by Jessica Gunn
Avery moved, collecting Hunters as he went, telling them to teleportante to the Guild or Fire Circle Headquarters for safety as the earthquake grew from tremors to violent shaking.
Rachel and I rushed to Shawn, who’d moved for cover. “Are you okay?”
He nodded quickly. “I’m fine. She originally came for me. I don’t think she expected to find Kinder.”
“Good for us then,” I said. “Nate’s going to get Krystin. Then we’re out of here—”
A scream cut through all the chaos and fighting, straight down to my bones. Pain and power and fear all wrapped into one. Krystin’s scream.
Krystin shoved Nate off of her, her hands wielding magik. Multiple magiks. Earth and water, ether and fire. Dark veins ran up her arms and throat, an inky map leading to nowhere. Just like what Giyano’s magik had done, except it hadn’t been him this time.
I ran for Krystin, although I was unsure how to help her. She turned on me and tossed fire my way, cackling with joy. I dodged the attack and fell back with Shawn. “What the hell?”
He shook his head, eyes widening. “Kinder shoved magik into her. All the powers she’s collected recently. It’s the only explanation.”
“So what do we do?” I asked him.
He paused. Then he jumped up. “Me. Only I can help her. The Alzan magik—it’s the only thing keeping her alive right now.”
Shawn leapt from our hiding space and ran toward Krystin, dodging each of her attacks until he was in close range. “It’s me,” he said to her. “I know you’re still in there, Krystin, behind all that magik.”
“Back the hell away,” she screamed at him, then her expression softened. “I can’t—Shawn, it’s too much, I—” She lifted her hands and shot fire at him, her skin flashing red.
Shawn closed his eyes and a glowing orange shield appeared in front of him, diverting Krystin’s attack. His hands radiated the same color. He reached through the shield and touched Krystin’s arm. A sizzling rang out and he whipped his hand back, a dark magik burning his skin.
He looked up. “I don’t know why I can’t—the Alzanian magik isn’t enough.”
“It’s not there,” Krystin grunted. “Impostor. Liar. Coward.” She swung her hand and Shawn sailed backward twenty feet. Krystin looked down at her hands and cackled again. “But I have it. I have the power—all of it. All magik. All energy. All the answers.” Her face fell and her chest heaved. “Make it stop. Make it stop!”
It was as if she were two people—warring with herself.
“Krystin!” I shouted over Tatiana’s and Kinder’s fight, still going blow for blow. “Calm down. We’re going to help you, we’re—”
Krystin shook her head and closed her eyes. A wave of bright pink energy pulsed from her body and coated everyone in the room. Everyone fell, even Kinder and Tatiana. I pushed myself back up again as I looked around the room. Only Krystin had remained standing.
Another wave of power pulsed through the room; this time the ether was green.
I glared at Kinder. Anger swelled within me at this lack of control as a raging desire for safety built until lightning crackled around my entire body, a full shield of it. I lunged for Kinder, shouting, “What did you do to her?”
Tatiana’s knife hand whipped forward while Kinder was distracted, slicing into her arm. I landed next to Kinder and wrapped my hands around her throat. Lightning zapped around me, lashing out at Tatiana as I squeezed Kinder’s throat with all I had.
Kinder’s body convulsed beneath mine, also falling target to the lightning storm blazing around me, but only for a second before she reached a hand up and clasped mine, drawing my power from my body. She threw me off of her once the transfer was complete.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, as weakness seeped into my bones.
Kinder rose, lightning surrounding her now, and she struck Tatiana. Shawn appeared and threw that orange ether at Tatiana, slamming her into the ground.
Nate pounced, a whip made from his own ether slapping against the bounty hunter. “Asanak,” he snarled as the whip sliced through Tatiana’s soul.
She turned gray and Shawn landed a final blow, a shot of orange ether straight through her chest.
Kinder’s eyes widened. “I hadn’t realized your ether-shaper was so powerful.”
