Hunter Circles Series Books 1-3: An Urban Fantasy Box Set

by Jessica Gunn

  Still, Drew’s death had been my own fault.

  I’d come back to the house before long, unable to be around my mother and cousins. At least there was one small reprieve from all the death: I didn’t have the luxury of grieving when a small war might lie on the horizon.

  I opened one eye and peered across the coffee table to my other half. Well, not really my other half. Not romantically. Shawn was my prophesied buddy with whom I’d somehow supposedly save the world.

  Right. That wouldn’t be happening. Not as long as Shawn remained magik-less.

  Nate sat on the other side, the three of us making an awkward triangle. I’d laid out some crystals on the table. Incense wafted up from my burner, though it did nothing to help clear my mind.

  It’d only been a week since we’d attacked Shadow Crest and rescued Riley, and already something major had happened. Anyone who went on denying this war between good and evil, between Darkness and the Powers, was coming now deserved whatever they got. Because when neutral points like Hunter’s Guild fell, so did every single other rule in the book.

  “You sure you don’t feel anything?” I asked Shawn, but the question was more for Nate. Nate was an ether-shaper, which meant he could feel most ether-based magiks. He was part of the reason Giyano’s twisted demon power hadn’t affected me as much as it could have, since Nate had pulled some of the dark ether out of me.

  Not enough, though. My magik was still dark. Altered. Twisted. We just didn’t know how much.

  “Nothing,” both Nate and Shawn answered at the same time.

  I rolled my eyes, leaned back from the table, and crossed my arms. “This is useless. Are you sure they got it right?”

  Shawn shrugged and plucked a crystal from the table. “That’s a question for Jaffrin. My life was perfectly normal until a few weeks ago.”

  “Join the club.” Until a few weeks ago, I’d worked alone and enjoyed it. Then Jaffrin had assigned me to Ben’s team and everything had changed. Now here I sat, waiting for Shawn’s magik to show up and help us fulfill a stuffy, centuries-old prophecy.

  Everything about Shawn was a mystery, even after a week. His dark hair and brown eyes, his fantastic way with weapons. But he couldn’t so much as make a poof of magik appear.

  The Alzan prophecy is fairly clear: one Son and one Daughter of the Powers will rise up and, with their combined power, save the city of Alzan from the darkest of shadows. Which I’d taken to mean the cianza that was probably at the city’s center. Because destroying a city on its own didn’t make sense. Lady Azar clearly wanted it for something. Cianzas were power, and she’d need that power to overtake her brother, Ammon, and claim Darkness’s throne from her father, Aloysius.

  And if Cianza Boston was strong enough to take out all of New England if it exploded… I could only imagine the plane-destroying effects of Cianza Alzan going buh-bye.

  Then Lady Azar could start again, ruler of whatever was left after the destruction. Meanwhile, the rest of us just wanted to live.

  “How’d you even meet up with the Fire Circle, anyway?” I was sure this had been covered at some point over the past week, but nothing about Shawn’s story added up.

  “I was here looking at colleges and got attacked,” he said. “Avery’s team rescued me. That’s when Jaffrin figured out who I was, at least regarding the prophecy.”

  My scalp was suddenly itchy, like my brain had a built-in bullshit detector. “But how? How did he know?”

  “How did he know with you?” Shawn countered.

  I looked to Nate. Is this guy for real?

  Nate shrugged as if he’d heard my question—an impossible thing.

  Thanks, man.

  “My father was killed by Giyano, a former Shadow Crest member, when I was a baby,” I said. “Giyano had left them once. Then he helped us take down Lady Azar a week ago. I always assumed something that happened after my father died—since Giyano was involved—led them to believe I’m the Daughter of Alzan.”

  Shawn’s brow furrowed. “So you don’t have it?”

  “Have what?”

  “The birthmark,” he said, like I should know what he was talking about.

  He rolled up the sleeve of his shirt and pointed to a small dot on the inside of his elbow. It was larger than a normal freckle but pale. I’d have missed it if he hadn’t pointed it out.

