by Jessica Gunn
“Giyano should have killed you when he had the chance,” Rachel spat, breathing heavily and clutching her bleeding shoulder, the sight of which drew lightning in a whip around my body. A shield of it grew so full that sparks and tiny strikes bounced off the floor and nearby wall.
“Attack!” I ordered my team, sending lightning directly at Kinder. Rachel followed up with one arm becoming a long water-tentacle that thrashed around the room. Nate jumped in, sending spike after spike of ether as Shawn ran for Krystin.
Kinder ducked behind the chair holding Zanka’s body, dodging the attacks with a speed I didn’t think possible. Maybe that was somehow a magik she’d stolen. But not much was faster than lightning; I just had to hit her.
As I threw strikes her way, I saw Shawn try to help Krystin up, but once he had, she shoved him away.
“Go,” she said. “Get someplace away from here before the Fire Circle shows up and arrests us all.” She was still trying to protect Shawn after all of this. My heart sank, knowing for good we’d lost her. And it was my fault.
Kinder zoomed past me, untouched by everyone’s attacks, and held Krystin by her neck How they hell had she dodged all of our magik?
“Put her down!” Shawn said. “She’s not a tool you can use for your revenge.”
“No,” Kinder said as she smiled at Krystin. “You’re not a tool to be used, are you? You know the truth.”
Krystin wrapped her hands around Kinder’s arm. “I don’t… know anything.”
“That’s not true and you know it. They will use you and you will be too weak to fight back. That I’ve learned about you, Krystin. So how about we have one more go, you and I?” Kinder squeezed Krystin’s neck.
Krystin’s eyes went wide, then flashed white as Kinder stole her magik. Only Krystin didn’t look winded or otherwise affected like she should have. She looked like there’d been no pain at all.
Kinder leveled Krystin with a stare. “You’re going to listen to me, aren’t you, Krystin?”
She nodded, her brow furrowing. “Yes.”
“Good. Zanka’s power wasn’t imitation, but persuasion. I stole it just before killing him, hoping it’d become useful for the twenty-four hours it was in my possession. Luckily for me, it has.” She lowered her voice, just loud enough for me to hear. “You’re going to come with me and together we will take down the Fire Circle and all of Boston. And then we will dispose of my power-hungry daughter.”
Krystin nodded. “Yes. Teleportante.”
In the next instant, they were gone.
“What the hell?” Rachel asked.
I rushed to her side and examined her wound. She winced as my fingers made contact, but despite the blood and torn skin, the wound looked relatively okay. “We need to get you to a doctor.”
“We need to get to Headquarters,” Nate snapped. “They’re going to destroy the building and everyone inside.”
“Kinder is—Krystin won’t,” Shawn argued.
I spun on him. “It doesn’t look like she has a fucking choice. Don’t you see? That must be what’s been going on this entire time. Zanka and Giyano—they turned Krystin with that persuasion magik.”
Shawn shook his head. “No, I think Zanka used it on Giyano, to force him to do Zanka’s bidding, so Giyano would be caught and Krystin would be framed.”
“Does it matter anymore?” Rachel cried. Her eyes had welled up, but I wasn’t sure if that was from the knife wound or what had happened over the last half hour. She pulled the knife out of her shoulder in her next breath, shouting in pain. “As long as Kinder has her, Krystin’s a danger to everyone she comes into contact with. Just like at that Hydron operation three months ago.”
My mind twisted with all the scenarios and memories, the worry and fear. Krystin was under Kinder’s control, and the two of them both had magik the likes of which could burn entire cities.
Which was exactly what Kinder had been planning for centuries.
“We need to go,” I said to Shawn. “Nate, take Rachel to the hospital. Get her checked out.”
Rachel kicked me in the shin and glared up at me. I winced. “Absolutely not. I’m coming with you. She was my friend too. You’ll need all of us to get through to her. Especially if Zanka’s magik was strong enough to turn even Giyano.”
I looked over my shoulder to Zanka’s dead body. “It wasn’t strong enough, apparently.”
