Hunter Circles Series Complete Boxset: An Urban Fantasy Adventure

by Jessica Gunn

  A knock sounded on my door, quiet and soft.

  “It’s open,” I called.

  Krystin poked her head in. “Everything okay in here? I heard a slam against the wall.”

  I righted myself and nodded. “Yeah. As okay as it’ll ever be.”

  Sandra hadn’t picked up, but she might have answered my call if I’d had the balls to dial her number sooner. Maybe she was busy, or driving, or chasing Riley around in the snow. Or maybe she decided she never wanted to talk to me again, least of all in the early morning hours when we hadn’t spoken for over two years before last week.

  And although I’d only heard it for a few hours before handing him over to Sandra, I hadn’t realized how much, in that very moment, I wanted to hear Riley’s voice too. How much I wanted to talk to him, with him, even though he didn’t have many words yet. I needed to hear his funny laugh, to see him smile.

  My heart wrenched itself and my chest squeezed tight. I missed Riley so much. I’d gone over two years without him. One day wasn’t enough.

  I breathed in a ragged breath and plunked down onto my bed. “I can’t do this.”

  Krystin shut the door behind her as she entered my room. “We’ll figure out what to do about Kinder. It’s just another bump. I mean—it’s a huge hurdle, but—”

  “Not Kinder,” I said. “Riley. I can’t… I need to see him again.”

  Krystin paused. “Oh.”

  I didn’t expect her to say much to that. Or to understand. She didn’t have kids. And until two weeks ago, I’d almost forgotten what it was like. Lady Azar had Riley kidnapped weeks after he’d been born. I’d barely known him at all.

  “I called Sandra. That’s what the phone being thrown against the wall was about. Sorry if I woke you.”

  Krystin’s gaze traveled to the wall where phone-sized dent had been made. “Jeeze. Use that football arm outside the house, please. The poor wall.”

  I swallowed hard, jaw working. I knew she was trying to lighten the mood, but I wasn’t sure anything could at this point. “All I wanted was to hear her say they were okay. I need that information to come straight from her, not through Jaffrin.”

  Krystin stepped farther into the room. “He’s an ass. And sometimes an idiot. But he wouldn’t lie to you about that.”

  “No? Are you sure? Because I think he would.”

  “Why?”

  “To keep me from rushing up there at the first sign of trouble, abandoning our team and Boston when shit’s about to go down.”

  I moved over so she could sit if she wanted to. I didn’t know where Krystin and I stood. We were friends, sure, and teammates. But since she’d kissed me at Fire Circle Headquarters, I hadn’t been able to tell if that was just something she’d done or if she’d meant something by it. And truth be told, I wasn’t sure I wanted it to be anything. I was exhausted—from being a Hunter, from worrying about Riley and Sandra. And now having to be a team leader while everything was going to hell.

  Krystin nodded and sat beside me, not touching. But having her close, feeling that strength she seemed to exude, settled my nerves. Maybe that was her aura and I was somehow feeling it, though I knew that wasn’t possible. Only witches were sensitive to auras.

  “For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t blame you if you dropped everything and left,” Krystin said. “He’s your child.”

  I nodded. “And that’s the problem. How can Jaffrin expect me to choose between Riley and the Fire Circle?”

  But of course he expected that from me because that was the entire reason I’d joined the Circle in the first place. He’d sought me out, he’d offered me answers about my magik and about who’d taken Riley, and had given me a way to go after them by becoming a Hunter. He’d promised me we’d get Riley back. And we had. We’d saved him.

  But now… now I was too far in it to drop everything and run, like Krystin had suggested. I had a job to do and I’d never be able to outrun the shame at not completing it. Even for Riley. Especially since his fate rested on what I accomplished here in fighting demons. Ridding Boston of them, one nest at a time.

  But then I had to wonder, would I even be the same person at the end? All that killing and fighting… Would Riley even recognize me?

