by Jessica Gunn
“I haven’t told anyone,” he said, looking over at me. “Even my ether-shaper mentor, the other monks—none of them described being able to sense elementalists.”
My breath hitched on the ramifications of what Nate was saying. But try as I might, I couldn’t process the meaning behind his words. “That’s not possible.”
“Apparently, it is. That sense is also why I knew you had almost zero control over what Kinder did to you, Krystin. I saw her magik around your soul. I saw you try to fight it when Shawn was talking about Alzan. So, if I’m allowed to, I’m going to testify at your trial. Or at least to Jaffrin himself.”
“If, you know, they don’t outright kill me in two weeks. After whatever happens to Alzan happens.”
Nate reached out and placed a hand on my arm. “They won’t. Ben won’t let them.”
I gave him a hard, unbelieving stare. “Ben doesn’t care that much.”
“Fine, maybe I won’t allow them to imprison or kill you. Is that reassurance enough?”
My head spun with Nate’s words. We’d never really been close, but then again, Ben was the only person on this team I’d gotten close to. We hadn’t yet known each other for even a year. But Nate had always been kind to me, and we’d developed an understanding. Plus, until Shawn had shown up, Nate had been the only other person who seemed to understand magik at all.
So, if he said my magik was Good, then I guess I had to at least try believing him. For now, anyway. In two weeks it might not matter anymore.
Rustling sounded behind the front door. It creaked open slowly, revealing Rachel still in her sleep shorts and a tank top.
“Is Ben out here with you?” she asked, looking everywhere but at me.
“No,” Nate said. “Why?”
She frowned and bit her lip. “He never came home last night. His bed’s empty, too. And his phone is off.”
My eyes narrowed. “Wasn’t he going to Headquarters to talk to Jaffrin?”
“Yes,” she said curtly.
Was it possible Jaffrin had reprimanded him for housing me? For not turning me in right away? Yes. But even if he did punish Ben, why keep him overnight without sending someone to the house to take me away?
“Something’s not right,” Rachel said, her words quiet. “I can feel it. He’s in trouble.”
Of course he is. Only this time, I was starting to think it wasn’t trouble of his own making. “Are you sure he was at Headquarters last night?”
She nodded. “Yes. I don’t know why he’d go anywhere else.”
Nate stood and dug his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll call Jaffrin. Get dressed and grab Shawn.”
“But we don’t know for sure that he’s actually missing,” I said.
Rachel’s eyes narrowed on me. “When family is in trouble, your gut instincts know. I know family isn’t something you’re good with.” And then she was on her way upstairs.
No. Family wasn’t something I was good at. Especially since most of mine had died or turned against me.
Nate looked on at me, frowning, as he waited for Jaffrin to pick up his phone.
We didn’t bother going to Fire Circle Headquarters. Jaffrin had told Rachel over the phone about the mission he’d sent Ben on and where he might still be. But when Rachel relayed the message to the rest of us, her expression looked about as pleased as it had when I’d shown up at the front door.
“Why would he send Ben back to Tatiana Viynar’s old base alone?” she asked, a general question to the room. One no one appeared to have the answer for. “Why risk it?”
“He must have been pretty pissed about me being back.” It was the only explanation I had. But the longer I thought about it, the more things started to click into place. “Tatiana was a bounty hunter for Landshaft, right? Maybe someone new took her place.”
Rachel’s glare cut to me. “Still doesn’t explain why he sent Ben in alone. Especially since last year we were told to never go back there.”
Nate sat on the arm of the couch in the living room. “Jaffrin probably wanted him to scout the area.”
“Clearly that didn’t go well,” Rachel said.
Shawn paced between the entryway to the kitchen and the townhome’s front door. “Landshaft is run by Lady Azar. Maybe she was supposed to show up at the demon nest last night and Jaffrin wanted to know if Nate’s asanak had finally worn off.”
It’d been almost a year since Nate had disabled her access to her magik. We were pretty sure that was the only thing that’d kept Lady Azar from attacking us in retaliation for stealing Riley back, and why she’d sent Zanka to get him back for her six months ago.
