by Jessica Gunn
“Are you?” I asked her.
She looked up to me, her blue gaze meeting mine. A chill swept down my spine all the way to my toes. Krystin still looked stunning, even after everything. And when my fingers brushed hers, preparing for our own teleportante, it felt like a tiny fire had started where our hands met.
It thawed the ice wall that’d grown around my heart six months ago.
We appeared on the other end of the teleportante inside of a house. A ordinary-looking one with off-white walls, plain carpet, and… furniture? Not much of it, though. A couch here, a table and chairs there. Enough to have been lived in but not well or often.
“What the hell?” I asked, turning around. The lightning in my hand died out almost instantly. If this was some random person’s house and we’d teleported inside in the middle of the night, I could only imagine the trouble we’d find ourselves in.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Krystin said as she folded down her sword and stowed it behind her back. When her hands reappeared, they were covered in two tiny firestorms. “It’s Giyano’s house.”
I looked over to her, an eyebrow raised. “Excuse me?”
She stalked across the living room and into the kitchen. “What an idiot.”
“Giyano?”
She nodded. “He’s screwing with me.”
Rachel caught up to us and stayed on Krystin’s heels. “How exactly do you know what Giyano’s house looks like?”
“Because he took me here when he rescued me from Ether Circle Prison.” Her words were matter-of-fact, a staccato, as she slowly tread across the kitchen to a door that probably led to the basement. But there was a whole other hallway to investigate, too.
Rachel looked to me. “See, this is what I mean. How can we trust her?”
Krystin shushed her, a finger to her lips. She pointed to the basement door. “There,” she mouthed.
Which seemed pointless because whoever was down there had probably already heard us walking. A sickening pit of dread formed in the back of my throat. Something’s not right.
“Trap,” I whispered.
Both Krystin and Rachel nodded emphatically. Clearly, this was a way for him to catch us all. With Krystin and Shawn dead, Alzan would be too. And with me and Rachel out of the picture, Riley didn’t stand a chance.
“Stay alert,” I said before calling lightning to my hand.
Rachel didn’t have her water canister backpack, so she pulled water to her from the air, in much smaller an amount than she would have if she’d had the backpack. Even still, it wouldn’t take much to do damage.
Krystin on the other hand… She kicked open the door and hurried down ahead of us, nearly leaping down the stairs. But before her feet touched the bottom landing, she froze.
“Not so fast.” Giyano’s voice filtered up past Krystin and into my ears. “Wouldn’t want them to accidentally die, would you?”
“Screw you!” she yelled at him.
I piled in behind Krystin with Rachel right beside me. “What?” I froze when I saw the blazing spheres of blue fire. And inside of them were Shawn and Nate. They knelt against the bottom part of the globes, banging on the interior walls, their mouths moving in inaudible screams.
Giyano stood in front, his hands at his sides. Shit. Did that mean another fire-elemental demon was here? Or was Giyano really powerful enough to control an element with his mind?
Krystin stepped onto the basement landing and moved toward Giyano a foot at a time. She raised her palm in front of her, holding it out to him. “Stop this. You don’t need them.”
Giyano, dressed in the more traditional Shadow Crest leather armor filled with reds and golds, looked nothing like the victim I knew Krystin was hoping he’d be. Instead, he wore the golden Shadow Crest medallion with easy pride and a strong stance, hands at his sides.
There’s no way to get to Giyano without losing one or both of them. If we attacked, he’d close the spheres and burn them alive. But if we didn’t…
Krystin kept walking toward him, though Giyano didn’t so much as breathe too deeply. “Why’d you tell me to stand down earlier, hmm? If you wanted any of us dead, we already would be.”
Giyano lifted a shoulder in the most non-committal shrug I’d ever seen. “Maybe I don’t need you dead.”
“You sure as hell aren’t taking me alive to that bitch,” Krystin spat, swinging her hands up. She tugged on the air, which translated to the spheres of fire crashing to the ground.