  “He’ll have to deal with whatever you decide,” Krystin said as she eased a hand onto my arm. The small act of reassurance calmed my entire being. I wasn’t alone. For so long, I’d thought I was, even with my cousin at my side. Not anymore.

  “Guess he will.” But would Sandra let me come back? I didn’t think so. And that was the other problem. “It just makes me feel guilty, leaving Riley in Canada like that.”

  “You’re protecting him. That’s what fathers do.”

  I shook my head. “It feels like I’m stashing him away, out of sight. Did you know that it took until Sandra was in a car accident for the entire pregnancy to feel real to me?”

  Krystin, to her credit, didn’t react.

  “It’s true,” I continued. “I was so damn scared of dying like my own father, of not being there, that I made all the effort to not be there for Sandra and Riley. And then, when I was in the middle of obsessing over my newfound powers and over final exams, she got into an accident and I thought it was all over. It took until me thinking they’d both died to realize I was going to be a father whether I wanted it or not. And now I’m pushing him out of sight all over again. What if it takes until a demon does get them both this time for me to act?”

  Krystin shifted so she was facing me. “You are acting, Ben. You’re actively getting rid of demons. You’re making Boston safer for not just Riley, but for everyone’s kids. It’s only been one week. Nothing’s going to change overnight.”

  “My life did. Twice. The lightning strike. Riley being taken. Both happened in less than two minutes.”

  She met my gaze and her eyes hardened. “You need to snap out of it, Ben. You and I, we both have our reasons for being here and our obsessions to back them up. And right now, you need to focus on resting and getting ready for the fight that’s coming. Because if ever there was a reason to fear for Riley’s safety, it’s with Kinder. If she knows about him, she might want to pay him a visit. We need to take her out of the picture and soon. And I don’t know about you, but my magik’s not strong enough for me to do it on my own. Especially if she takes my power from me.”

  Krystin paused and I didn’t respond. I had no words, as she was entirely correct.

  “It’s going to take the whole team, Ben,” she said, then she smirked. “And isn’t that what you’ve always wanted me to say?”

  A small smile reluctantly edged my lips. “Fine. But I’m not sleeping until I hear from Sandra.”

  Krystin reached over and slipped the phone from my hands. “No. You’re sleeping now. If anything has happened, Jaffrin will tell you. Otherwise, trust him with this information. There’s a reason that you elected not to know where they were. To only have her phone number.”

  So that Darkness couldn’t use me to get to Riley. Like they wouldn’t try anyway. Please.

  I let Krystin win this one, since exhaustion now pulled heavily on my eyelids and on my body. “You’re right.”

  She smirked. “Damn straight I’m right.”

  “Goodnight, Krystin,” I said, even though it was early morning. It’d likely be nighttime before any of us were awake again. “Thank you.”

  She stood from my bed. “Anytime. Now stop throwing things around so I can get some sleep, okay?”

  “Yeah. See you later.”

  I watched her go, wondering how I’d gone from thinking she was too good for this team to realizing I needed her to balance me out in such a short amount of time. I now understood why leaders often had a right-hand man. Or woman, in this case.

  For balance.

  Chapter 10

  Krystin

  I didn’t bother going far this time, figuring if Giyano had found me at Castle Island alone, he’d do so again just as easily anywhere else. At least daylight
was on my side. I walked down the street, headed nowhere in particular, and hoped that whatever tracking spell he’d forced onto my hand would guide him to me.

  How had we gotten here, me going from wanting to kill him on principle for murdering my father to Giyano becoming my only source of true information? I shuddered and tucked my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket. Nothing about this war was black and white—I’d learned that long ago. But the amount of gray blooming around me was enough to make even the most innocent person look murky from afar.

  The sun shone brightly above and the smells of a local food truck parked across the street wafted my way. Gourmet grilled cheese. I wished I was even remotely hungry. Instead, my stomach churned. The truth was that even though it was the middle of the day, and even though dozens of people were around me, I wasn’t sure how much I trusted Giyano not to try something.

  And still, I walked.