Shawn pulled a pack of cedo matches from his pocket and burned one on Zanka. “We need to go. Now. Before anyone else gets hurt.”
Assuming there was anyone left alive.
Chapter 23
KRYSTIN
Kinder and I teleported into the foyer of Fire Circle Headquarters, a rage burning inside of me so strongly, I thought I was actually on fire. I looked down to my chest and found no flames.
“Right,” Kinder said as she stepped closer to me. “Can’t have you defenseless, can we?” She scooped a finger into the front pocket of my jeans and picked out the crystal I’d bound my magik into not twenty minutes ago. “Time to get your magik back, dear.”
Kinder threw it to the ground and crushed it beneath her feet. A rush of comforting warmth flooded me as my magik returned, fire instantly lighting at each fingertip.
“There we go,” Kinder said as she grabbed hold of my arm. “Now, quick before your team shows up. I want you to sneak into your Leader’s office. At the back, in a safe older than Boston itself, is a stone made from frozen raw magik. Take it. I will watch your back.”
A small, nagging part of my mind told me to run away, palms to my ears so I couldn’t hear her words anymore. But it was like some spell had settled over me, a whispering to listen. “I will. But why not take it yourself?”
Kinder’s grip on my arm tightened and a pleasurable sensation rushed over me. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to please Kinder. To show her she was right about me and my magik. That she was right about the Fire Circle’s every intention.
“It is meant for you,” Kinder said. “So take it. Steal the stone that should be yours.”
Two stones that once were one, broken by the Powers but meant for Daughter and Son.
Holy hell. Jaffrin had had at least one of those stones the entire time?
My eyes narrowed, jaw locking. “Done. I’ll be back in a second.”
That arrogant, hypocritical, self-serving bastard. If he’d known the whole time that the key to Shawn’s and my shared power was right beneath his fingers, if he’d known the danger we and the rest of the world were in without that Alzanian magik, why the hell had he kept it hidden for so long?
Kinder is right. And everything today, for the last few days, had pointed in that direction.
I laughed as I walked from the empty foyer into the main lobby where Lissandra sat behind her desk, like every normal day at Fire Circle Headquarters. Kinder was right. Giyano had been right. All the demons had always been right. And those from Good, the Circles and Jaffrin and Ben, they’d all be wrong. Liars. Cowards.
Good and Evil, those sides we took and those titles we gave ourselves, they meant nothing. The world wasn’t shades of gray—it was levels of power. And this time, I was on top.
Kinder followed behind me but stopped when I did in front of Lissandra’s desk.
“K-Krystin?” Lissandra asked, staring up at me with scared eyes.
“Tell Jaffrin he needs to speak with me right away.” I swiped the air in front of me, lighting her desk on fire.
Lissandra backpedaled away from her desk, uttering a teleportante to escape. But her teleporting shadow seemed to bounce off the ceiling. She landed on the floor at top speed, crying out at the impact.
I looked over my shoulder at Kinder. “What did you do?”
Kinder grinned evilly and held up another stone. “There are more vessels for power than those like me and Riley. Never you mind what I have done to ensure this mission’s success. Attack whoever you need to in order to get to that stone.”
Another wave of desire wa
shed over me. Follow her orders, a voice whispered to me. I leaned down and punched Lissandra across the face, knocking her out cold.
“Hey!” a Hunter shouted, no one I recognized. “What the—?”
I spun on him, a fireball in my hand, and let it loose. He made no move to stop it—he must not have had magik—and tried to dodge. Instead, I shot another his way, a bright blue this time, and he went up in flames.
Kinder laughed at the sounds of his pain and death, walking behind me as I made my way to the stairs. “The Fire Circle shall pay for what it’s done to us!”
I shot a fireball at every Hunter we passed, a giddy happiness rising inside of me. Revenge at last. Let’s see them control me now.
But even as I thought those words, I knew they weren’t my own. Kinder, and her will, had seeped into every part of me.
