by Jessica Gunn
Dacher frowned, his entire expression changing to the mentor I’d known so well during my training period. “We will get him back, Ben.”
“So we keep saying.” Except that every time we got closer or each time we finally had him in our grasp, Lady Azar kidnapped him again. “He’s not a pawn to take or leave.”
Dacher nodded. “I know. What brings you to Headquarters so late?”
I gestured down the hall toward Jaffrin’s office. “I need to speak with him. It’s urgent.”
Dacher glanced down the hall, worry etching lines around his eyes. “Now might not be a great time. What is it? I can tell him myself.”
My gut twisted and I hesitated. For the first time in nine months, I remembered why Krystin had run away from us. From here. Because she and Shawn didn’t trust the Fire Circle anymore. She hadn’t trusted Jaffrin. But Dacher was his second-in-command. Was Dacher a part of that “no trust” list, too?
I shook my head. Idiot. Dacher practically trained me to be a Hunter himself. If there was anyone I could trust here, it was him. Except this wasn’t the kind of news to be delivered by someone else.
“It’s okay,” I finally said. “I can wait if he’s late.”
Dacher’s lips pressed together. He nodded and gestured down the hall. “See if he’s there. If not, you can wait here in my office for when he returns.”
“Sure thing, sir.”
I moved along to Jaffrin’s door, hating that last look of concern on Dacher’s face. Why hadn’t he wanted me to see Jaffrin right now? It not like I wanted to tell him about Krystin. Or walk these halls again. Every time I did it was like we were walking in on Headquarters being destroyed. All I saw were flames that weren’t there and I heard screams of pain that’d long since died out with their owners.
No. I hadn’t wanted to do this. And I definitely could have taken the easy way out and just told Dacher.
So maybe that was a test. Yeah, that’s it. A test. Because somehow, despite the utter shit-show nine months ago, I was still—somehow—in the running as a candidate for Leader of the Fire Circle one day.
I knocked on Jaffrin’s open door to pull myself out of a spiral of thoughts that I didn’t have time for. “Hello?”
Jaffrin was bent over something behind his desk and shot up. “Ben.” His shirt wasn’t tucked in, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His disheveled look revealed his prosthetic hand, magikally induced somehow to operate like some of the newer, high-end, robot-like ones.
“Do you have a minute?” This conversation would absolutely last longer than that, but I wanted to make sure he really wasn’t in the middle of something.
Jaffrin’s gaze settled on me for a long moment, as if he were trying to think things through but his brain had stopped. Then he shook his head and offered me a small smile. “Sure. Quickly, though.” He gestured to the chair opposite his desk. “Actually, I’m glad you’re here. I need to send you on a mission after we talk.”
My brow furrowed. “Mission?” I showed up here and he happened to have a job for me? Oddly coincidental.
He nodded as he, too, sat in at his desk. His fingers drummed on the oak. “Yes, but let’s talk first. What’s on your mind?”
I’d never seen Jaffrin this out of it. “Are you sure this is a good time?”
“Yes, Ben. Please. What happened?”
I watched him for a long moment. “Look, Dacher caught me in the hallway. He said you were busy. I can come back later.” I stood and went to leave, but Jaffrin jumped up too.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Krystin’s back.” The words tumbled out of my mouth, unable to be stopped. Jaffrin’s erratic mood had thrown me off so much, I’d lost all sense of how I was going to lay this out and try to defend her. “She showed up yesterday morning.”
Jaffrin’s eyes widened, his jaw setting hard. “And?”
And? That’s all he had to say about it? This can’t be good. “And we let her stay.”
Jaffrin’s jaw slid left, then slowly right. “Ben.”
I lifted a hand. “Hear me out.”
“No,” he said as he reached for his phone.
I lunged, swiping his prosthetic hand away from it. “Listen, Jaffrin.”
His eyes cut to me, a glare so cold it sent a terrifying chill down my spine. “Get your hands off of me, Ben. Don’t forget your ranking.”
