by Jessica Gunn
I focused in on the child as a sudden feeling of dread settled low in my stomach. Although I couldn’t see the child’s face, my gut told me it was Riley. How many other children would Shadow Crest really have in their possession? Least of all one wearing a Shadow Crest medallion like a…
Like a member of Lady Azar’s organization, not a prisoner.
My feet pushed off the ground before I’d even thought about running or all the reasons why I shouldn’t go in. My pulse pounded behind my ears, breath quickening with every step I took toward the demons’ nest.
Riley was here. Here, right in front of my eyes. All I had to do was get to him before they got inside that house. A single teleportante in and out. Easy peasy, Hallen.
Hope rose in my throat, a sweet flavor that coated my tongue as lightning sparked at my fingertips. “Teleport—”
Something wet and nearly solid hit me from behind, sending me sailing over the crest of the hill and down the other side, rolling through the grass. I covered my head with my arms, dropping my Fire Circle knife along the way, as my shirt soaked through. The water followed me down, collecting around my head as though I’d been submerged in a bucket of water.
I tried to breathe before I realized what was happening. Water pooled in my lungs as I kept rolling, sliding down the hillside, only stopping when someone’s foot kicked out and pressed against my hip.
“What do we have here?” I heard through the encasement of water around my head. It dropped in the next second.
I coughed, spitting water out of my mouth as my lungs seized. Shit. I forced my hands beneath me to push myself up. The demon kicked me again, rolling me over with barely any effort. The water attack had zapped all energy from my limbs.
I glanced up, searching behind the demon’s legs for Riley. He’d been right there!
The demon’s head came into view as he bent over, his Shadow Crest medallion hanging in the air. He had light hair and a face I didn’t recognize from our attack on Lady Azar’s lair. “How’d you find this place, Hunter?”
I gritted my teeth and pushed myself to my knees, not answering.
The demon straightened as another came out from inside the house and joined him. “I asked you a question.”
Willing lightning into my hands, I backed up a step. “Let my son go.”
The first demon’s eyebrow lifted. “Lightning-wielder.” He smirked. “You’re him. The boy’s father.”
“How perfect,” said his compatriot.
Oh, I’ll show you perfect.
I lunged, reeling back my lightning hand and throwing the attack at them. But before my lightning or my tackle hit, ropes of fire wrapped around my middle and yanked me back to the ground. Pillars of earth erupted around me, pressing my body ever closer to the dirt.
“Don’t try that again, Hunter.”
This voice was familiar. Low. Cocky as all hell. I looked up and standing above me, fire wrapped around his palm, was Giyano.
“What the—”
The earth bindings around my shoulders pulled in tight, squeezing my lungs and ribcage.
The world narrowed to a pinpoint before light disappeared altogether.
Chapter 9
KRYSTIN
The team’s townhome didn’t have a back deck like my apartment did in Connecticut. Granted, that deck had also been tiny and in need of replacement, but it had offered a more private view than our front stoop did in Boston. Still, I settled there in the early morning light, a cup of tea pressed between my fingers. It was cooler this morning but muggy, coating my bare arms in a thin layer of sweat. I’d still take this over winter and all of its memories any day.
Buildings hid the sunrise from direct view. Only the sky lightening and beginning to change colors acted as a hint of morning. But I’d been awake for hours. The thought that Shawn’s and my shared Alzan magik might have been modeled after cianzas kept my mind on fire. Never before had I read about this or any magik that mimicked the Power. Probably because the Hunter Circles and Darkness had done a fine job killing off everyone who’d ever had it.
I sipped my tea and watched the sky. This end of the city was just starting to wake up. Lights turned on in every window and a man with a coffee cart took up his normal spot down the street from us. So little had changed here in six months that it was insane compared to what’d changed the people living inside this house. To what’d changed in me.
“Hey.”
I turned, glancing over my shoulder. Nate stood in the doorway, running a hand through his messy bed hair. “Hi.”
He looked pointedly at the empty space next to me on the stoop. “Can I join you?”
