The Changed: Hunter Circles Series Book Three

by Jessica Gunn

  Krystin and Shawn’s gazes met. She frowned. “I hope not.”

  Chapter 6

  KRYSTIN

  I hadn’t even thought about the prophecy being affected. But Giyano hadn’t seemed worried about it and he was totally obsessed with saving Alzan. This gave me hope, so long as I gained control of this magik somehow. How I’d managed not to burn Jaffrin back there, I’ll never know. I’ve wanted to watch the man burn for years.

  A knock sounded on the door, startling us all.

  “It’s me,” said Jaffrin. “May we come in?”

  “Jeez,” I said, hand to my chest. “Not like there’s room in here, but sure.”

  Jaffrin opened the door to the examination room slowly, revealing two others behind him. Twins, one male and one female, about my age with ebony hair, dark eyes, and narrow faces. Their gazes appeared uninterested in everything happening around them.

  Jaffrin gestured to the twins. “This is Alexander and Iris Rowe, Hunters from the Ether Head Circle. Chairman Otto and his peers find Krystin’s freedom concerning, despite our reassurances that they’ve misunderstood the situation. As such, she’ll be allowed to stay within the Fire Circle so long as she’s supervised by members of Ether.” He nodded to the twins. “These are your supervisors, Krystin. They’ll move into the team’s house and remain with you until the Ether Head Circle sees fit to call them back.”

  “Sees ‘fit’?” I echoed. If they thought I was innocent enough to walk, why bother sending me home with babysitters? This whole situation’s fucked.

  Ben’s brow furrowed. “The team’s house is barely big enough for the five of us. I don’t know how seven is going to work, Jaffrin.”

  “It’s this arrangement or Krystin returns to Ether Circle Prison. The choice is yours.”

  I peered over at Alexander and Iris. They looked so unassuming, I had to believe that that was the farthest thing from the truth. The Ether Head Circle wouldn’t send rookies to babysit me if they really did think I was a threat. How powerful were these twins, and under what parameters were they allowed to attack me?

  The twins caught me studying them and narrowed their eyes. Iris said, “We will stay as out of the way as possible, provided Ms. Blackwood doesn’t exhibit disagreeable behavior.”

  Disagreeable behavior. What the hell were these people? Robots?

  “I’ll be fine.” At least for now. I couldn’t act against the Ether Head Circle without solid proof. And unfortunately for me, Giyano’s words were the farthest thing from solid.

  But if Jaffrin knew where I’d been, that Giyano had taken me from Ether Circle Prison and kept me for hours, that he’d convinced me the Hunter Circles couldn’t be trusted—and they couldn’t—he’d probably lock me back up himself.

  “Good,” Jaffrin said. “They will return with you to the house now. Please check in with me tomorrow, Ben”

  Ben nodded once, curtly. “Yes, sir.”

  Ben used teleportante to bring the seven of us back to the house. Rachel and Nate immediately ran interference, bringing the twins to the closet upstairs to get any extra bedding they could find. Luckily, the couch in the living room was a pull-out or two of us would have been bunking together.

  I glanced at Ben. Maybe that wouldn’t have been so bad, as long as he didn’t hate me anymore. With all that had happened, I almost wanted Ben next to me to watch my back. At least while I slept.

  While they were upstairs, I retreated into the kitchen on my own. I withdrew a bottle of whiskey I’d hidden in the back of the small pantry months ago and took three large pulls from the bottle.

  “Whoa,” Ben said, following me into the kitchen. “Easy, Krystin.”

  I spun on him and pointed a finger to the ceiling. “Even Jaffrin doesn’t really believe I’m innocent. And those two automatons are now going to be watching my every damn move. Don’t tell me to take it ‘easy.’”

  He released a breath and rolled his eyes. “Fine, but at least share the damn alcohol.”

  “We all need it,” Shawn said as he joined us.

  I pulled out two shot glasses and offered some of my whiskey to the guys. A few shots later when we were finished, I leaned back against the countertop. “This is fucked.”

  Ben nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.”