The spheres cracked and split on impact, spilling Shawn and Nate onto the cement floor. Their clothes caught fire, blue flames licking up their forms. They immediately rolled to the ground. Water shot past my shoulder, then split to cover each of them, dousing the flames.
Rachel.
“Go,” she said at the very moment a new wave of blue fire shot across the basement floor.
Krystin jumped, directing the flames away from us like she had back at the house. As she dove, she withdrew her three-piece sword and snapped it into place. Giyano caught the blade against an arm guard and swung up, smashing a fist into Krystin’s jaw. The opening I needed.
I flicked my hand and let my lightning loose, aiming for Giyano’s legs. The lightning ropes snaked around each ankle. I squeezed my hand, pulling the ropes together, and Giyano tumbled to the ground.
“Thanks for the trick, you bastard.” I kicked his side with all I had before lifting my hands and bringing a ball of lightning down onto his chest.
Giyano whipped a hand up, a wave of fire following that took the brunt of my attack. But the smashing of two elements at such intensity sparked a shock wave that sent the three of us flying, Krystin right next to me.
My back smacked against the stairs. Pain burst along my spine, though I considered it a good thing I’d felt it at all. But then a weight fell against my front—a person. I wrapped my arms around Krystin out of instinct to keep her from falling from the middle of the staircase to the bottom.
Krystin spared me a quick glance before ripping my arms off of her and using teleportante to appear first next to her sword, and then teleporting again behind Giyano.
I lashed out with lightning as they battled, her sword versus the smaller saber he’d produced from a sheath on his back. Metal scraped against metal, the sound grinding against my ears. I twisted my hands, guiding my lightning around Krystin until the strikes snared Giyano’s form.
Krystin jumped back, allowing me to pump the lightning at its full potential, the same way Giyano had once wrapped me in his own elemental fire ropes.
Giyano’s clenched jaw and jerking form were the only indication he’d been hurt at all as he was struck by lightning. I pulled Krystin out of the way and over to the others.
Nate sat up, blinking slowly as he took in what was happening. His eyes roamed from me and Rachel over to Krystin, then widened. “You’re here.”
Krystin nodded. “Sorry I made you chase me around New England.”
Shawn, similarly out of it, focused in on Krystin’s sword. “I want that back.”
“Not a chance,” she said as she helped him stand. “It was mine to begin with.”
Shawn winced and pushed Krystin away. “Get off of me.”
She raised her hands. “Sorry.”
Giyano groaned, pushing himself up off the floor.
“We need to go,” I said as I collected my team into a huddle. I shot another strike of lightning at the demon. He collapsed to the ground again, sparking. “Talk later.”
We joined hands and Krystin said, “Teleportante.”
In a flash, we were back at the team’s house.
Chapter 7
KRYSTIN
As soon as we landed back in the team’s living room, I spun on Ben. “Are my things still upstairs?”
He hesitated, looking to Rachel. “I think so.”
“Yes,” she snapped. “Why?”
I took off running for the second floor without answering. Pairs of footsteps followed behind me, but I
didn’t slow until I made it to my room at the end of the carpeted hall. The emptiness of the room froze me in place. The few belongings I did have when I’d lived here were piled inside of a single large box on top of the bed. I tore through it, looking for my container of crystals.
“Come on,” I said, digging. “Shawn?”
“What?” he snapped. “What are you looking for?”
“Tiger’s eye,” I said without stopping. “Do you have some?”
There was a moment where he didn’t respond, but then I heard footfalls leave my room. We only had until Ben’s attack wore off, until Giyano healed enough to get his wits about him and come back here. Then we’d be in a fight all over again.
“Oh, thank god,” I exclaimed as I pulled out a few small pieces of the semi-precious stone. It’d have to be enough. Nine months ago, I’d protected the house the same way. The spell only lasted for twenty-four hours or so, then the stones were destroyed. And the spell was only as powerful as the size of the stones used. I looked down at the pile in my hand, the biggest only the size a half-dollar coin. “It’ll have to be enough.”
