by Jessica Gunn
Chapter 12
Ben
My head pounded as though I were in the middle of a concert filled with drums and heavy bass beats. As soon as the throbbing cleared for a single second, awareness returned to me.
The Landshaft hideout. Giyano. Riley.
My eyes snapped open and I shot right up, teetering sideways. I caught myself as I rolled, off-balance, over the side of the couch.
“Ben! Careful,” Rachel said as she appeared to my side, a hand holding me steady. “You’ve been out for at least an hour with us, probably longer.”
I blinked, looking up at her. She had the same blue eyes Riley once had, that vibrant cobalt we both shared with him and the rest of our family. “Riley. Did you get Riley too?”
Her brow furrowed. “No, he—”
I jumped up off the couch, searching the room. Nate sat on the bottom of the stairs, Shawn in the recliner in the corner. Rachel hadn’t moved from her perch on the coffee table. And Krystin… I glanced over to her; she was standing in the doorway to the kitchen. “You didn’t save Riley?”
Krystin’s gaze fell. “He wasn’t there, Ben.”
“Yes, he was. All of them were, and you just walked away?” Before I could continue, Rachel reached a hand out for me, but I sidestepped her. “Stop. You don’t understand. We need to go back.”
“No one was inside or around the house when we found you, Ben,” she said, her voice low and calm. A hell of a lot calmer than it should but since her nephew, my son, had been within feet of me and—and—
“He’s a demon,” I said. “They changed him. I saw it with my own eyes.”
“We know that,” Nate said. “That nurse told you that. And Shadow Crest after that to Krystin.”
Krystin’s brow furrowed. “What nurse?”
“I didn’t believe her,” I said. “Couldn’t. I mean—there’s no way the rest of her story is true.” A rebel Darkness faction. Demons opposed to not only Aloysius, but also to what Darkness stood for. That was impossible. Evil had been programmed into each of their souls the day they’d been transformed into demons.
My heart stopped. Riley had been programmed by evil too now. My son.
My gaze snapped up to my cousin. “We have to go back. He was there, Rachel. Giyano too. He brought Riley to me like he was Riley’s father.” Bile coated my tongue and throat at the very thought. Of Riley telling me I’d hurt his friends. Heat lapped at my neck, a cold sweat breaking out on my brow as my vision narrowed. I’d been so close to getting him back and couldn’t. Or didn’t.
Rachel reached out again. This time I let her hold me. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. “Please sit back down, Ben. You had aura sickness. When we found you, you were barely breathing.”
I shook my head as more memories filtered through. “That’s why I couldn’t do it.”
“Do what?”
“Fight off Giyano and save Riley.”
Rachel frowned. “There’s nothing you can do about aura sickness. If they had that many demons in one place… no Hunter can combat that. As far as we know not even the Powers can.”
“You don’t understand.” They never would. Not until any of them had children. Not that I’d been given a ton of time to get used to the idea. But the primal need to protect Riley at any costs, to fight whatever stood in my way, to do anything to get to him—I’d almost begged Giyano to take down the magiks keeping my own power away. The only thing that kept me from doing so was the knowledge that even with those magiks, I’d felt the aura sickness.
If he’d dropped the binding magiks, if the full force of that aura sickness had hit me, I’d have died within minutes, maybe less. And that wouldn’t have been enough time to kill Giyano and save Riley.
Assuming Riley didn’t use the Power on you. My eyes closed with that thought, with the resignation. “They’ve brainwashed Riley. He thinks they’re his family. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that close again.”
Rachel pulled me into an embrace. I hugged her back. She’d been my anchor for the last three and a half years. If anything or anyone was going to keep me grounded right now, it was her. Or… I glanced over her shoulder to Krystin standing stone-faced in the doorway.
When Rachel let me go, I asked Krystin, “Why would Giyano be working for Shadow Crest again?”
“I thought we agreed he didn’t need a reason,” Shawn said from his recliner.
“He seeks power, Ben,” Nate said as he stood and made his way over to us. “Lady Azar must have promised him some magik powerful enough to sway him.”
