Embers in the Blood: Deadly Trades Series: Book Two

by Jessica Gunn

  “Look out!” Veres shouted.

  I glanced over just in time to see her shoot a blast of Ember ether our way, aimed directly for Will. No!

  With all the strength I had left—which wasn’t much—I twisted my body, pulling Will along with me. The ether blast collided with my shoulder, burning the skin and possibly some muscle too. Smoke rose from the wound as my nervous system went into panic mode. Pain seared my shoulder from my elbow to my neck as if I’d been branded with a hot iron—or worse. I cried, but my throat seized, unable to draw in enough air, and instead I gripped Will’s hands for misguided comfort rather than to save myself from strangulation.

  Another set of Ember witches grabbed Veres from behind, restraining her.

  “That’s enough!” someone bellowed. Mason.

  The Ember witches stopped immediately. Will pulled his hands away from my throat and dropped them to his sides. I gasped, air finally making its way into my lungs. I dropped to my knees, trying to pull in as much air as I could before Mason ordered Will to attack me again.

  Footsteps echoed closer, black boots that appeared on the periphery of my vision. Mason stood above me, a weird mixture of confusion and amusement on his face.

  Pain throbbed in my shoulder beneath an overwhelming sense of burning. As if Veres’s attack had scorched past my skin and muscle right to my soul.

  Mason dropped down to one knee and stared me straight in the eyes. “Why are you here?”

  Good. If he was close, maybe I could still get this fucking syringe into him. “Why do you think, you asshole?” I spat.

  He clicked his tongue and stood. “You came into Landshaft of all places to try stopping me again?” Mason asked as he paced away from me. “I thought you learned your lesson beneath Crimson.”

  “Anyone from the Fire Circle will tell you I’m stubborn as hell,” I said. “Takes me a while to learn lessons like that.”

  Beside me, Will snickered quietly. He snickered.

  Hope flashed inside me. Will was still there, underneath it all. Mason couldn’t control every part of him.

  Mason turned suddenly and charged me. I backpedaled until my back hit a wall.

  “You’re ruining everything!” he screamed in my face, spittle flying onto my lips and cheeks.

  A fresh wave of pain burst through my injured shoulder. I shifted, leaving behind a trail of blood on the white-painted wall.

  “That’s kind of the point,” I said dryly. Even I was surprised by how weak my voice was. Something warm trickled down my arm from my injured shoulder. Not good.

  Rage flashed across Mason’s eyes. He sent his fist flying into the wall, enveloping it in red-orange ether magik at the last second. The magik protected his fist from damage, but it still sailed into the wall and found a home there.

  I shook beneath him, although I wasn’t sure if that was from fear or the burning wound frying my shoulder like a grill. I’d never been hit by ether magik from a demon before, never mind tainted Ember ether.

  “We are this close to finishing this program and putting an end to global war before it begins,” Mason yelled. “And you insist on stopping it every step of the damn way!”

  I gathered what strength I had left and lifted my chin defiantly. “Because what you’re doing is already starting the war.”

  He squinted his eyes and through them, I saw the gears working in his head. Piecing together what I knew with what I might not.

  “Your plan to make war with the Neuians by using Ember witches is flawed, Mason,” I said. “I don’t care what Veynix’s initial ideas were. What Jerrick promised would happen. You can’t fight ancient civilizations with the same magik from which the rest of ours is derived. I know you know the truth about them, how the Entity was theirs.”

  Mason’s jaw slid left and right, his teeth grinding together. “That’s what they want you to think. That the Neuians are impossible to fight. But everyone falls if you know where to hit them.”

  Like straight into your throat with the syringe.

  Not yet, though. I needed Mason to be a little closer and a lot more distracted.

  “And you know how to attack the Neuians and succeed?” I asked. “Seems rather ambitious to me.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I’d know a lot more if you’d stop interrupting my attempts to fix my army.”

  “Oh?” I asked. “Something wrong?”

  Mason blinked, but it was enough of a tell to know I was right.

