by Jessica Gunn
My fingers wrapped around the stone of frozen magik. It seemed to hum beneath my skin as I pried it from its resting place. The hum ran up my arm to my spine, an ecstasy I hadn’t felt since Giyano’s magik had ridden over me months ago. The power inside this stone sang to me, for me, as the stone started to glow bright and pure as sunlight. Like the magik I’d once seen inside of Shawn.
Like Alzanian magik.
Something solid smashed into my side, knocking the stone from my hand. Pain burst along my hip as I fell into one of Jaffrin’s filing cabinets. The pain shot up my spine, crinkling as it went. My vision blurred, narrowing.
Kinder stood above me, the stone in her hand, and laughed. “I never said the stone would be yours, dear one.” She knelt down before me as I lay there, trying to see past the pain turning my vision into a kaleidoscope. “You see, at the end of the day, you’re still a Fire Circle Hunter.” She lifted her free hand and touched it to the side of my face. “You may have a destiny to save Alzan, but you clearly lack the resolve and power to do so. You fall for trickery and dishonesty at the hands of false allies. And you will always be an ignorant Fire Circle Hunter.”
I squinted my eyes as my vision cleared. “You played me.” Of course she did.
Kinder’s hand warmed as the heat from my body slipped from me. “Not in so many words. You needed to see the truth, so I gave it to you. Now,” she said as her fingers dug into my cheek, “I will borrow a bit of your power and this stone, and I will fulfill your destiny for you. You’ll never have to hear about the prophecy you hate so much ever again.” She grinned slowly, evilly. “And now you’ll be free from the Fire Circle as well.”
My magik seeped out of me and into Kinder, but it wasn’t like the other times. She pulled on my magik slowly, taking the barest amount. And as she did so, the stone in her hand glowed brighter. The stone meant for Shawn or me, or both of us if only one survived. The stone we needed in order to unlock…
Oh, god. She was going to unlock the Alzanian magik within herself, using parts of mine. And then she’d go to Alzan ahead of her daughter. She’d win.
And she’d tip the power balance at Cianza Alzan in the process.
I locked eyes with her, betrayal stinging me from the inside out, and said, “How could you?”
That’s when the door to Jaffrin’s office burst open and my team filed in.
Chapter 26
BEN
A body fell immediately to my feet, as if they’d been resting against the door. Jaffrin stared up at me, his chest and arm bloody. And his hand— Oh, god. His hand had been cut off.
“Ben,” he uttered, looking to the other side of the room.
There I saw Kinder bent over Krystin, a hand on her face and a shiny stone in her hand.
“Are you kidding me?” Shawn shouted as he shoved me aside and ran into the room, nothing but a knife to fight with.
I dashed in behind him, though I had no idea what had him so worried. Rachel dropped to Jaffrin’s side and encased his wound in water. “Go,” I told her. “Get to a hospital.”
“This whole place needs one,” Nate said as he crouched and formed a massive, swirling block of ether in front of him. He shot out tendrils that wrapped around Krystin and Kinder.
Kinder stood and swiped the ether vines away from her body even as Shawn lunged for her. His hands wrapped around Kinder’s neck while she was temporarily stunned. She cried out as the stone slipped from her grasp.
“No!” Krystin called, reaching for it. But neither she nor her magik were quick enough. It shattered against the ground, shards dispersing across the floor.
“Fuck!” Shawn screamed. He squeezed tighter on Kinder’s neck, but she flung him off like he was nothing more than a bug. He landed on the ground, skidding against a bookshelf.
I formed a lightning sword between my hands and dove for Kinder. Nate joined the fray behind me as a wave of fire descended, halting my charge. I jumped back to avoid the flames, grabbing Nate’s shoulder to keep him out of the way, keeping the lightning sword raised in my other hand.
Krystin stood before us, a white-hot blaze whipping around her like a giant bonfire. “You’re not killing either of us.”
My eyes narrowed. “It’s me, Krystin. It’s Ben. Snap out of it.”
She smiled. “There’s nothing to snap out of. This isn’t like before.”
