by Jessica Gunn
Why can’t he just travel back to his home plane of existence?
Not that I knew how that worked. Krystin and Shawn had to do some weird blood magik sharing thing to get to Alzan, but that was because, from what I understood, Alzan was protected by several magik barriers. Was the Neuian plane the same? Or did no one ever travel there, either out of fear or because they didn’t know it even existed in the first place?
Maybe he needed access to his magik, all of which had been cut off the second we’d appeared in the Pyramid Building days ago. I still felt the thrum of my magik running through my veins. But the cell Jaffrin was trapped inside of must have somehow blocked his magik entirely.
He’s trapped. Useless.
Afraid.
“Cianza Alzan,” he finally said, watching me as though he could read every single one of my thoughts. If he had magik, maybe he could. We’d never known the extent of his abilities. “It’s not just the biggest cianza in existence; it’s the original one. That’s why this conflict matters, and why thousands of years ago as well as now, the Neuians have decided to involve themselves with you lower beings to monitor your petty war.”
“How can it be the original cianza when Alzan isn’t even on the origin plane anymore?” Krystin asked.
Shawn nodded. “We know the Neuians existed before the Entity. That they created and used cianzas as weapons. But Alzan has no other ties to the Neuians.” He looked at Areus. “Right?”
Areus thought for a moment before nodding. “Correct.”
Jaffrin stood and walked as close as possible to the cell bars without getting shocked by magik. “The Neuians weren’t just around before the Entity. They created it. The Entity was a failed experiment to create a weapon during their civil war that mimicked their own consciousness. An ‘artificial intelligence’ weapon, if you will.”
I was so not following this. And when I looked to Areus for some sort of reassurance, even his brow was furrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Once, Good and Evil were the same,” Jaffrin said, reciting the famed lines all Hunters and witches were told when they first learned of the magikal side of the world. “They shared the same form, power, consciousness—everything. That everything was called the Entity, the weapon the Neuians had created. But before there was the Entity, there was the first civilization of the Neuians. A people technologically and magikally advanced far beyond what exists today. But they were a warring people. And when the greatest civil war of them all broke out, one side tried to create a weapon that mirrored their shared-consciousness form. That weapon is what we today call the Entity.”
“Then how did cianzas become a weapon?” I asked. “Least of all one that’d destroy all of existence, like Cianza Alzan?”
Jaffrin shrugged. “The problem is that there’s a gap in our history. Cianzas were intended as a sort of magikal bomb, if you will, since Neuian magik is neutral to cianzas. Pure neutral. We do not affect them; neither do people with the Power.”
“Since the Power is also of Neuian origin?” Krystin asked.
Jaffrin nodded. “Precisely. But if someone with the Power is currently containing another’s magik, they then tilt a cianza. As Kinder did multiple times in Boston.”
“Figured that,” Krystin mumbled.
“I still don’t understand how we’re jumping from cianzas and the Power to the Neuians deciding now’s the time to act,” Rachel said, glancing between Jaffrin and Krystin.
“That’d be because the Neuians have already lived through a collapse of civilization once before,” Jaffrin said. “Their last civil war resulted in total collapse. Only three things survived: cianzas, the Entity, and a poor soul the rest of us only know as ‘the Creature.’ The Neuians are a race of people whose consciousness is shared. We exist almost as one, so our power is balanced and intense, shared by all. And also our knowledge. The Entity was created in this image. So when all other ‘host bodies’ died in the civil war, the Creature was left with the full weight of civilization’s consciousness to bear alone. He created Neu and Neuia, and together they re-seeded our people. That second evolution of the Neuians is what we are today.”
“And from the Entity came Good and Evil, Aloysius and the Powers,” Nate said.
Jaffrin nodded. “It makes sense that now, when the original cianza at Alzan is threatened, we’d return to keep it safe. For if it’s destroyed, all cianzas will explode with it. That is why Karen has called Ben’s and Rachel’s magik forward.”