“What are you doing?” Nate asked. He leaned against the hallway wall, his face pale. How long had Giyano had him in that basement?
I showed him my handful of stones. “Protecting the house, the same way I did months ago. It’ll keep most demons from getting inside for a day.”
“Most?” Rachel asked.
I frowned down at the tiger’s eye gemstones. “Lady Azar could probably get inside. But it’ll keep Giyano and any of the Shadow Crest soldiers out.”
“Good,” Ben said as he moved aside for Shawn to come back in the room.
“Here,” said Shawn, holding up two large chunks of tiger’s eye. His eyes were hard, narrowed. “This is all I have.”
His raw tiger’s eye chunks were larger than anything I’d ever had at the house. I held up my hand. “Keep it. Do you know the spell?”
He nodded and then backed out of the room. “I’ll get the ground floor. Put yours in the basement and up here. A stone on every window sill.”
“Two on the door frames,” I called after him as he retreated down the hall. Shit. I’d thought Rachel’s reaction to me had been harsh. Shawn could barely look at me without anger rolling off him in waves.
Alzan might be doomed after all.
I pushed past Ben and Rachel to Ben’s room right next door. I’d do my own last. A few steps had me at his windowsill. I closed my eyes, said a few words, and then placed the stone on the wood. It flashed a red glow for a quick second, then returned to normal.
“Huh.” Red? It used to do that in white, back before my magik had changed. Hopefully, my magik now being elemental in nature didn’t change the effectiveness of the spell.
“What is it?” Ben asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
“Can we help?” Nate asked. “Or me, at least?”
My fingers curled around my remaining tiger’s eye stock. “No. It’s a witch thing. It’ll take a few minutes and then we can relax.”
“Doubtful,” Rachel said, though she stepped out of my way as I headed into her room next.
With everyone’s bedrooms protected, including mine, I still had a few stones remaining. I tossed them next to Shawn’s on the front and back doors, hoping they’d add some measure of extra protection.
When the protection ritual was complete, the team gathered in the living room. Or what was left of the living room after Giyano’s attack. I didn’t take a seat. By now, I was fairly sure Ben wouldn’t attack me. Nate, either. But Rachel and Shawn…
I watched them, each taking a guarding spot beside Ben and Nate. My ribs ached as though I’d done nothing but sit-ups since the attack, a sharp pain rising if I took too deep a breath. Maybe I’d need a healer after all, especially if we kept getting into one fight after another.
Ben turned to Nate, sparing Shawn a passing glance. “How long did Giyano have you for?”
Nate shrugged. “A few days. No biggie.”
“You left a week ago,” Rachel said, her tone sharp. “And you didn’t tell us. We thought you were dead.”
Nate frowned. “I should have said something; I’m sorry. But I knew Ben would try to stop me if I went again.”
“Yeah,” Ben said. “I knew you’d never find her.”
“She’s right here,” I cut in. Nate looked up at me. “You didn’t find me because I had a few layers of magik protecting me and my aura.”
“And you bound your powers.” Ben pointed to the crushed crystal in the middle of the destroyed living room. “Right away, I’m assuming, since even your mother couldn’t find you.”
I nodded. “It was second on my list.”
“And the first?”
I looked into Ben’s blue eyes, so strong and full of determination, even now, after half of his team had been taken by Giyano. Did he really want this answer? I’d been so scared of him that night, so terrified he’d kill me on the spot rather than think things through. “The first thing on my mind was getting away from you.”
Ben blinked, his only tell. “I—”
“You were going to kill me, Ben.” Flashes of the night came back to me. The two of us standing in that hallway, magik at the ready. Only instead of the controlled lightning storms Ben usually produced, his entire form had been layered in lightning that whipped without control. “You would have killed me before I convinced you that I hadn’t done anything of my own will. I’d just broken out of Kinder’s hold at the end of it all.” I shook my head. “I had to get away and find time to regroup and build a defense. So I ran. Step one.”