“This is ridiculous,” I said, watching Shawn pace the room. “We should be going there right now and looking for Ben, not trying to figure out Jaffrin’s motives.”
Shawn paused, his gaze on me. “Funny, because that’s all you’ve ever done before.”
“Oh, screw you,” I snapped.
“Krystin’s right.” Rachel walked over to us and held her hand out. “Let’s go—now. He might still be there. What if he got caught?”
I was surprised she’d waited this long. Ben would have teleported out the second Jaffrin had spoken.
Nate shook his head and joined us. In the next second, we were gone.
Chapter 10
Ben
Sweat dripped down the side of my head, a huge drop of it sliding down my temple. My eyelids weighed a hundred pounds, like years ago when I’d tried for days to escape my coma. But instead of being wrapped in darkness occasionally lit by lightning strikes, this dark was full of a dull pain, of not being able to move.
I groaned, stretching my unused limbs. My muscles screamed as if I’d been in the same uncomfortable position for hours. Slowly, a pins-and-needles sensation slid from my toes up through my legs, aching and throbbing. I forced my eyelids open, bracing myself for whatever sight might lay beyond them. But only an empty room greeted me. Wooden walls, old and rotten in places, and cement floors. A musty smell mixed with the faint remains of a fire filtered through the space.
I sat in a chair, my arms bound behind the back of it by what felt like rope. I tugged on my restraints as I looked around the rest of the room, decorated only in a few places with old oil paintings and curtains over the windows. That was when my memory slammed back into me. Tatiana Viynar’s old hideout. Lady Azar’s Shadow Crest demons taking it over. Giyano and Riley. One not recognizing me while the other shepherded me to the enemy.
Giyano had never been my ally, but he’d once been Krystin’s. What had changed within the last six months? He’d been so obsessed with Krystin, had supposedly kept Riley safe while he’d been with Lady Azar. Now, Giyano appeared to be working for them all over again. Whatever Giyano was, I didn’t figure him to be wishy-washy in his loyalties like that. His hatred for Lady Azar was genuine—according to Krystin, anyway. And she was just another person I didn’t know if I could ever trust again.
I yanked again on the ropes binding me to the chair. The rope dug into my wrists but didn’t budge.
“Screw this.” I called my lightning, hoping to burn through the ropes, but nothing happened. “What?” I called, closing my eyes and really focusing this time. Trying to block out thoughts of Riley and Giyano and the fact that my magik appeared to have up and disappeared when I needed it most.
I bellowed, pulling on the ropes with all I had. Giyano had captured me and left me tied up, magik gone, no chance of anyone knowing where I was. Except Jaffrin, but he’d sent me here alone to begin with.
He knew. He had to have known or at least had an inkling. And instead of sending me with my team, of risking Krystin possibly running off with Giyano again—this was the only explanation I could think of—he’d sent me. Me of all people. I was just as likely to kill Giyano on the spot, risk of Lady Azar’s wrath be damned, than Krystin was to side with him again.
Screaming again, I planted my feet and tried to pry my bound hands away from the chair by sheer force. And instea
d only succeeded in leaning too far forward and teetering to the floor. I landed on my side, my face slamming into the cement floor. A coppery-tasting liquid filled the corner of my mouth. I spat out the blood from my bit tongue and cheek and rocked back and forth, hoping to break the chair.
“Let me out of here!”
The door on the far wall swung open. Giyano casually strode inside as if I hadn’t been screaming my head off. I stopped moving as he walked toward me, chuckling as he slid his hands into his front pockets.
“What?” I snapped at him. “Want to kick me while I’m down again? What kind of coward are you?”
“I’m not a coward,” he said coolly. “And neither are you.”
My eyes narrowed, but with my hands still tied behind my back, there wasn’t much more I could do. And being bound and helpless before Giyano cut way deeper than I’d ever wanted to admit. He’d taken Riley, for god’s sake.
Giyano squatted down so we were almost eye-level. “Would you like me to right you, or are you perfectly happy on the floor?”