  “Please, tell me how it was supposed to go.”

  Shawn frowned. “You did almost die that night, Krystin. The ether-shapers were able to heal you, but—”

  “My magik flared in prison,” I said. “Almost every day for I don’t know how long. It was bad. And I still can’t really control this fire-elemental magik. It’s like starting all over again.”

  “Luckily, I have elemental magik, too,” Ben said, his eyes wide and genuine. I’d missed those blue eyes. So strong and reassuring… when they weren’t burning you to the ground in judgment. “I can help.”

  I smirked. “Ironic, no?”

  He shrugged.

  “Is Giyano going to come back?” Shawn asked.

  “I don’t know. It didn’t sound like it and unless he’s going to actually give me the information he keeps dangling in front of my face, I don’t know that I want him to.” I looked down at the bottle of whiskey still in my hands. “He did save me, though. That’s got to count.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Ben said under his breath.

  I looked over at him. “He admitted to killing my father.” Ben rose his gaze to mine. “He flat out told me that it was for the same reasons that he tainted my magik with his.”

  “The cianza?” Shawn asked. “What did killing your father have to do with Cianza Boston?”

  I took another pull of whiskey from the bottle. “My parents lived downtown when I was born, back before they knew about my Alzan magik. Blackwood witches don’t have magik at birth. I mean, we do, but it’s not active. It’s basically null where the cianza is concerned.”

  “But not Alzanian magik,” Shawn said. It was the same reason his parents had bound his magik, too. A binding he’d been forced to undo when Kinder had attacked us at the bowling alley.

  I’d been so pissed at him that night for lying to us. Now… I didn’t know who to trust. “No one knew what I was back then, except Giyano. He killed my father so my mother and the Fire Circle would know about me being the Daughter, thereby forcing them off the cianza.”

  Ben’s face twisted with confusion. Or his third shot of whiskey. I wasn’t sure. “Why not just tell your parents the truth?”

  “Giyano? Really, Ben?” I shook my head. “Maybe he’s changed in twenty-some-odd years, but I doubt my mother would have believed Giyano, anyway. She would have tried to kill him and, when she failed, he would have probably killed her. My father didn’t have magik. He was an easy target.”

  Ben swallowed hard. “I feel like we all are when it comes down to it.”

  “I’ll drink to that,” I said, but before I raised the bottle to pour another round, Nate poked his head into the kitchen doorway.

  “The twins are downstairs again. They want to talk to Ben about keeping tabs on Krystin.” He looked at the whiskey bottle, now close to being half-empty, and his eyes lit up. “Are we sharing?”

  I held up the bottle and a shot glass. “Sure thing. Someone owes me a new bottle after this, though.”

  Ben frowned but ultimately followed Nate back out into the living room, leaving Shawn and me behind. Shawn looked to me with an expression that said he’d caught me red-handed.

  “Oh, stop,” I said. “So you knew about the dark magik in me before it all went down. Good for you. It saved my ass, so you don’t get to look at me like that.”

  “Is your magik still dark?” Shawn asked.

  I sighed. “I can’t really feel it like I did before, but that could mean anything.” And since my magik was elemental now, Nate wouldn’t be able to tell either. “We have bigger things to worry about.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Like the Hunter Circles using our powers as a
weapon?”

  “Yeah, that.”

  “You don’t really believe Giyano, do you?”

  “Well, I can’t think of what the Hunter Circles would want our powers for, besides eradicating Darkness from Alzan during the final conflict, but that could be my lack of imagination.”

  Shawn leaned against the counter behind him. “Unless they want all of Darkness gone. Maybe they want to march right into wherever Aloysius is holed up and kill them all.”

  “That’ll do the balance real good.”

  “That’s the Hunter Circles’ overall mission, isn’t it? I know I’m new to this whole thing, but—”

  “No, you’re right,” I said. “But I think there’s a bigger reason we haven’t won the war over the thousands of years it’s been waging. The balance won’t allow it. If evil is gone, if there aren’t any more demons walking the earth, then the balance is in Good’s favor. Bye-bye, cianzas. Bye-bye, Planet Earth as they all erupt.”

