by Jessica Gunn
The woman pressed against the wall, using it for leverage as she finally stood into the light. She was wearing torn dark pants and a tunic top, not modern clothes like one might expect from a witch or Hunter trapped in Landshaft.
“You assume I’ve been captured recently,” she said. “Although you were right about one part.”
When the light finally reached her eyes, they were as red as every other demon’s.
My breath hitched, eyes narrowing, as I pushed Will back another step.
“Watch it, Ava!” Will said. “If this ether wall is anything like the quarantine chambers at Headquarters, I want none of it.”
“Your friend is right,” the demon woman said.
Her lithe form and young face mirrored my first impressions of her. She was definitely younger than Will and me. Maybe nineteen or twenty years old, when she was turned. There was no way to know how old her demonic form actually was without asking.
“Fifty-two,” the woman said. “If you must know.”
My lips clamped shut—although it appeared it was my mind that I had to keep closed. “You’re telepathic.”
“For real?” Will asked, looking from me to her. “That’s a real thing?”
I nodded. It was easy to forget Will didn’t know as much about the Hunter Circles and Darkness as the rest of us.
“In a manner of speaking,” said the woman as she paced down one length of the cage. “Telepathic and a prisoner.”
“And a demon,” I said.
She smiled softly. “Yes, and a demon. But not by choice.”
“I bet that’s what they’d all say if asked,” I said.
“Telepathic?” Will asked again, his eyes wide.
I turned to him. “Will, I love you, but you really need to keep the surprised thoughts to yourself before you look like a fool.”
“To myself and her you mean,” he said.
“Not for much longer, William,” said the demon woman.
He blinked again. “Well, if you’re going to be using my full name, what’s yours?”
She brushed a lock of messy black hair off her shoulder. “Veres Evelin. I’ve been imprisoned here for a little over six months, if the delivery of food rations is any indication.”
“And you’ve been a demon for thirty-two years,” I said, doing the quick math in my head. “What’s the connection between them turning you and Talon imprisoning you?”
“I was hidden,” she said. “Much like you were, until recently.”
I crossed my arms. “Hidden from what?”
“The rest of Darkness,” she said. “It turns out the monsters of the night are indeed all afraid of something.”
“Which is?”
“Power absolute,” said Veres. “I was transformed into a demon to preserve that power. Until Talon received word and I was brought here. And here I have remained ever since.”
Something tugged on my brain, a tiny little nudge telling me that not only was she leaving out something important, but that I already knew what that something important was. I just couldn’t figure out what I was missing.
“Why did Jerrick house you with us, then?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” she said. “Perhaps because you’re as prized as I am?”
“To him?” I asked, an eyebrow raised. “No. Mason Whitmore.”
“Whom you came here to kill?” she asked.
“Creepy much?” Will said. “Can you turn it off or something?”
“I anticipate the telepathy will dissipate soon.”
“Yeah, and then what?” I asked. “He’s got to know we’re going to try to break out of here.”
“Can we?” Will asked. “From what you said about the ether shield around the ring three months ago, we aren’t going anywhere.”
I nodded. “Especially if they come back to requirem all of us. Unless…” I turned back to Veres. “What exactly is your special power? Could it help us escape if we worked together?”
Her gaze jumped from me to Will. “Maybe. But it will leave your friend helpless.”
My breath hitched, that nagging in the back of my mind growing larger. No way…
A smile grew on Veres’s lips. “You know.”
“Know of,” I said. I’d only heard of this magik in passing, and then again when Dacher and Ben had revealed the full extent of the war to Kian and me. The Neuians, the cianzas, and… the Power. A magik so ancient it preceded the rules of elemental and ether magiks, allowing a user to wield both, but not at the same time. To be a home to both magik types. Something that would normally kill anyone else.
But according to Dacher and Ben, only three people in the last five thousand years had been recorded—written or through oral history—as having the Power. A whole three. And one of them was Ben’s son. One was Kinder, the Fire Circle’s most wanted criminal, ex-Hunter, and ex-wife of Aloysius, creator of all of Darkness, himself. The other…
The other was Mason Whitmore’s ancestor.
And now Veres.
“What’s going on, Ava?” Will asked.
Dacher and Ben had been so convinced Talon had a plan to get to the Neuian plane of existence, but they hadn’t figured out what it was. And from what I’d heard about Lady Azar’s previous plans to attack the Powers’ city of Alzan on its plane of existence, she’d required the use of someone with the Power to do it.
Talon was banking on Veres—and she must have known. But who would preserve her as a demon, keeping the Power in her system and thereby not letting it settle out at twenty-five years old like it had in Kinder? Why turn her into a demon just to stow her away from Darkness, not allowing Lady Azar to know about her when she was planning to attack Alzan? Why hide her from Talon all this time?
“Who, exactly, did you say turned you into a demon to preserve the Power inside you for later use?” I asked Veres.
Veres smiled again. “Now you’re asking the right questions.” She lifted her arm and pulled up the sleeve of her tunic. A tattoo swirled around her forearm, close to her elbow in topaz-colored ink. It was a series of geometric shapes interlocking into some design I couldn’t decipher. “I am Topaz, removed to the other side of the world to hide my ancestry, and my power. I grew up in Hungary until I was old enough to understand. But I will always be Topaz. A Blackwood witch.”