  “It’s two letters,” he said. “So small and unrecognizable that I’d missed it for most of my life. I asked my parents; they didn’t know. And my brothers didn’t have it, either. Then Jaffrin zeroed in on the birthmark within minutes of meeting me. Like he’d been checking every new Hunter for it his entire career.”

  “That I believe,” Nate said.

  I rolled up the sleeve of my cardigan and inspected the inside of my elbow. Just like I thought. “Nothing. Look.” I stood and moved to Shawn’s side of the coffee table. “I don’t have that birthmark.”

  But there was a small scar. I closed my eyes. “What the hell. They hid it.”

  “What?” Nate asked.

  I squeezed my eyes shut as anger rose within me. “The birthmark. If I did have one, my mother or Jaffrin hid it. When I was six, I fell off a bike and rolled into some pricker bushes. I have some small scars on my legs from the accident. My mother told me this mark on my elbow was from that day.”

  Idiot. I couldn’t believe I’d trusted her word. That I’d never questioned it when I’d doubted her plenty of other times, especially when she’d made me join a Fire Circle team that lived mere miles from Cianza Boston.

  “That’s how Jaffrin knew, then,” Shawn said. “It identifies us.”

  “Screw Jaffrin. And screw this obvious, super shitty identifier. I mean, if Darkness knew…” But of course they did. That was why my mother had cut my birthmark off in the first place. “Fucking hell.”

  Shawn’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “I guess you two don’t get along?”

  “No. Not at all. I hadn’t talked to her for a few weeks, but then she became the only person capable of saving Ben’s son.”

  And that was the last either of us would speak of it. Shawn knew by now not to ask, not because Ben having a son was a huge secret, but because of Riley’s magik.

  Riley had the Power, a rare type of magik that allowed its user to simultaneously house both ether-based magik and elemental-based magik at the same time. Thousands of years ago, hundreds of people had had this ability, probably as some sort of balancing act between good and evil. But both sides had hunted those individuals down until few remained.

  Riley was the first recorded case in hundreds of years, and because of that, Jaffrin and Ben had decided it was better to hide the nature of Riley’s magik from everyone except our team.

  “I’m glad she was able to help with Ben’s son,” Shawn said. “How’s Ben doing, by the way?”

  Ben had decided to leave Riley with Sandra for their own good, but from what I could tell, he wrestled with his decision every day. “Not well. I can’t imagine how hard that is.”

  “Me either,” Shawn said. “I try to imagine if it’d been my brothers Lady Azar had taken, how I’d react. What I’d do. It’s not pretty.”

  “We’ve all lost someone to Shadow Crest,” Nate said. “Thanks to Giyano specifically, actually.”

  Shawn fell silent, looking down at his hands. “Sounds like we should get him, then.”

  Like it wasn’t already on my list. Too bad my magik craved his, called out for Giyano’s twisted demonic power like a siren. Whatever he’d done to me in Shadow Crest’s lair, it’d been enough to tint my magik dark. To make me want more. And that terrified me. I’d spent my whole life killing demons of Darkness. It’d been me or them for longer than I could remember.

  And now… now I wasn’t so sure who the enemy was. Giyano had said that the Powers wanted to use my magik for not-so-good things, despite Alzan needing it to save the city. I wasn’t sure I believed him, but he had turned against Lady Azar to help us save Riley. That had to co
unt for something. I just didn’t know what.

  “We will,” Nate said as he stood. “One day. Right now, we need to focus on finding out which demon attacked Hunter’s Guild.”

  “Assuming it was a demon at all,” I said. “It could have been a witch. I didn’t feel any leftover auras except for the big one. But Ember witches have demon-tinted magik. It could have been one of them, or Shadow Crest, or—”

  Shawn interrupted. “We’ll know soon. Hopefully by then, I’ll have figured out this Alzan magik thing.”

  I peered at him. Being one half of this prophecy despite not having so much as a drip of an aura didn’t make sense. Shawn was literally a clean slate. He could have been anyone in this world of magik and demons. And yet fate had chosen him as the Son of Alzan.

  “Yeah.” I bent down and scooped up one of the semi-precious stones from the coffee table. “Meditate on this. It’s for clarity and focus.”