  “Sorry about that. What’s missing?” I asked. “Wonder if it has to do with me. I mean, this all started with Veynix right? He was obsessed with my ability to handle his mutated platypus venom—”

  Mason struck me across the face with his open palm. “Enough. Even you aren’t that special.”

  “But you sure are insecure as hell, aren’t you?” I asked. “Is Jerrick going to kick you out if you fail or something? Worried the Hunter Circles won’t take you back?”

  Mason lifted his hand to hit me again, but the blow never came.

  “You want to know what’s wrong, Mason? Using one type of magik-user against another.” He had to know that. So why was he acting like he was so sure this would work? “The balance of the world will never let it happen. And Veres alone is not going to be enough to keep cianzas from tilting. I have to believe there’re so many more cianzas on the Neuians’ plane of existence.”

  Mason’s eyes narrowed as he studied me, listened to my words. “You honestly believe in all that balance talk?”

  “Do you?” I shot back. “Because that’s really what matters, isn’t it? If you’re right, then nothing matters beyond raising an army and getting them to the Neuian plane of existence. But if I’m right, you’ll all die trying to enact your crusade—and you might take the whole world with it.”

  He continued staring at me. Not a single word in response. Too bad his silence spoke louder than any word he’d ever said to me before.

  “But I guess you don’t care,” I said. “Not like you have anything for you here anyway. Just a couple hundred slaves and fodder for Autumn Fire. A few dozen force-changed Ember witches that could turn on you at any moment if you lose or break that gemstone.” I shrugged, biting back the pain from my shoulder. “If you fail, the Neuians will come for us anyway. Either way you look at this, there’s a good chance you’ll be dead.”

  Mason withdrew his fist from the wall and backed up a step. He paced away while he spoke. “The only thing I believe is that the Hunter Circles hate Ember witches. They’d rather see us imprisoned or powerless than on their side in this war.”

  As he was talking, I turned into the wall, pretending to use it for support when really I was digging out the syringe from my bra. I’d only have this one shot.

  “Me?” Mason asked. “I’m leading my people to glory and strength. And when we take out the Neuians and the Hunter Circles, our line will be vindicated and no longer prejudiced against.”

  My stomach churned. He thought he was doing this to redeem Ember witches? They had nothing to redeem themselves for! It wasn’t like it was Mason’s fault or any other witch’s that long ago, one of their line had made a shit deal with a demon.

  Anger renewed, I pinned Mason with a glare. “That’s because the only people who survive a crusade like that are unknowing humans, innocents caught in the middle, and demons. Which, for the record, you are right now, Mason. You’re not an Ember witch any more than I am.”

  “That may be true,” Mason said as he nodded. “But that’s fine. Demons are the only people who’ve ever accepted me for who I am. And demons have been the only ones who went to any length to save or care for me after I was taken as a child.”

  “Yeah, and then they turned you into a demon and pumped you full with god only knows what kind of poison, aging you, turning you into their own weapon,” I spat. “Don’t you see they’ve used you? Talon were the demons who kidnapped you in the first place.”

  Mason turned back to me. “Veynix helped me see my potential. Without him
and his vision, I would have died.”

  I rested my hands at my sides. My fingers curled around the syringe, hiding it. “Too bad you didn’t die with him. He, too, was a coward in the end.”

  Mason’s body went rigid. “Don’t talk about him like that.”

  “Why not? It’s true. He blew himself up rather than live to fight another day. He was a coward through and through. And all the while he was using you as a means to an end.”

  “No!” he said, charging toward me, his arms outstretched and glowing with red-orange ether.

  I lifted my hands in defense and righted the syringe. Mason’s hands closed in on my head, but I ducked out of the way and came up, aiming the needle at his throat. He reached up and caught it at the last second. His grip was strong and he forced my hand back at an unnatural angle, on the verge of breaking any number of bones.

  “What is this?” he demanded.

  I gulped. My one shot was gone.

  “No answer?” He scoffed and took it out of my hand with his free one. “Then let’s see what it does, shall we?”

