Except before, it’d been with telepathy.”

  Shawn opened one eye again. “When the ether-shapers were trying to heal your magik and stop it from overtaking you, I jumped in and was able to sort of heal you again with the Alzanian magik. I saw it inside of you. The connection was weak, but it was there.”

  “So we unbind your powers,” I said. “Then there are no more barriers.”

  “I don’t think that’s the case.” Shawn rocked to one side and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He swiped across the screen a few times before holding it out for me to see. “I took a photo of the prophecy while we were in Jaffrin’s office a few weeks ago. Did you know he leaves that thing out in the open?”

  My eyes narrowed. “No. Let me see that.” I took the phone from him and held it closer to my face. The picture showed a piece of weathered, browning parchment inside a thin plastic shell with writing scrawled all over it. “He’s never even let us see the whole thing. Wait a second—this is gibberish.”

  Shawn pointed. “That’s because it’s not in English. And the translation of it wasn’t laying around. I looked.”

  “Jaffrin let you peruse his office one day?”

  “No. He left to talk to the Ether Head Circle and forgot to tell us to leave.”

  “Seems kind of careless. Why didn’t you take it then and there?”

  He shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t want him to question why I’d stolen it if I got caught.” Shawn frowned. “I wish it was the full prophecy too. I think you’re right about there being more to it than we think. It seems too simple from what Jaffrin’s told us. That one day we’re going to suddenly have this Alzanian magik not only in our system but under full control? That we’ll show up in Alzan and save the day?” He shook his head and took back his phone. “Too easy.”

  “Agreed.” But there wasn’t anything we could do with paper we couldn’t read.

  “I was wondering,” Shawn began, a pensive look creasing his brows, “do you have any contacts who might know that language? If they can translate it, then we can figure this out on our own.”

  “Contacts? No. I mean, there’re the witches and other Hunters, but I doubt they know that language. And any of the demons I mixed with before joining the team are all lower-level. They don’t know anything.”

  Shawn fidgeted on the ground. “What about Giyano?”

  My eyes narrowed. “Is this a test or something? Are the twins nearby?”

  “No. I was just wondering—”

  “I’m done with Giyano, Shawn. I wouldn’t even know where to find him.” I glanced down at my hand. Today, the mark was a dull outline of what usually glowed.

  “It was just a suggestion,” Shawn said. “Since he seemed so obsessed with the prophecy from what you told Ben and me the other night.”

  “He’s obsessed because his ex died because Lady Azar couldn’t use him like she wants to use Riley. She’s been planning this crusade for centuries.”

  “Then let’s get back to this,” he said, retaking my hands and closing his eyes. “Our magik is there; it’s just not unlocked.”

  “Except when I’m injured or dying.”

  He shrugged. “Guess so.”

  I closed my eyes, humoring him. No amount of hand-holding and meditating was going to unlock this Alzanian magik. That much had become clear.

  So instead of looking for that white flame of pure magik inside of myself and Shawn, my thoughts turned toward Giyano and what Shawn had said. Giyano was pretty obsessed with the prophecy and saving Alzan. Maybe he really did know how to translate this? Wouldn’t that be perfect?

  No. There had to be another answer.

  “Why don’t we confront Jaffrin about the damn thing?”

  Shawn opened his eyes. “How many times have you asked before?”

  “Several. But I think we can convince him to let us know the full prophecy now that we’re together.”

  “Then let’s go,” Shawn said as he stood. “Right now.”

  “Don’t think it’s the best time, with the Ether Head Circle escort babysitters and all.”

  Shawn leveled me with a hard stare. “Do you want to know how to unlock this magik and stop Darkness from destroying all planes of existence or not?”

  “Well, when you put it like that, Mr. Dramatic, I guess I have no choice.” I stood too and joined hands once more with Shawn.

  He nodded once, then said, “Teleportante.”

  Shawn and I went through the usual motions to get into Jaffrin’s office. Talk to Lissandra, wait forever, then finally be allowed to walk up. We did, hoping that by playing by the rules, we’d get what we’d come for. Disregarding that Jaffrin had never told us anything before now, of course.

  His office was filled with file folders and boxes of paper, all of them scattered about the floor. Jaffrin waded his way a
round them in dark slacks and a button up with rolled-up sleeves. “What can I do for you two today? It’s not really a good time.”

  “Is it ever?” I asked.

  He paused, looking up. “No. Not lately.”

  Shawn leveled me with a hard stare, then turned to Jaffrin. “We want to see the prophecy. The full translation of it.”

  Jaffrin’s dark eyes widened. “Okay. May I ask why you’re suddenly interested?”

  “Maybe because you just rescued me from prison because of the damn thing?”

  Shawn stepped in front of me. “What Krystin means is we think it might help us get a better handle on figuring out the magik end of things if we know what we’re looking for.”

  Jaffrin considered our request for a long time, studying us as he did so. Finally, he paced to his desk and hovered a hand over a drawer. He closed his eyes and muttered something, then a bright orange light flashed.

  I blinked. “It’s that top-secret you have to protect it with magik?”

  Jaffrin opened the drawer and pulled out a manila envelope. Inside was a single printed page. “Yes. Darkness finding this in a raid would be bad. The same goes for anyone who doesn’t need to know about the prophecy.”

  “Who wouldn’t ‘need’ to?” Shawn asked. “If we fail, it affects everyone.”

  “You know what I mean,” Jaffrin said, reading over the file. “This is the translation of the prophecy, and it’s a bit rough.”

  But instead of handing it over to us, Jaffrin lifted the paper higher in front of him and read aloud: “Two stones that once were one, broken by the Powers but meant for Daughter and Son. For when the final conflict with Darkness begins, only their power can save the city of origin.” He looked up. “That’s a rough translation, paraphrased. It goes on to mention things about betrayers and going to the city itself, but with Alzan out of reach…” Jaffrin shrugged. “The best we can tell is that somehow, you’ll get to Alzan, unlock the power that way, and when the final conflict starts, you’ll keep Darkness from destroying Cianza Alzan.”

  “That’s…” I started, but I really didn’t have words.