  Shawn took the stone from me and closed his fist around it. “Will do. I’m gonna go get some lunch down the street.”

  With that, my “other half” was gone. And still powerless.

  I KNOCKED on the door frame to Ben’s small room, filled wall to wall with sports memorabilia. He was sitting on his bed, a tablet in his lap. “Hey.”

  He looked up, eyes brightening as soon as he saw me. “Hey, what’s up?”

  Things had been weird between us since rescuing Riley. Maybe it was my fault for kissing him, but—it was what it was. Ben was a good guy when he wasn’t being an arrogant asshole, hell-bent on saving the world alone. And in the week since saving Riley, he’d mellowed out some.

  “Shawn’s still magik-less. But we did uncover one fun tidbit of information.”

  Ben’s eyes widened. “Yeah?”

  He gestured for me to come in the room, so I did, stopping just short of his bed. I tried to ignore it, but something about Ben made my insides do happy somersaults.

  “We have the same birthmark,” I said, showing him the inside of my elbow. “Or, we did before my mother had mine cut off. That’s how Jaffrin knew he was the other half of the Alzan prophecy. Not because of some magik he doesn’t have.”

  Ben set his tablet aside and crossed his arms. “See, that still doesn’t make sense.”

  “Nope.”

  “Not all of us were born with magik, though,” he offered as explanation. A good one, too.

  “But Shawn’s twenty-four. His magik should have shown up by now.”

  Ben squinted, then shook his head. “Has anyone actually looked at the wording of this prophecy? I know when you told me, it wasn’t verbatim.”

  “Beats me. I only know what Jaffrin and my mother told me. Maybe it’s time I go find an actual copy of the damn thing.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t before,” Ben said.

  “I was busy joining this team. And stalking demons before that. And training from a young age before that. Besides, they never would have let me get my hands on the actual document until now.”

  Silence filled a lull in our conversation, and it wasn’t an easy one. Until just now, I hadn’t spoken to Ben since I’d stormed out of Hunter’s Guild the previous night like a child. Like he’d done on the night we met, even if those were incredibly different circumstances.

  Still… “Sorry I ran out last night.”

  His eyes softened and he released a breath. “It’s okay. We’re each allowed one freak-out-and-run a month.”

  I smirked. “Only one a month? Are you capable of limiting yourself to that?”

  Ben shrugged. “Guess we’ll see, won’t we?”

  My legs suddenly felt like jelly, as if I’d carried the weight of everything—being a Hunter, joining the team, Drew’s death—for too long. I walked the few steps between Ben and me and sat on the edge of his bed. “Drew’s always been the one who had his life together. He was the better Hunter and a much better person. Why he chose a job at the Guild, I’ll never understand.”

  “I might.”

  I glanced up at Ben. “What do you mean?”

  “I’d take a job there if it meant knowing the movements of Darkness. Especially if I had family in the Circles. Maybe he did it to glean information for Jaffrin and the Fire Circle as much as he did it to protect you.”

  “Some protection. Nothing can keep me safe. Not him, not my father. Not whatever my mother did to deface this stupid birthmark.” I held up my elbow. Pricker bushes. Why had I ever believed that story?

  “Look,” Ben said, leaning forward. “I can’t pretend to know Drew or his story, but what I can tell you is that as someone who’s pretty family-oriented myself, I get it. And he’d be happy to know you’re going to go after his killer.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I am?”

  He leveled me with a look. “I’m not stupid, Krystin. Just promise me you’ll do it with the team behind you and not run off on your own.”

  Like you did when I met Drew the first time. Ben’s thoughts sifted through my head, nearly screaming. Damn this telepathy sometimes. He really didn’t want me to go alone.

  “I promise.” I also made a mental promise to work on reinforcing my telepathic walls.

  No one else’s thoughts had made it through in years. Until Ben, the loudest voice I’d ever heard. I wasn’t sure what that meant, if anything—aside from maybe that Ben was more powerful than we knew. Given Jaffrin’s assembly of us onto one magik-filled team—minus Shawn—I believed it.