  “So our war with Darkness is futile? Is that what you’re saying?”

  I shrugged. “I wouldn’t go that far, but it does seem pointless when you put it that way, huh?”

  “Just a bit.”

  A few beats of silence passed between us. Chatter from the other room filtered in past the wall, but it wasn’t loud enough to understand.

  “Maybe it’s not about eradicating Darkness,” I said, “but balancing the good and the evil in this world. Demons on their own aren’t harmful; it’s when they attack innocents that they pose a problem. But the Hunter Circles have done plenty of bad on their own, too.”

  “So… what?” Shawn asked, looking up at me. “What do we do now?”

  I straightened my back and placed my bottle of whiskey on the counter behind me. “We don’t trust anything the Ether Head Circle tells us anymore. We take everything Jaffrin orders us to do with a grain of salt. And if we have to, we get the hell out of the Fire Circle in order to keep out of their grasp. Because while I may not fully trust Giyano, I trust his knowledge of things they refuse to tell us.”

  Uncertainty swam in Shawn’s eyes and he didn’t speak for long moments until he said, “We can’t leave the Fire Circle.”

  “No?”

  “Not until we know how to unlock the Alzan magik. If Jaffrin has the prophecy—and he’s the only person I know who has a full, word-for-word translation of it—then we can’t leave.”

  “So we ask him for a copy. Easy peasy.”

  He shook his head. “Ever wonder why he’s never given it to us before now?”

  I hesitated. “Yeah.”

  His hard gaze met mine, but as he went to speak, Ben called us into the living room. “Team meeting!”

  “Be right there,” I called back and started to walk that way.

  Shawn grabbed my elbow. “We stay as long as we need to in order to get a copy of the prophecy in full. And to keep the others safe, too. I’m not leaving them behind because your instinct to run is stronger than your instinct to fight.”

  I swallowed hard, my eyes narrowing. “You know nothing about me.”

  He paused. “That’s the problem, isn’t it?”

  Chapter 7

  BEN

  The hardest part about visiting Fire Circle Headquarters without Jaffrin knowing about it was walking past his office as quickly as possible. I waited until a group of Hunters also walked by, then stepped in line with them.

  I continued down the hall to Dacher’s office. Dacher was Jaffrin’s second-in-command at Fire Circle Headquarters and the leader of his Command, a group of advisors and fellow leaders that reported directly to Jaffrin. Dacher had headed up my training during that stage of my Hunter career. He’d been present way more than Jaffrin ever had.

  Hopefully, he’d be here for me now, too.

  I paused outside his closed office door and inhaled deeply. Calm washed over my body with the breath like a blanket. Good. Breathe. I knocked on the door.

  “It’s open,” Dacher called from inside.

  I nodded to reassure myself everything would be okay, then turned the knob and pushed open the door. “Hi, Dacher.”

  He looked up from his desk. “Ben! So nice to see you.”

  Dacher was a stout man with graying brown hair, kind eyes, and a warm smile. Today he wore a suit, more put together than Jaffrin ever was at Fire Circle Headquarters. He was bursting with life, even at his older age, but Dacher’s hunting days had been a long time ago.

  “Please,” he said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. A second one was stacked high with manila folders and newspaper clippings. “Ignore the mess. These past few months have been quite busy, haven’t they?”

  “Yeah, you could say that.” I sat down, but as soon as I did, anxiety clawed its way back up my throat.

  Dacher paused, studying me. “What’s brought you here today, Ben?”

  If only that were an easy question to answer. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

  He smiled, shaking his head. “I assure you that Sandra and Riley are both fine. I heard as much just last night from the team watching them.” He squinted his eyes. “But I heard you were busy last night, too?”

  I rubbed the back of my neck as if it’d ground me enough to say what I needed to. “You heard right. Jaffrin sent us into Ether Circle Prison to break Krystin out.”

  His lips thinned and he pointedly looked down at the papers in front of him. “I argued against that.”

