by Jessica Gunn
“How’s that?” I asked. Shawn and I were directly tied to the city, but Ben knew that. Oh. “Because of Riley?”
“Yeah. Everyone rest. Just for a few hours. Then we’ll see where we’re at. Okay?”
The team sounded off their agreements and settled in around the small chamber. It was big enough that we could all lie on the floor or against a wall and not be on top of each other, but tight enough that Nate’s snoring would definitely be an issue.
I sat as close to Ben as I could without making it weird or getting in Rachel’s way. A lot of times lately, she’d stopped looking to him for protection the way a sister might her older brother. I didn’t know how much of that was attributed to what was going on so much as her own confidence in being able to take care of herself. But now, she lay next to him on the floor while he sat against the wall.
Riley was her nephew. She’d had magik just like Ben when he’d been kidnapped by Giyano four years ago. I couldn’t imagine the guilt and sadness involved there. But after the attack on Lady Azar’s lair a few days ago, after watching her disappear with Riley without resistance, I could begin to understand.
I laid my head against the cool wall and my palms on the floor, looking for something to anchor to. Just long enough for the world to stop spinning, both inside my dizzy head and metaphorically.
That was when Ben’s fingers brushed mine. A quiet, strengthening reminder that I wasn’t alone anymore.
I never truly had been.
Chapter 14
Ben
When the breaths of my team had evened out and quiet had overtaken the quarantine chamber, I squeezed Krystin’s hand. I wasn’t sure she was still awake, but I was willing to bet on it. She was too much like me, and right now, all I could think about was what our next steps would be.
“Didn’t know if you were sleeping or not,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. She was so close that she didn’t need to speak louder than that.
“How are you holding up?” I asked.
“Oh, you know, about to be thrown back into prison as the world ends,” she said, her tone thick with sarcasm even as a whisper. “Pretty grand, if you ask me.”
“Krystin.”
She sighed. “I’m okay. My magik still feels all sorts of wrong. And I’m pretty sure I’ll die when we try to get back to Alzan—”
“Seriously—”
“Fine, almost die. How about that?”
“Krystin—”
“Stop pretending it’s not a possibility. I’ve accepted it. Sort of. I mean, it’s not the sort of thing you can escape.”
She didn’t mean that. She couldn’t. “If I can find a way to stop it, I will.”
“If Areus can’t, how can you?”
I shrugged because I honestly didn’t know. “The same way I’m going to turn Riley back into a human.”
“You mean into a Neuian. Which is interesting, actually.”
A mix of guilty and angry feelings spun into a tornado inside me. I tried to swallow them down. It was Krystin I was talking to, not a higher-up or someone who didn’t understand. “How is that interesting?”
The dim lighting hid all but the shadowy form of her head tilting. “It means Neuians can be turned into demons. You might not have had Neuian magik your entire life, but their blood runs through you. Through Riley, too. Which means the Neuians aren’t exempt from whatever hellish bargain Aloysius made when he created Darkness and the demons.”
“Meaning?”
“They’re not as infallible and untouchable as Jaffrin and Karen would have us believe.”
“I don’t understand how that’s going to help us within the next few days.”
“Me either. Like I said: it’s interesting.”
Silence fell between us for a few long moments, punctuated by Nate’s light snoring.
“How are you holding up?” Krystin asked, her fingers finding mine again. The small amount of comfort her touch gave me was enough to still my racing thoughts.
“I don’t know. I can’t tell if I’m numbing to the idea of the end of the world and my son being used as a tool to facilitate that, or if I’ve accepted our inevitable fate.”
“She’s not going to win,” Krystin said. “We’re not going to let her.”
“You just admitted to thinking you’ll die the next time we jump to Alzan.”
“Assuming we even have to. Maybe we’ll catch a ride with them. Ideally, we’ll stop them before it even comes to that.”
I didn’t need to reiterate the counterargument there. Instead, I said, “Say we do save the world and you and Shawn fulfill the prophecy. Say we rescue Riley and turn him back into a human. What then?”
