by Jessica Gunn
“More than me, dude; it’s cool.”
Ben had been hit with Veynix’s venom not long ago. And although Will seemed to have recovered from whatever had afflicted him, Ben didn’t seem much better than when I’d last seen him, apart from being mobile.
Ben offered me a hard stare. “We need to talk, Ava.”
I looked down at my hands. “I know. And I deserve every bit of the punishment you’re no doubt here to dole out.”
“It’s not that simple.”
Of course not. “Ben…”
He shook his head. “You disobeyed a direct order. And while Krystin should have said something and stopped you, or at least tried to read your mind, you shouldn’t have gone alone in the first place.”
“I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt because of me,” I said, so quiet it might have been a whisper. “I know that’s not what happened, though.”
Kian, Will, and I—we’d all nearly died. Plus whatever innocents might have been involved in the explosion.
“Luckily, there were no fatalities that weren’t demonic in nature,” Ben said, as if reading my thoughts.
“Thank God,” I whispered. “And Veynix?”
“The entire building collapsed,” Will said. “If he was still in there, he was crushed, if not incinerated.”
“Like you three might have been,” Ben said. His eyes narrowed. “Care to explain why you weren’t?”
“It’s a long story,” said a fourth person.
Kian now stood in the doorway, his eyes asking for entry into this weird party.
Ben waved him in. “Shut the door and tell me the truth.”
Kian did the former, then turned to me. When our gazes locked it was like the weight of the world fell off my shoulders and half onto his. Like everything that had happened over the past few days was now a shared burden, if it was to be a burden at all.
Kian gave me a reassuring nod. “Ava and I met the night before we showed up at Headquarters with a poisoned Will.”
“Kian,” I hissed.
If he revealed how we met, he’d be subject to as much punishment as me for what had happened and for fighting in Midnight’s ring. Not that I guessed it mattered anymore now that Midnight had been destroyed.
Kian lifted a hand. “No. I’m ready to come clean if you are.”
Ben watched our exchange with a raised brow, glancing briefly at Will.
Kian held my stare for a moment before I said, “Fine. You’re right.”
Kian then told Ben the truth about how we’d met, about him unmasking me in the arena and what that’d meant both for my champion title and for the demons in attendance that had known who I was.
And that Midnight—and possibly Crimson too—were run by Talon. And that I had magik—that I had had it all along, and that was how I’d survived the attack on my team.
“So let me get this straight,” Ben said, looking between us like we both had several heads. “You both lied about when you met to hide the fact you both fought in illegal underground fighting leagues?”
Kian and I glanced at each other. “Yes,” we both said.
Ben roughly ran a hand through his hair. “And I thought my team did shit backward.”
I frowned at my hands. “The point is that Talon was running an operation beneath Midnight, one that involved a ton of poisons and a very specific plan.”
“Veynix said something about targeting the Fire Circle,” Kian said.
I nodded. “They had enough of Veynix’s venom to take out our whole roster, then power up their demons with Demon’s Blood to deal with any stragglers.”
“And the poison he injected Will with and which I suffered from had to do with Ember witches,” Kian said. “Or I guess now that Will’s got magik, almost giving people Ember ether magik?”
“There’s something more going on there,” I said. “It was like the poison they both had in their system was looking for something to transform, like a demonic transformation during Autumn Fire. And yet, something was missing.”
Ben flinched at the words “demonic transformation.” It was only then I remembered that his son had been turned into a demon last year.
Finally, Ben spoke. “Looks like you three have a lot of explaining to do when Hydron shows up.”
“They’re finally coming?” I asked. Took them long enough. Dacher had called them about coming to work on an antidote for everyone infected with Veynix’s poison a day or two ago.
Ben groaned. “Now they’re coming to figure out how to cover up what happened without it being another building-collapsing gas leak in the Northeast.”
“At least it wasn’t Boston again,” Kian said dryly.
