Hunter Circles Series Complete Boxset: An Urban Fantasy Adventure

by Jessica Gunn

  She gave me this look that was almost motherly, like I should know better than to be anything but happy, then smiled again. “Yes. I’ll see you there. We managed to get a Water Circle Hunter to cover the front just for the occasion. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  “Thanks,” I said and turned for the hallway, my team in tow. “Wish I could miss it.” I still wasn’t sure this was what I wanted.

  “What was that about?” Rachel asked as we walked toward the doorway that led down into the grand hall.

  “You’re about to find out,” I mumbled. I reached the door first and held it open for everyone else. Shawn and Nate filed past without more than a brief questioning glance. But Krystin and Rachel stood before me, arms crossed at their chests. “It has to do with why I’ve been at Headquarters so much over the last few days, okay? You finally get to know.”

  Krystin raised an eyebrow. “Does that include why you were contact with Topaz?”

  Shit. “Yes, Krystin.”

  Confusion twisted Rachel’s features, but she stepped toward the door anyway. “Aren’t they a myth?”

  Krystin scoffed and walked through the door. “I thought so too. This should be interesting.”

  No, what would be interesting was their reaction to the truth. If Krystin or Rachel or both of them thought I wasn’t capable, I wasn’t sure I could do this. “Let’s get going. The event starts in a few minutes.”

  Rachel regarded me for a long moment before following Krystin. I hurried behind them, ushering my team down to the bottom section of the grand hall. It was lower than we usually sat, especially the last few times we’d been in here with Jaffrin. We slid onto a bench five rows from the front beside Cassie’s and Avery’s teams and behind some of the higher-ranking Fire Circle officials. The Hunters in attendance ranged from freelancers to full five-man teams.

  Rachel gave me one last look before inclining her head toward the stage. Dacher stood in the center, talking to a few others. I recognized some of them as higher-ranked Hunters. The ones who joined the Fire Circle years ago and never retired, instead choosing to hang around and fight this war with paper-pushing and organizing instead of their fighting and magik talents.

  “I know what this is about,” I told Rachel. “Just listen. It’s not bad.”

  Unless the Ether Head Circle had chosen to rule against Dacher’s decision. But given not a single one of their representatives was here, maybe they hadn’t.

  As soon as I thought those words, the air at the bottom of the stage rippled and in teleported two figures in pale yellow robes. Two Ether Head Circle representatives. I didn’t recognize them.

  Krystin stiffened beside me, but only for a moment before she slouched, gripping on to the edge of the bench while she made herself as small as possible without getting up and running out of the room.

  “They won’t,” I said, touching my fingers to hers. “They’re not here to cause trouble.”

  “They’ll think I am,” she said, dropping her gaze to her lap.

  I gave her hand a squeeze. “I won’t let them. They’re here because Dacher’s about to announce something important, something that needed the Ether Head Circle’s approval.”

  She glanced up at me. “And what might that be?”

  Krystin already knew. Or, she’d have thought of it if she wasn’t distracted. I didn’t blame Krystin for not connecting the dots. I probably wouldn’t have if I hadn’t been involved with all of this from the start.

  Dacher and the Ether Head Circle representatives briefly greeted each other as the room filled. Not fully, though, which was weird. I figured the whole Circle would have to be present for this. Apparently not.

  I gulped, relieved for that.

  Finally, the Ether Head Circle representatives took their seats in the front row, as did the other Fire Circle members on stage, leaving Dacher by himself to address those in attendance.

  He loudly cleared his throat and raised his hands into the air, silencing the grand hall. Dacher’s dark-colored suit with a blood red tie stood stark against the light-colored floor and benches of the rest of the room. “Thank you for coming on such short notice today. I wanted to get this out of the way in case the war escalates. These things should be set into motion the moment they’re decided upon.”

  Dacher gestured to someone in the front row. One of the Ether Head Circle Representatives, a woman with bright red hair, stood. “This is Chairman Jenna Smith. With her as witness to the events of the past few days, I would like to announce the reformation of the Fire Circle’s Command. Five have been chosen to replace those lost to our previous Leader’s entanglements with the Neuians.”