“Fuck you. Teleportante.” But nothing happened. Giyano and the rest of the Shadow Crest demons must have made this room magik-proof in addition to taking away my powers once I’d been unconscious. I was stuck. And being honest, I wouldn’t have lived with myself for abandoning Riley here when I was possibly feet away from saving him. But being able at least to teleport across the room and into a standing position might have been nice.
Giyano shook his head before placing his hands on my shoulders and pulling the chair up as he stood. “There. Much better.”
“For what?” Killing me I would have understood, for the same reasons Lady Azar had sent bounty hunters after Krystin. I posed a threat to her Alzan plans. But for Giyano to give a damn about even how I was sitting?
Giyano reeled back his hand and punched me square across the jaw. Lights danced on the horizon of my vision. More blood dripped onto my tongue.
I spat it out on the ground in front of Giyano. “Asshole.”
He frowned as he gestured behind him. I couldn’t see what he was pointing at because of where he was standing. “Now, is that any way to speak in front of a child?”
Giyano stepped out of my line of sight, revealing the small child I’d seen standing between demons outside the house some number of hours ago. With light blond hair and his mother’s nose, Riley watched me with an unaffected expression. As if he didn’t recognize me at all.
My gut twisted as my breath stopped. Time slowed as Giyano waved Riley into the room. Sunlight streamed in through one of the windows and glinted off the golden Shadow Crest medallion hanging around Riley’s neck. Combined with the dark red robes, it made him look like he was playing dress up in his father’s clothes. Only I wasn’t a demon, and I was starting to wonder who’d stepped into that “father” role.
“So help me, Giyano, if you—”
My words froze on my lips as my eyes landed on Riley’s. When he was born, they’d been the darkest blue I’d ever seen. Navy as the nighttime sky. And then nine months ago, when we’d rescued him from Lady Azar’s lair, his eyes had been bright blue like mine. Like Rachel’s.
Now they were the deepest burgundy I’d ever seen, seemingly alight with magik flowing inside of them. Dark magik. Demonic magik.
“Say hello to your father, Riley,” Giyano said. “We weren’t expecting him, but it’s okay if you want to say hello to the man who left you to our care.” He turned to me, eyes cold as ice. “The father who abandoned you.”
“What!” Venom dripped from my lips as a blind, unfiltered sheet of red slipped over my vision. My blood boiled, face and neck heated, but the comforting crackle of lightning, the loving sparks that accompanied most of my rages, didn’t settle between my fingers.
Angry, alone, and powerless, I watched as Riley’s three-year-old face took on a look of pure hatred.
“Riley,” I pleaded. “Don’t listen to him. He’s the one who took you from me. He’s the reason you and mommy had to move away from me.”
Riley’s toddler eyes narrowed. They were supposed be wide, awed at the world and everything new he saw, but instead, only demonic magik and dark intent waited. “You hurt my friends.”
Friends? Was he serious? My fists curled behind me. I yanked on the ropes again, this time feeling a millimeter of give. That’s it. Just keep working them.
“They’re not your friends, Riley. Look what they did to you. They hurt you. Friends don’t do that.”
Did it hurt when a person was turned into a demon? There was so much I didn’t know. How much of my Riley was still in there? Until today, I guess I hadn’t really believed what that nurse, Beverly Rose, had said when she’d told me Riley had been turned into a demon. But with him standing before me, nearly at Giyano’s side, I had no other option but to believe what I was seeing.
“Riley has been taken care of, Ben. I assure you that,” Giyano said, his expression softening. “We’d never put him in any danger.”
My glare snapped to Giyano, a fresh round of adrenaline pumping through my veins. So strong I was sure I’d be able to rip through these thick ropes within moments. “Who the hell are you? You attacked Lady Azar to save him, you asshole. Krystin was right about that. You worked with her to ensure his safety, to ensure all of Boston’s safety. And now you’re working for her again? What the fuck!”
Another inch of give. These ropes would tear soon, and then I’d wring that fucker’s neck. I didn’t care if Riley was there to watch. As long as I got him out of here, we could sit in therapy together for all I fucking cared.