“It wasn’t magik,” Krystin said, her stare on me. “Giyano doesn’t give a fuck about magik or Lady Azar.”
“Then why?” I asked. If what Krystin said was true, then the only reason left, according to her own words, was Riley. But Riley was now a demon and Giyano seemed happy about it, not worried. Not a single part of our exchange gave me the impression he was the least bit stressed about the fact that Lady Azar and Shadow Crest planned to march on Alzan in ten days.
“I don’t know, Ben,” Krystin said, her tone even. “But it’s not magik or power or prestige. It’s not a place at her side. I thought I knew him.” She shook her head and shifted her stance so she was now leaning against the doorway with one shoulder. “Clearly, I don’t. He’s playing the longest of long games, and I’m no longer a pawn or a student he needs.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. Hearing Krystin call herself his student twisted my gut in an off way. Like maybe there might have been more to it than that. But I shook off the feeling. I knew Krystin, or at least I thought I did. She might ally herself with Giyano, but she’d never do anything else with him.
Or maybe that was just jealousy talking. Because clearly he’d known her better, or at least on a more intimate, magik-based level. And most days, it seemed that was all Krystin cared about.
Rachel sighed loudly, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Well, at least we got you back safely. Though it appeared the danger was gone.”
“They wanted me for something,” I said, looking back to her. “That’s why Giyano kept me there instead of killing me or letting me go.”
“Lady Azar wanted you out of the way of her Alzan plan,” said Shawn. “Same as the attack the other night.”
“And the bounty hunters that went after me,” Krystin said.
I shook my head. “No. It was something else.” Something Giyano was afraid of. “Does Jaffrin know you rescued me?”
Rachel glanced over at Krystin, who shrugged, before she tugged her phone out of her pocket. “No. I wanted to talk to you first. Make sure you were okay before whatever interrogations Jaffrin might want to run.”
“Don’t tell him.”
The others looked at me like I’d grown six heads, except for Krystin. Her expression remained nearly stoic.
“What?” Nate asked.
Shawn stood. “Why?”
I ran my hand through my hair, which was longer now than I usually let it grow. There was a part of me that trusted Jaffrin the way I’d trusted my old football coach. I might not have always agreed with Coach’s calls, but in the end, I knew he’d lead us to victory. And he had.
Working with Jaffrin, under him as a Hunter, had become the same sort of relationship. I’d led enough games—or demon fights—to know the enemy, to know when something was off. And though Jaffrin and I had definitely butted heads over the years, he was the Leader of the Fire Circle. My boss. My new coach.
There was only so much I was willingly to cross him over, especially after I’d gone to Dacher, Jaffrin’s second-in-command, with my concerns six months ago. But when all that crap with Krystin had happened, Jaffrin had changed. And until last night, he’d been the Leader that’d inspired me to get my shit together and join the Fire Circle to get Riley back.
But last night? That was a bad call, and I’d known it. And I’d still gone anyway.
“Because Jaffrin was pissed to hell when he gave me the recon order,” I said—slowly, so my team
heard and digested every word. “He wasn’t happy about Krystin being back, and he definitely was not excited by the suggestion that we keep the Ether Head Circle in the dark about it until whatever happens with Lady Azar and Alzan happens.”
“Assuming the prophecy is true,” Krystin said.
Shawn glanced her way. “After everything, you still have doubts?”
She shrugged. “There’s no archaeological evidence for the city having ever existed.”
“Lady Azar’s been after the city for hundreds of years.”
Krystin glared at Shawn. “I’m aware. And people have been chasing tales of El Dorado for even longer. It doesn’t mean either are real.”
I cleared my throat loudly. “The point is, Giyano was not only surprised by the fact that Jaffrin had sent me to that Landshaft hideout alone, but he was spooked by it.”
Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
I shoved my hands into my pockets and shrugged. “Giyano was all about punching me and showing Riley how awful a person I was, telling him how I was some shit parent who just abandoned him to demons because I didn’t want him, and then—bam. He asked where you all were.” I looked to Krystin. “Where you were. And when I said Jaffrin had sent me in alone, he nearly ran out of the room with Riley.”