A brick of dread settled at the bottom of my stomach. “She’s hoping our presence at the battle for Alzan, our magik, will neutralize Lady Azar’s.”
“And her army’s,” Jaffrin said. Then, after another tense moment he added, “And Riley’s, should he be channeling others’ magik. Because Lady Azar doesn’t know all of this. And what she doesn’t know will be the unraveling of all of existence.”
Chapter 11
KRYSTIN
What the hell were the words coming out of Jaffrin’s mouth? The Creature and evolutions, cianzas at the center of all creation? We knew Cianza Alzan had the power to exterminate all life in existence, but not that it was the first cianza. The original weapon created by a much older version of the Neuians, if Jaffrin was to be believed.
I glanced to Areus, his mouth as agape as my own. He squinted at Jaffrin in equal parts disbelief and wonder. As if the Alzanians had always assumed there was more to the story but hadn’t known what.
That feeling was all too familiar. I’d felt it about Jaffrin since the day we’d first met over a decade ago.
My mind whirred with whipping thoughts, each begging for attention, building pressure until my eyes closed. This is too much.
I spun on my heel and headed for the corridor outside. How were Shawn and I supposed to protect a cianza that was this connected to… to everything?
The first Daughter, she’d had it easy. All she’d had to do was move the damn thing and the city itself to a new plane of existence. She’d probably thought she’d succeeded in keeping it safe. She had probably been able to sacrifice herself with the peace of mind, false as it was, that nothing would happen to Alzan ever again.
I wouldn’t be so lucky.
Alzan was the target of the First War. Though I had to believe that if Aloysius—creator of all demons and a direct offshoot of the Entity itself—knew any of this bullshit about the truth of the Neuians, he wouldn’t have attacked Alzan. Now, Alzan might also be the final resting place of the war that had raged for thousands of years after the first Daughter had saved the city. The final conflict.
Why would Aloysius have sent Darkness’s soldiers to this city thousands of years ago if he’d known the truth? Better yet—how had the cianza survived that much non-Alzanian magik in the first place?
I rubbed my eyes with the palms of my hands as I walked down the empty corridor back toward the stairs. Too many questions. Too many mysteries I had a feeling would never be resolved.
Footsteps echoed down the hallway after me, not rushed but still quickly closing the distance. “Krystin, wait.”
I turned to Shawn, halting my retreat. “What?”
He stopped too, his relaxed body and wild eyes telling two different stories. “Don’t panic.”
“Don’t panic? Are you kidding me?”
“We don’t even know that he’s telling the truth.”
I threw up my hands, exasperated. “Why not just believe him? He’s stuck in a cell. It’s not like he has anything left to lose.”
Shawn regarded me with a blank stare. “You don’t know that. We have no idea what his life was like back on the Neuian plane.”
“And I don’t give a fuck,” I spat. “Why don’t you ever see the big picture, Shawn? This isn’t about him or them or Lady Azar or us.” I paced down the hall for few steps before turning back with my hands pressed together in front of my chest, as though I were praying. As if. “The Neuians didn’t step in during the First War, Shawn. Whatever Aloysius did to keep C
ianza Alzan from tilting during his attack isn’t something Lady Azar has in her repertoire or she wouldn’t have needed Riley and Ashbel this entire time.”
Shawn stared at me, watching my every move. “You’re worried about something that could potentially help Cianza Alzan remain stable during her attack?”
“No. It’s what we don’t know. That’s what has me terrified. The Neuians didn’t step in then, but they are now. Karen’s claimed Ben and Rachel as family and turned their magik. Riley’s probably not far behind, and the Neuian blood in his veins means Lady Azar can shove whatever amount of power into him that she wants and he won’t affect the cianza as long as it’s gone from his system before he gets here.”
“That’s a good thing.”
I shook my head. “But will it be enough? And will it matter in the long run when I can barely use my magik without getting sick? I’m this close to losing my life to backfiring magik, Shawn. And there is no way it’s going to be anywhere as simple as fighting off Lady Azar’s army and killing her.”
