Poison in the Well

by Jessica Gunn

  “Splatter?” Kian hissed, his eyes darting between the barman and the pair about to fight.

  If the protection magiks had been upped enough to go from smacking you back with your own magik thricefold to actually splattering someone, why the hell hadn’t the violence of tables being overthrown triggered it? Maybe I should be glad nothing happened.

  “It wouldn’t be necessary if the demons put a stop to their own shit!” the human woman screamed. “Your acceptance of what Talon’s doing is going to get us all killed.”

  Someone shushed her. Evidently, someone much smarter. Calling out Talon like that was generally a bad idea, especially since the last few times I’d been here, Hunter’s Guild had been swarmed with their soldiers.

  “Guess there is dissension,” Kian said.

  “Between the two sides, yes,” I replied. “Always.”

  “No shit!” the demon shouted back at her.

  “Outside!” the barman yelled.

  I set my drink down on the counter. Kian gave me a curious look. I nodded quickly and walked over to the scene. “So not all of Darkness is on board with what Talon’s doing?” I asked the demon.

  His lips curled as he looked at me. He shook off his friend’s hold on his arms and cracked his neck. “The Empire isn’t one fluid entity, Hunter.”

  The demon’s burgundy eyes, filled with disgust, roamed over me. My Fire Circle knife was tucked at my waist, but he’d known before looking what I was. Which meant he likely recognized my face because of Midnight. Great.

  I nodded, lifting an empty hand. “I know, believe me. I just wasn’t sure the rest of Darkness even knew what Talon was doing.”

  “Rumors travel fast,” the demon said.

  “Apparently,” I replied.

  The demon’s friend stepped forward, anger warping his features into a grotesque mask. “And what are the Hunter Circles going to do about it?”

  “We’re not in charge of micromanaging your empire,” the human spat.

  “Guys!” I maneuvered myself between them. “You know what this building is, right? What it used to stand for? What it still does? Hunter’s Guild was meant for peace. Neutrality. A place to open a dialogue.”

  “You want a dialogue?” another demon asked. He stood off to the side in a black leather jacket with a sour expression. “Then open it with someone needing to put an end to this shit.”

  “The ‘shit’ in question being what Talon is doing, yes?” I asked, my hand still raised. I shot a quick look to Kian, who hadn’t moved from the bar. He nodded back at me, looking as casual as ever leaned up against the bar counter, but his jaw clenched tight.

  “Yes,” the demon in leather said. “The Fire Circle has been tangling with them for months. When’s a solution coming?”

  My eyes narrowed. If by “tangling” he meant the near destruction of our Circle again, then yes. And we’d been busy, to say the least. But admitting how at-risk the Fire Circle was would do absolutely no one any favors. “We’re working on it.”

  “That’s not exactly reassuring,” the human woman said. I glanced her over. She had no obvious signs of a Circle affiliation—no visible knife to speak of, at least—but that didn’t mean she wasn’t a witch or a freelancer. Or a complete wildcard, a human who didn’t know about the Hunter Circles.

  “It’s a powerful organization,” someone else chimed in, a cloaked figure in the back corner. In another setting, the darkness around him and his hidden face might have been unsettling. But I myself had hidden here enough times behind the protection magiks to bother asking him to remove his hood.

  “What?” the demon swung on him. “Are you part of Talon?”

  “No,” said the hooded figure. “But if I was, I wouldn’t let any of you walk out alive.”

  “You’re not helping,” I said to him before turning back to the demon. “How much of Darkness isn’t in agreement?”

  The demon swallowed hard, locking eyes with me. “To admit it is a death sentence. So as you can imagine, not many will disavow Talon when they’re so close to the crown.”

  “They always have been,” I said.

  “Closer still, now that Aloysius has been pushed out,” the demon continued. “If you’re looking for more allies, you will not find them amongst the Empire. Not while Talon holds this much influence.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Even knowing they could kill all of you and you’d never see it coming?”

