The Hero: Hunter Circles Series Book Four

by Jessica Gunn

  Krystin stepped toward me. “I had a vision. Jaffrin was sent by the Neuian High Council to monitor Cianza Boston because of future ties to Shawn and me, and to Lady Azar. Kinder. All of it. He’s here to make sure we don’t turn Cianza Boston into the weapon it really is, but Shawn and me, our magik is its own kind of weapon. And I think he, along with the Ether Head Circle, was trying to abuse that.”

  My mind swelled with all the new information. Too much of it. So I focused in on the one thing I could think coherently about. “Are you saying the Ether Head Circle knew about Jaffrin being this… Neuian thing?”

  Shawn shook his head. “I doubt it. Apparently, not many know about the Neuians at all. Areus made it pretty clear that it’s been a secret kept for thousands of years.”

  “Probably because it rewrites everything we know about magik, about the entire world,” Krystin said. “The Alzanians more or less forced the creation of the Son and Daughter from cianza magik because they know Cianza Alzan is built on could destroy everything.”

  “What about Lady Azar or Aloysius?” Rachel asked. “If the Powers know, Aloysius must.”

  “Why hasn’t he done anything, then?” Nate asked. “His daughter is about to overrun Cianza Alzan.”

  Krystin and Shawn shared a long look again. Krystin said, “He must not think she can do it.”

  Oh, fantastic. “Then he’s probably also not expecting her to overthrow Ammon for the throne, either.” I rubbed the back of my neck. It was beginning to feel as though the world was about to fall apart.

  Krystin’s gaze narrowed. “Excuse me?”

  “It’s a long story,” I said. “But we think she’s going to take out Ammon, maybe even before she goes to Alzan. Then she’ll have all of Darkness behind her.”

  “Think about it,” Nate said. “She’s got Shadow Crest to protect her, Landshaft in her back pocket for all manner of resources. And now she’s got Riley, the key to Alzan.”

  Except she was willing to trade him away for Krystin and Shawn.

  Sandra touched my arm again and quietly asked, “Will you please explain to me what’s going on?”

  I blinked and glanced over at her. It wasn’t that I’d forgotten she was there. I hadn’t. But the amount of shit that had just landed on our plates had begun outweighing my need to keep Sandra informed. “Essentially, the major power players in the war between Good and Evil are about to go head-to-head for total domination. There will be a power vacuum after round one and it looks like the demon woman who has our son is going to snatch it up.”

  “If we don’t kill her first,” Krystin cut in, her tone deadly. “We need to get to her first. Take her out of the equation and rescue Riley. Then we deal with Jaffrin.”

  Sandra glanced at Krystin. “You know where she is?”

  Krystin shrugged, but it wasn’t without emotion. “There’s only one way to find out. We go to Shadow Crest’s lair in Vermont. Start there. If they’ve moved on, we’ll have homework to do. If not, we fight.”

  “That’s a tall order, Krystin,” I said, looking around at my team. We’d only recently finished healing from the last big fight. And with Sandra here, I didn’t want to leave her alone for long. Not while Hydron and Jaffrin were still in reach of her. But it wasn’t like I could take her with us either. She’d be a sitting duck in that fight.

  Krystin leveled me with a look. “We either act now and try to take out Lady Azar before she marches on Alzan, saving Riley in the process. Or we risk Jaffrin reporting to the Neuians and being caught in whatever awful crossfire will occur. I don’t know who they consider the enemy, Ben.”

  “I don’t know that they’ll care,” Shawn said. “Areus, our mentor in Alzan, made it clear they think of everyone resulting from the Split as vermin. The low of the low.”

  “All we know for sure is that Jaffrin got that stone from a Neuian who was in Alzan the day of its first fall,” Krystin said. “Areus told us the city panicked and used the stones sent by the Powers to call forth a first set of Son and Daughter. It’s a long story, but basically she moved the city and he never got his magik. The stone held it for thousands of years, and it must have been passed down from the Neuian who was there to Jaffrin by the council. He was waiting for Shawn to show up, to get his magik.”