He bristled. “Why not? Why can’t it be that simple after all of this?
“Because they would have killed Aloysius or whatever general he sent during the First War. The Alzanians would have handled this.”
“And they didn’t.”
“They didn’t.”
There’s too much unknown.
“We’ve come too far to give up,” Shawn said.
I glared at him. “I’m not giving up. I’m just saying that there’s more to this than we know. And no matter how much more we keep learning, it just breeds more questions. Least of all how we’re supposed to stop all of this when it seems as though the cianza will become the weapon it was intended to be.”
Only instead of destroying the city of Alzan, it’ll destroy all of creation.
“There you are.” Areus rushed down the hallway, his cheeks flushed. “I was worried about where you might have gotten to.”
“I just needed a moment,” I said.
He nodded. “Understandable. That was quite the interrogation.”
“I think the phrase you’re looking for is ‘history lesson,’” I said dryly.
Areus smiled weakly. “Something like that.” He frowned. “I overheard you speaking just now. Did you say your magik is backfiring?”
I bit my lip and glanced at Shawn. He inclined his head toward Areus. “Yes. It’s been happening for a few days now. Ever since we left here and fought Lady Azar in her lair.”
Areus’s face took on a grave look and he stepped toward me. “Shawn, collect your team and instruct the guards to escort you back up to my chambers on my order. I am going to see if I can help Krystin.”
Shawn nodded, but his worried eyes never left me. “Okay. What should I tell Ben?”
“Nothing,” I said. “You tell him I’m fine, no matter what happens.”
“Really?” he asked, as if that were the worst mistake in the world.
“Yes. He has enough to deal with right now. He knows my magik is fucked up. He doesn’t need to know how bad—not yet.” I glanced at Areus. “Unless you can fix it?”
His frown wasn’t very optimistic. “I will try. Go. Escort your team. Krystin, please come this way.” He indicated a room down the hall with an open doorway.
Once Shawn had disappeared back into the room with Jaffrin’s cell, Areus guided me into the empty room down the hall and shut the door behind us.
This room was much like his chambers, in that shelves lined many of the walls. But instead of books, the shelves contained artifacts and bottles. Little statues, ceramic pieces. The room itself was white marble, like many of the other areas inside the Pyramid Building, but the floor was made from jasper gemstone.
Areus found two chairs tucked into a corner and pulled them into the center of the room. He sat in one, me in the other. “Tell me everything.”
I did. From the very first time my magik flared when Giyano had given me the mark still visible on my left hand to when it happened again after Kinder’s attack on the Hydron operation. The flare that’d continued weeks into my imprisonment at Ether Circle Prison. And then the time after that when Kinder had controlled me thanks to Zanka’s magik, which she’d stolen—the time I’d somehow not suffered a flare.
“But it happened again,” I said. “After our most recent attack on Lady Azar a few days ago. I’d used so much magik and then Shawn and I forced our way here right after.”
Areus regarded me for a long moment, his expression weary. “Your magik has been tampered with so many times.”
“I know.” Too many times, I’d lamented being a puppet in this war. Someone’s plaything and nothing more. And now, it seemed, I’d pay the ultimate price for allowing it to happen.
“I honestly…” he trailed off, shutting his mouth and opening it again, only to hold back any words he might’ve said.
“It’s okay, Areus. I’ve started coming to terms with the fact I’ll probably die from my magik backfiring. I know there’s no cure.”
“That the origin plane is aware of,” he said, his brow furrowing.
A small spiral of hope spun through me, but I clamped down on it. I’d never been that lucky before now. There was no chance I’d get to be all of a sudden. “You’ve heard of someone overcoming it to survive?”
Areus’s lips thinned. “No. They’ve only prolonged the effects. But it’s something.”
A flash of anger scorched through me. My fingertips heated like they had when I’d wielded fire-elemental magik. I clenched my fists, trying to find solid ground again and not take my anger out on someone who didn’t deserve it. “That’s not enough, Areus. I have to be able to use my magik or Alzan is as good as gone. You know that and so do I.”