It sure as hell looked like it. Kinder had had her on the ground, a hand against her cheek. Transferring magik from Krystin or into her, I didn’t know. I was also sure it didn’t totally matter. If Zanka’s magik was persuasion and Kinder had control of Krystin because she’d stolen his power, was it possible Krystin didn’t know what she was doing at all?
The flames around Krystin’s form whipped higher, fully encapsulating her. “Leave, Ben.”
I lifted my lightning sword in one hand and readied a ball of lightning in the other as Nate broke off to fight Kinder with Shawn. “This isn’t you. She’s got you under her control, Krystin. She wanted that stone and she got it.”
Krystin’s gaze dropped to the shattered remains on the ground and for a brief moment, sadness, true despair, flashed across her eyes. As if she were suddenly aware of what she was doing and hadn’t meant for any of it to happen. But then her jaw set hard and she turned back to me. “All of the Fire Circle will pay for this.”
She launched the flames right at my face.
A teleportante formed in front of me and Rachel threw up a wall of water in the instant she appeared. But Krystin’s flames were hot—too hot—and the water turned into steam. Rachel held on, plugging the holes with new water, somehow able to keep Krystin at bay.
Fire leapt through the holes in the wall left behind, flying onto Rachel. She cried out, wincing as she tried to keep the wall up, but it dropped when she did. I caught her before she hit the ground.
“No!” I roared, holding her. I patted out the small flames that danced along her arms. “Rachel?” She passed out in my arms, unconscious. I glared up at Krystin. “We’re done. You’re done.”
She looked at me like I was the saddest excuse for a Hunter on the entire planet. “Took you long enough to figure that one out. You’ve never been too bright, Sparky.”
Krystin lunged for Rachel and me. I teleported us out of the way, dropping Rachel by Jaffrin, and spun back toward Krystin with my lightning sword held high. I wasn’t sure what’d happened to her or if this was really Krystin, but this was over. And when this fight ended, I’d personally escort Krystin back to Ether Circle Prison.
Krystin formed a blue-flamed sword in her hands and lunged. The impact of our elemental swords shot a pulse of energy through the room that knocked the others onto their sides. But Krystin and I somehow stood our ground despite my feet sliding out from under me. Still, I pressed hard against her blade, the tip of it coming within inches of her face.
“Surrender,” I said through gritted teeth.
She grinned at me. “Never, Sparky. It’s not that easy to kill me.” Her flame-sword turned white at the tip and… melted the lightning off of mine. I barely had time to think before her sword split mine in two.
I jumped out of range and pulled more lightning around me like a shield. A shield that might not even protect me from Krystin and her insane magikal fire. But fire didn’t look like that, an emerging rainbow of colors. It’s like her magik was made from something else entirely.
Kinder’s loud cackle rose above the sounds of battle. She shoved Nate and Shawn off and backed away, continuing to laugh. “It is done! The Fire Circle will end tonight!” Then she teleported out of the room, disappearing.
“No!” I shouted. She’d gotten away. Again. The lightning around me growing double in strength. Strikes snapped off the shield like a storm, zapping furniture and light fixtures alike. The lights above us flickered with the energy.
“Eyes on the prize, Ben,” Krystin said as she leapt with her sword once more.
I dodged, lifting up a nearby chair to shield myself.
Her magik sword slid easily through the wood, sending splinters shooting out like shrapnel. Pain spread up my arm as pieces lodged themselves into my skin.
Nate shot an ether shield that enveloped Krystin, temporarily disabling her. She banged against the shield, but it didn’t crack or fall. For now.
“Let me out!” she shouted.
“No,” said Nate, peering up at her. His eyes narrowed. “Something’s wrong.”
“Clearly,” I snapped.
“I can’t hold her,” Nate said, his voice shaking. “Whatever Kinder did, Krystin’s too strong now.”
Shawn gazed dully at the stone’s remains. In a dead voice he said, “That was one of the stones Krystin and I needed to get to Alzan. It’s been here all along.”
Krystin banged her fists against the shield again. A splinter formed in the ether.
