by Jessica Gunn
Not anymore.
“Christine…”
I shot him a glare and pointed at his chest. “See, that right there. That’s why I walked away from you earlier. It’s Ava now. Christine is as dead as the rest of you. She had to disappear when you did to keep herself safe. My name is Ava Locke. Get it right or don’t talk to me at all.”
Tears stung my eyes and my chest threatened to cave in with the weight of all the tiny little breaths it wanted to take. I strained to keep myself together, to not fall apart in front of this person who used to mean so much to me. But apart from his outward appearance, twisted arm and all, Brian was a stranger.
“I’m sorry, Ava,” he said, his voice quiet. “Honestly, I truly mean it. It wasn’t my idea for me to stay hidden for so long.” I went to speak, to contradict him by pointing out that he was his own person, but he held up a hand. “I know that’s bullshit, you don’t need to call me on it. You want the truth? I was scared, okay? Scared of Talon finding me. Of what you’d think.”
My brow furrowed. “What I would think? You want to know true fear? I’ve spent six of the last nine months trying to scrape together enough money for Will and me to live on, so that we might escape without Talon ever finding me. Spoiler alert: They found us and we both nearly lost our lives. Will is all I have left.”
Brian pressed his lips together, but thankfully didn’t comment on Will’s name change too. There was no confusion; it was obvious I could only be talking about my best friend.
“I’m glad he’s okay,” Brian said.
I took a step toward him. “That’s an awfully vague word for his condition.”
Brian’s expression softened. “He’s going to be fine. We’re going to find a cure for him and the other witches, and then one for Veynix’s venom.”
“Would have been nice to have that three months ago.”
Brian inhaled sharply. “I didn’t want to argue with you.”
“Then don’t,” I said and then paced away, back toward the window. I pulled in a deep breath to steady my nerves. “Look, I really am glad you’re alive. That you didn’t die that night—don’t get me wrong. But there’s nothing for us here, Brian. Not anymore.”
“I didn’t pull you aside to profess my love, Ava,” Brian said, watching me carefully. “I’m not stupid. And I didn’t expect you to have not moved on. But I thought you’d at least be willing to hear me out.”
“To be happy to see you?”
He nodded. “Sort of, yeah. But I see you’ve found someone else. If somewhere down the line we can at least be friendly again, then I’ll settle for that.”
Kian. “Yeah, honestly not sure what’s happening there, but sure. Maybe once this stuff with Talon ends.”
A sudden sensation of awkwardness rushed over me. Like I shouldn’t have been having this conversation with Brian, or be in a room with him alone. Which was weird because a year ago, I couldn’t have imagined ever even not being with Brian romantically.
“I have to go,” I said as I made my way to the door. “I need to let Ben know that Will is doing okay.”
“No point,” Brian said as he swiveled to follow me. “Dacher called a meeting a few minutes ago. We’re supposed to head back down to the great hall. There’s some sort of contact who’s acting as a go-between with Darkness. Something about the poison hitting Boston right now.”
My brow furrowed. “Seriously?”
He shrugged. “Guess so.”
A go-between? Somebody’s getting desperate for answers.
At least it wasn’t just me.
Chapter 11
The scene in the great hall was just like before. Dacher and his Command stood at the front, alongside Ben and the other two Leader candidates, Avery and Cassie. Hydron was there with its agents. Then there were Kian and I, two of the three sole survivors of the chaos at Midnight three months ago.
One other woman stood next to Ben, unfamiliar to me, though Ben regarded her with a kind smile. She had to be in her mid-thirties, with some strands of gray hair sprinkled throughout blonde. She wore scrubs with an unzipped jacket over them and sneakers on her feet. Maybe she was a nurse from another Circle?
My stomach dropped. Or she’s the connection to Darkness that Brian mentioned.
Kian saw me coming down the stairs and stood from his bench to greet me. “How’s Will?”