  The demon went to shrug, but a door swinging open interrupted the motion, and he jumped instead. At the entrance to Hunter’s Guild stood a woman in ragged clothes. She leaned against the doorframe with almost her entire weight, and still her legs faltered beneath her. Blood slid along her clothes and dripped to the ground. All sound in the room drifted to near silence as attention drew to her.

  “Shel…ter…” she croaked out past dry lips.

  “You’re already here,” I called to her, hesitant to get closer. Dread tumbled inside my gut, an instinct built after years of demon-hunting.

  “Shelter,” the injured woman repeated.

  “What?” asked the demon from before. “If you’re not even going to give one of your own medical attention, how the hell can we be sure you’re going to help us?”

  “Ava,” Kian said, finally starting to make his way over. He still held his drink in his hand. “Her waist.”

  Sure enough, a Water Circle knife sat there, sheathed, only the handle visible. But the blue marble hilt inlaid with a golden set of waves was more than enough information.

  My steps crossed the distance between us quickly. “Are you okay, you’re—”

  A set of hands wrapped around my arms and yanked me backward. I slipped, losing my footing with the sudden shift of my vision.

  “Wait!” someone yelled. Male. The demon from before

  I jerked my arms out of his. “What the hell?”

  The demon’s long fingers of his right hand grabbed my shoulder. “Don’t. Look at her eyes.” He pulled me back a step.

  “What?” But I followed his command, peering closer past the woman’s long, dark hair. And recoiled. “Shit.”

  “Help…” she whispered.

  I glanced over my shoulder at Kian, pleading with him to tell me what to do. Not helping a fellow Hunter was awful, but the glowing red-orange embers in her eyes carried a warning. This woman had been force-changed, and there was no guarantee that what had happened with Will’s blood wouldn’t happen with hers.

  “We can’t,” I said, my voice trailing to barely louder than a whisper.

  Her eyes came alive then, renewed with strength, and she took a sudden, jerky step forward. “Why not? This is Hunter’s Guild.” She reached out with shaking hands, grabbing for my arms. “What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I—?”

  The demon pulled me back again. I twisted out of his grip.

  “You don’t know?” I asked.

  Everyone around us took several steps toward the far side of the first floor, cowering into shadows and booths while the rest of us waited to see what would happen. But I already knew. The healer’s death not twenty-four hours ago was still too fresh in my mind.

  “It hurts,” the Water Circle Hunter said, clutching her side where, now that she was closer, it was easy to see a gaping stab wound. Her eyes began to glow, like Kian’s and Will’s had when they’d been injected with Veynix’s poison. “Everything hurts.”

  “I know…” But I didn’t dare move closer.

  She jerked wildly, like something out of a zombie movie, and rushed for me. I skirted out of the way. Until she made contact, the protection magiks wouldn’t kick in. But every rushed, jerky movement she made sent blood flying—from her fingertips, from her wound. Strong hands yanked me out of the way again. Chairs squealed along the wooden floor as people and demons alike hurried to get out of the way.

  “Help me!” She wailed as her eyes became two massive glowing red-orange globes of magik. Brighter than even Will’s and Kian’s eyes had gotten. “Why wo
n’t anyone help!”

  Another demon picked up his chair and held it in front of him like a shield, the legs pointed toward the Water Circle Hunter. “Don’t come any closer!”

  “Watch it, man!” another demon shouted.

  “Why aren’t the magiks kicking in?” I asked, jumping up onto a table to scramble out of her reach as she lurched forward, pleading for any form of help. But there wasn’t help we could give her with her hands all bloody and covered in life-destroying magik. I couldn’t even teleportante her to Fire Circle Headquarters without touching her, and I wasn’t sure the protection magiks would allow even that much.

  “No one’s attacked,” the bartender said, now wielding a sword he’d pulled out from under the bar.

  “Bullshit!” said my demon friend. “One touch and we’re dead!”

  The Water Circle Hunter changed course, going for the bar. This had to stop.