Ben nodded. “It’s going to be a long road to recovery for all of us. But at least Veynix isn’t a threat to you anymore.”
“But Talon still is,” I said. “And now with this weird magik of mine, I’m probably more of a threat. Veynix said it was vital that I had this magik, that I’d survived his venom despite it.”
Ben’s eyebrow cocked. “He did?” I nodded. “Interesting. I’ll let Krystin know. My other teammate, Nate, has been recalled from his training in Tibet. He’s the Fire Circle’s most powerful ether-shaper, so he’ll be here to consult with all three of you about what happened, as well as your new magik. Kian’s reports about how the poison gave him and Will glowing eyes is scary enough.”
“Dude, you weren’t even there,” Will said to Ben. “It was terrifying.”
I squeezed Will’s hand. “But you’re safe now.”
“I am.” He leaned down and hugged me. “And so are you.”
I hadn’t thought we’d be, not while we’d been nearly melting inside that protective metal ball I’d thrown together with zero experience. If Kian hadn’t gotten us out of there when he had, we’d have died.
Ben stood, groaning with the pain in his limbs. He’d be feeling it for weeks now, even if Bria worked with Hydron on an antidote.
I wouldn’t be much better off. At least I knew what to expect from Veynix’s venom this time around.
“I’m going to go talk to Dacher and Krystin again and see where we are regarding Hydron and Nate,” Ben said as he made his way painfully toward the door. “Take it easy. And you two, let her rest. You’ll all probably be confined to Headquarters until after the Hydron delegation arrives to coordinate between hospital victims and those here at Headquarters. Not to mention for the duration of whatever investigation they’re going to open. So stay inside the building and let Ava rest. That’s an order.”
“Er,” Will said, looking up at him, “I’m not a Hunter.”
Ben waved back at him over his shoulder as he left. “You might as well be after all of this. Congratulations. You’re a Hunter, Will.”
Will sputtered, but Ben was gone before he formed a legit response.
I looked to Kian. “Can Ben do that? He’s not Leader yet.”
“Might never be if he keeps doing shit like that,” Kian commented.
“Wait a minute!” Will stood up and followed Ben out the door. “What do you mean I’m a Hunter now?”
Kian chuckled once Will was gone. “He’s a strange guy.”
I smiled, looking at the door. “The strangest. But he’s my best friend.”
Kian regarded me with a small half-smile. “You saved him. Good work, Ava. It’s been a pleasure.”
“Right back atcha, Blood Hunter.”
He leveled me with a look. “Hey, it’s still a better name than Masked Hunter,” he said, exaggerating every syllable. “I mean, come on.”
“It was the best I could come up with at the time!” I protested.
He lifted his eyebrows, nodding. “Uh-huh.”
I swiped the closest thing I could find—Will’s phone that he’d left behind—and chucked it lightly at Kian. “You like it. Shut up.”
Kian caught the phone and shrugged, grinning from ear to ear. “Maybe I do.”
An easy silence fell between us for a few long moment
s. It was nice, relieving even, to sit here in the quiet, knowing that, for the moment at least, we’d dealt a blow to Talon that’d allow us to rest. Even if just for a short while before they returned.
It was the most at peace I’d felt since Thanksgiving dinner with my team last year, the night before it had all gone to shit.
“I do have one question,” Kian asked, looking over at me.
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“You promised you’d let me make it up to you if we survived,” he said. “For my lying and all that.”
A rush of warmth bloomed in my chest. “Yeah. I did.”
I’d forgiven him for lying about not knowing the truth about me and not saying something to the Fire Circle on my behalf. And I was pretty sure that forgiveness had occurred the moment I’d thought we were all going to die inside that metal ball. Better late than never, I guessed, right?
Kian grabbed something from behind his back and sat down in the chair at my bedside. He held out a brand-new Fire Circle knife, the hilt all red and shiny, a golden flame dancing across it. His smile reached from ear to ear when he asked, “Are you ready to have a Hunting partner again?”
