by Jessica Gunn
“One dead,” Avery said, glancing over the healer’s body again. “One injured. But honestly, Will should be—”
“Taken to the Infirmary and helped,” I cut in.
Will was now staring into the distance. His body shook, probably from shock as much as the wound on his arm. He didn’t respond.
“Jeremiah,” Kian said.
“Quarantine—they’ll treat Will there,” Jeremiah said. “I’ll debrief you and your trainee team in a bit, Avery. Get patched up and taken care of, then I’ll find you. Kian, go with them.”
“I’m staying with Will,” I said, lifting my gaze to his with fire in my eyes. “I’m not leaving his side.”
Jeremiah nodded and stepped toward us. “I know. But please be careful helping him get upstairs. I don’t know if it needs to be your magik touching his blood, or his blood touching you, period.”
“And I don’t want you finding out,” Kian said, eying Will as though he were a weapon to be used against me and the others. In a way, I suppose he was, unwilling or not.
I shook my head and closed the distance to Will, touching a hand to his back. Hopefully, the layers of clothes between us would keep his ability from burning me, too. All things considered, I wasn’t sure if I cared, except that him hurting me would kill him. “We’ll meet you up there.” It felt like sitting in that quarantine chamber was all Will was doing lately.
Kian nodded and I added a little more pressure to Will’s back, just to make sure the connection was there. Then I closed my eyes and whispered, “Teleportante.”
The feeling of movement without actually moving swept through me, and in the next second, the teleportante had swept us from the lobby upstairs into the quarantine rooms. We landed on the tile floor, where I propped Will up against a whitewashed wall.
“Can I get some help, please?” I shouted out the open door into the hall. “Someone without magik.”
A few of the Hunters passing by, unaware of what had just occurred, gave me quizzical looks. When their gazes settled on the wound on Will’s arm, they unfroze and started to move closer.
I threw out my hand, palm open. “If you’ve got magik, stay back. I need non-magik-user Infirmary staff right away.”
“Already here,” Bria said as she slipped through the door ahead of other staff members. She stayed back, her eyes watery, as she supervised. Bria was the newest Fire Circle healer—a natural who had saved my life on more than one occasion.
Now, she stood behind her people as they knelt down next to Will and began cleaning and assessing his wound.
“He’s going to need blood,” one of the doctors said. “And an IV.”
The others nodded and politely moved me out of the way. Reluctantly, I followed the unspoken command. My fists curled at my sides as I stood and backed away. They weren’t going to risk healing magik again. And I didn’t blame them.
It didn’t make watching them work on Will any easier.
Minutes passed that felt like hours. Only a clock hanging on one wall of this quarantine room made the reality of time passing clear. The longer the waiting and watching went on, the harder my nails dug into my palms.
I can’t lose Will. Not to this. Not to anything.
Bria stepped closer to me and laid a hand on my shoulder. “It’s going to be okay.”
My gaze met hers. “Are you sure about that? Regardless of what happens here with Will, the ramifications alone…”
Her grip on my shoulder tightened. “Ava. One thing at a time.”
I was about to ask how she could be so calm in moments like this, but when I looked up to her face, I realized her words were for my benefit only. Bria’s wide eyes were focused on Will and what her team was doing to help him.
We stood there together, useless.
After a half hour, they had stabilized and quarantined Will, wheeling him into the room on a gurney.
“He’s sedated for now,” said one of the doctors as they shuffled out through the door and locked it behind them.
“Thank you,” Bria said. “You’re dismissed.”
They nodded. As soon as they were gone, I walked up to the glass and pressed my palm against it. “Will doesn’t need to be quarantined. He won’t touch anyone.”
“It’s a precaution,” Bria said. “Look how easily Marcus …”
I turned back. Her strong features had fallen. She worried her lip and pulled in a heavy, tired breath. “Bria?”
“Marcus was a good healer,” she said before resetting her features. “Whatever this is, it needs to end soon.”
“That’s the plan.” Maybe saying it aloud would make it so.
“I didn’t realize Jeremiah and the command had actually created a plan.”
My jaw locked in place. “I don’t think they have yet.”
She crossed her arms. “They will.”
“The problem is that even if we can somehow save Will,” I said, “we don’t necessarily have a solution for the other Ember witches. We can’t imprison them forever, and we can’t kill them. Neither of those solutions should even be on the table.”
“They’re not,” said a voice from behind us.
Both Bria and I turned. Ben stood in the hallway, watching the scene from afar. His face was a mask of features solidified in frustration and hopelessness.
“Ben?”
His eyes were focused on the quarantine room. “No more innocents are dying or becoming imprisoned to this madness, least of all Will. I might have a plan. But it’s drastic and I’m not sure they’re going to okay it.”
“Jeremiah and the rest of the Command?” Bria asked.
He nodded. “And the Ether Head Circle. But it won’t matter. If we don’t do something soon, none of it will.”
“What’s your plan, then?” I asked him.
Ben half-turned away to walk back down the hall. “I’ll let you know soon. I just need another few pieces to slip into place. This Circle isn’t falling apart on my watch. Not again.”