  I’d made it ten minutes before footsteps echoed behind me in his rhythm. Finally. I turned off the main road into a small park and walked through the playground to a quieter area with benches. There I sat, waiting.

  Giyano strolled into the park behind me, wearing black shoes and dark pants below a black jacket that ended just past his waist. Underneath, he wore a forest-green sweater. He’d tucked a set of aviators into the neck of his sweater and carried himself with more confidence than I’d ever known.

  It was the first time I’d gotten a really good look at him in the light. And, minus a scar running along the side of his chin that I’d now noticed for the first time, he looked… normal. Human even. Minus the aura burning around him like flames. That magikal bit aside, he looked like any other guy I’d ever met.

  “You called?” Giyano asked as he sat beside me on the bench, his English accent wrapping around his words. “Bit cold outside to meet here, don’t you think?”

  I settled into the bench, pretending to lean back. Really, I was vying for a better position to reach for the knife beneath my jacket. Just in case. “I have a question I was hoping you’d be able to answer.”

  “This isn’t what our relationship is about, Krystin,” he said, looking off into the park like he was the most carefree person in the world. I supposed that here, in the middle of the day, he didn’t have much to worry about. Lady Azar would never grace the regular public with her presence and she was his only real enemy.

  Except for me, when I was done needing him.

  “We don’t have a ‘relationship,’” I snapped.

  He chuckled and crossed one leg over the other, arms folded across his chest. “Then what do we have?”

  “I ask you a question, you give me the answer. Then you usually do some sort of magik that knocks me out or makes me feel generally like an evil demon bitch for a short while.” At least so far, his magik had only had short-term effects on me. I wasn’t sure that’d be the case forever.

  Giyano’s gaze traveled to mine and looked me over, his eyes narrowing. I shivered. I didn’t like him like this—when he looked so human. I preferred Giyano in the dark, silhouetted by torchlight that masked everything except the demon inside of him. “Is that what you think I’m doing?”

  “Well, yeah. I don’t know why you’re doing it, though. Care to enlighten me?”

  He shifted, looking away again. “What do you want, Krystin?”

  “I want to know why Kinder’s back in town. What she’s after.”

  Giyano flinched at the sound of her name. “Kinder?”

  “Oh yeah,” I said, my turn to look at him and judge him for all he was worth. “We’re worried she might be after Cianza Boston, or worse.”

  His hard, burgundy gaze held mine, but his breaths were uneven, fast. “Maybe she is. As long as it’s not Cianza Alzan she’s planning to tilt the magikal balance of, why do you care?”

  “Because I live in Boston?”

  Giyano took a deep breath. “You misunderstand. Baiting Kinder won’t be hard; it’s taking her down that will be. Either way, as long as you do so before she tilts Cianza Boston, everything will be fine.”

  “Yeah, and do you have any tips on how we might take down someone with the Power?” It wasn’t like she’d allow us to get close enough to requirem her magik away from her. And even if I prepared a power-binding crystal or had my mother make one, we’d never get within range to use that either.

  Giyano squinted, as if seeing something I didn’t, then shook his head. “No. Unfortunately not. Not someone who’s had it for as long as Kinder.”

  “Meaning what exactly?” Had he run into someone else with the Power? His tone, nostalgia-laden, made it sound like that was true. If so, they must have not been recorded into the Fire Circle’s history books. Something’s not right.

  “What that means is you have two separate problems,” Giyano said. “Two which will work together to defeat you and your entire team if you’re not careful.”

  “So help me take down Kinder. I mean, she betrayed your boss’s father. You’ve gotta want to take her down for that at the very least.”

  Giyano’s jaw worked, his lips twitching.

  “Ooh. Touchy subject for you?”

  His eyes narrowed again. “I’m not going to help you with Kinder. Doesn’t the fact that those words came out of your mouth bother you?”

  It should. It really fucking should. But I couldn’t find it within me to care in that moment. “You know, don’t you? How to cut off her powers?”