Nate’s body went rigid as he pulsed more power into the shield. “Ben, you need to tell me what to do. I’m not strong enough to hold Krystin for long. And all the destruction downstairs… Jaffrin…”
“Dacher’s gone, too,” Rachel called from the floor by Jaffrin’s side. “Evacuated. You’re in charge, Ben. There’s no one left alive at Headquarters.”
The horrors we’d witnessed on the way upstairs. The blood and burns. The hallways on fire and our fallen fellow Hunters. There was no way Krystin wasn’t a willing party to this. You didn’t go and kill that many people, didn’t utterly destroy Fire Circle Headquarters, under some spell. That wasn’t how magik like this worked, that much I did know.
So only one question remained. “Why?” I looked up at Krystin and found wild, thinking eyes meeting mine. Even when captured, she was still trying to find a way to get out. To run. “Why did you do this?”
Krystin’s gaze was colder than any winter I’d ever experienced, even the first one without Riley. “Because this war is a joke and the only real danger is the Fire Circle. Every decision they make places its Hunters and Alzan in the crossfire. All that matters is Cianza Alzan.”
She formed flames inside the shield, sent them swirling around her like a tornado, growing them in size and intensity until Nate cried out.
“Can’t hold it,” he grunted. “Shit.”
The flames inside the ball turned white before sliding into that almost-rainbow pattern. A mix of fire and magik.
“She’s tapping into what Alzanian magik she can,” Shawn said. “I can feel it snapping taut between us. Ah!” He cried out as he dropped to the ground.
The shield fell with him as Nate bent to one knee, wincing.
“It’s here,” Krystin laughed. “There’s that Alzanian magik.”
The remaining shield splintered, cracks crawling across its surface. Nate’s eyes squeezed shut.
I threw lightning out around the shield, hoping it would help. Anything to keep Krystin contained. But as soon as my lightning touched the ether shield, it exploded and sent us all airborne.
Chapter 27
KRYSTIN
The explosion knocked me backward through a wall and out into the hallway. All breath whooshed from my lungs as pain ricocheted my body. A coppery liquid coated my tongue, and my skin burned.
I looked down. My clothes were on fire. I patted out the flames but couldn’t save my sheared-off pants and sleeves. The tattoo on my ankle showed freely for the first time in years. But now the tattoo burned, searing my skin as it began to glow.
God. Make it stop! I bent down and lit a fire in my hand, burning away the top layer of the tattoo, crying out as the flames… burned away magik? As soon as the tattoo was damaged, so was the pain. Just like Shawn had done to his magik-binding tattoo when Kinder had first attacked us.
Maybe I was just numb to the world.
I forced myself to stand amongst the wreckage. Wood paneling had been blown out with me, small fires littered across every surface. An ironic way for Fire Circle Headquarters to finally be destroyed. Just as Kinder had wanted.
“Stop!” Shawn stood before me, his Fire Circle knife held out in one hand. “Please, Krystin. Whatever this is, you’ve gone too far. Let us help you. Let me help you. I understand what you’re feeling right now.”
I smiled but felt no happiness. “You wouldn’t hurt me.” Even if Shawn knew what it was like to have demon magik inside of him, he’d never know the sting of this betrayal by the Circles. By the team.
Shawn held his ground. “You’re not exactly giving me a choice.” Blood seeped down the side of his face. His left eyebrow had been split open, giving him a look that almost mirrored Giyano’s scar.
“Then get out of the way,” I said. “The Fire Circle deserves this. They knew, Shawn. And they’re going to take out more than just Shadow Crest with our magik. Jaffrin had that stone the entire time we failed to unlock our powers on our own. Kinder was right.”
He stepped toward me. “No, she wasn’t. Why don’t you see that? You’re not stupid, Krystin.”
I fell into a battle-ready stance, fire in my palm. “Neither are you. There’s still time, Shawn. Come with me.”
He shook his head slowly. Took another step. “You and Kinder killed dozens of Hunters tonight. Might have killed the Leader of the Fire Circle. I don’t even know if Ben and Nate are even alive in there. If Jaffrin’s died yet. Whatever your plan was, Krystin, you’ve won. You did it. Congratulations.”