Embers in the Blood
Book Two of the Deadly Trades Series
Chapter 1
My wrist ached. As did both of my legs. They had been asleep, but now each limb pounded with pins and needles and an overwhelmingly heavy numbness. And still the stone in my hand, held outstretched toward Krystin, did not move.
I lifted one eyelid to peer across the small table at my new mentor, Krystin Blackwood. Both of her eyes were closed, but the heaviness of her breaths had me wondering if she was actually awake. We’d been in a secluded corner of the training room at Fire Circle Headquarters since just after sunrise this morning. And because of the lack of windows, I no longer had any idea how much time had actually passed.
“Focus, Ava,” Krystin said without opening her eyes.
My own narrowed on her. “How do you even know what I’m doing?”
“Because I can feel your aura,” she said. “And believe me, I don’t really want to be here either.”
My mouth thinned. “Then tell Ben we’re both unhappy.”
This time, Krystin opened her eyes to look at me. “Someone has to train you in your magik, Ava. And since earth-elemental users are relatively rare, especially in the Fire Circle, I’m the best you’ve got.”
“Right,” I muttered. I was pretty sure Ben had called Krystin to train me in return for never having to ever act as a trainer ever again.
Krystin moved her legs out from under her, stretching them and sighing. “Again, not my idea. But your magik and aura are strong, so it’s probably a good thing it’s me and not someone else.”
“Because you can defend yourself if I lose control?”
Of course, that’d require I got my magik working at all. It turned out the reason I’d never noticed it before fighting Veynix three months ago was that I’d never been in a truly life-or-death situation before then, except for the car accident. Being trapped beneath Midnight and faced with Veynix self-destructing himself and the entire structure definitely ticked that “life-or-death situation” box.
“More or less,” Krystin said. “I’m a bit acquainted with losing control of your magik. Here, try it without a direct connection. Feel with your magik for the earth and pull on that connection.”
She’d told me to do this a hundred times since the events in May. And a hundred times—okay, maybe only ninety or so—it’d failed. I just couldn’t get my magik to work again.
“Breathe,” Krystin said. “Years ago, there was a time I couldn’t always get my magik to work too. It didn’t come easily—and I didn’t even want it. But my mother worked with me. Now it’s second nature.”
“And you’re fantastic at it,” I said.
“Yeah, well, it’s tried to kill me more than once,” she said dryly. “I have to be the master—otherwise, it’ll destroy me. Luckily, you don’t have that problem. I tell you this not to brag or chat, but to prove to you that it just takes time sometimes. Not every magik-user immediately masters their power.”
No. If that were true, I would have been able to save my team the night Veynix killed them. I would have taken him out too.
At least he was dead now. It was the rest of Talon we had to worry about after playing a role in a big operation of theirs burning to the ground.
“Ava,” Krystin said, calling me out of my thoughts.
I shook out my shoulders and took a deep breath. You can do this. It’s just a rock.
A rock that represented so much more.
Closing my eyes, I lifted the hand that wasn’t hurting and held it palm out toward the stone. With another deep breath, I cleared my mind. Meditating had been much easier than my magik to master so far. I pushed away my active thoughts and created a barrier they could not pass.
I imagined I was in a desert. Nothing but the sun and sand, me and this rock. But in my mind the rock was a boulder, and I stood in front of it. The wind swept sand around my body, tumbling it through my clothes and hair. And in that stillness of distraction, I felt my magik awaken. It slithered around my arm to my hand, branching from my fingertips through the air to the boulder.
I flicked one of my fingers, willing the boulder to move, and… it did.
“Whoa,” Krystin breathed, shattering my concentration. “Ava, look.”
I slowly came back to myself and opened my eyes. The chunk of rock was now floating in the air at the same level as my hand. “Holy shit.”
Krystin grinned from ear-to-ear. “Seriously.”
“Only took a few months,” I said under my breath.