And I was just along for the revenge-driven ride.
Chapter 24
BEN
My teleportation landing knocked the wind out of me as my back and side slammed against hard stone. Someone screamed, their wail piercing my ears.
“They just appeared out of nowhere!” they shouted.
My blurry vision started to clear, a mishmash of grays and blacks turning into the outside facade of Fire Circle Headquarters—the one people saw until they went inside. A skyscraper rose before my eyes, many stories tall.
“How?” I asked as I stood. Pain sliced through my side and I winced. “I think I bruised a rib.” Or worse.
Nate stood in front of the main entrance with the turnstile doors. “There’s magik protecting the entire exterior. I can feel it pulsating. It’s keeping everyone out. Our teleportante must have bounced off it like what happens if you try to teleport into Hunter’s Guild.”
Except we hadn’t been expecting it, hence the fall. “They just got here. What could Kinder have done that blocked us out like this?”
“Might not be Kinder,” Shawn said. “Fire Circle Headquarters has protocols in case of attack. A shield might be one of them, like the ether shield that was protecting Lady Azar’s lair.”
I turned to Nate. “Is this one ether-based? Can you break through it?”
He shook his head. “No. I… I don’t know what type of magik this is. It’s neither ether, nor elemental. It’s something else.”
Shawn’s fists clenched at his sides. “It can’t be, though. There is no other type of magik.”
Nate stepped forward and raised his hand but stopped short of actually touching the front door. “It’s older. At least, it feels ancient.”
“Fucking fantastic.” I made my way over to Rachel and checked her shoulder. It was still bleeding. I tugged off my jacket and tied it as best I could around the wound. It didn’t exactly look like high fashion, but she wouldn’t bleed out. “You need a doctor.”
“And Fire Circle Headquarters needs help,” she said. Her gaze wandered over my shoulder. “People are staring, Ben. We appeared out of nowhere.”
I turned, watching the people who were, indeed, stopping to look at us. Not good. Not fucking good at all. “Is there another way into Headquarters?”
She shook her head. “Not that I know of. And anything we do now will be seen by innocents.” And given the building looked one hundred percent different from the outside, there was no way to know where we would pop up even if we did get inside.
“Shit!” I shouted. This had become the worst sort of day.
The people watching us jumped and hurried away, but it wasn’t long before more people stopped to stare.
Rachel reached out for me. “Stop, Ben. There’s nothing we can do.”
Nate looked over his shoulder. “I can try to break through. The intent is the same as the shield surrounding Shadow Crest’s lair, even if the magik type isn’t.”
Shawn’s gaze snapped to his. “We have to do something. Krystin’s inside this building attacking and possibly killing people under Kinder’s control. You saw what happened at that Hydron operation. It only took a few seconds. Kinder has had her for entire minutes.”
“Dude, chill,” Nate said.
Shawn glared at him. “No. My magik’s gone. I’m useless in this fight. If Iris hadn’t cleaved my magik in two, I’d probably be able to get through that fucking shield.”
“How?” I asked. “If Nate can’t get through it—”
“Because my magik is half-demon, same as Kinder’s. And she started all of this.”
“We need Giyano,” Rachel said, her words cutting through the devolving situation with ease. It silenced all of us.
I spun on her. “Are you kidding me?”
She looked up to me. “I don’t know, Ben. It’s all I can think of.”
“No, we’re not trying to find that bastard. We’ll get in ourselves.”
“Then we’ll deal with the consequences of this after,” Nate said.
“What?” I asked, but he’d already placed both of his hands on the front door of Headquarters.
Nate’s body recoiled against whatever shield was there, but he held on, digging his fingers into the magik shield. White ether ebbed out of his hands and flowed against the shield like water.
Passersby gasped. One raised her phone as if recording the scene.
“Nate!” I called to him, but his focus was entirely on whatever he was attempting to do.
Our secret would be out for sure. All of the Hunter Circles would be exposed because of this. Because of Kinder and Krystin.