  He flexed his fingers, and the five new members of the Fire Circle’s Command rose from the first row. “I present to you: Jeremiah Cole, Miguel Ramos, Irma Kim, Jesse Porter, and Laura Lane.”

  A round of quiet applause swept through the room. I clapped along with them. This part I’d known—all the candidates had had a vote in Command appointments since there was every chance we’d be interacting with them over the long haul.

  When the applause died down, Dacher continued. “Their Command appointments are effective immediately.” He nodded at Jeremiah Cole, a freelance Hunter known for cracking down on the elin trade inside of Boston over the last decade or so. His Hunting time was almost up, so this was a good transition for someone so dedicated to our cause.

  Jeremiah rose from the first row and walked up onto the stage, standing beside Dacher. “Thank you. I’m here to deliver the second half to this announcement: The new Command has already selected the next Leader of the Fire Circle.”

  My team, along with everyone else in the room, gasped. They had no idea that all of these talks had begun in the hours following our attack on Lady Azar’s lair.

  Krystin turned to me. “Were you a part of this?”

  “Sort of,” I said, not looking at her. Not revealing what was about to happen next. And it wasn’t even the best part of all of this.

  Jeremiah stood straighter, his voice carrying throughout the room without effort. “Given his many years of service to the Fire Circle, the last decade of which has been spent as second-in-command to the previous Fire Circle Leader, we find it no strange jump to select Dacher Allard as the new Leader. His work, along with significant contributions from many of the Hunters in attendance today, is the reason Jaffrin’s betrayal was rooted out and the transition between then and now has gone as smoothly as it has. Dacher, on behalf of the Command and its power, you are now Leader of the Fire Circle.”

  I clapped loudly first, starting this wave of applause. I was happy for him. Jaffrin might have been the one who’d recruited me into the Fire Circle, but he sure as hell hadn’t done a whole lot to keep me in it. Dacher had been my mentor, my confidant when I hadn’t known what to do. Which had begun happening more and more often recently. Dacher was the perfect fit, but the announcement wasn’t done yet.

  Jeremiah nodded to Dacher before stepping down from the stage, again taking his seat in the front row.

  Dacher turned back to the audience. “Though I am Leader, it has been decided that I will not hold this title for long.” Murmurs rose at those words, a wave of people objecting and talking. Dacher lifted a hand and the room went silent again. “My time grows short, I’m afraid. I am old and this war has yet to be kind and will likely never be. So while my time as Leader might be a short few years, it will be time spent preparing the next Leader, so that the transition might be as smooth as possible. To that end, we have also called you all here today to announce the final five Hunters selected as official candidates for Leader of the Fire Circle.”

  Dacher paused, looking around the room. “I know this is a bit unprecedented. But the truth is that the selection process was underway before our previous Leader was taken out of office. And many of the candidates Jaffrin had chosen are still in the running today.”

  I kept my line of sight on Dacher, though I could feel both Rachel and Krystin turn h
eated stares on me. Yup, they’ve figured it out.

  I’d always assumed that, when Jaffrin had randomly declared the reason we’d gathered here months ago had been to tell me I was a candidate—and not that we were planning to break into Ether Circle Prison—that he’d been lying. Or joking. That it was just a cover-up.

  It turned out that was not in any way the case.

  And now that I knew he was a Neuian, and that so too was I, I had to wonder if Jaffrin hadn’t had ulterior motives in naming me a candidate. Or recruiting me to the Fire Circle in the first place. Was it possible he’d known back then what Rachel and I really were?

  Shawn and Nate, sitting on the other side of Krystin, also looked down the row at me.

  I kept my eyes on Dacher, who continued. “Those of you in attendance know these candidates. I’d like to present them to you now, so that you may draw your own opinions and tell us about them.” He glanced around at each of us candidates. “Please come to the stage, Avery Jones, Cassie Clairmont, Melissa Gar, Robin Logan, and Ben Hallen.”