  I stood on the table and lifted my hands in front of me, balling them into fists. Closing my eyes, I called for my power. The weight of the protection magiks lay heavily on what felt like my very soul, burying my earth-elemental magik and holding it hostage. I fought it, punching my way through the blanket covering my magik. A burning sensation set my veins on fire. Every inch of my magik that rose above the protection magiks combusted into sparks that sent me to my knees on top of the table. My lungs felt as though they were filled with sulfur and smoke, the taste of which slipped onto my tongue. I coughed as though I’d suddenly stepped into a volcano.

  I lifted my eyes to the woman, though they were filled with tears as my vision blurred. My arms felt heavy, unusable, as though they’d been dipped in cement. Still, I forced them up and swung my arms, calling forth the very dirt beneath the foundation of Hunter’s Guild, and pulled it up through the floorboards. The ground, encouraged by my magik, encased the woman in ropes of earth that dragged her to the ground.

  My head snapped back, my body convulsing, as the whiplash hit. The rumored smack-back of the protection magiks as they collided with my body, my magik—no, my very soul. I was sent flying off the table, sailing through the air until my back connected with something solid. Air whooshed out of my lungs as my veins burned and pain burst along my spine.

  “Ava!” Kian called out, but his voice sounded as though cotton had been stuffed into my ears.

  I blinked, swallowing thickly as I slid along the solid surface to the floor. My legs crumpled beneath me until I was seated in a weird, uncomfortable position atop them. Darkness danced along the edges of my vision. Something wet trickled out between my lips. A crimson red drop dripped onto my thigh. Blood.

  A dark, clouded figure knelt in front of me. The weight of hands fell to my shoulders, but fire seemed to erupt where they touched. Though no flames appeared, my skin scorched with them anyway.

  “Ava,” came my name again from a deep, muted voice. Had the protection magiks taken my hearing too?

  I blinked, pleading for the world to make sense again. For the fire to stop. For something to come of my actions besides pain.

  What felt like eons later, Kian’s familiar face swam into view. He looked me directly in the eyes with a tight, panicked expression. He shot a look over his shoulder as the bright white glow of ether encompassed the entire first floor of Hunter’s Guild. A scream followed, tearing through the cotton muting sound in my ears and instead searing my eardrums. And after that, as Kian turned back around and fell over me protectively, a loud SMACK reverberated, followed by a shattering of windows. Kian’s body shot forward, then froze as he held himself against the wall, me beneath him, as a wave of force rushed over us. Several other smacks and the crashing of furniture being flown across the room echoed Bottles broke, splintering into glass shards that nicked Kian’s arms and my legs.

  A sudden, unsettling silence followed, heavy and full. I pushed down on Kian’s shoulders, trying to get him off of me, to see what’d happened. He obliged, his burrowed brown and tight eyes becoming more serious. More worried. Using the leverage on his shoulders, I pushed myself up and took a look.

  My demon friend, the one who’d initially been in an argument with a human and who’d drawn me away from the Water Circle Hunter, lay still on the floor, pressed against a wall, his chest and head caved in. Bile slicked my throat as my stomach convulsed. Kian looked down and moved me away in time for me to not vomit on him. I wiped my face and forced my gaze toward where the Water Circle Hunter turned Ember witch had been. Her body…

  “Oh god,” I mumbled before slapping my hand against my mouth once more. My stomach roiled, flipping over itself, as more bile fought to escape. I grabbed Kian’s arms, digging my fingers into his skin, trying to gain some sort of hold on realty.

  Kian held a hand to mine, not looking from what’d become of the Water Circle Hunter. The only part of her that remained untouched was her head and her Water Circle Knife. The rest… the rest had been cut to ribbons by an ether attack.

  “Just don’t look,” Kian said.

  “Too late.”

  “Watch out!” someone shouted as a giant chandelier careened from the ceiling and crashed onto the first floor, sending more glass and metal everywhere. The impact rocked my already-injured ears, sending me into another wave of vertigo. I emptied my stomach until all that remained was dry heaving.

  “Th-This has to end,” someone called from the silence that followed. “I don’t care how.”