“Okay,” I said, stepping away from Brian to sit with Kian. “He’s confused but as okay as he’ll ever be, I think.”
Brian continued on ahead to his Hydron agent friends. Which was fine because I was pretty sure we’d be done talking for a while, period.
“Dare I ask how that’s going?” Kian asked quietly, masking whatever his true feelings on the matter were by leaning back and stretching.
I gave him a sidelong look. “There’s nothing left to be going anywhere. I told you that.”
Kian shrugged. “Just curious.”
Was he seriously jealous?
Dacher dismissed those he was talking to and turned to the crowd gathered near the front of the amphitheater space. “Normally, we wouldn’t be discussing this with quite so many people. But given how much Talon has been influencing or involving all parties here, I thought it best. Besides, I think the time for the old procedures under my predecessor are long since passed.”
Amen to that. Considering how things had been handled back before Dacher had become Leader of the Fire Circle, I’d take whatever direction Dacher thought was right.
“To that end,” Dacher continued, “Ben’s contact, Rose Gardner, a nurse at Boston General, is a member of the Rebel Darkness Faction. They’re a group of demons who have organized to work against Darkness, specifically Aloysius’s royal regime. Since last year, she has offered us information about goings-on within their empire, except for things tied directly to Landshaft. In addition to confirming the loss of Ammon as well as Lady Azar, she has also confirmed that Cinead, once third in line to the throne, is now the only surviving heir. He and his White Flame royal guard now control the throne, including Aloysius to some extent.”
Dacher nodded to Rose, who sat in the front row. “The reason she’s here today is because she came to us with more of the same news we were already expecting regarding the Fire Circle’s magik-users being affected by Talon’s new poison.” At this, Dacher’s expression darkened. “Except now the poison has reached beyond the Fire Circle’s jurisdiction. Rose?”
Rose stood and faced those of us in attendance. Her voice shook as she said, “Boston General has already received a dozen cases of regular, non-involved humans coming in with the same symptoms as those of the magik-users poisoned yesterday. Fever and chills, erratic, sometimes aggressive behavior. One patient developed the Ember witch ether within an hour of being admitted. The fact that I was assigned to her and therefore cast a requirem is probably the only reason the government and Hydron aren’t in a battle right now.”
The Hydron agents in the front row exchanged hushed words, but it was Max, Ben’s cousin’s boyfriend, who spoke first.
“The hospital is aware of the truth?” he asked. “Why haven’t we received word about this yet?”
“Because these cases started being admitted today,” Rose said. “This is the first chance I’ve had to step away from the hospital, and I must return soon. We have a few other Rebel Darkness members in place as nurses and other staff who can and have been disabling these people’s sudden magik, but I’m afraid we won’t be able to hold out for long. And this is just Boston General. This doesn’t even account for all the cases flooding other area hospitals.”
Ben sat a few rows ahead of me, closer to the front. He was watching Rose with narrowed eyes. I’d never heard the story behind how he or the Fire Circle had discovered the Rebel Darkness Faction, but it was clear from looking at him that there was more to their relationship than simply this. And also, that he didn’t totally trust her.
“What exactly can we do?” Avery, another one of the Leader candidates, asked.
Rose’s expression fell. “Ideally, we stop it altogether. But since that’s likely impossible, I was hoping to get as many Hunters as possible into these hospitals as nurses’ aids. I was hoping between the Fire Circle’s sway and Hydron’s that it’d be possible.”
“Not sure about that one,” Max said. “Considering we barely knew about the Rebel Darkness Faction until recently.”
I thought back to a few months ago, when Veynix had returned and Kian and I had been sent to safe house after safe house. The Fire Circle had been hosting some sort of important contingent at the time, making Headquarters—an already dangerous target—too dangerous to add Talon targets into the mix. It must have been Rose and more of her Rebel Darkness Faction members.