  “Only he must have chickened out at some point and hid it away,” Shawn said. “He never intended to give it to me.”

  I walked backward until the back of my knees hit the couch, then I sank down into it. This was a lot to process. Too much. Jaffrin not only a traitor, but this Neuian thing. Alzan under attack. Lady Azar wanting to take out her own twin brother for a throne neither would inherit any time this century. I slid my hands over my eyes to block out all of reality like a child. “I don’t know what to say, Krystin.”

  She knelt down in front of me, peering through the hands I had over my face. “Say you’ll let us move. If we go to Shadow Crest’s lair now, if we take out Lady Azar before she goes to Alzan, we have a chance to not only save the city and stop any attack by the Neuians, but we can also save Riley. And that at least I know you’re willing to do anything to make happen.”

  I dropped my hands and met her blue-eyed gaze. She looked fierce in the face of this insanity. Her hard eyes exuded a strength I’d long lost, some determination that seemed to claw into me and take root. And when she lifted an eyebrow, looking for an answer from me, I swallowed down the fear and doubts lingering in my mind. “You’re right.”

  She smirked. “Often. More than you’d like to admit.”

  Sandra snorted next to me. Everything about this situation was weird.

  “We’ll go,” I said. “But not alone. Let me try to convince some more teams to join us. At the very least, Dacher needs to know.”

  Krystin’s eyes narrowed. “Why him?”

  “He’s second-in-command. And if we’re seriously talking about kicking Jaffrin out of power too, then Dacher needs to know what’s going on.”

  “Do you trust him?” Shawn asked.

  I nodded. “With my life.”

  “Ask Avery,” Krystin said. “To join us, I mean. If you can convince him to turn against Jaffrin, having Dacher hear about it all from Avery will solidify our claims.”

  “That’s a good idea.” Although I wasn’t sure I could turn Avery against Jaffrin. “I’ll talk to Cassie first, though. We graduated our training period together. She’ll join us. Then I’ll go to Avery.”

  Krystin stood. “Good. I’ll come with you.”

  “Absolutely not,” I said as I rose to meet her. “You and Shawn look like hell. We’ll leave in the early morning. Go rest for a few hours. And if it’s okay, Krystin, I want to take Sandra to your mother for protection.”

  Krystin swallowed hard. Her relationship with her mother had been rocky at best for years. But Desiree had helped us locate Krystin before and she’d bound Riley’s powers nine months ago. She was on our side, whether Krystin liked her or not. “Okay,” she said finally.

  “I’ll take her,” Rachel said. “I know where she lives and I can introduce them.”

  Sandra grabbed on to my arm again. “Ben, you need to take me with you. I don’t want to run anymore.”

  “I know,” I said before pulling her into a hug. She accepted it, which I wasn’t expecting. “This isn’t something you can help with, though. Every demon has magik, and these demons are stronger than most. I’m not willing to risk you and Riley for this.”

  Sandra pulled away, but instead of the hate I’d expected, the same hate she’d given me at the hospital six months ago when Riley had been kidnapped again, I saw resignation. “Be safe, Ben. Keep your head in the game.”

  I doubt she meant it to, but her words stung. She knew too well what happened when I didn’t keep my head in the game. “I will. No fumbling.”

  She smiled sadly. “Go get our son back.”

  “I will.”

  Rachel gave me a look before walking over to Sandra. “This is going to feel weird, but I promi
se we’re safe.” Before Sandra could ask what she meant, Rachel teleported the both of them out of the living room and to Desiree’s house.

  I looked to the rest of my team and released a long-held breath. “Rest. I’ll go recruit Cassie and Avery and their teams. I’ll be back soon.”

  And then I, too, was gone.

  I fell onto my bed with heavy thoughts and kicked off my shoes, letting them land where they might against the wall. Convincing Avery to join the fight had gone a lot easier than I’d expected. He’d followed Jaffrin with blind loyalty ever since I’d met him. But as soon as I’d explained Krystin and Shawn’s adventure in Alzan coupled with the stone Jaffrin had had, even Avery had seen all the connections and bad calls he’d made in the name of the Neuians. With Avery’s support and Cassie’s team alongside us, we might actually stand a chance in the upcoming fight. Especially with Krystin and Shawn’s new magik.