No one spoke for the longest of moments. I was done. They were going to turn me in and I’d be imprisoned for good. Only this time, I deserved it. I might have been under Kinder’s control thanks to Zanka’s persuasion magik, but Shawn was right about needing initial feelings for that type of magik to work.
But first we had to stop Lady Azar and save Alzan; otherwise, there’d be no jail to imprison me in.
“I can vouch for her,” Nate said, breaking the silence with his quiet words. “I felt the change in Krystin, her magik, and her control of it. That’s what I was trying to tell you this whole time, Ben.”
Ben turned to him, his expression sullen. “You were out for so long. I thought you’d made it up.”
“There was a moment of clarity,” I said. “Before Nate’s ether shield exploded.”
Shawn’s gaze found mine. “Really? Because I’m pretty sure you just went berserk on everyone.”
“You talked about Alzan, about looking for the power inside myself to use as an anchor. And I did.”
Nate nodded. “That’s what I felt. The Alzan power must be ether-based because I physically felt the shift in Krystin’s magik and felt it tugging on yours, Shawn.”
Ben blinked rapidly, his gaze flitting between the three of us. “What does that mean?”
“That even a magik like Zanka’s, born from an Old One and borrowed by someone as powerful as Kinder, isn’t strong enough to block out Alzan’s magik,” Nate said. “It also means this shared power you two have must be modeled, somehow, after cianzas. Otherwise Krystin would have died by now from the mix of the two magik types or from her magik backfiring.”
A hot sizzle of unease slid down my spine. “It did backfire. In Ether Circle Prison.”
“I mean worse,” Nate said, leveling me with a look. “The type of backfire that kills instantly.”
I ran my hands through my hair as if the motion would help settle my fears. That the Alzan magik might be kin to whatever magik kept cianzas from exploding… that was an insane thought. “That means our magik is like Riley’s.”
Ben froze at the sound of his son’s name. “I don’t know about that.”
“So why don’t we focus on the fact that Lady Azar is using him to get to Alzan in less than two weeks,” Shawn snapped. Anger still rippled off of him. At me or Giyano or this conversation as a whole, I wasn
’t sure. “If Jaffrin doesn’t already know, we have to tell him.” He lifted his gaze to mine. “Which means letting him know you’re in town.”
“I don’t have to be, if you’d prefer.” His eyes narrowed. I hadn’t meant it as sarcasm or anything other than a statement of fact. “I can go back to Connecticut and stay out of the way.”
Shawn’s eyes darkened. “Then who will stop Lady Azar?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. All of you? All the magik users in the Fire Circle? Isn’t that what Jaffrin’s plan has been all along after he threw us all together?”
Shawn shot up from the couch and stalked toward the staircase. “When you decide what to do with her, Ben, let me know. Until then, I’m going to try working on unlocking this power. Alone.”
And then he was gone.
I looked over at Ben, expecting anger and disbelief. Instead, Ben had his head in his hands, his fingers rubbing his temples. “Ben?”
“I give up,” he said into his palms.
Rachel scooted closer to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, Ben. We’re going to stop her and get Riley back.”
He shook his head. “Not that. I know we’re going to save the day. I’m just tired of this bullshit.”
Still not descriptive enough. “To what bullshit in particular are you alluding?” I asked.
He dropped his hands and lifted his eyes to me. “This team. The dynamic here. The fact that we’re supposed to be soldiers for Good, but at every damn step of the way there’s something opposing us, Evil corrupting us or our magik. I’m exhausted by this fight.” He slapped his palms on his thighs and then stood. “So I’m done playing mediator. Krystin, go upstairs and figure out your shit with Shawn. I’m going to Fire Circle Headquarters.”
My stomach lurched. “To do what?”
Ben threw his hands up in the air. “Tell Jaffrin you’re here. Tell him about Lady Azar’s plans and Shadow Crest’s attacks. And the fact that we’re having to resort to magik protecting our house to keep us safe right now. It’s like all the fucking rules have been thrown out the window.” He shook his head and looked to Rachel. “Keep it all together while I’m gone, okay?”