  My eyes widened as Mason aimed the syringe full of poison strong enough to kill a demon in ten minutes right for my neck. A sharp pinch pricked my skin.

  I felt every milliliter of the liquid as it was forced into my artery and pumped throughout my system.

  Chapter 29

  The burning was instant, clawing at my nervous system in a sudden burst of white-hot pain. I was used to Veynix’s venom by now, but this was indeed different. Tenfold the reaction, a hundredfold the paralyzing pain. Already my skin grew hot, as if I were actually on fire.

  I fell to my knees, gasping through the agony, only one thought on my mind: If this was designed to kill Mason in under ten minutes, how fast would it kill me?

  “No!” Will screamed. His familiar voice was the only thing that made it through the haze of pain fully enveloping my being. “Ava!”

  A massive wave of red-orange ether shot past me, momentarily taking my focus from the venom working its way through my body and putting it on something else. Veres stood a few feet from me, fully immersed in Ember ether flames that whipped around her body like a cloak. She’d fired a shot at Mason, who’d dodged it.

  “Move!” Veres shouted.

  I tried, sliding along the floor because my legs felt too weak to bother standing, but every single movement sent another tidal wave of agony ripping through me. My skin felt clammy despite burning up. Breathing was getting harder, as if a large object was sitting on my chest, constricting it. Maybe one was. For all I knew, nothing was real anymore. My vision swam, nausea rolling around. I gasped for air.

  This is it.

  The floor began to shake. The wall with the double metal doors burst inward. I ducked to escape shrapnel from the explosion as bits of steel, cement, and drywall rained down on us. Dust mixed with smoke, making it impossible to see farther than a few feet.

  “What is this?” Mason shouted into the mess.

  Warm hands grabbed my shoulders, hauling me up and sending my stomach roiling. Bile slicked my throat, but I swallowed it down. I wouldn’t give Mason that satisfaction. Not even while dying.

  “Hang in there,” someone said in my ear. Familiar. Close.

  I looked up, peering through the smoke at the person dragging me over to a wall. He propped me up against it and dug around in his jacket with a twisted arm.

  “Brian,” I croaked.

  He nodded. “I know. Shit—I was afraid this was going to happen. Here.”

  There was another sharp pinch in my neck. But instead of more of that fiery, searing venom, a coolness washed over me. Sobering. It cleared my mind and eased my breathing.

  “It’s an antidote,” Brian said as fighting began around us once more. “It should be rather instantaneous. But stay here until you’re confident you can move.”

  I blinked, staring at him as the antidote worked its way across my body. Lightness and relief replaced pain at every turn. Though I wouldn’t have been surprised in the least if I had long-lasting nerve damage after all the hits from this fucking venom I’d taken over the last year.

  “How are you here?” I asked him.

  Brian had been ordered to leave Landshaft by Jerrick. The last time I saw him, he’d been walking out of Talon’s Drum and onto the street outside.

  Brian’s eyes met mine. “I tracked Kian. I knew it’d be too dangerous to follow you and Will by myself. So I went after Kian first and saved him.”

  An insane yell sounded from behind us. I looked over Brian’s shoulder to watch Kian and Veres attacking the Ember witches and Mason. Somehow, I’d missed Mason ordering them to attack again. Kian blindly attacked them, screaming with every hit. His face was red, his eyes bulging, and on his arms were newer cuts etched into patterns running up his rippling muscles.

  No, not cuts.

  Words.

  I frowned and placed my palms on the floor beside me, forcing myself to stand. My knees wavered. I leaned back against the wall for support. “He did it, didn’t he? He found some here.”

  Brian looked at me with a confused look. “Did what?”

  I nodded at Kian. “Demon’s Blood.”

  His eyes went wide. “That’s what he injected himself with? He didn’t find that here. He said he brought it as insurance.”

  My stomach dropped. Kian had said he was done with that crap. Although now that I was out of commission and so was Will, maybe… maybe I didn’t have the strength to be mad at him for it anymore.

  As long as it didn’t kill him.