A long moment passed before Krystin asked, “What do you mean?”
“What happens after that?”
“Sounds like you’ll begin candidacy training with the others until one of you is picked as Leader of the Fire Circle.”
It was my turn to pause. “What if I don’t want that?”
“You do, Ben,” she said. “I can see it. And so can Dacher. That’s why he kept you in the running after Jaffrin was discovered.”
I sighed. She wasn’t wrong. I wanted to stay in the Fire Circle, to help make Boston safe for Riley and all the other kids out there. To help find the other missing children from the board Riley used to be listed on. But to be the Leader? “I’m still on the team suggesting I can’t lead anyone, forget the entire Circle.”
“That’s a bunch of bullshit.”
“You’ve said it yourself before.”
“I was being a bitch about it.” Krystin placed a hand on my arm and squeezed once. “You’d make a fantastic Leader for the Fire Circle, Ben. Those things I said… A lot of them were said in anger because many of those ‘bad calls’ I claimed you made were in direct opposition to my need to do things on my own. I admit that. You’re a great leader and you’ve done a hell of a job with this team. We’re not exactly the easiest bunch to keep track of.”
Ironic, coming from her. “Maybe you’re right.”
“I can be, on occasion. Those eye tattoos don’t look so bad either. I think you’ll be fine. And you’ll have your son back too.”
“Assuming Sandra doesn’t try to get full custody, you mean.” The words tumbled past my lips before I could consider them, but I’d be an idiot to admit I hadn’t thought she’d try. Sandra and I might never be a thing ever again—and that was fine, I’d accepted it months ago—but Riley would connect us for the rest of our lives. And while she’d accepted the truth about this world and his place in it, I didn’t want to bet against her taking him and moving away. With Lady Azar gone, if things went the way I planned them, he might even be safer outside of Boston.
“I don’t think she will,” Krystin said.
“I appreciate the positive thought, but only time will tell, I think.”
“Maybe.”
“What about you?” I asked her. “A year ago, all you wanted was out of the Fire Circle.”
Another long pause. “That’s because a year ago it felt like the world was crashing down around me and the only way out was to see this prophecy through.”
Krystin’s sudden truthfulness shocked me into silence. It wasn’t that she never told the truth, but Krystin was never this open either.
“It doesn’t feel like everything’s caving in now?” I asked.
“Not in the same way. There’s a path out. Before, Jaffrin and my mother controlled everything I did. Maybe I went a bit far to break those restraints, but they’re gone now. Whether I stay in the Fire Circle has less to do with me and more to do with how Dacher and the Ether Head Circle deal with us after this fight is over.”
“If we’re allowed to stay as Hunters, if I’m picked as Fire Circle Leader heir, will you stay?”
I hadn’t realized until that moment how much I needed Krystin. Not only in a romantic way, but as a Hunter. As my second-in-command. We’d had plenty of ups and downs and straight, vertical drops.
But if it weren’t for her, Rachel, Nate, and I would have likely died in that alleyway a year ago. And again when Lady Azar returned with Riley on All Hallows’ Eve. If Karen had planned all along to come and reclaim Rachel and me for the Neuians, we’d have no idea what was happening without Krystin.
I was pretty sure I could function as a Hunter without Krystin. But I couldn’t be a leader without her. Or a stable human being.
“For you,” Krystin said, quietly, “yes. I’ll stay.”
My heart swelled, but I stamped down the feeling. The agreement I’d forced her to make days ago still stood. There couldn’t be time for whatever was between us until after Alzan was safe.
But that didn’t mean the feelings weren’t there.
I reached for her hand and wrapped it in mine. “Thank you, Krystin. I—”
“You don’t need to say it,” she said softly, the words barely audible.
“I appreciate all you’ve done for me,” I said. “And I need to say it in case I don’t get a chance to after tonight. You’ve shown me I can be more than that asshole hotheaded man you met in that alley a year ago.”