  “This is insane,” another chimed in.

  “Help,” I whispered to Kian as others voiced their agreement. Which would have been weird between demons and Hunters and witches on any other normal day. But today had been anything but normal.

  Kian nodded, his brown eyes watching every change in my face, and helped me stand. He didn’t seem nearly as shaken—although he hadn’t taken the full force of his magik thrown back at him with the weight of the protection magiks around Hunter’s Guild either. Still, he kept his hands firmly on me. Holding me steady.

  “Hunter’s Guild is supposed to be a safe space,” cried a Hunter who had her arms wrapped around her middle and was shaking. She was pressed against the far wall, back in the corner with the booths swathed in darkness near the man in the hood. “Twice now in two years it’s been attacked.”

  “No,” Kian snapped. “It’s only been attacked once. This was the protection magiks doing their job.”

  “It’s my fault,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  Kian whipped his gaze toward me. “How in the hell is this your fault?”

  I nodded toward what remained of the Hunter’s body. “I attacked her.”

  “After she came in here threatening everyone,” Kian said.

  “That shit is dangerous to every living creature with magik!” a demon shouted. I recognized him as the friend of the demon who now lay dead because of me. Like so many others over the years. Except this time, a demon wasn’t dead by my hand. Just by my actions.

  Guilt crept in along the edges of my pain, vying for attention. It was a feeling I was used to.

  “Agreed,” Kian said, nodding to the demon, then turning back to me. “If you hadn’t acted, many more might be dead.”

  “We can’t let Talon do this,” another Hunter said.

  “Then what does the Hunter Circles plan to do about it?” a demon asked.

  My stomach churned. “Destroy them. Every last one of the bastards. And I don’t care if one of you is a member of Talon. Run. Run fast.”

  Kian’s expression softened at that. His hand cupped my cheek even as I thought I might vomit again.

  “Do it,” said a demon. “They’re as much a danger to us as to you. As long as you have a plan, Masked Hunter.”

  I glanced up at him. Swallowed thickly. Then nodded. It’d been a long time now since I’d been called the Masked Hunter. “We will. I’ll make sure of that.”

  “Good luck,” he said as he gestured to the room at large. “You’re going to need it.”

  The windows of the first and second floor had abso
lutely been shattered, blown outward from the force of magik. Shattered glass littered the floor, along with broken parts of the tables and chairs. Liquor dripped off surfaces around the bar from broken liquor bottles, and several individuals, including Kian, were picking glass shards from their bodies.

  “Will the general populace of Darkness help us?” I asked, not sure if I really should. If Darkness as a whole wanted Talon to stop, they could have done something about it before now. Before Talon had as much power as they did. When Lady Azar had first been deposed and before Jerrick had taken over.

  Before Jerrick had set his sights on Darkness’s throne.

  The demon stepped closer to me and held out his bleeding hand, covered in crimson. “We’re not so different in the end, Hunter. We all have reasons to live. And not falling prey to a madman sure as hell is a great common denominator.”

  Chapter 9

  Once everyone at Hunter’s Guild was assisted and bandaged where necessary, some of that taking place outside the wall so magik could be used, Kian used teleportante to bring him and me back to Fire Circle Headquarters. Well, to the Infirmary, to be precise.

  My vision swam with every step, the whiplash from Hunter’s Guild’s protection magiks still making my muscles ache. My shoulders and back throbbed, pain spiraling through them, from the impact I’d taken.

  Kian touched a hand to my elbow as we crossed the waiting room area and walked up to the desk. “Easy.”

  “I’m fine.”

  Kian’s eyes narrowed. “That’s usually code for absolutely not fine.”

  I closed my eyes and rubbed the back of my stiff neck. “I’ve had worse, and there are more important things going on right now.”

  “Like making sure you’re okay,” Kian said, watching me with careful eyes that took stock of all my injuries. His gaze zipped down my body, cool and collected save for the brief flashes of concern. “You took the full force of those protection magiks.”