“Sir,” I said, unmoving. “Don’t call it in. She’s innocent.”
Jaffrin smacked my hand away and held up his own. “Don’t you dare tell me what’s real and what’s not, Ben. Or did you forget I was here that night too? I’m letting the Ether Head Circle deal with it from start to finish. I’m not saving her this time.”
“They’ll kill her. Or imprison her. We don’t have time for that bullshit.” I leveled him with a look, daring to actually stare him down for the first time in my Hunter career. This was a bad call. Jaffrin had made plenty of them before, but this was the worst. “Lady Azar is marching on Alzan in less than two weeks—on the last night of Autumn Fire. If you want to save the city, if you have any interest in seeing that damn prophecy play out, then you need to let us deal with Krystin. You need to trust me to handle it.”
“Because you handled it so well six months ago,” he said coolly.
I bit my tongue, curling my fists. I’d already crossed the line and everything I wanted to say now would be moving that line even farther down the no-zone. “You get Krystin or you get to save Alzan and Riley. It’s your damn choice, Jaffrin—sir. I know it’s my fault shit got so far out of hand. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not immune to my oftentimes ridiculous stupidity. So you either let me have this second chance to deal with my teammate, or you call in the Ether Head Circle and leave Alzan, leave my son, to their whim.”
I roughly shoved the chair back in place; I’d knocked it out of the way when I’d lunged for his desk phone. Then I turned around and marched toward the door.
“Wait,” Jaffrin commanded.
Tongue pressed between my molars, I turned back to him. “What?”
“I need you to go to northern New Hampshire. Right now.”
I threw up my hands. “Why?”
“Recon.” He reached for a manila folder on his desk and threw it at me. I caught it and glanced at its contents. “Something’s happening near that demon nest you had a recon mission at months ago. Tatiana Viynar’s old lair. I need you to go back there and watch the bounty hunters’ movements. See what they’re trading.”
I looked up at him with wild eyes. “Are you kidding me? It’s witches they’re trading, Jaffrin. You know that and so do I.”
“Go,” he commanded. “Report back in the morning.”
I shook my head and tossed the folder back down on his desk. “Nine months ago you forbade my team from going back to Tatiana Viynar’s hideout. Nine months ago, you made me promise to never go near any Landshaft operation every again. Which order am I supposed to follow, Jaffrin?”
“The one that keeps you in charge of your team and Krystin safe,” he said, tone even. “Report back in the morning.”
As in, do this or I’ll blow the lid on everything happening at your house. “Fine. But two weeks, Jaffrin,” I said. “We’ve got two weeks until Riley’s turned into a magik funnel and used by Lady Azar.”
We had two weeks until all planes of existence blew up.
Jaffrin’s hard stare followed me out the door. And for the first time in over three years, since he’d first asked me to be a Hunter, I realized that Jaffrin truly didn’t give a fuck about what happened to Riley.
Being farther north didn’t help with the hot summer air. Even at night. I picked my way through clusters of trees and bushes, following the path we’d taken months ago. When Jaffrin had said he’d wanted me to go back to this demon nest solo, I’d nearly run. Even now, every step closer to Tatiana Viynar’s old hideout made my fingers shake.
Tatiana, a Landshaft bounty hunter known for her work trafficking
Ember witches into the Trade before Autumn Fire, might be gone, but I had no mixed feelings about whether her nest would still be occupied. It would be. We’d only killed her, not revealed the nest. The other demons inside just didn’t know we knew where the nest was. And until tonight, Jaffrin had forbidden my team, or anyone really, to go back there thanks to the nest having ties to Landshaft, a massive demon city.
Now, I crept up on it alone.
I crested the hill from where Krystin and I had originally watched Tatiana Viynar bring in her latest round of witches. That’d been nine months ago, right before we’d found out Shawn himself was an Ember witch. Looking back, his desire to jump in, disregarding orders, to save those witches made sense.
I wasn’t sure what I’d do now.