“You’re next, bitch,” Nate snapped as he turned on her. He raised his hand, but Krystin whipped around and swiped her hand in the air in front of her. Nate sailed across the room and landed with a sickening thud.
Krystin’s eyes went wide, filled with utter horror. “I-I… Nate! I’m sorry. I can’t. I can’t.” Her shoulders rose and fell with heavy, panicked breaths as she stared down at her hands once more.
The floor shifted, falling an inch at first, then almost an entire foot.
Kinder backpedaled away from everyone. Her gaze jumped from Krystin to Shawn, then to the ceiling and beyond. I struggled to stand. If we didn’t leave now, the entire building would come down on top of us.
Rachel appeared at my side and hauled me up. She slung one of my arms around her shoulder. Shawn disappeared in a teleportante and reappeared next to Nate.
I looked around. In the pandemonium, Avery had evacuated all the survivors, it seemed, though three dozen bodies remained. Dead. Hunters. Demons. It didn’t matter. Three dozen was too many. Even if the mission had been what it had been meant to be, we’d only needed to get the demons out of here and stop the Landshaft operation, not kill them all.
But that was exactly what we’d done at the demon nest on the other side of the city days ago. Except this time, we’d killed Hunters. Krystin had murdered a lot of them on her own with her crazed magik.
“We need to go!” Nate shouted. “Get Krystin and move.”
He disappeared in the next breath, gone like Avery and the survivors. Which left only Kinder, Krystin, Rachel, and me. And half of Tatiana Viynar’s entourage, who appeared utterly lost without their leader. They focused their fury on Kinder and Krystin, lobbing magik attacks their way.
There was no way to get to Krystin without her attacking us thanks to Kinder, especially now that the demons had focused them.
I shook my head. I had to get Rachel out no matter what. But I didn’t want to leave anyone behind. “Go,” I told Rachel. “I’ll get out soon.”
“Your magik’s gone,” she said.
“I can still teleport out.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
She thought I was going to do something stupid. But there was nothing stupid left to do tonight. It’d all already been done by others.
“Go,” I said again.
But before she did, Jaffrin and the Ether Head Circle escort appeared in a shimmer of teleportante. They formed a barrier between Krystin and Kinder and the remaining demons, firing off magik attacks that instantly incapacitated the demons.
What the hell? If they were that powerful, why the fuck didn’t they help us to begin with? I hated their holier-than-thou ways. And voiced that, loudly.
Jaffrin spun on me. “We were dealing with this building collapsing, Ben. We thought you had this handled.”
I raged up to him and pointed at Krystin. “She’s going fucking crazy because of you. All of you.” And because of me. Because I’d singled her out from day one for being different. And because she hadn’t trusted me or the others with what had been going on, she’d gone to Giyano for answers. Making her a bigger target than she’d been before.
Jaffrin turned, but it was too late. Krystin had settled herself between Kinder and the Ether Head Circle escort as a human shield. They froze, unwilling to attack the Daughter of Alzan with the prophecy seeming to be so close to coming true.
My heart thundered in my chest and behind my ears, my lungs racing to catch up to the oxygen they so desperately needed.
“Stop protecting the Betrayer!” one of the Ether Circle representatives ordered.
“I…” Krystin’s gaze jumped between them, then landed on
me. “Ben—”
“Move now or you’ll be taken down as well,” the representative continued.
“Jaffrin, she’s under Kinder’s control,” I told him. “Tell them to stand down. She can’t control herself or her magik right now.”
“See?” Kinder said, her voice cutting through despite the orders being barked around. She turned her head slightly toward Krystin. “It’s so easy to turn Hunter against Hunter. Here you are, thinking they’ll never turn against you, but when it’s clear you’re not in your right mind, when it’s obvious you’re too powerful for them to control, too special, they lock you out. They isolate you and push you away. The Hunter Circles turn on you unless they can use you as a weapon. And you’re too good for that, Krystin. You’re just like me. Too unable to be tamed. Too wild to keep around, despite your prophesized destiny.”
She moved in front of Krystin, forcing the Ether Circle escort to raise their magik-hands and weapons, but they didn’t fire.