“You changed that way on your own.”
“No way. I’m better for having known you. And I know what I said a few days ago, but…” But what? This feeling inside me, a warm pressure building in my gut and lifting to somewhere higher in my chest, it wasn’t quite affection, but not strong enough for anything more. Or maybe I just didn’t want to admit it was stronger than simple affection. “No one can know the future. But if we make it out of this, I promise I’ll make it up to you. For keeping me alive all these months.” Hopefully, Krystin read between the lines.
She must have because she scooted closer to me on the floor, lifting her lips to my ear. “Good thing I know you keep your promises, huh?”
Her voice sent chills down my spine, straight to my toes. I swallowed hard, trying my best to keep that warm, fuzzy feeling to myself and not let it pour out of my mouth like an idiot.
“I do keep them,” I said. “No matter what.”
“Good. You’re one of the few people I can—”
A raging blaze of fire swarmed the other side of the glass, outside the quarantine chamber but still inside of the room. The flames leapt along the glass barrier.
“What the hell?” I asked, standing and pulling Krystin up with me.
The firestorm parted as a figure walked toward the glass, flanked on each side by a single soldier. The firelight bounced off her cheeks and face, illuminating the woman who’d ruined my entire life. She grinned evilly, watching as black smoke began filtering in through the vents linking this side of the quarantine chamber to hers, all thanks to the two fire-elementals at her sides.
“Wake up!” I shouted as I flicked my hand to my side, trying to ignite it in lightning strikes. “Everyone, wake the hell up!”
Lady Azar was here. In Fire Circle Headquarters.
My sleeping team awoke to my shouts, groggily pushing themselves up off the floor.
“What do you want?” Krystin snapped. She, unlike me, didn’t appear to be trying to access her magik.
I tossed my hand to the side again, calling for my power. Its answer was muted and slow, but the lightning did call back. The requirem wasn’t wearing off. “Shit.”
“My, my,” Lady Azar purred as she watched us from behind the glass. “I didn’t expect this to be so easy. They’ve locked you up like the animals you are.” Today, she wasn’t wearing her full Shadow Crest armor, but a flowing, deep red tunic and pants ensemble. She hadn’t come for a fight, nor had she expected one.
“Why are you at Headquarters?” If I could stall for time, maybe one of my teammates could get their magik to work. It was possible mine was the last to return; requirem word-magiks affected everyone differently.
Lady Azar flicked her wrist. Her soldiers grew their flames, pushing more black smoke into our side of the chamber.
A cough caught in my throat as the air thinned. Behind me, Rachel swiped her hand through the air as though she were trying to collect water for an attack. None came. But Nate launched forward, a block of ether encasing his hand, and punched at the glass. A small hairline crack splintered horizontally.
“It’s bulletproof glass,” Krystin hissed under her breath. “We’re sitting ducks.”
Lady Azar laughed, genuinely amused by our predicament. “This should make things easy.”
“Until the security guys rush in here,” I said. I’d been hoping to stall long enough for them to show up, too. Chairman Otto and Dacher might have trusted us not to break out of here and so didn’t place any guards inside, but there was no way we’d not be watched at all. “They’re probably already on their way.”
Lady Azar turned halfway around before barking the order, “Seal it,” at her soldiers. They produced more flames, closer to white-hot this time, and melted the metal around the doorframe. Sealing us in.
Nate reeled back his hand again, still encased in ether, and slammed it against the glass another time. He keened in pain as the ether cracked, not the glass.
“Stop,” Rachel cried.
Honestly, I wanted him to keep going.
“Shawn?” I asked. If Nate was the only one with powers right now, this wouldn’t end well. Not without weapons we didn’t have.
Shawn shook his head. “Not without blood-letting.”
“Not happening,” Krystin said.
We piled in close to one another as Lady Azar placed her hand on the other side of the glass, where Nate’s first ether-punch had caused a crack. The wind she created from her air-elemental magik picked up dust and smoke in the air, swirling it around the crack until it grew and shattered the wall completely.