I shrugged. “Sure. It’s not my stairs.”
“Yes, it is,” he said as he sat.
Bringing the cup of tea to my lips again, I glanced back out at the streaks of color in the sky from the sunrise. “No, Nate. And it never will be.”
“What do you mean?”
“Once this is over, one way or another, so am I.”
Silence fell between us like bricks laid in the foundation of a building. I continued drinking my tea, unsure of what to say.
“I’m on your side, you know,” Nate whispered into the early morning air.
“Yeah. Why is that again?” I turned to him. “From what I hear, you almost died because of me.”
“Because of Kinder,” Nate corrected.
“Are you serious? I was in there, Nate. I watched it happen and was unable to stop it. And it was my magik blowing up inside your ether shield that caused the explosion that almost killed you. So stop trying to put this all on Kinder.”
Nate’s hand slowly rubbed his stomach, but I doubted it was because he was hungry. “The others didn’t sense what I did. They can’t.”
“My magik isn’t ether-based anymore, so I’m not sure what you think you felt, but it’s probably not true.”
“The persuasion magik is.”
My eyes narrowed. “What?”
“Zanka’s persuasion magik that Kinder stole. It’s ether-based.” He looked out into the city. “I saw it wrapped around your soul, Krystin. You didn’t stand a chance. A magik that powerful inside of Kinder? It was all you could do to break through it when you did, no matter how little. You are good, Krystin. Despite what others might try to make you believe.”
My grasp on my mug tightened. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because unlike the others, I’ve seen your Alzan magik. I’ve seen it in both you and Shawn.” He looked back to me. “Alzanian ether is the purest thing I’ve ever come into contact with. And although the two of you haven’t unlocked it like you need to, although the two of you have barely used the power beyond Shawn healing you, it’s what brought you back from the brink six months ago.”
“So it saved me, that doesn’t make the magik—or me—good.”
He shook his head. A few strands of his long black hair fell over his eyes as he smiled sadly. “Yes, it does. Don’t you get it? Krystin, because of you, I’ve felt good magik, honest-to-god Good, for the first time in my life.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Before now, it’s always been tainted by demons or other people’s power.”
“Shawn’s an Ember witch,” I said dryly. “His magik is, by design, half-demonic.”
“That’s not what I meant. Even your magik, before Giyano started neutralizing it, felt off. To some extent, I can even feel that same wrongness in elemental magik users.”
My eyes widened. “You shouldn’t be able to sense that. You’re an ether-shaper.”
“I haven’t told anyone,” he said, looking over at me. “Even my ether-shaper mentor, the other monks—none of them described being able to sense elementalists.”
My breath hitched on the ramifications of what Nate was saying. But try as I might, I couldn’t process the meaning behind his words. “That’s not possible.”
“Apparently, it is. That sense is also why I knew you had almost zero control over wh
at Kinder did to you, Krystin. I saw her magik around your soul. I saw you try to fight it when Shawn was talking about Alzan. So, if I’m allowed to, I’m going to testify at your trial. Or at least to Jaffrin himself.”
“If, you know, they don’t outright kill me in two weeks. After whatever happens to Alzan happens.”
Nate reached out and placed a hand on my arm. “They won’t. Ben won’t let them.”
I gave him a hard, unbelieving stare. “Ben doesn’t care that much.”
“Fine, maybe I won’t allow them to imprison or kill you. Is that reassurance enough?”
My head spun with Nate’s words. We’d never really been close, but then again, Ben was the only person on this team I’d gotten close to. We hadn’t yet known each other for even a year. But Nate had always been kind to me, and we’d developed an understanding. Plus, until Shawn had shown up, Nate had been the only other person who seemed to understand magik at all.
So, if he said my magik was Good, then I guess I had to at least try believing him. For now, anyway. In two weeks it might not matter anymore.
Rustling sounded behind the front door. It creaked open slowly, revealing Rachel still in her sleep shorts and a tank top.
“Is Ben out here with you?” she asked, looking everywhere but at me.
