The Hero: Hunter Circles Series Book Four

by Jessica Gunn

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 explo
ding… 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?”

  “Sure, Ben,” she said.

  And then he was gone, at Fire Circle Headquarters in a teleportante instant.

  Rachel’s glare settled on me, setting my skin on fire. But in the very next moment, her gaze softened. “Ben needs rules to keep himself in check.” She frowned, looking at the disaster our living room had become. “Without them, he goes off the deep end. Like right after Riley was born and before Sandra kicked him out. This isn’t good.”

  “No,” Nate said. “It isn’t.”

  I squeezed the bridge of my nose and took in a deep breath. That pure exhaustion was the only thing keeping Rachel and Shawn from attacking me wasn’t a good sign. And there was no way to know how Jaffrin would react.

  There was only one thing I could do: ensure that Shawn and I could at least cooperate long enough to save Lady Azar, if nothing else.

  “I’ll be back soon,” I said, then climbed up the stairs.

  Shawn’s bedroom door was open, as if he’d been expecting someone to come talk to him about his storming out. There was no way he’d be expecting me, though.

  I paused outside of his door, trying not to breathe too loudly or step on any creaky floorboards. I wouldn’t call what we had before the attack on Headquarters “friendship,” so much as an easy understanding. I’d only known him for a few days before I’d ended up in Ether Circle Prison. And after that, most of the time we’d spent together had been focused on the Alzan magik and what our plan would be if we needed to leave the Fire Circle to save Alzan.

  I wasn’t sure this shared destiny of ours would be enough to pull us together now.

  “I know you’re out there, Krystin,” Shawn called. “You might as well step into the doorway.”

  But not inside the room. Fine. All Ben wanted me to do was talk to him, and I didn’t need to be three feet in front of him to do that.

  I did as he asked and then leaned against the door frame. “Hi.”

  “Ben send you up here?”

  Shawn was seated in his desk chair, a laptop open behind him. This was a new addition, since none of our rooms were particularly large enough for furniture besides a bed and dresser. Together with his bed, it took up so much space that I wouldn’t have been able to step into his room even if he’d invited me.

  “Yes,” I said. “But I wanted to talk to you anyway.”

  He lifted an eyebrow, the one with a scar running through it. The one I’d given him. I wasn’t sure if he’d done that intentionally or not. “There’s nothing to talk about, Krystin. You fell for Kinder’s play, you allowed her to use you as a puppet. And then she exploited your hatred of Jaffrin and the Fire Circle and used you as a weapon. The same damn way they used her. You fell for it.”

  Shawn shook his head and balled his hands into fists at his sides. “I know we had a plan. And I know everyone’s lack of confidence in you drove a lot of this, but I believed you, Krystin.”

  My breath hitched and I froze. I didn’t so much as move my lips to attempt speaking, because there was nothing I could say. Shawn had trusted me, he’d known what was really happening, and instead of trusting him in return, instead of allowing him to figure things out with Ben and Jaffrin for me, I’d gone and run.

  I was a coward, just like he’d said. “Looks like you’re right again, Shawn.”

  His gaze met mine, the dark brown of his irises not holding any forgiveness whatsoever. “About what?”

  “Everything.” I bit the inside of my cheek as my skin warmed—with anger and fear and guilt. Shame was there too, tearing down all the walls of apathy I’d built up over the past six months. I was a coward, not a hero, and no matter what happened next, nothing would ever, ever change that.

  I pulled in a deep, settling breath and then said, “I’m sorry, Shawn. For your eye, too. For all of it. I’ll go tell Ben it’s over.”

  Shawn’s eyes narrowed. “What is?”

  “This charade. I’m not welcome here and I shouldn’t be. So I’ll tell Ben I’m leaving. If you guys want me to help fight Lady Azar, let me know, and we’ll leave it at that. Or I can turn myself in. Whatever you and Ben want.”

  I turned to leave, taking a few steps before Shawn’s bed creaked loudly. The next thing I knew, he was standing where I’d just been in his doorway.

  “Don’t go,” he said.

  Without so much as looking over my shoulder, I said, “Why not?”

  “The prophecy.”

  I sighed. “You can’t even trust me to be in the same room as you. How do you expect us to somehow work through whatever barriers are keeping that magik locked within us? We have two weeks, Shawn. It’s not enough time. Besides, Kinder broke your stone from the Powers.”

  Shawn winced. “She did, but—”

  “But nothing,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s over. And now you’ll never have to worry about whether or not I trust you ever again.”

  Shawn took a step closer. “I do trust you. Still. That’s the problem, Krystin.”

  This time, I did glance back at him. “What?”

  “My magik is volatile enough on its own,” he admitted, his gaze falling. “I hate using it. I hate feeling the twist of demonic power inside of me. But when I’m with you, when you’re on this team, I don’t have a choice. And the fact that you’ve not only willingly worked with demons, but also accepted dark magik from Giyano multiple times, it’s too much temptation. Too much pain. It scares me to think of what this Alzan magik might b
ring us, or what our roles might be. Since we’re both equally as Evil as we are Good.”

  My mouth ran dry, my throat closed. I hadn’t realized that was how Shawn viewed things. And I definitely didn’t know what to say back to him about it. “We have to trust that the Powers had a plan. They wouldn’t leave a cianza like the one at Alzan unprotected if it really can destroy all planes of existence.”

  “So?” Shawn asked, his eyes pleading with me for something. Reason? Logic? I didn’t have either one.

  “Our magik is Good, Shawn,” I said. “Otherwise, the Powers would have chosen two true demons to fight for them. That’s all I know.” And all I believed anymore.

  Chapter 8

  Ben

  I didn’t waste time with teleporting into the lobby at Fire Circle Headquarters. Jaffrin needed to see me and it had to be now. And given Giyano’s attack and the Shadow Crest soldiers that had attacked Krystin almost twenty-four hours ago, I didn’t feel like waiting to be allowed near Jaffrin’s office.

  It was still late at night, but light trailed down the hallway from his open door. Good. I wasn’t sure what I’d have done if he hadn’t still been here. Called him in, maybe? Or I might have just sat in his office all night, relieved to be alone.

  Alone. Maybe that’s what I’d really wanted to be because the closer I got to Jaffrin’s office, the faster my heart beat. He wouldn’t be happy about Krystin being back, or that I hadn’t arrested her myself.

  “Ben.”

  I jumped, reaching out to the nearest wall. Dacher, Jaffrin’s second-in-command, stood in the doorway to his office.

  “My apologies,” he said, a small smile on his face. “I thought you saw me.”

  I pushed off the wall. “No.”

  His smile faded. “I only wanted to see how you were doing. I know things haven’t been easy lately.”

  He knows. He must know. “You’re right. It’s been hard knowing Lady Azar has had Riley for six months. He’s spent more of his life with her than me or his mother.” There’s also the whole “Krystin being back” thing.