  A knock sounded on my door. “Can I come in?”

  Krystin. Her voice was quiet, but it was also now the middle of the night.

  “Sure,” I said, standing from the bed to kick my shoes out of the way.

  She pushed open the door and poked her head in. “I wanted to check in, that’s all. I heard you teleport back.”

  I chuckled once. “I didn’t realize I was a loud teleporter.”

  She smirked. “You kicking your shoes against our shared wall didn’t help your stealth situation.”

  I laughed and waved her inside. She shut the door behind her but didn’t move far from it. “What’s up?”

  Krystin tucked her hands into her pockets and bit her lip. “Like I said, I wanted to check in. How’d Avery take it?”

  “He’s going to talk to Dacher now and he agreed to help us with Lady Azar first thing tomorrow. Cassie was on board right away. Avery apparently has been thinking Jaffrin’s an ass for a while now. Something with how he handled you being in Ether Circle Prison.”

  She lifted an eyebrow. “How sweet of Avery.”

  I rolled my eyes. Avery and Krystin had some weird shit between them. As far as I knew, they’d never really liked each other but had been forced to at least tolerate the other’s presence for years. “That’s about what I thought.”

  “That’s good, then,” she said, rocking onto the balls of her feet. “We’ll have the backup we need.”

  “We’ll definitely at least stand a chance. Assuming she and her horde are actually still in Vermont.”

  “You think they already left for Alzan?”

  I shook my head. “I have no idea. I’m so far out of my depth here.”

  “You and me both.”

  Silence fell like bricks between us. Krystin looked around my room, her gaze not staying on me or any other object for too long.

  “So,” she said finally, “Sandra’s here.”

  I sighed heavily, then scooted over on my bed to make room for Krystin in case she wanted to sit. I’d known this was coming, but I thought it could wait until after the fight. So that maybe if I died there, I’d never have to face the truth. “Yes. Hydron threatened her and Jaffrin didn’t seem too keen on protecting her from them. I took matters into my own hands.”

  “And were forced to explain everything she didn’t already know?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. I mean, she knew about most of it from before when I talked to her in the hospital. But so much has changed since then.”

  “She seems to be handling it okay. I mean, as okay as someone on the outside might.”

  “Seems like she’s on the inside now.” Whether Sandra liked it or not. “Thank you for letting Rachel take her to your mother’s. I didn’t want to leave her here, especially now that we know Jaffrin’s… something else.”

  Krystin nodded and walked over to my bed. She sat—but almost entirely on the edge. As if she wanted to sit for the conversation but didn’t intend to stay long. That was fine. I wasn’t sure what I wanted. “No problem. It was a good decision and my mother can take on anything that comes her way.” Krystin paused and then, under her breath, said, “Except, apparently, raising a super-powered daughter.”

  I leveled her with a look. “She did the best she could. It’s not an easy thing.”

  Krystin’s eyes widened. “Shit, Ben. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  I lifted a hand. “Not your fault. Sometimes I forget how much I have in common with your mother.”

  “And now Sandra does too. I’m sure they’ll have some interesting conversations.”

  “I don’t doubt it.”

  Krystin looked up to me with weary eyes. “Is she staying? After, I mean. When we get Riley back.”

  “No, probably not.” But something told me that wasn’t the real question Krystin wanted to ask. “We’re not together anymore, Krystin.”

  “That’s not what I—”

  My lips twisted into a smile. “Yes, it was. And that’s fine. It’s fair. But we’re not.” I leaned back against the wall, locking my hands behind my head. “We’ll always be connected and in each other’s lives because of Riley. I can’t do anything about that, and I don’t know that I want to. I think I’ll always care for her.”

  “You should, on both accounts.”