  “Here,” Brian said, handing me something from the floor. He pressed the hilt of a short sword into my palm. “Thought you could use a weapon.”

  I lifted it and inspected the metal. It was old, but it’d have to do. “Thanks.” My chest still heaved with every breath. But if we didn’t get back into this fight and at the very least get Will, Kian, and Veres out, we’d all die here today.

  I already almost had.

  “These are innocents, Brian,” I said. “Try not to kill them if you don’t have to.”

  Brian nodded and threw himself into the fray, another short sword in his own hand. He swung it at the witches, using it to put distance between him and them, and knocking them out with a hit to the temple of the hilt whenever possible.

  I let him be and focused on where Kian was dodging Will’s attacks while also fending off witches trying to get to him. Gripping the handle of the sword tighter, I made my way through. Mason’s guards, who’d accompanied him here but had remained quiet since, cut me off.

  These guys I could kill.

  A flurry of slashes and blows followed, including the very end of a dagger catching my ether-burned shoulder. I yelped, jumping back and dropping my guard just long enough for one of the Talon soldiers to take a swipe at my stomach. As he did so, a rush of warmth ran over me and all at once I felt the ground and every piece of metal in the room. In my attempt to pull back and dodge the demon’s attack, I also pulled my short sword from my hand, through the air, and hovered it there in time to block the demon’s attack.

  My magik was back, the requirem gone.

  “There we go,” Mason said, coming from out of nowhere. He raised one of his hands that was already growing a large ether-flame of Ember magik.

  I squeezed my fists tight and pulled my elbows against my abdomen. A few sections of the floor broke off and floated upward at my command. “I’m not going to let you walk out of here alive, Mason.”

  Mason hurled the glowing orb of Ember ether directly at my head. I blocked it by swinging my arm up, but only a small, two-inch-wide section of floor followed. It diffused Mason’s attack but enough ether escaped out the sides to burn into the air around me.

  Damn this magik. Why wouldn’t it just work?

  Mason hurled another glowing orb my way, then a full wave of energy. I swung like a boxer, trying to pull the scraps of metal and cement with me, but every shot only barely deflected the full force of Mason’
s attacks.

  My injured shoulder ached with every punch I threw at the air. Somehow it felt more painful to swing at nothing than to land a blow. But Mason was too quick, too fluid in his motions for me to keep matching him. Eventually, one of us would slip, and I had a sickening feeling it’d be me first.

  I threw up my arms and pushed my palms out, commanding the metal shards to fly directly at Mason as I backed up a few paces. He drew his magik around himself as a shield.

  “You can’t win,” he mocked. “The numbers aren’t on your side.”

  “Why won’t you just teleportante away?!” Kian shouted at a group of Ember witches. Some of them had just stopped, watching the battle.

  Mason’s control is dwindling. Maybe my potshots were having an effect after all.

  “They’re innocents!” I yelled to Kian. “They were stolen from hospitals and brought to Landshaft. They don’t know what a word-magik is!”

  Kian’s red face paled. Was he already coming down off his Demon’s Blood high?

  “Gotcha,” Mason said as he grabbed a fistful of my hair. He yanked backward, dragging me with him. “I don’t really understand my master’s obsession with you, but I don’t share the same affliction.” He drew a knife from somewhere on his person and held it up to my throat.

  Another blaze of red-orange energy careened our way. Veres stood on the other side of the room, fending off Ember witches with little success. Her power was waning—Will’s power was leaving her system. Already?

  Her shot soared toward Mason and me. I twisted like I had before, but this time put Mason in the line of fire. I felt the cool metal of his blade slide along my throat, not deep enough to damage as intended.

  When the blast hit him, I pushed him farther into it. His body convulsed, his chest smoking as the ether burned into him. His shirt tore, falling to pieces on the ground.

  Revealing older burns… and carvings of his own.

  Just like the kind Kian had.

  I blinked, staring at them. If the Hunter Circles were the ones who’d given him those scars, that’d explain his vendetta against them. But if Kian bore the same, then…