“You weren’t trained,” Krystin said. “And the power was latent for so long. I’d say you’re doing a great job.”
I wiggled my fingers and the rock moved in time with them. “Good enough job that you’re no longer mad Ben made you become a trainer again?”
She shrugged. “Remains to be seen.”
Honestly, I was pretty sure Ben had assigned her to train me half out of punishment for letting Kian and me go ahead with our plan to fight Veynix alone three months ago.
“Can you manipulate it at all?” Krystin asked.
My brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“The only other earth-elemental I really know could change the formation of the rock or metal she was wielding.” A shudder ran through Krystin’s shoulders. “But she’s powerful. So I was curious.”
I shrugged. “I can try.”
Now that the rock was responding to my magik, maybe anything was possible. I thought of the shape of a dagger and lifted another hand, moving it away from the palm controlling my magik. The magik shifted between both of my hands equally, a warm glowing sensation that almost tickled.
Good. Now pull.
Slowly, the rock began to thin and elongate—like the beginnings of a dagger. Oh, my god! After another few moments, the rock had reshaped into a usable weapon.
I glanced up at Krystin, grinning. “How’s that for a few month’s work?”
Krystin gave me a proud smile. “Pretty damn good—”
A thunderous wave of heavy footsteps sounded on the floor above us. Both Krystin and I looked up at the ceiling, her eyebrows arching.
“That’s not normal,” I said. Curiosity mixed with some amount of foreboding dread.
Krystin’s eyes narrowed as she stood. “No… this room’s fairly soundproof.”
“Want to go check it out?”
She nodded. “Might want to.” As she headed across the training room to the door, she patted the sheath on her back, currently home to her folded-up three-piece sword.
We raced up the staircase back up to the main lobby of Fire Circle Headquarters where two dozen Hunters and other Headquarters staff were triaging something. I looked around, peering from person to person. Some were bloody, others were being pushed away by the injured Hunters. None looked remotely fine.
>
“Someone get Dacher down here now!” one of the staff shouted. “Or a candidate!”
Krystin stepped forward, parting the crowd. “I can help. What’s going on?”
A few Hunters ran up the main stairs toward Dacher’s office.
“They’ve been poisoned,” a Hunter said, this one younger than me. She had dark brown hair and eyes. “We think, anyway. We found them while on patrol.” She looked over her shoulder at four other Hunters standing in a corner. Her team.
“Found them?” Krystin asked.
The Hunter, Abigail, I now remembered, nodded. “We were checking out the Prudential Center when we came across them on the side of the road. It was super weird. They barely recognized us as other Hunters.”
I glanced down at the team on the ground, writhing and twisting. How long had they been there on the street? “And you arrived at the poisoned conclusion how?”
Abigail pointed to the team. “Look at them. Their eyes are…” She shuddered. “And they’re each running a fever. They have to be—they’re burning up.”
Fever. Convulsing. I squatted down next to one of the Hunters and glanced them over. They didn’t have any of the other telltale symptoms of Veynix’s venom. He was dead, but I was sure remnants of his venom remained in various Talon caches around their territory.
The Hunter under me groaned. His head lulled to the side and… A bright red-orange glow emanated from his eyes as the eyelids lifted.
I gasped and jumped back from the Hunter. “Krystin!”
She appeared next to me in an instant. “What? What is it?”
“It’s the same,” I said, in nearly a whisper.
“What is?”
I pointed to the Hunter’s eyes. “It must be the same poison that got Kian and Will when we fought Veynix three months ago. Their eyes are doing the same weird orange glow thing.”
Her jaw stiffened. “The same poison that woke up Will’s Ember witch heritage?” I nodded. “Fantastic.”
Then, in the blink of an eye, the Hunter below us reached up and grabbed Krystin’s arm. He used the force to knock her back as he stood, his body erupting in a wave of orange flames that danced feet above and beside his frame. He wasn’t on fire himself, but that didn’t make this display of power any more frightening.