Holy.
Shit.
Chapter 26
“You’re kidding me,” I said to Veres.
She shook her head. “I am not.”
“Why the hell would a Blackwood witch turn one of their own into a demon?” I didn’t know much about them—really, I only knew Krystin, and not even that well—but witches didn’t tend to purposely transform their own into demons. Not when they spent so much time training their young in their magik and how to kill said demons. Like the Cassano line. All the uptight, arrogant all-star Hunters I was in training with were Cassano witches.
“Because our line has been involved from the beginning,” Veres said, her tone suddenly firm. “A Blackwood was prophesied to save Alzan. And a Blackwood will always be there to fight for Good.”
“So what now?” Will asked me. “We’re caged with a random demon that we’re just supposed to trust because she’s from a line of witches the Fire Circle is apparently allied with?”
I winced at the same time Veres’s eyes narrowed. I answered for her, “Allied is a loose term regarding the Blackwood line.”
Veres spit on the ground. “If the Fire Circle hadn’t let so many of us be burned in Salem, maybe the story would be different.”
“That’s why the Blackwood line created you as a secret weapon,” I said.
She shook her head. “Topaz is an offshoot of the general Blackwood line. Learning the difference is important. Jade Blackwood broke off her from sisters, the original Blackwood witches, early on.”
“Does Jerrick know who you really are?” I asked.
“That I was born a witch, yes,” Veres said. “And also that I have the Power. But when I was
captured by Talon, somehow the bit about Topaz was kept a secret.”
Interesting. Will had a point. Trusting Veres to assist us in escaping this cage—forget the rest of our plan—was risky. But I wasn’t sure how else we’d get out of here unless the ether shield around the cage didn’t run underground. If I got my magik back before Jerrick or other Talon soldiers came back to requirem us, I could possibly burrow a hole out of here.
Veres clicked her tongue. “It does run beneath the cage, or many others would have also attempted escape. And before you ask, ether-shapers are kept under constant, watchful guard for that very reason. They requirem them so often, it’s possible they may have chased off their magik for good.”
Will arched an eyebrow. “You learned all of this in six months?”
Veres considered him for a long moment. “You would be surprised how much you can learn with telepathy every now and again.”
Something clicked, puzzle pieces sliding into place inside my mind. “One of the guards is telepathic.”
Veres nodded. “Sometimes I can manage to borrow his power before he can requirem me. And luckily for me, the effects of the Power last longer than a requirem.”
“Last I heard, requirem barely remained active for a few hours on Kinder,” I said dryly. I hadn’t fought in those battles, and I hadn’t been at Headquarters when the most wanted criminal in Fire Circle history had attacked. But if there was one thing Fire Circle Hunters were good at it, it was gossiping.
Veres’s lips curled with disgust. “Yes, well, apparently these demons never learned that.”
“Luckily for you,” Will said.
“Lucky indeed.”
I wanted to trust her. I wanted to believe that Veres was telling the truth. Not because of some misguided hope she’d help us in this very possible suicide mission, but because it would make it that much easier. I was tired of hard and impossible.
But even I had to admit this was a bit too coincidental. A Blackwood witch turned demon who also had the Power was just sitting here waiting for us to be put in her same cell?
Veynix had been cunning. His use of air elementals in particular to hide and manipulate his appearance gave me enough reason to doubt that this wasn’t just Mason doing the same. That Mason wasn’t borrowing his master’s tricks.
But until last year, Topaz was supposed to be a myth. I hadn’t even heard of them until everything with Ben and his team fighting Lady Azar at Alzan had happened. And considering the rough relations between Blackwood witches and the Fire Circle that I did know of, it was definitely believable that remote groups of them would create a secret weapon like this.
Someone with the Power in a fight against the Neuians—or Darkness—would be a powerful ally. A great leverage against them both. And they’d be neutral on cianzas until taking good or dark magik into them since apparently cianzas and the Power are both of Neuian origin. That was what Ben had said, right?
“Fine,” I said to Veres. “What’s your plan, then?”
She didn’t so much as blink. “You don’t trust me.”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t. But Will and I are only going to get one shot at Mason, and I’d rather do it on our own terms than wait for him. If you can get us out of this cage, then we can go our separate ways. I can’t imagine you’re doing too much good for your people by being stuck here in the middle of Landshaft. And since you’re already a demon, they’re not saving you for Autumn Fire. They’re saving you for war.”
Veres nodded deeply. “I’m meant to fight for my own people, not against them. And I will not betray you. I cannot escape on my own, as they won’t let anyone with ether magik near me. So long as there’s a Blackwood fighting on the side of Good, Topaz and the Fire Circle are tenuous allies.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe after, if this works, we can make that ‘good allies.’”
“Perhaps.”
Dacher would freak out if he knew about this. About Topaz and another person with the Power. If Veres was indeed telling the truth, maybe this would turn the tide of everything happening right now. Maybe it’d even strengthen ties with the Rebel Darkness Faction and effectively create the start of a net to keep Darkness at bay.