Bria and I watched as Ben walked away. When he was gone, I glanced over at her.
“It’s happening, isn’t it? Or is starting,” I said.
She nodded slowly, then met my gaze. “The world’s heading for war.”
Chapter 6
Hours later, most of which had been spent pacing the hallway outside the quarantine room while Will rested, Ben called Kian and me upstairs. We were led into a meeting room large enough to accommodate his entire team, as well as Jeremiah and the Command, along with Avery and Cassie. Even Veres was here, the first I’d seen of her in a few days. Apparently, when the Leader of the Fire Circle falls, it took a dozen or so people to replace them.
Ben paced the length of the room, his brow furrowed in thought. He stopped long enough to give Kian and me a wave before resuming. I walked to the back of the plain room, its walls painted a dull gray and the wooden floors covered by an area rug beneath the table in the middle of the room. Kian took a seat in one of the chairs nearby and folded his hands on the table, waiting.
A few moments later, Jeremiah rose. Ben stopped pacing to turn and look at him, crossing his arms.
“Ben’s plan might be the only non-violent solution we have,” Jeremiah said as he gave Ben a nod. “Although it does come with its own risks. So I wanted everyone involved to be here to evaluate it.”
Ben’s brow relaxed and a neutral mask slid over his features. “In the end, it might only affect me. And I’m okay with that.”
“I’m not,” Krystin said, curt.
He shot her a look.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The Neuians,” Jeremiah said as he looked to me. “Their magik is the only true neutralizer for the magik our people wield. And that of demons.”
“Because of the Entity?” Kian asked.
Krystin stood from the table. “Except it’s not all sunshine and roses, Ben.”
“I know,” he said, still looking at her.
Rachel, Ben’s cousin, turned his way. W
ith her shoulder-length blonde hair and bright blue eyes the same as Ben’s, it was easy to mistake them as siblings instead. “Then what’s the proposal here?”
Jeremiah raised his voice, just enough to make it clear where the conversation needed to stay. “We make a truce with the Neuians rather than Jerrick and Talon. Since last year, we’ve been tiptoeing around their existence. But now, with more people appearing with the Power, I don’t think ignoring them is the best choice.”
“And if we offer a truce or an agreement because of it,” Ben said, “they might be willing to step in and assist with our current Ember witch problem.”
My eyes narrowed in thought. “How? By using their magik to neutralize Ember witches?”
“That’s a crap idea,” one of the Command members said.
Jeremiah nodded. “As I first thought that as well. But if Talon really is trying to push us all toward the final conflict, having the Neuians on our side isn’t a bad thing.”
“No,” said another Command member. “However, I also don’t think it’s in our best interest to split our focus between Talon and appeasing the Neuians enough so they don’t take advantage of the situation.”
“All Karen wants is me,” Ben said, his words cutting through the others. “That’s all she wanted last year. Me, and maybe Riley.”
“And me,” Rachel said.
Ben nodded. “So if that’s still what’s on the table, then she can have me. I’m not letting more innocents die over Talon’s absurd desire for warfare.”
“Why you?” Veres asked.
“Karen is his great-great, many times removed, relative,” Krystin explained. “Or something along those lines. She showed up last year to turn Ben and Rachel’s magik into Neuian ether, and then taunt us rather than help with the Alzan situation.”
Ben gave Krystin a look. “Karen wants her family on her side, which despite what it would mean for us, I do understand. The point is that if giving her what she wants leads to the Neuians being able to neutralize what’s being done, then it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.”
“Because Talon will have fewer soldiers to kill the Neuians with,” Kian said.
Jeremiah nodded. “Precisely.”
“How are you so sure it’ll work?” I asked Ben.
He glanced around the room, sharing a weighted look I didn’t understand with his teammates. But when his gaze settled on Krystin, pieces of the puzzle started falling into place. “Because I neutralized Krystin’s magik to save her.”
Krystin had had a magik flare. Or maybe even a full backfire. That must have been why I hadn’t seen her really use a ton of magik since last year. I mean, sure there were times during training where she used magik. And then again in some of the attacks on Headquarters. But none of that was anything like the magik Krystin had been rumored to wield before…
Before the Neuians had come into the picture. Before the fight at Alzan.
Kian leaned forward, his arms on the table. “Then if you know it works, why the hesitation? Besides knowing they’ll want something in return, I mean.”
“Because Ben and I are now bound for life in a way that can’t be undone,” Krystin said, her tone even despite the insanity coming out of her mouth. “If I die, Ben dies—and vice versa. Between those repercussions and the fact that we don’t know enough Neuians to pair one up with every force-changed Ember witch just to be sure about them all, we can’t do this without the support from the Neuians.”
“Assuming they’d be willing to bind that many of their people to ours anyway,” I said. While I didn’t know much about the Neuians, from what I knew about the Entity and the cianzas, I had to believe they wouldn’t do that. The Neuians hated each other so much, they’d built weapons large enough to destroy the entire world just to settle their differences.
Maybe we weren’t so different after all.