  My breath caught in my chest, hitched around a ball of guilt that’d risen, bile-covered, from my stomach into my throat. I was a Neuian, just like Jaffrin. I couldn’t lead this Circle. Shouldn’t lead it. I shouldn’t have even been allowed in the running anymore. Dacher had plenty of time since the other night to rescind that candidacy and never revive it.

  But he hadn’t.

  I wasn’t a Leader. I couldn’t be a Leader. The last time I was, we’d lost that national title football game in college. And then Jaffrin had made me leader of my team of Hunters and look how that had gone.

  Avery and Cassie rose, joining Melissa and Robin on their way to the stage.

  Rachel nudged my side with her elbow. “Ben.”

  I shook my head in slow, small motions. I didn’t deserve this. At all. Even if it might not matter in less than a week from now.

  “Ben,” Krystin hissed. “You’ve got this.”

  I glanced over at Krystin, her blue eyes shining under the light. In them I saw honest support. Was she able to read my thoughts? Had that power of hers returned, or was I still that same open book I’d been when I’d first met her? “I can’t.”

  She gave me a hard stare. “Yes, you can. We believe in you. Now, get your ass up there before you make a fool of yourself.”

  That was all the encouragement I needed—at least to get up onto the stage. I wasn’t sure what’d happen after that.

  I forced my feet to carry me up the steps to join Avery, Cassie, and the two other candidates. The room looked a hell of a lot fuller from up here beneath the burning lights. I gulped.

  “From these five, we will narrow down to three and then select one person to train,” Dacher said. “I know this is different from how it’s been done for generations, given that the second-in-command of the current Leader is usually made the next Leader. But under the circumstances, I don’t think a little change in a positive direction is a bad thing. And each of these young Hunters has proven themselves to not only be capable of the position, but also be capable of carrying us through this time of war with new ideas and outlooks.”

  Yeah, like being half-Neuian, I thought.

  I looked out into the crowd. Despite the change in procedure, no one seemed opposed to it. In fact, most of the Hunters in attendance and the Ether Head Circle representatives appeared pleased by the news, with small smiles and nods.

  Shit. If even the Ether Head Circle was happy about this, then Dacher had definitely done something right.

  But as I made eye contact with Chairman Jenna Smith, her stare became a hard glare. So they were happy, but not with my nomination.

  At least someone else was as against it as I was.

  Chapter 9

  KRYSTIN

  An hour after the announcement we gathered in the living room of our house, tossing back a celebratory shot. Which Ben declined.

  “Seriously?” I asked, shoving the shot glass into his hands and forcing him to take it. “This is awesome.”

  His expression hardened. “No, it’s not. Chairman Smith did not look happy about my appointment. I knew Dacher would probably tell his new Command about Rachel and me being Neuians, but I hadn’t expected him to leak that information to the Ether Head Circle.”

  “Even more reason to drink if you ask me,” Nate said before throwing back his shot. “Besides, we have no way of knowing if any of that will matter in a few days.”

  I shot Nate a glare over my shoulder. “It will matter because we will win.”

  “Somehow,” Shawn said, echoing my unsaid words.

  I was sure we’d get to Alzan and at least start the fight. But with my magik so close to fatally backfiring and with Riley still within Lady Azar’s clutches, I wasn’t sure we’d win the war there.

  But we had to. It was quickly becoming clear, especially with the advent of the Neuians, that we might not have a choice. I wasn’t sure I understood their stance regarding the Powers and Darkness. Areus had said they thought of us as vermin, so insignificant compared to them that we didn’t matter. So I had to bet money on the fact that if Lady Azar got to Alzan and we somehow lost that frontline fight, the Neuians would step in. Cianzas were their creation. They knew what Cianza Alzan could do in the wrong hands.

  So maybe it wasn’t a bad thing at all that Ben would possibly be Leader. Because once our fight with Lady Azar was finished, we might need that connection to the Neuians to convince them they didn’t need to pay the Hunter Circles any mind. He could convince them they could go back to whatever plane of existence they’ve been hiding on for the last couple thousand years and go on with their lives.