Krystin blinked. “Because I wasn’t there?”
“I don’t know. Probably not. He said something about wondering if ‘Jaffrin knew.’ That he must ‘also know,’ or some shit like that.”
“Riley being a demon now isn’t a secret,” Shawn said. “Neither is Krystin being back—not from Jaffrin or Giyano.”
“It’s something else,” I said. “And that’s the reason I don’t want Jaffrin to know I’m back. I don’t want him asking questions. Because at the end of the day, and this kills me to admit, Giyano has offered us more useful information in the past than Jaffrin. Something’s not right and, honestly… if it’s got an Old One spooked, I almost don’t want to know.”
Krystin’s eyes widened, her mouth falling open. Then she closed her eyes. “Son of a bitch.”
“What?” I asked.
She pushed off the door frame and walked into the living room. “Months ago, Giyano mentioned something about some secret he and his father had found before Giyano had been turned into a demon. They were archaeologists or something. And it was the reason Lady Azar had turned Giyano, but he swore he’d never told her a damn word about it. Maybe it was Alzan he found.”
“He never told you what it was?” That I found hard to believe. It seemed like Giyano had told Krystin a whole lot of things she’d chosen to keep to herself. Like how Zanka had known where Riley and Sandra had been hiding six months ago. It was because of Zanka, Giyano’s old rival, that Riley was now in Lady Azar’s hands. Unless that’d been the plan all along.
She shook her head. “He said I wasn’t ready. That we, collectively, weren’t ready to know.”
“Jaffrin told us the prophecy when we both became Hunters,” Shawn said. “We’ve each known about the city of Alzan for years. That can’t be what Giyano meant.”
“Then I don’t know.”
Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “How is that possible? You just called yourself his student, for god’s sake.”
“Yeah,” Krystin volleyed back. “Of magik. We both have the same fire-elemental power.”
“Wonder how that happened,” Shawn said, his voice thick with sarcasm. He wasn’t wrong.
“Beats me,” Krystin spat at him. “Not like any of that was my choice.”
“And how much of it was?” Rachel asked as she stepped toward her. “How much of Kinder’s control were you really under?”
Krystin froze, a fire blazing in her eyes. “I didn’t have to come back, you know. I could have thrown out the information that Riley was a demon and Alzan will be under attack soon and continued on with my life.”
“Krystin—”
She turned to me. “No. Stop. I know you’ll do whatever Rachel says, and if she doesn’t trust me, if Shawn doesn’t, then you don’t.” Krystin reached behind her and dropped a kitchen knife to the ground. It must have been sitting in the sheath she used to have her Fire Circle knife in. “I’m done. When Alzan’s actually under attack, come find me. I have no idea what Giyano’s planning or why he’s so terrified of Jaffrin. And it’s also been no fucking secret that I hate Jaffrin’s guts. I don’t trust him and I never have. So if he turns out to be some lying piece of shit, I’d be the least surprised.”
Rachel’s glare narrowed. “Is that why you let Kinder cut off his hand six months ago? Is that why you helped her tear Headquarters to pieces?”
Krystin’s jaw set hard, so much so that I swore I heard her molars grinding together from where I stood.
I stepped toward her, putting myself between Krystin and Rachel. “Krystin, don’t go. We need you.”
She shrugged flippantly. “Doesn’t seem like it. Besides, there’s plenty of others who do, right, Rachel? Giyano. Kinder. Hell, maybe I’ll help Lady Azar waltz right up to Cianza Alzan and blow it sky-high. How about that?” She scoffed. “Please. I didn’t have to come back here and I sure as hell don’t have to stay.”
“Krystin.”
She looked to me. “What, Ben? Have something you want to add? I know you hate me too, deep down. You can’t stand that I went to Giyano for help, that I trusted him, after all he’s done.”