Lying down on the grass, I pulled out a small set of binoculars from my pack and looked down over the house in the center of the clearing below me. Same small barn house, same empty-looking exterior. Except for one light on the bottom floor, which was so bright, it cut through the night and into the woods.
Shadows passed by the open window at intermittent intervals, though even with the aid of binoculars, I couldn’t make out any details of the people inside. Great.
I shifted my elbows and kicked a few branches out of the way of my feet. It’d be a long night of nothing at this rate. But even as I relaxed, I tried to keep one ear listening for sounds in the forest behind me. It was times like these I wished I was an earth-elemental magik user. To be able to place my palm against the dirt and sense others walking toward me, that’d be a helpful gift right about now.
The night ticked by, hour by hour, and still only shadows walked about the demon nest. Like I’d figured: Tatiana might have been gone, but her followers, her soldiers, weren’t.
A teleportante appeared in front of the house, a group of demons blinking into existence from elsewhere. The pair held between them a smaller figure, all three dressed in dark-colored robes.
Wait a minute…
I adjusted the binoculars’ focus and zoomed in as far as I could on that smaller figure walking between the two lumbering demons. It was a child. Light from the window on the first floor bounced off the figures, a golden reflection coming from all three of them. A circular golden reflection.
Shadow Crest. I’d have to get closer to be sure, but given that this place once belonged to bounty hunter Tatiana Viynar, and that Lady Azar ran Landshaft and the bounty hunter groups, it sure seemed like one big coincidence.
I focused in on the child as a sudden feeling of dread settled low in my stomach. Although I couldn’t see the child’s face, my gut told me it was Riley. How many other children would Shadow Crest really have in their possession? Least of all one wearing a Shadow Crest medallion like a…
Like a member of Lady Azar’s organization, not a prisoner.
My feet pushed off the ground before I’d even thought about running or all the reasons why I shouldn’t go in. My pulse pounded behind my ears, breath quickening with every step I took toward the demons’ nest.
Riley was here. Here, right in front of my eyes. All I had to do was get to him before they got inside that house. A single teleportante in and out. Easy peasy, Hallen.
Hope rose in my throat, a sweet flavor that coated my tongue as lightning sparked at my fingertips. “Teleport—”
Something wet and nearly solid hit me from behind, sending me sailing over the crest of the hill and down the other side, rolling through the grass. I covered my head with my arms, dropping my Fire Circle knife along the way, as my shirt soaked through. The water followed me down, collecting around my head as though I’d been submerged in a bucket of water.
I tried to breathe before I realized what was happening. Water pooled in my lungs as I kept rolling, sliding down the hillside, only stopping when someone’s foot kicked out and pressed against my hip.
“What do we have here?” I heard through the encasement of water around my head. It dropped in the next second.
I coughed, spitting water out of my mouth as my lungs seized. Shit. I forced my hands beneath me to push myself up. The demon kicked me again, rolling me over with barely any effort. The water attack had zapped all energy from my limbs.
I glanced up, searching behind the demon’s legs for Riley. He’d been right there!
The demon’s head came into view as he bent over, his Shadow Crest medallion hanging in the air. He had light hair and a face I didn’t recognize from our attack on Lady Azar’s lair. “How’d you find this place, Hunter?”
I gritted my teeth and pushed myself to my knees, not answering.
The demon straightened as another came out from inside the house and joined him. “I asked you a question.”
Willing lightning into my hands, I backed up a step. “Let my son go.”
The first demon’s eyebrow lifted. “Lightning-wielder.” He smirked. “You’re him. The boy’s father.”
“How perfect,” said his compatriot.
Oh, I’ll show you perfect.
I lunged, reeling back my lightning hand and throwing the attack at them. But before my lightning or my tackle hit, ropes of fire wrapped around my middle and yanked me back to the ground. Pillars of earth erupted around me, pressing my body ever closer to the dirt.
“Don’t try that again, Hunter.”