  “We’re going to win, simple as that,” I said. “Drink up, Sparky. You’re a candidate for Leader of the Fire Circle. And when you do some fantastic work to end this war and reconstruct the Circle after Jaffrin’s utter failure, we can say we knew you when. You’re going into the history books.”

  He leveled me with a stare. “That’s a bit overdramatic.”

  “My middle name,” I said. “Right next to sarcastic.”

  “She’s right, Ben,” Rachel said. “This is a good thing. Even… with everything.”

  Ben ran his fingertips over the area around his right eye, as if subconsciously searching for those tattoos Karen and Jaffrin had had. “We’ll see.”

  I rolled my eyes and pushed the shot glass more forcefully into his hands. “Take the damn shot.”

  He obliged, throwing back the whiskey—the last of the bottle I’d opened six months ago after getting out of prison. He made a face as it burned down his throat, then set the shot glass on the coffee table. “There. Happy?”

  I gave him a satisfied grin. “For now. There’s more where that came from.”

  Shawn held up the empty whiskey bottle. “Not anymore.”

  I frowned. “Oh, well.”

  “It’s probably for the best,” Nate said. “We have to patrol tonight before leaving for Alzan.”

  “Shit,” Ben hissed. He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen to check the time. “We’re due in thirty minutes.”

  I shrugged. It wasn’t the first time I’d gone on patrol buzzed. Or had gotten there while scoping out a bar with the team. Not too many days after I’d first met Ben, we’d been in a bar while on patrol and I’d almost out-drunk him.

  I smiled at the memory. We’d been so relatively carefree back then. I’d been pissed about being assigned to a team of Hunters, and Ben had been pissed Jaffrin hadn’t warned him about me joining. But the only thing on our minds had been getting Riley back from Lady Azar.

  How much things had changed since then combined with thoughts of what we had yet to do. I stood and padded to the kitchen in search of more alcohol, patrol or not. The entire world had changed since the night I’d first dropped in on Ben, Rachel, and Nate in that alleyway. The first time I’d seen a victim of Giyano’s. And now Giyano, the only person who might have been able to help us against the Neuians, to help
me with this magik backfiring problem, was dead.

  My heart panged a mixture of remorse and sadness. I wasn’t sure what Giyano had been to me. Not quite a mentor and still yet, not quite an enemy either. A protector, perhaps, in misguided ways. A friend willing to do whatever necessary to see a mission through.

  I missed him. But I didn’t think I realized how much of that longing wasn’t rooted in a need for his guidance.

  I simply missed Giyano and regretted letting him take that final hit from Lady Azar.

  “Maybe we should get going early instead,” Rachel said.

  I paused, my hand almost on the liquor cabinet. It wasn’t a bad idea, but rather than going out on patrol, we should have been heading to Alzan. Ben had shot down that idea, at least for today, after Dacher’s announcement in case anything else came up.

  Problem was, anything could pop up at any time between now and Lady Azar’s advance. We’d been putting off going back to Alzan for too long as it was.

  Ben nodded. “A quick patrol, then we leave. Everyone go get ready.”

  I trailed up to my bedroom to look for my boots and a light jacket. Fall was coming fast, and although the days were still warm in the sunlight, nighttime brought with it a chill that sometimes seemed to seep down to my bones. Leather jacket on, I slipped my three-piece sword into the sheath at my back hidden underneath and packed an extra knife into my right boot. Just in case.

  The moment I turned to flash myself a reassuring smile in the mirror, proving I could do this whole thing without expending magik, the walls of the house shook with an explosion downstairs.

  Dust fell from the ceiling and the sounds of things falling down off the shelves in the others’ rooms echoed down the hallway. I turned for the door and sprinted down the hall, drawing my sword and snapping it together. The hinges locked into place, immovable.

  “What was that?” I called, making my way toward the stairs. “Everyone okay?”

  No one answered, save for a pained screech from the living room.

  I vaulted down the stairs as my pulse screamed in my ears. A demon attack? This trend had to stop. Normally, demons didn’t attack Hunters’ houses because demons tended to not have specific targets, not like the enemies we had. But in the span of a year, the team’s house had become one hell of a hangout for mayhem.