He stood and began browsing the closest shelf, which housed numerous bottles and vials filled with various liquids and powders. “The High Council might know more. I can confer with them. But this is unprecedented.”
I watched him as he collected a few ingredients and brought them over to a workbench. He hunched over it, preparing something in a waiting metal bowl.
“I don’t care if it means I can’t use my magik anymore,” I said. “I just need it to fulfill the prophecy, and then it’s all over. Either we’re all dead or Lady Azar’s not a problem anymore.”
It wasn’t a reassurance that no one would try again in the future, but Alzan, and therefore the rest of the world, would be safe for now.
He nodded as he mixed two more liquids together, then sprinkled powder onto the mixture. Sparks flew from the bowl as smoke rose, some reaction complete.
“I know, Krystin,” he said as he swiped a small, empty bowl from a nearby shelf and scooped some of the liquid into it. A memory of Shawn and I drinking another potion and falling into that weird training dream flashed across my mind. “And as your guardian, as keeper of the Son and Daughter, it is my duty to protect you. To see you through this. And I will.” He turned and held the bowl out to me. “Drink this. It will help.”
I arched an eyebrow. “How? Unless it’s some magik binder that’s going to keep my magik from flowing, I don’t see what it’ll do.”
Areus tried to put on a reassuring expression. The effort he put into wearing it made me want to cringe. “It will settle your mind and soul, and your magik.”
I took the bowl from him anyway, despite his obvious lack of confidence that this was going to do anything. “Fine. Thank you.” I prepared for the worst and was rewarded with the worst-tasting concoction I’d ever put into my mouth. But despite Areus’s misgivings, it did immediately settle my mind. And my nerves.
“Thank you,” I said, looking up at him. “I’m sorry I’m difficult.”
He gave me a small, sad smile. “It is okay. This has been a long war for all of us.”
I looked down at my hands still cupping the now-empty bowl. “I’m just scared. I don’t know what to do, and that terrifies me. It’s been so straightforward until now. And until last year, my magik has been
my greatest ally.”
“The fact that you can admit that means you’re on the right path,” Areus said. “We will figure out how to heal your magik. Until then, you and your team need to discover a way to stop Lady Azar’s march on the city before it begins.”
I nodded. “You’re right.”
He held a hand out to me and I took it. Together, we climbed the many stories of stairs back to my team.
Chapter 12
Ben
Shawn escorted Nate, Rachel, and me back upstairs into a room filled with bookshelves and chairs. He said this was Areus’s quarters as well as his office, though I saw no indication that anyone actually lived here, only worked. But after a while, I wasn’t the only one who’d grown tired of waiting for Areus and Krystin to return.
“Are you sure she’s okay?” I asked Shawn again.
“Yes,” he said, not bothering to make eye contact. He’d taken a book off one of the many shelves and begun reading it.
I didn’t believe him. Krystin had stormed out of that cell chamber. And although I’d known about her magik backfiring and that she was going to talk to Areus about it, I didn’t think she’d be gone this long.
“Can you at least show me to a bathroom while we wait?” Nate asked, looking over at Shawn. “It’s been hours now.”
Shawn shut the book in his hands and stood. “Sure. Come on.”
The Alzanian guards near the door allowed them through without issue, but somehow I knew that if Rachel or I tried to leave alone, no amount of good words from Areus would allow us to roam free. We were Neuians now—or rather, we had been all along and only now showed the markings.
I caught sight of my face in one of the reflective surfaces of a set of armor on our way back to this room. The same blue tattoos that had adorned Jaffrin’s face now marked mine as well as Rachel’s. Whatever power Karen had awoken in our blood had fully turned the rest of our beings, too. Like how Riley was now a demon.
I closed my eyes, catching a cry in my throat. I refused to let anyone, even Rachel, know how much this—all of it—was destroying me.