“So,” Kinder said, “I think I’ll exact revenge for both of us tonight.”
Kinder’s eyes glowed as lightning built around her, a whole swarm of it so powerful that the hairs on my arms stood on end. Electricity scattered into the air, sparks bouncing off of every surface. The storm built and built, humidity growing thick in the air, abilities I hadn’t even known were possible with this power, until it was too much. I couldn’t breathe. The air seemed to squeeze in around me, suffocating me.
Kinder lobbed the lightning at the Ether Circle escort, burning them with magik. Then a figure appeared—Nate.
He used teleportante to bring himself right before Kinder and he shouted, “Asanak!” The soul-slicing ether whip appeared in his hand and he brought it down on Kinder’s back before she could turn to block the move.
The ether-shaper magik slammed into her and she screamed, her eyes glowing bright white, as she fell to the ground, clutching her middle. The lightning storm died around her.
Krystin cried out, as if the word-magik had hit her, too.
“No,” Kinder whispered. “It will not end like this.”
Nate drew his knife and moved to shove it into Kinder’s back, but she said, “Teleportante,” and disappeared. Right out of the damn building.
“No,” Nate said. “No, no, no.”
I ran to the spot where she’d been but sensed no teleportante trail. “Jaffrin?”
The floor gave out beneath us and we all tumbled to the first floor of the building. I landed hard on my side, shielding my face.
“Out!” someone shouted over the noise, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
Hands grabbed on to me and someone else yelled out, “Teleportante.”
WE LANDED INSIDE of Fire Circle Headquarters, Jaffrin and me, Nate and Krystin, and the Ether Circle escort too. They’d surrounded Krystin, who convulsed on the floor, rays of magik flying out of her.
Nate rushed to her side and encased her in a shield of ether magik. “I can try to hold her, but I don’t know for how long.”
One of the escort members rushed forward, pushing the others aside. “Let me.” He must have been an ether-shaper, too, because he reached through the ether shield Nate had created and touched his hands to Krystin’s seizing body.
I watched as they tried to bend her magik into submission, but Kinder had done a number on her. Rachel and Shawn appeared at my side. I wrapped an arm around Rachel as we watched them work, my heart caught in my throat. Ether and elemental magik mixed around Krystin, only stable because of the Alzanian power inside of her.
“The only reason this is happening is because her magik is good,” I whispered. “How fucking absurd.” Giyano and Kinder, they’d both abused that. This was the only thing that made her more of a target than Shawn. The anger of it hurt every part of me, enraged me so fully that even Rachel backed away.
“I can try to even it out,” Shawn said. “Try to heal her like I did before. Our shared magik—it’s there, just seems dormant unless it’s about keeping us alive. I don’t really understand, but—”
“Do it,” Jaffrin said. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest, looking utterly helpless. “How did things go this far?”
I glared up at him. “Because you forced her to work in the city. To be on our team. To put Giyano’s targets together and place us in Lady Azar’s way.”
It wasn’t entirely his fault. He knew that and so did I. But Jaffrin didn’t respond. This was not the time.
Shawn stepped forward and leaned in past Nate. “Let me try to help her. The Alzan magik healed her before.”
Nate shot him a look. “You tried in there, too, and it didn’t work.”
“With you guys shielding her, it might this time,” Shawn said. “Please.”
Nate looked at him for a moment longer and then inched to the side, making room for Shawn. He knelt down and Nate made a hole in the shield for Shawn to reach through.
Shawn touched Krystin’s middle and closed his eyes. Nothing happened for long, agonizing moments. “Come on,” Shawn whispered to himself. “I know you’re in there.”
Finally, a light white glow started around his fingertips, a glow that reached into Krystin and encased her entire body. Over the course of many moments, her body stopped convulsing, settling down, though she remained unconscious. Rays of ether magik, differing in color, seemed to lift up like clouds, out of the ether shield and up into the air, before dissipating.
It was over.
I looked to Jaffrin. “Kinder did this to her. She didn’t have a choice.”