Dacher conferred briefly with his Command. Despite a lot of nodding and whispers, when he finally looked back to Rose, he did so with a frown. “I can offer you maybe a dozen Hunters, maybe two, but with so many with magik who could potentially fall to this poison, it’s a risk we’re not sure if we can take.”
Words rose to my lips. I bit them back. Was it really my place to speak? I wasn’t on the Command or a Leader candidate. But they’d invited Kian and me here anyway, probably thanks to our experience with Talon.
I stood, my hands balling into fists at my sides. “Someone has to do something. If you need volunteers, I’m in. This affects all of us and at some point, we’re going to have to react if we have any hope of stopping Talon. Mitigating even a bit of the damage they’re doing is worth the risk.”
Kian nodded beside me. I knew he’d agree. Besides, we both were definitely done being on house arrest here at Headquarters.
Dacher inhaled sharply. “I’ll take it under consideration. Thank you for coming here today, Rose. You’re risking a great deal keeping us informed.”
Ben lifted his chin. Not much, but enough to get his opinion across. What the hell had happened between him and this nurse that he had such clearly strong disdain for her?
Rose nodded and stuck her hands in the pockets of her jacket. “The Rebel Darkness Faction wants to be allied with the Hunter Circles. We have the same goals. And keeping Talon from having a grip on Boston is a major one.”
“Then let’s see to it that we stop them,” Dacher said. “I’ll be in contact with you regarding our volunteers. I’ll try to assemble as many as possible, with Hydron’s help, of course. Assuming they still want to continue good relations with us.”
Dacher then dismissed us all.
I led Kian out of the great hall and down into a room off the small cafeteria. “Think Dacher is actually going to let us out of here just to be put in the line of fire?”
“I don’t know,” Kian said, watching the others exit the great hall. Brian and the Hydron agents didn’t pay us any attention. “But anything that gets me out of Headquarters is good enough for me.”
“My only question is how they’re going to train enough of us to be nurses’ aids overnight without rising suspicion.” Okay, that wasn’t my only question about Rose’s plan, but it was the biggest one.
Kian turned to me. “Something tells me if that nurse wants her plan to work, Hydron’s going to have to get a hell of a lot more involved than Dacher wants.”
“Great.” More reason for they and Brian to stick around. “As long as they develop the platypus venom cure, I’ll be happy.”
A ring sounded from his pocket. Kian withdrew his phone and picked up the call. “Hello?” His eyes went wide. “Syd?”
Oh, shit. As far as I knew, Kian hadn’t seen Syd since we’d escaped to her place in London three months ago. Kian must have spoken to her at least once so she knew we’d survived our encounter with Veynix.
“Slow down, Syd,” Kian said.
I stepped closer to him. “Is she okay?”
Kian’s brow furrowed. This close, I could hear her quick words but not make out what they were. “Okay, okay. Where are you right now? Are you safe?” Sydney yelled back something loud that had Kian pulling the phone away from his ear. “Okay! I’ll be right there. Yes, I’ll bring Ava too. I’m with her right now. Bye.”
Kian hung up the phone and looked at me. “Sydney’s saying a number of the Ember witches she knows, the ones she was protecting by gleaning info from demons at Night Fire earlier this year, are infected and freaking out. She needs help. We need to go—now.” He reached for my arm, readying to teleportante.
I jumped back out of his range. “Hold on a second.”
His golden eyes went wild. “Syd’s in danger, Ava. We need to go. She helped when we needed it. It’s time to repay that.”
“I know,” I said, pleading with him. “But given Dacher could be about to order us to area hospitals, we need to at least let them know where we’re going and why first.”
Kian’s jaw locked. “There’s no time. She’s at her London flat, locked up in the bathroom because she’s got a half-dozen angry, confused, out-of-control Ember witches tearing up her living room.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Shit.”
“Exactly,” Kian said slowly. “Let’s go. We’re going to teleportante in and try to requirem as many as possible right away.”
“And the rest?” I asked, a gulp working its way through my throat.