This voice was familiar. Low. Cocky as all hell. I looked up and standing above me, fire wrapped around his palm, was Giyano.
“What the—”
The earth bindings around my shoulders pulled in tight, squeezing my lungs and ribcage.
The world narrowed to a pinpoint before light disappeared altogether.
Chapter 9
Krystin
The team’s townhome didn’t have a back deck like my apartment did in Connecticut. Granted, that deck had also been tiny and in need of replacement, but it’d offered a more private view than our front stoop did in Boston. Still, I settled there in the early morning light, a cup of tea pressed between my fingers. It was cooler this morning but muggy, coating my bare arms in a thin layer of sweat. I’d still take this over winter and all of its memories any day.
Buildings hid the sunrise from direct view. Only the sky lightening and beginning to change colors acted as a hint of morning. But I’d been awake for hours. The thought that Shawn’s and my shared Alzan magik might have been modeled after cianzas kept my mind on fire. Never before had I read about this or any magik that mimicked the Power. Probably because the Hunter Circles and Darkness had done a fine job killing off everyone who’d ever had it.
I sipped my tea and watched the sky. This end of the city was just starting to wake up. Lights turned on in every window and a man with a coffee cart took up his normal spot down the street from us. So little had changed here in six months that it was insane compared to what’d changed the people living inside this house. To what’d changed in me.
“Hey.”
I turned, glancing over my shoulder. Nate stood in the doorway, running a hand through his messy bed hair. “Hi.”
He looked pointedly at the empty space next to me on the stoop. “Can I join you?”
I shrugged. “Sure. It’s not my stairs.”
“Yes, it is,” he said as he sat.
Bringing the cup of tea to my lips again, I glanced back out at the streaks of color in the sky from the sunrise. “No, Nate. And it never will be.”
“What do you mean?”
“Once this is over, one way or another, so am I.”
Silence fell between us like bricks laid in the foundation of a building. I continued drinking my tea, unsure of what to say.
“I’m on your side, you know,” Nate whispered into the early morning air.
“Yeah. Why is that again?” I turned to him. “From what I hear, you almost died because of me.”
“Because of Kinder,” Nate corrected.
“Are you serious? I was in there, Nate. I watched it happen and was unable to stop it. And it was my magik blowing up insi
de your ether shield that caused the explosion that almost killed you. So stop trying to put this all on Kinder.”
Nate’s hand slowly rubbed his stomach, but I doubted it was because he was hungry. “The others didn’t sense what I did. They can’t.”
“My magik isn’t ether-based anymore, so I’m not sure what you think you felt, but it’s probably not true.”
“The persuasion magik is.”
My eyes narrowed. “What?”
“Zanka’s persuasion magik that Kinder stole. It’s ether-based.” He looked out into the city. “I saw it wrapped around your soul, Krystin. You didn’t stand a chance. A magik that powerful inside of Kinder? It was all you could do to break through it when you did, no matter how little. You are good, Krystin. Despite what others might try to make you believe.”
My grasp on my mug tightened. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because unlike the others, I’ve seen your Alzan magik. I’ve seen it in both you and Shawn.” He looked back to me. “Alzanian ether is the purest thing I’ve ever come into contact with. And although the two of you haven’t unlocked it like you need to, although the two of you have barely used the power beyond Shawn healing you, it’s what brought you back from the brink six months ago.”
“So it saved me, that doesn’t make the magik—or me—good.”
He shook his head. A few strands of his long black hair fell over his eyes as he smiled sadly. “Yes, it does. Don’t you get it? Krystin, because of you, I’ve felt good magik, honest-to-god Good, for the first time in my life.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Before now, it’s always been tainted by demons or other people’s power.”
“Shawn’s an Ember witch,” I said dryly. “His magik is, by design, half-demonic.”
“That’s not what I meant. Even your magik, before Giyano started neutralizing it, felt off. To some extent, I can even feel that same wrongness in elemental magik users.”
My eyes widened. “You shouldn’t be able to sense that. You’re an ether-shaper.”