  I stood from Ben’s bed. “I need to go confirm funeral arrangements with Drew’s wife, and how they’re going to get him out west to his home.” I frowned, thinking of the time we’d gone to Disney World together. “I’m going after this demon, Ben. But I’ll do it with you and the team. Until then…”

  “Get some rest,” he said. “Please. We’re not on duty until later.”

  I nodded and headed for the door on unsure feet. Being with Ben, in this room, felt a lot like an escape from the world. One I so desperately needed right now.

  But there was one other person who might be able to offer that, and they had the information I needed.

  CHAPTER 5

  BEN

  The afternoon was uneventful, especially compared to last night’s massacre. My team ended up playing babysitter for the scene at Hunter’s Guild while Jaffrin discussed the situation with representatives of the Ether Head Circle. They’d stood there all high and mighty, stoic in their yellow robes, save for nodding their heads in acknowledgment every now and again just to prove they weren’t statues.

  No one opposed them for any reason, and Jaffrin wasn’t any different. In fact, I’d be willing to bet he was terrified of them. Almost as scared as he’d been when he’d seen the destruction of Hunter’s Guild the previous night.

  When Jaffrin had let me and my team off for the night, I’d returned to the house with them. But now, at almost 1 A.M., I was stuffing pillows under my blankets. The oldest and most childish trick in the book. No one should come looking for me, but if they did, they’d believe my story of being a sound sleeper.

  Hopefully.

  I got dressed and tied on my boots before looking at myself in the mirror. Eyes red from lack of sleep or stress, likely both, had turned me from a normal-looking person into this stranger with wrinkles around his eyes and hair that needed to be cut.

  I flipped off my reflection and said, “Teleportante.” The world around me bled away, shimmering into the lobby of Fire Circle Headquarters.

  Derek, the nighttime front desk admin, glanced up from his computer, not startled. Hunters teleported into and out of Headquarters all the time. Most just didn’t do it at one in the morning.

  “Hey, Hallen,” he said, stretching out a hand.

  I shook it and nodded my head toward the hallway. “Any new jobs on the board?”

  “Yeah.” A beat. “You really out for more?”

  “Have to keep busy somehow,” I said, putting one foot in front of the other. “I’ll see you later.”

  He shrug
ged and returned to his work. “Don’t die, please. I’d hate to be the guy who told you to take a job that killed you.”

  I waved him off and continued to the job board in the main hallway. Fire Circle Headquarters had a list of to-dos that the freelancers could grab, but anyone bored enough was allowed to also take on solo missions. The ones listed on the granite slab, papers taped to its surface, weren’t too dangerous. But every now and then some big bounty showed up. Those were the ones I liked the most, especially when I’d still been a new Hunter.

  The Fire Circle paid their Hunters okay. But those big bounty jobs, even if you had to split it with one or two other people, paid for plenty of extracurriculars. Like all that alcohol I wasn’t supposed to be drinking anymore.

  I’d come here every night since I’d dropped off Riley with Sandra and had taken on two or more jobs each time. Whatever kept me busy and my mind too occupied to think of Riley and how the hell I was going to make Boston safe for him again.

  Boston and its cianza were one thing. Shadow Crest was another. Darkness was a beast all its own.

  The job board was fairly empty. Between the regular Fire Circle freelancers and all the extra missions I’d taken on this past week, we’d cleared out the listings.

  My heart sank, fingers itching for a fight. I could always hit up the normal demon haunts, but that seemed like a shitty idea given the attack on Hunter’s Guild last night. Actual hits, taking out specific demons instead of a random one, was the more logical option.

  “Dammit,” I hissed, reaching up for the remaining jobs.

  A drug raid—dharska. That shit was everywhere these days, and someone in the Circles had wanted this particular buyer gone. I’d had enough of that crap for a while.

  There was also a request for someone to exterminate a pair of lower-level demons at a bar downtown. According to the listing, they frequently took midnight snacks there, feeding on human energy almost every night. Power-hungry idiots.

  I sighed and grabbed both jobs off the board and left the other listings. The bar wouldn’t take long, not after Krystin had taught me so much about my magik. As for the dharksa raid… If I played it safe, it’d be all right. Hopefully. Not like I’d have Nate around to save my ass again.