  Giyano looked to me, a fire burning behind his burgundy eyes. “You’re more in danger from your own Circle than you are from Kinder. There are those within the Hunter Circles who would love to see the powers of Alzan within yourself, and Shawn, turned into weapons for evil.”

  I choked on my previous retort, both at Giyano’s implication and the fact he knew about Shawn. Of course he knows. Giyano appeared to know everything. “Excuse me? For evil? Reality check: the Hunter Circles are good.”

  He laughed and looked at me like I was stupid. No—not stupid. Naïve. “We both know that’s not entirely true.”

  “They’re representatives of the Powers. They’re the definition of good.”

  “No, that’s just the label they were given when Aloysius’s split from the Entity rubbed the Powers the wrong way,” Giyano said. “With his split, magik became tainted and the Powers deemed that tainted-ness wrong. Hence, evil. Whatever that means.”

  “Who’s after our magik then?” I asked. “If you’re so keen on telling me in the first place.”

  “In time.”

  “In time?” I stood from the bench and peered down at him. It felt good to have the advantage, to be able to look down on him the way good should over evil. But the damn sunlight and the stupid aviators and the ass-hat smirk on his face kept making him look so damn human. Hatred rolled down my spine. “I don’t have time. You just told me that!”

  Giyano stood, too, and went to place his hands on my shoulders. I backed out of the grapple, smacking his hands away.

  “Don’t touch me, asshole. I won’t fall for that again.”

  He gestured to the bench. “Then sit.”

  I shook my head, looking around. No one was here anymore, not inside the park. Fantastic. “No. Tell me how to take down Kinder and then we’ll go our separate ways.”

  “She doesn’t concern me,” he said coolly.

  “Then what the hell does? You try to taint my magik, you come when I supposedly call, you dispense half-truths of information and expect me to put it together—why? Why do you care so much about what happens to me or what choices I make or who my enemies are, especially if you won’t tell me?”

  A beat passed before he answered, his eyes now the color of the last remaining embers of a campfire. I shivered again as his aura danced across the space between us, enveloping me in his dark magik. “I don’t tell you because there’s nothing you can do about it right now. Though I still believe you should know to watch out for yourself.”

  “Why?” I asked again. “You killed my
father. I have to believe you would have killed me, too, if my mother hadn’t stepped in.”

  Giyano smiled slowly. “I’d never kill you, Krystin. You’re too important.”

  Important. For someone who killed so freely, it was hard to believe anyone was important to him. Except for that witch in Salem. The one he’d fought Lady Azar for.

  “Is this about your lover? The one Lady Azar killed in 1692?”

  Giyano swallowed hard and, though I didn’t expect him in a million years to, he answered, “Yes.”

  My breath hitched and all words escaped me. “Um, well…”

  “Ashbel was a confident man, but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I’m afraid,” Giyano said, staring straight ahead into the late morning goings-on of the city. People walked by outside the park with backpacks and grocery bags, dogs on leashes. So normal. So unaware. “He was also an Ember witch who had the Power, though he didn’t know either of those two things. He was like Ben: the inheritor of power he didn’t understand.”

  “So Lady Azar killed him for it? That doesn’t make sense, not when she had you kidnap Riley for the same reason.” She’d wanted the Power to channel enough magik to break through the barriers protecting Alzan.

  “Ashbel was nearly twenty-five, the age the Power settles in its host and disappears,” Giyano said, shaking his head. He looked down at his hands, to where the Shadow Crest tattoo curled around his wiry wrist. “Even if she’d had him within her grasp, he would have lost the Power within weeks. Not that he knew he had it.”

  “Then how did he end up on that pyre?” It was a bit of an insensitive question, but given Giyano had murdered my father, I elected not to care. Still, when he flinched at the word ‘pyre,’ I felt sort of bad about saying it. But only a little.

  “He was accused of witchcraft by his neighbors. Or so Ashbel said. I saved him from the burning, used my magik to back the fires off of him until enough people had walked away.”

  Chills crept up my spine as the memory—his memory—of that night flashed across my mind like I was having that vision all over again. “I know. I saw it.”