  “I don’t love her anymore, though. I haven’t been in love with her for years.” Until I said it, I hadn’t realized how long that’d been true. For the longest time, I’d lived a fantasy where I’d find Riley and return him to her and we’d live together as a family happily ever after. But as month after month went by without any leads, my hope, along with any love I’d had for Sandra, had disappeared. I’d lost that long before I’d met Krystin.

  Krystin didn’t say anything right away. She nodded and stared straight ahead at the opposite wall. “And us?”

  My gut clenched at her question. “What about us?”

  She laughed nervously and it was enough to set me completely on edge. Krystin was never nervous, not like this. She was the one who’d kissed me out of the blue, not the other way around. “I mean, the world is about to end. I know things got way out of control. I went total dark side and nearly killed everyone, and I know there’s probably no coming back from that.”

  This was insane talk. How we’d gone from making battle plans to talking about where we stood romantically, if there was any room to stand at all, was a jump my brain couldn’t handle. Sure, I’d cared about her a lot once. I still did, I thought. Maybe. But right now? “Krystin—”

  She held up a hand but didn’t look away from the wall. “No, let me finish. Please. I know it’s not exactly the happiest story ever, but I did really like you, Ben. Those feelings were real. And on account of the world about to end and us diving into a final epic battle, I was kind just hoping you’d let me tell you that—just in case—that I still care for you after everything, even if you might never be able to feel that way about me again.”

  She looked to me with those beautiful blue eyes. No words formed on my lips. They were caught somewhere between my brain and my throat, lost in a confused fog of feelings I couldn’t untangle.

  Krystin sucked in a deep breath. “I mean, if you wanted to. Obviously, that’s your—I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry. That was pretty damn forward and out of the blue—”

  I leaned in and kissed her, our lips crashing silently. She startled but didn’t pull away, so I brought up a hand to cup her face. She returned the kiss with fervor, her hands snaking around my neck. When we finally pulled away from each other, breathless, I looked her right in the eyes. “I promise you, Krystin, that if we survive this fight with Lady Azar, we can talk about this all you want. But this is too much on top of everything else. I can’t be worried about you like that while we’re in Shadow Crest’s lair.”

  “I can take care of myself,” she said, her eyes shining. Her cheeks were flushed as she breathed shallow breaths.

  I smiled. “I know. But I don’t trust myself to not be distracted. To not keep my head in the game—”

  She pressed a finger again
st my lips. “I will be fine.”

  I lifted her finger from me and held her stare. “Please, Krystin. After the battle, we can talk about us and everything that comes with it.”

  She smirked. My heart skipped a beat and I knew at that moment I might be done for. But instead of some witty remark, her smirk turned into a sweet smile that was gone in the next moment. She stood up and stepped toward the door. “I’m holding you to that, Sparky. No one dies this time. You and me will finish this conversation.”

  And then she was gone, leaving me with nothing but confusing thoughts about what might happen when this war was finally over—the good and the bad.

  Assuming we got a chance to fight the war in the first place.

  Chapter 23

  Krystin

  Today would either be the first victory in a string of battles or the last I’d ever see. It was safe to say I wasn’t prepared either way.

  Before long, the rest of the team was up and ready to go. With Sandra at my mother’s, no one was surprised like she’d been when Avery and his team, followed by Cassie and hers, teleported into our living room. We all stood ready, some armed with knives and other weapons, others with magik.

  When everyone had arrived, Ben stood on the landing to the stairs and addressed the full living room. “We’ll teleport to right outside their lair, where our team led an incursion nine months ago.”

  His voice carried over the crowd, and for the first time, I saw Ben as a real leader. He’d always claimed to be one, but too often in the past his calls hadn’t lined up with his attitude. Today, it was like he was back on the football field in college, all confidence and strength. And I was glad to follow him into this fight.

  “There’s a shield surrounding the lair, but we’ll take it down. After that, we’ll advance until we find Lady Azar. Anyone who can take her out has my permission to do so. And I hope I don’t need to remind anyone that there’s a kid in there. My son is only three, and although he won’t have any idea what’s going on, he does have the Power. Be careful if you’re the first to get to him. He might try to take your power away from you. He might also have someone else’s magik already.”