I threw up my arm, shielding my eyes as glass flew in all directions. My feet slid along the floor as Lady Azar kept up the attack, pushing us backward into the cell.
Nate worked his way in front of us and threw up a wall of ether, but Lady Azar’s air currents slipped around it and still forced us back. At the last second, she twisted her hand in the air, causing Nate to be lifted and tossed against a side wall. The ether shield dropped when he did, sliding to the ground.
“Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” Lady Azar said, her demonic burgundy eyes wild and alight, seemingly almost with real flames. “It’s time we had a little chat.”
“Chat?” Krystin asked, three tons of incredulity and sarcasm shoved into the single word. “What the hell is there to talk about?”
Lady Azar lifted a brow. “Still so mouthy after the loss of an important ally, your magik, and soon your birthright?”
“Fuck you,” Krystin spat. “Giyano didn’t deserve to die.”
“On the contrary. All traitors do.” Lady Azar swung her gaze on me. “You’d have done well to learn that before now, Ben. Perhaps you wouldn’t be in this situation right now.”
It took everything in my power not to take my eyes off of her and look to Krystin. That had to be who Lady Azar meant. But in no way was it true.
Then what the hell had she come here to “chat” about? The fact that Lady Azar, one of the strongest demons alive, one of my biggest enemies, wasn’t attacking me, her biggest hurdle in getting Riley to do what she wanted, was not a good sign at all.
Lady Azar settled her burning gaze on Krystin and Shawn. “I understand you’ve unlocked your gift. I have to commend you on that, and to thank you. It will make my passage to Alzan that much easier now that the gates—any of them—are open once more.”
Krystin’s eyes narrowed, her mouth twisting into a snarl. I grabbed her arm as her body stiffened, readying for an attack. “Let’s not talk. Let’s fight.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Shawn said as he launched himself directly at Lady Azar.
Her two soldier guards fired flames at Shawn, which he cut through with the glowing white light of his Alzanian power. Nate pushed himself up at the same time, jumping in alongside Shawn. They traded blows with each of the soldiers.<
br />
I called to my lightning power again as Krystin and Rachel threw themselves into the fray, dodging flames while landing some hand-to-hand blows. Krystin jumped up, piggybacking one of the soldiers. She yanked back on his throat, trying to strangle him or snap his neck.
But Lady Azar didn’t join the fight. Instead, she used her air-elemental magik to claim Rachel, surrounding her in a tornado as she paced toward me.
“Not so fast, little water-elemental,” she said, pulling Rachel along behind her. “I’m not finished with you and your cousin yet.”
I backed up, calling to my lightning with each and every step. Not to abandon Rachel, but to put distance between me and Lady Azar while my magik refused my call. She needed us alive, that much was clear. Which meant I had time—precious seconds at most—to make this work.
Finally, with a rush of warmth and power and fierceness I’d never felt before, lightning sparked along my fingertips.
I pointed a shot right at Lady Azar as more lightning poured up my body, a brilliant blue shock of light in an otherwise dark space.
“What’s going on in there?” a loud voice shouted over the speaker system into the quarantine chamber.
“Help!” Rachel yelled, though it was drowned out by the swirling tornado around her. Though she moved her hands and tried to thrash free, nothing came of her efforts.
My blue lightning cracked against Lady Azar’s magik with a thunderous boom. The ground beneath us shook with the impact, though neither of us fell. The shimmering of five teleportante trails appeared in between the fighting, with Avery and his team appearing on the other end.
“Shit!” Avery shouted as he took in what was happening. The security feeds must have been blocked out by smoke.
Gunshots cracked through the air. My lightning attacks lit up the smoke around us, sending a blue hue throughout the forming smoke clouds.
I coughed, reeling back for another attack when a solid column of air slammed into me, smashing me against a wall. All air whooshed out of my lungs and my back screamed with the impact.