Lightning crackled around my fingers, little strikes hopping from one finger to the next. There’s an idea. I lowered the charge as best I could and sent the low lightning, almost static, toward all phones in the area. The woman holding hers up jumped and dropped hers as it shorted out in her hands.
“Ben,” Rachel warned.
“Just enough to keep this from getting out,” I said. “There’s no other way inside. We have to let Nate try.”
“It’s not working,” he called over his shoulder. “Whatever this is, it’s too strong for me. Too ancient. My ether can’t break through it.” Nate stepped away from the door, his expression fallen.
An idea popped into my head, one that might go nowhere. Still, I climbed up the steps and stared at the door. It’s worth a shot. I looked over my shoulder to Shawn. “Isn’t the Alzan magik ancient, too?”
Shawn’s glare turned on me. “I can’t work it without Krystin. And we never unlocked it anyway. That requires these stones and time and—”
“But you healed her with it once,” I said, looking him right in the eyes. “And she said she felt it inside of herself before, too. You do have access to it, Shawn. But maybe just in dire situations.” I glanced at Headquarters. The shield was so thick that I couldn’t even see the lobby like I normally could. “I think this counts. Just think of what could be going on inside right now. The number of Hunters dying or needing help.”
Shawn’s gaze dropped. “My magik’s gone, Ben. Iris’s asanak.”
“Can you reverse it, Nate?” I asked, though I figured the answer was probably a no. If he could, Lady Azar would have had one of her ether-shapers reverse it by now.
Nate shook his head. “No. I didn’t realize Iris or any of the other ether-shapers in the Ether Circle could use that move. I knew they were powerful, but…”
“They never told you?” Rachel asked.
“No.”
“Figures,” I said. Seemed like the Circles didn’t want to foster anyone’s abilities if they got too strong. And Nate was one hell of a magik-wielder.
He waved it off. “I learned more from the monks, anyway.”
“Doesn’t solve my problem,” Shawn said. “I can’t work magik that isn’t there.”
“That’s just my point.” I pointed to the knife at his waist. “Remember what Krystin’s mother did to track her? That was blood magik, not witch. It’s an older form of magik that’s been forgotten.”
Shawn’s brow furrowed as he peered up at the shield surrounding Headquarters. “I don’t kn
ow that this is going to work. This magik, whatever it is, it’s meant for Krystin and me. Not one of us on our own.”
He shook his head, then he reached for his Fire Circle knife. Shawn sliced open the palm of his left hand and slammed it against the magik shield. His entire body shook as the shield swayed beneath his blood. A bright white light washed over the building, electric shocks riding each floor. Two ancient magiks warring over a building that stood for too much in this war until finally, the magik shield around Fire Circle Headquarters dropped, shaking Shawn away from the door.
“What the hell was that!” someone shouted from the streets. A few other screams followed.
Shawn stumbled backward a few feet and tore off a piece of his shirt to wrap around his palm. “That shouldn’t have worked, blood magik or not.”
I clapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s go. We need to save whoever’s left.”
But as we rushed into Headquarters, leaving the civilians outside to wonder what they’d just witnessed, an overwhelming blanket of smoke and the smell of burning human flesh seized my lungs.
There might not be anyone left to save.
Chapter 25
KRYSTIN
We left a bloody, burnt trail behind us as we went. Kinder stayed behind me the entire time, cleaning up any Hunters I missed along the way. And while each step closer to Jaffrin’s office stirred a sense of wrongness inside me, of a darkness I couldn’t extinguish, each ball of fire thrown at a Hunter gave me freedom. Hope.
For so long, I’d wanted this: to be free of the Fire Circle and from Jaffrin’s control. Just three months ago I’d considered, in a brief moment of dark thoughts, killing him where he stood. And now, I would.
I grinned as fire scorched the walls of the second floor. Fire Circle Hunters poured in from every doorway, but I flung them away with air pushed into their faces. They flew down the corridor, against walls. Finally, it seemed, I’d learned how to use my new air-elemental magik.