I blinked. My plan?
My vision blurred, body shaking. None of this was my plan. I’d only wanted to escape the Fire Circle, not destroy it. But Kinder…
Kinder.
My legs turned to jelly, sending me stumbling until confusion and exhaustion slammed me to my knees. My mind reeled back, as though its control had been restored to me. What the hell had Kinder done?
Oh, god. I looked through the hole in the wall I’d flown through, at Jaffrin on the ground. At Rachel bent over him, trying to stem the flow of blood from his… missing hand?
A flash of Kinder slicing it off crossed my mind’s eye. Of me attacking my team. Of Shawn and Nate trying to hold me, to get through to me.
Of Kinder leaving me behind to answer for all of this.
“Sh-Shawn, I…” I shook my head. “Oh, fuck.”
“Enough of this, Krystin,” he said, his voice even. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not going to fall for your tricks anymore. Back down now or I’ll attack.”
As soon as he said the word ‘attack,’ a sharp clarity returned to my mind. My vision cleared, free from my own thoughts, as Kinder took over again and turned my mind into a blank slate. That need to please Kinder, to follow her orders, to become her puppet—and I recognized it as much this time—overcame me. I watched from the inside as my body disobeyed my direct commands and shot fire at Shawn. He dodged, rolling out of the way and up into my space. He lunged upward with his Fire Circle knife too quick for my body to react.
Pain sliced up my arm as he arched upward and disengaged. Blood poured out of my arm.
“Shawn,” I croaked as my arm turned red with blood. Please. See that this isn’t me. See past this to Kinder’s magik. The power she stole from Zanka.
But Shawn only watched, waiting for my next move.
My body revolted. I swung my palm up, whipping up a current of air that slammed into Shawn’s gut and pinned him up against the ceiling. Blood dripped from his chin onto the floor.
“Stop this,” he pleaded. “You’re going to cost us Alzan. This war. The world.”
Alzan. I stumbled again, the clarity in my mind faltering along with Kinder’s control. Alzan. Maybe that was the key. That was what Kinder had wanted all along, right?
I forced my body to stop moving, to stop listening to Kinder’s orders uttered only minutes ago, and focus on Shawn. On our shared destiny. On the power Kinder was trying to steal.
On Alzan. The city no one had seen in thousands of years. The city with a Cianza at its center that was so powerful, it could destroy entire planes of existence.
A white spark of magik flickered to life
in my chest, warm and reassuring. It felt comforting, like coming home after college. Like finding the source of Shawn’s and my connection.
I gripped it, pulling the magik forward. Slowly, Shawn dropped from the ceiling as the wind currents holding him dissipated under my control. The Alzanian magik would draw me back. It had to.
It was my only option left.
But then Ben’s roar sounded from Jaffrin’s office and awoke Kinder’s command all over again: Kill them all.
I shoved Shawn up into the ceiling with my magik but didn’t hold him there. He fell with an impact so hard, it knocked him out. Ben ran down the hall, his entire body surrounded in lightning. I matched him, growing flames around me until they smacked against each wall of the hallway.
“Requirem!”
I heard it but couldn’t tell where it had come from. Only when someone’s hand slapped against my back did I realize another Hunter had been behind me the entire time. Avery’s face swam into view, a hard look on his face.
My entire body felt as though it’d been cleaved in two. The rush of Kinder’s and my magik, the whiplash of all of it being gone in an instant.
I fell to the ground, knocking my knees against the hardwood floor beneath me as I gasped for air. My lungs seized, unable to bring in new oxygen. All around me, my flames died out. My magik shorted.
And so did Kinder’s hold on me. Her borrowed persuasion magik wore off with Avery’s word-magik.
Only then did the full weight of everything that’d occurred—all the destruction and death and pain—infiltrate my mind. I wheezed, the memories sliding past like a slideshow of hell. Every attack I’d made, every kill I’d committed against my will. A magik so strong that Zanka had been able to persuade even Giyano to do things he hadn’t wanted to do.
A magik only amplified tenfold in Kinder.