“I don’t understand it, sure—”
“You hate it,” Krystin said. “Well, guess what, Ben. This war isn’t black and white. And that’s why the hell Giyano was so terrified of what Jaffrin might or might not know. Because none of us is actually a soldier for one side or another. I’m sure as hell not. Goodbye.”
Within the next breath, Krystin was gone, a shiny, shimmering teleportante trail in her wake.
One no one jumped to track.
Chapter 13
KRYSTIN
I didn’t bother going to Hunter’s Guild first. By now, the team probably assumed I went there all the time, both to hide my teleportante trail and to be safe. But the truth was: nowhere was safe anymore. Even Hunter’s Guild ever since Kinder attacked it nine months ago. She’d torn right through the protection magiks and slaughtered everyone inside, turning this war’s one neutral area into a macabre sight that terrified me to this day.
There was zero point in going there and trying to hide. Instead, I headed as close to downtown Boston as I dared, careful to avoid the Commons and Prudential Center areas. I jumped from spot to spot, whatever was open during the day and sitting directly on top of Cianza Boston. Much as I’d grown to dislike the Fire Circle and its current leadership, I didn’t, contrary to apparent popular belief, want to see Boston destroyed. Or the Fire Circle.
I just wanted to be free from it all.
Why’d I even come back? If they’d known about Riley being a demon, then they should have put together the part about Lady Azar going after Alzan soon. It seemed like Giyano was pretty keen on involving himself either way, and through that, the team or the Fire Circle would have figured her plans out.
Besides, it was high time the Ether Head Circle get off their collective pompous asses and did something about this war between Good and Evil besides wrongly imprison their own people. When Kinder had attacked that warehouse with the Hydron operation nine months ago, they’d cleared out the remaining demons and took Kinder on with utter ease.
If they had that much power, then they should end this war and stop Lady Azar all on their own. They didn’t need me. Alzan didn’t need me. And my team sure as hell didn’t either.
I’d come back for no reason, and now I wouldn’t be able to hide again. Not nearly as easily as I had before.
As the sky turned orange and pink with the sunset, I strolled down a street I used to know so well. Magik flowing from the nearby cianza caressed my skin. Goosebumps broke out down my arms and my mind started to get foggy. But still I walked, ignoring the cianza’s effects. I stopped outside a bar
around 7 p.m. It was run by a demon named Sid, who used to buy dharksa from me. Dharksa was a mind-altering drug created by Landshaft’s poisons-master class of demons. Cheap to make, less cheap to buy. It seemed to be the main source of the demonic economy in not only Boston, but also the northeastern portion of the United States.
Without the color-changing eye contacts and spells to hide my aura, I had no idea if Sid would even let me stay long enough to explain myself. Although after Arnie’s bar had burned down nine months ago and he’d died, I was pretty sure anyone I used to interact with knew the truth about me. That I wasn’t actually a demon dealing in dharksa, but a liar working on vague orders from the Leader of the Fire Circle.
It was time to test that. I pushed open the door to Sid’s bar and focused on the goal of coming in here rather than the wave of faces that turned to me, wide-eyed. Thirty-some-odd demons, all lower-level with weak auras, looked on at me, most with confusion or sly happiness erupting on their faces. A few of them cowered. None attacked.
Lifting my chin, I stalked to the bar, weaving around tables and groups of demons. A couple flashes of steel and magic caught my eye, but I didn’t dare look away from Sid, who stood behind the bar, wiping out a glass with a towel, staring at me. Interesting. Not that I was about to question no one attacking me. Maybe they thought I still used my magik. Even if my magik wasn’t bound anymore, I didn’t intend to use it. Least of all here.
Coming to Sid’s bar was the only play I had left.
“Hi, Sid,” I said, finally approaching the bar. “Tough crowd, huh?”
Sid was tall and lanky, but his high cheekbones and strong jaw were intimidating enough. If I hadn’t already known him and most of his patrons, I’d be more worried about coming in here. His burgundy eyes narrowed on me. “Get out of my bar.”
“Oh, come on.” I hopped up onto the last free barstool and leaned over the counter. “You don’t even want to talk to me?”
“I told you to leave, witch.”