Jaffrin nodded. “I know, Ben. Don’t worry, I—”
“Back away from her,” the other ether-shaper said. He was staring down Nate and Shawn with glaring eyes. “She’s coming with us now that she’s stable.”
“What?” Shawn asked. “She’s still hurt.”
“We’ll take care of her,” another of the Ether Circle’s entourage said.
The others gathered around Krystin and lifted her from the floor. The ether-shaper produced manacles from ether and slapped them on Krystin’s wrists.
Jaffrin stepped forward as if he had something to say, but he kept his mouth shut, his jaw clenching.
“Are you serious?” I asked him. “You’re just going to let them take her? After all of that?”
He looked at me but said nothing, as if that gave me all the answers.
“You idiot,” I growled at him. “You’re too scared to act against them? She’s innocent.”
The ether-shaper sent a shock my way, the ether slamming against my head like a mental attack. “Enough. She’s colluded with two of the Fire Circle’s most-wanted criminals, enabling Kinder to attack and then get away. She’s responsible for the deaths that occurred tonight and the interference in a Hydron operation. She will stand trial.”
“She wasn’t colluding with anyone,” Shawn raged. “You weren’t fucking there. Instead of showing up like you promised, you assholes waited until the last damn second.”
Shawn lunged for the closest Ether Circle Hunter, but Jaffrin tugged him back. The ether-shaper shot a block of ether at Shawn, pinning him to the wall.
I balled my fists to keep from suffering the same fate, but anger raged inside me. “Yes, she worked with Giyano to make her magik more stable, but—”
Jaffrin turned to me. “Ben, don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I sputtered. “I’m not happy about it either, but it doesn’t mean she’s fucking traitor!”
The ether-shaper sent a pulse of magik through the room, freezing us all. “It is done,” he said. “She will stand trial. This conversation can happen then.”
They collected themselves, joined hands, and used teleportante to take themselves and Krystin out of Fire Circle Headquarters. Leaving the rest of us standing there, speechless.
Rachel was the first to move, swinging around to face Jaffrin. “Are you kidding me? Krystin risked everything to join our team on your orders and you just let them take her?”
&nbs
p; Her eyes swam with anger and this time, I reached out to calm her down. “It’s not worth it. Clearly, Jaffrin’s loyalties aren’t with his own Circle.”
“That’s treason you’re spouting, Ben,” Jaffrin spat. “This is happening because that building collapsed. The human police are convinced it was a gas leak turned explosion. Our illusionary magik users are trying their best to cover it all up. Our PR department is doing what they can. But this is the largest near-revealing of magik in decades, Ben. This has had more repercussions than you know.”
“Then talk to Hydron; it’s their fault!”
Jaffrin’s body went rigid. “All of you are dismissed. Go to the Infirmary and rest. We will get Krystin back.”
“Not from a trial,” I said. “Not if Ether is the one holding it. Looks like they’ve already signed her sentence.”
Shawn shook his head. “They can’t do that. Because of the prophecy alone, she needs to be free. They can’t kill or imprison her if they expect to stop Lady Azar from going after Cianza Alzan.”
Jaffrin’s eyes narrowed. “Lady Azar can’t get there without Riley to channel the magik, and Riley is safe in Canada. For now, Alzan is also safe. There is nothing I can do.”
“Bull-fucking shit,” I spat, staring Jaffrin down. Lightning curled around my fingers, signaling its return from my body after Kinder’s attack. I could end Jaffrin right now. I wanted to for this injustice.
But he was right. And that’s what killed me.
Krystin had colluded with Giyano regarding Kinder. And Krystin, even under Kinder’s magikal control, had killed Hunters. She had to stand trial for at least one of those crimes, especially because they’d led to deaths.
But not like this.
I stalked down the hall alone rather than attack the Leader of the Fire Circle. Three pairs of footsteps echoed after me, my team forever the only people on my side.
We’d get Krystin back. But I wasn’t sure how, or when, or if we’d all still be Fire Circle Hunters when it was all said and done.