Kian lifted an eyebrow. “Here’s hoping you work your magik without problems. It sounds like we’re going to need it.”
“We should still tell someone where we’re going,” I said.
Kian nodded, then grabbed my arm and led me down the hall to Lissandra’s desk in the lobby. She looked up when we appeared, but Kian spoke before she could question us. “Tell Dacher we’ll be right back if he asks for us. Teleportante.”
Then we were gone.
Chapter 12
Chaos. Absolute chaos was what we found upon landing in Sydney’s London apartment. It was like we’d walked out of one war zone in Headquarters and into another. Though they didn’t appear to be attacking each other, the Ember witches’ magik flowed freely from their hands, red-orange glowing orbs that sailed across the room. The scent of ozone permeated the space.
Kian and I ducked into the bathroom where Syd had called us from.
“How the hell aren’t the police already here?” Kian asked her.
Sydney pressed herself against the wall and wrapped her arms tightly around her middle. “Magik on the walls. I had some new things installed after we retreated here from Night Fire. Supposedly it also blocked sound and impacts, too, but I hadn’t had a chance to test it until today.”
“And these witches suddenly started acting out of control?” I asked, looking out into the living room as the group of them, normal-looking except for the magik pouring out of their hands, paced across the space or sat curled up on couches.
Syd nodded. “Me too. It was like a switch. The only common denominator is the half-keg we bought last night. We had a bit of a party, and…”
Her eyes met Kian’s, then Kian looked to me and said, “Talon must have found her and spiked the contents of the keg with the poison.”
“Of course they did.” I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath. “Talon has taken to poisoning normal magik-users with this new concoction. It’s forcing a change in their magik to Ember witch ether.”
Syd’s eyes went wide. “And people are surviving it?”
“So far,” I said.
“Not without going mad first,” Kian said. “We can probably take these guys to Headquarters for their own safety. But I should warn you that the Ether Circle Prison or their Headquarters might end up serving as a secondary containment location.”
Syd looked about as excited for that prospect as the rest of us had when Dacher had announced it. “If it’ll keep them safe. Us safe. I don’t know what’s going on anymore.”
“I think we’ve established that Talon needs a sudden surge of Ember witches for some reason,” I said. “Likely for soldiers. We knew they were planning an attack on the Hunter Circles, but we thought it foiled.”
/> Syd pushed off the wall and stood in the doorway, watching her friends. “Better to get out of here, then. Even if it might mean a temporary residence at Ether Circle Prison. I don’t trust Talon not to attack if they knew enough to poison us.”
Kian touched a hand to her arm. “Are you sure? You might not even be in this mess if it weren’t for us.”
Syd shrugged. “Ember witches always end up in messes. It was bound to happen eventually. I’ll gather everyone together.”
“I’ll lead the teleportante when you do,” Kian said, then turned to me. “Do you want to head back to Headquarters and warn Dacher?”
I pressed my lips together. How had things led to us ending up here? “Sure thing. See you soon.”
I brought myself directly outside of Dacher’s office this time, forgoing any intermediaries. All along, only one thought boomeranged around my mind: Why now? Why, after so many years of trafficking Ember witches to make stronger demons, was Talon now forcing magik-users to become them, and to make current Ember witches lose utter control of their magik like never before?
Luckily, Dacher’s office door was already open and others were starting to pile out of it. Hydron agents, some of Ben’s team, and the Fire Circle Command. I caught Ben as he was passing by.
“Hey,” I said, reaching for his arm.
He looked down at me, a little surprised. “Weren’t you just…?”
I nodded. “Yes. Kian got a call from one of his Ember witch friends. She and other witches are holed up in her apartment, losing their magik and their minds. We need to bring them here for everyone’s safety.”
Ben blinked as he processed my words. “There’s barely any room left.”
Nodding again, I gestured past Ben’s shoulder at Dacher. “We’re going to have to escort them to Ether Head Circle Headquarters immediately. Or the prison if that’s the plan.”