“Let’s us not get ahead of ourselves,” Veres said.
She was right. “How long until your telepathy wears off?” I asked her.
“Soon, I think,” she said. “It changes each time, but it’s growing harder and harder to hear you. But I can take his magik now and replace the telepathy, before the guards even return. That’s why I’m caged alone—so I don’t use my cellmates’ magik against them.”
“Until today,” I said.
She nodded. “Until today. I think they mean for the Whitmore demon to arrive quickly, so we don’t have much time.”
I turned to Will. “People with the Power can borrow magik from another person. If she takes your magik from you, you won’t have it, but she’ll be able to break us out.”
“Why can’t I just do it?” he asked, raising his hands in front of him. “I know I’m new to all of this, but from what I’ve seen, my magik is pretty powerful.”
“You are an amateur,” Veres said. “Which would be fine if we weren’t under a time limit. The requirem only blocks access to your magik; it doesn’t take it away. If I do this now, the guards won’t be expecting it. People with the Power are feared for a reason.”
“They’ll think we were scared of you,” I said. Assuming this place isn’t bugged or something. But given the level of technology we didn’t see outside, I was willing to bet that wasn’t the case.
“That’s my assumption,” Veres said. “And in your fear, you wouldn’t attempt escape.”
“You better not be playing us,” Will said.
I pressed my lips together and watched Veres for a long moment. I could never figure out a telltale way to notice if an air-elemental had changed any given person’s form. But her story checked out as far as I could tell.
While Mason might not have needed Veres and the Power to get to the Neuian plane of existence, he’d need her to at least attempt balancing out cianzas as soon as his army stepped foot near one. A platoon of Ember witch soldiers with already-demonic magik, forget being demons themselves, would tip even the smallest cianza. But to balance out a bigger one, he’d need not only Veres, but a Neuian to give her Neuian ether magik to amplify.
And so it appeared that, once again, Veres was only one piece of the larger puzzle. Just like Ember witches were one part—and the poison, Talon, and Veynix’s original plan.
What are you really planning?
Veres’s eyes met mine. “I’ve only ever been able to read Jerrick, as the Whitmore demon has not yet graced me with his presence. But what from I’ve heard, it’s not just Talon planning to attack the Neuians. That is but step one.”
“So they’re going after the Neuians before the Hunter Circles?” I asked. That was the one thing Dacher and Ben and the others hadn’t been sure about.
Her eyes darkened and her entire expression took on a deadly serious mask. “If they have the power to attack the Neuians, do you really think the Hunter Circles will be that much harder quash?”
I dropped my gaze to the floor for a moment before looking at Will. “Good point. Let’s do this then.”
He lifted his hands. “Don’t I get a say in this? I’ll be defenseless.”
“But we’ll be out of this cage,” I said to him. “And eventually the requirem will wear off of me. I’ll protect you, Will, just like I always have. Step one to being a Hunter: remember the mission.”
His eyes filled with emotion, but he blinked it away. “I thought it was to never leave someone behind.”
I gripped his shoulders and rose to the tips of my toes so we were eye level. “I will never leave you behind. And if you get captured, I will come for you. Just like I did before. Just like I always will. You’re my best friend, Will. My rock.”
Will swallowed hard. Resignation fell over his face. “H
ow do you know this will even work? I’m not an… ether-shaper, or whatever you called it.”
“No, but your Ember magik is ether-based,” Veres said. “I’ll use yours to burn through the shield here. Magik inside someone with the Power becomes amplified, doubly the longer one has had the Power.”
Well, that explained why everyone was so terrified of Kinder.
“Fine,” Will said as he held out his hands to her. “Let’s do this then.”
Veres lifted her own hands, the sleeves of her tunic falling loosely around her elbows. She was my height but looked so frail. It was hard to believe someone so weak-looking could even have the Power, let alone be able to use it.
Right as their fingertips were about to touch, I slid my hand in between them, careful not to touch Veres—lest I accidentally give her my magik instead. Her eyes found mine, questioning me without words.
My own narrowed. “If you hurt him, I will kill you. Blackwood witch or not.”
She nodded again. “I believe you.”
“Good,” I said. “As long as we’re on the same page then.” I removed my hand and instead placed it on Will’s shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze.
“Let us escape.” Veres touched Will’s fingertips with her own, gingerly moving them down his hand until she held them as though he were the only thing anchoring her to reality. Veres’s eyes flashed a multitude of colors before she shut them and began shaking.
Will shuddered, his face contorting in discomfort and possibly pain. I squeezed tighter on his shoulder. What must it feel like to have your magik borrowed by someone else?
This isn’t fair. For someone who hadn’t even known about this side of the world until almost a year ago, Will had been through too much. Captured by Veynix, his thin Ember witch blood fully transformed and realized. And now this, being subjected to Landshaft and someone with the Power all to try stopping Mason Whitmore and Talon from starting a war the world wasn’t yet ready for.
Within a few moments Veres pulled back, dropping Will’s hands. Will staggered back a foot. I caught him, propping him up against me.