“Not for free,” Ben said before turning to Jeremiah. “I just need to get in contact with Karen. Which I assume won’t be as difficult.”
“I doubt she’s turned a blind eye to us after Alzan,” Krystin said.
I crossed my arms as I thought this over. “What do we do in the meantime?” Imprisoning our people again like before wasn’t right. But neither was keeping them near Hunters they could potentially kill. Talon had forced our hand. All that remained to be seen was whether or not they’d receive the result they were aiming for.
“We should be prepared if Karen brings this to their governing body, whatever that might be,” Jeremiah said. “Which means we should select a volunteer, just in case.”
“It might help,” Ben said, nodding. “But I don’t want to subject anyone to their magik when I don’t even trust it—and I have Neuian blood.”
“Will would do it.” The words slipped past my lips before my mind really gave them a good chance to process.
“No,” Kian said. “He doesn’t even know what he’d be getting into.”
I turned to him. “He’d still do it, if it led to helping other Ember witches. I can ask him to be sure, but—”
Ben stepped forward. “It could kill him, Ava.”
“Then it has every chance of killing anyone who volunteers, no?” I asked. “Will is the reason we know what could happen with all of those witches. He’s the most affected right now. If this will help him, it should be Will first. And I know he’d volunteer himself. I’ll ask him right now if you want.”
Ben sighed heavily, then turned to Jeremiah to share a long, weighted look. “She’s not wrong. I can go attempt to find Karen now, too.”
“This is crazy,” one of the Command members said. They crossed the room to Jeremiah. “If we anger the Neuians over this and create a bigger enemy of them than before, it’s on you.”
Jeremiah stared the man down. “And if we don’t solve this and allow the Ember witches to exterminate all magik-users, it’ll be on all of us. The world isn’t ready for either war.”
Chapter 7
I paced a twenty-foot line in front of the door to Will’s quarantine chamber. I knew he’d say yes to helping, but now that I’d come to ask him, to explain what Jeremiah and Ben’s plan was, all I could think about was what if it didn’t work? What if it was all for nothing?
Or worse, what if Will ended up dying because of this procedure?
My feet froze in front of the quarantine chamber door and I reached for the handle. Presenting Will with the option to choose, with all the information, was the only thing I could do. Then Will would decide on his own. My fingers wrapped around the handle and I depressed it, pushing forward into the chamber.
No one stood in the first half of the room, designed so anyone could come in and talk to the person in quarantine. Will, however, was on the other side of the glass, staring back at me as I entered. A control panel sat on the wall by the door into the actual quarantine area, with two green lights glowing beneath switches. Audio was passing through both ways. Sometimes, more often than not, it was set so those inside the chamber couldn’t hear outside. I supposed they didn’t see Will as danger enough to warrant that procedure.
“Ava.” Will lifted his hands to place them on the clear glass wall but stopped short. Good thing, too, as even from the door I heard the buzzing of magik sliding up and down the glass. With his innate ability to send magik users into a flare and backfire, I wasn’t surprised they’d turned that precaution on.
“Hey.” I gave him the most reassuring smile I could before shutting the door behind me. Only a few steps had me as close to the glass as I dared with the magik shield running up it on both sides. “How’s it going?”
A smile split his face despite the dire circumstances. “Well, you know. Stuck in here again. Magik is on the fritz. I killed someone with it, apparently.” His smile fell, my heart along with it. “I’m alive. That’s all I can say for certain.”
Instinctively, I reached out a hand just as Will did. And like him, I let it fall short. “I hate this. I hate that I can’t hug you right now.”
“No, no it doesn’t, Will.”
His brow furrowed with frustration. “How can it possibly not? All I did was bleed on someone and they died.”
“Because of something not under your control.” I took another step closer, getting as near to the glass wall and magik shield as I dared. Touching the magik wouldn’t kill either of us. But that didn’t mean I wanted to be zapped by it. “Talon did this. Veynix did this.”
Disgust twisted Will’s features. “I thought we were done with him.”
“We are, but it doesn’t mean the remnants of his work aren’t everywhere.”
“Fantastic.” Will turned away and paced back to the cot in the center of the room. He fell into it with a heavy sigh. “How long this time?”
I sighed and turned to lean against the side wall of the room, one not guarded by magik. “You’ll be in here as long as it takes to find a cure. But if other Ember witches end up having the same change in their magik, I don’t know if they’ll put you all together. You’ll probably still be able to give each other magik backfires. In which case, there’s every chance they’ll think of using Ether Circle Prison again.”
Will dropped his head into his hands, rubbing at his eyes with his palms. “I never thought I’d miss the days in the apartment in New York.”
I nodded, though he wasn’t watching. “I know what you mean. At least with the threat of Veynix, we knew what we were dealing with. Just not when he’d show up.”
“When this is over, I’m going on vacation. A nice long one in a country far from here. You’re welcome to join me.”
I shed a small smile. “I might just take you up on that offer. Actually… ending this is what I’m here to talk to you about.”
Will looked up. “Not just to check in on me?” A small smile formed on his lips, but it was hollow.