  “You were probably right to,” I said. Dacher’s gaze lifted to mine but I was already questioning my words. “Er, sorry.”

  He shook his head. “In here, you may speak as you wish. The walls are protected and I value the opinion of my Hunters.”

  While he didn’t say “unlike Jaffrin,” it sure sounded that way.

  “I appreciate that, Dacher. I’ve always valued your mentorship. Thank you for checking in on my son and his mother.”

  “Anytime. Was there anything else?”

  Oh, you know, just a whole world of insubordination.

  I leaned forward and prayed to any gods listening that my next words wouldn’t get me locked away for treason. “The reason I didn’t agree with Jaffrin’s order was because it went directly against what the Ether Head Circle wanted. And they’re in charge.”

  Dacher took a moment to nod, thinking to himself, before answering. “Sometimes even they make questionable decisions.”

  “When they’re around to make them.” Shit. Watch your mouth, Hallen.

  “Agreed,” Dacher said.

  “Krystin was in prison for a reason. That’s why I’m confused and pissed about this. Because even if she’s innocent—and she is—they will forever think now because Jaffrin broke her out, that she’s not. That we’re covering for her. That she actually did all those things of her own volition when she had zero control.”

  Dacher leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “I agree. That’s why I voted against retrieving her. This situation is tenuous at best.”

  “It’s about to get worse.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  I glanced over my shoulder to the closed door, through it down the hall to Jaffrin’s office. Not that I could actually see through walls. Though that’d be helpful. “I have concerns about Jaffrin, sir. And the Ether Head Circle as a whole.”

  Dacher lifted an eyebrow. “Concerns? Easy, Ben. Concerns and accusations are not that far apart.”

  “Exactly why I wasn’t sure I wanted to come to you at all. Honestly, sir, while we broke into Ether Circle Prison to get Krystin back, we weren’t the ones she escaped with. Giyano teleported in and took her before she could do anything about it.”

  Dacher’s eyes widened. “Oh? I can see that not helping her case at all.”

  I nodded. “It gets worse. Apparently, he told her the Ether Head Circle can’t be trusted because they’re trying to weaponize the Alzan magik she and Shawn share. And given that they didn’t give her a trial in the three months they had her
, I have to believe that much is true. Or that, at the very least, something weird is going on behind the scenes.”

  “Well, I can’t speak for the Fire Circle, but I don’t think the Ether Head Circle would purposely use one of their Hunters like that,” said Dacher. “And even if they did, I don’t think they could control Krystin, let alone her and Shawn together.”

  “Apparently, they can and they will,” I said as I ran a hand through my hair. “I can’t explain it, sir, or give you more information than that. Basically, she came back from talking to Giyano and said not to trust anyone in a leadership position right now. And I agree with her on Jaffrin because, honestly, some of the calls he’s made over the past few months have been insane.”

  “Ether Circle Prison, least of all,” Dacher said.

  I nodded. “Exactly.”

  “What would you have done?”

  “Sir?”

  Dacher considered me carefully. “If you were the one making that call about Krystin being in Ether Circle Prison, what would you have done?”

  I closed my eyes, taking in a few deep breaths. What would I have done? Who the hell knows? I’d only stopped being mad at Krystin a few weeks ago. “I would have found evidence in support of Krystin and then brought it to the Ether Head Circle and demanded a trial date, if one hadn’t been made that I could testify at. That’s about the only logical decision when talking about overruling a direct order from the Ether Head Circle.”

  Dacher studied me again, his elbows on top of his desk, his fingers laced together. “Hm,” he said, eyes relaxing. “Interesting.”

  “Interesting?”

  He stood, gesturing at the door. “You leave Jaffrin to me. I will take care of your concerns. For now, stay with Krystin in case those Ether Head Circle representatives you’re harboring try to do something they shouldn’t.”

  “Yes, sir.” That was more than I could have hoped for. “Thank you, sir. And thank you for not immediately claiming treason and locking me away.”

  Dacher nodded. “What kind of leaders would we be if we silenced all differing opinions—and in doing so, ignored potential threats?”