Giyano’s gaze dropped. “Even if you manage to break your bonds, we used requirem on you again an hour ago.”
“I’m aware.” Did he really think I was that stupid?
“Good. Then you’re also aware of the fact that the magiks on this room that are preventing you from using teleportante to escape are the same ones keeping aura sickness from overtaking your soul. If I were to drop the magiks in order to detain you again, you will die. And as of right now, that’s not part of the plan.”
My eyes narrowed even as I forced the rest of myself to slow down. To feel the space around me. One deep breath. Two. In and out. Slow, Ben. I closed my eyes and on the third deep breath, I felt it. Something I’d never had to deal with before but had heard plenty of stories about: aura sickness.
Usually when we cleared out demon nests, the demons were too low-level to be an issue. And no Hunters besides witches could even see a demon’s aura. The auras Krystin and Shawn both saw were ever-present, a part of a demon’s magik. Too many of those auras together in one placed oppressed a human’s soul, crushing it beneath the weight of evil, dark magik.
I felt it. On the edges of my awareness, the aura sickness set in like an oncoming hurricane. A dark electricity not of my own making tickled my nerves. Goosebumps rippled up my arms and the back of my neck. Beyond that door, inside of this house, there were a lot of demons. High-level demons. Possibly the entire Shadow Crest ranks, unlike the time we’d broken into their lair.
Nine months ago, none of us had experienced aura sickness. Now, it danced before me like a tornado in a cornfield, ready and waiting to strike when the winds turned in its favor.
Giyano was, as much as I hated to admit it, right. If I got out of these ropes, if I attacked, I’d be dead. I just didn’t know what would kill me first: Giyano or aura sickness. There was no cure from the latter, and no guarantee of a quick death from the former.
I swallowed hard and dropped my hands, stopping my escape.
“Good choice, Ben.”
“That’s a lot of demons you have out there.”
Giyano’s lips twisted into a proud smile that almost reached from ear to ear. “Your son has been doing some amazing work.”
My stomach dropped. Lady Azar was already using Riley as a magik siphon, pumping him full of magik before she used him to get through the magik walls that supposedly were protecting Alzan. The same city Krystin and
Shawn were supposedly meant to save, with magik they were supposed to have. Had anyone checked to make sure this city actually existed?
If Lady Azar had been this dedicated to chasing it, then it must have been real.
I looked to Riley again, taking in his small form. He was tall, or… he was tall for what I assumed a three-year-old would look like. I didn’t know much about kids or how to raise one—I hadn’t yet been given the chance to raise my own—but he seemed too big for his age.
He shouldn’t be involved in this. Any of this.
“Do you remember me?” I asked him. “It’s me, Riley. It’s Dad. I saved you from the monsters before. Don’t let them make you think otherwise.”
“They don’t,” he said with such child-like innocence that I realized I’d forgotten I was talking to a three-year-old who probably didn’t understand as much about his magik or his role in this war. But I did know kids understood more than we often gave them credit for.
Maybe they hadn’t hurt Riley after all. It was possible Giyano wasn’t lying. But just because they hadn’t yet done anything didn’t mean they one day wouldn’t. “They’re going to, Riley. In less than two weeks, Lady Azar is going to turn on you and use your magik to do very bad things.”
Giyano stepped in front of Riley again, blocking him from my view. “That’s enough of that.”
“Get out of my way,” I growled at him.
“Not until you tell me where Krystin and Shawn are,” Giyano said, his voice level. His stare met mine, unwavering.
My jaw locked. “I don’t know.” Which wasn’t a lie. I didn’t know. I hadn’t been home since last night. For all I knew, Rachel had kicked Krystin to the curb after I left. And Shawn was pretty pissed too. Who knew where he’d gone.
I wouldn’t tell Giyano that, though. Maybe he was still pissed about being shown up by Krystin last night. But if he was that worried, he never should have picked a fight with us in the first place. Not like he didn’t know what we were capable of.
Giyano turned and said to Riley, “Why don’t you go run back to the council until I’m finished here?”