“No,” Nate said. “Why?”
She frowned and bit her lip. “He never came home last night. His bed’s empty, too. And his phone is off.”
My eyes narrowed. “Wasn’t he going to Headquarters to talk to Jaffrin?”
“Yes,” she said curtly.
Was it possible Jaffrin had reprimanded him for housing me? For not turning me in right away? Yes. But even if he did punish Ben, why keep him overnight without sending someone to the house to take me away?
“Something’s not right,” Rachel said, her words quiet. “I can feel it. He’s in trouble.”
Of course he is. Only this time, I was starting to think it wasn’t trouble of his own making. “Are you sure he was at Headquarters last night?”
She nodded. “Yes. I don’t know why he’d go anywhere else.”
Nate stood and dug his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll call Jaffrin. Get dressed and grab Shawn.”
“But we don’t know for sure that he’s actually missing,” I said.
Rachel’s eyes narrowed on me. “When family is in trouble, your gut instincts know. I know family isn’t something you’re good with.” And then she was on her way upstairs.
No. Family wasn’t something I was good at. Especially since most of mine had died or turned against me.
Nate looked over at me, frowning, as he waited for Jaffrin to pick up his phone.
We didn’t bother going to Fire Circle Headquarters. Jaffrin had told Rachel over the phone about the mission he’d sent Ben on and where he might still be. But when Rachel relayed the message to the rest of us, her expression looked about as pleased as it had when I’d shown up at the front door.
“Why would he send Ben back to Tatiana Viynar’s old base alone?” she asked, a general question to the room. One no one appeared to have the answer for. “Why risk it?”
“He must have been pretty pissed about me being back.” It was the only explanation I had. But the longer I thought about it, the more things started to click into place. “Tatiana was a bounty hunter for Landshaft, right? Maybe someone new took her place.”
Rachel’s glare cut to me. “Still doesn’t explain why he sent Ben in alone. Especially since last year we were told to never go back there.”
Nate sat on the arm of the couch in the living room. “Jaffrin probably wanted him to scout the area.”
“Clearly that didn’t go well,” Rachel said.
Shawn paced between the entryway to the kitchen and the townhome’s front door. “Landshaft is run by Lady Azar. Maybe she was supposed to show up at the demon nest last night and Jaffrin wanted to know if Nate’s asanak had finally worn off.”
It’d been almost a year since Nate had disabled her access to her magik. We were pretty sure that was the only thing that’d kept Lady Azar from attacking us in retaliation for stealing Riley back, and why she’d sent Zanka to get him back for her six months ago.
“This is ridiculous,” I said, watching Shawn pace the room. “We should be going there right now and looking for Ben, not trying to figure out Jaffrin’s motives.”
Shawn paused, his gaze on me. “Funny, because that’s all you’ve ever done before.”
“Oh, screw you,” I snapped.
“Krystin’s right.” Rachel walked over to us and held her hand out. “Let’s go—now. He might still be there. What if he got caught?”
I was surprised she’d waited this long. Ben would have teleported out the second Jaffrin had spoken.
Nate shook his head and joined us. In the next second, we were gone.
Chapter 10
Ben
Sweat dripped down the side of my head, a huge drop of it sliding down my temple. My eyelids weighed a hundred pounds, like years ago when I’d tried for days to escape my coma. But instead of being wrapped in darkness occasionally lit by lightning strikes, this dark was full of a dull pain, of not being able to move.
I groaned, stretching my unused limbs. My muscles screamed as if I’d been in the same uncomfortable position for days, not hours. Slowly, a pins-and-needles sensation slid from my toes up through my legs, aching and throbbing. I forced my eyelids open, bracing myself for whatever sight might lay beyond them. But only an empty room greeted me. Wooden walls, old and rotten in places, and a cement floor. A musty smell mixed with the faint remains of a fire filtered through the space.
I sat in a chair, my arms bound behind the back of it by what felt like rope. I tugged on my restraints as I looked around the rest of the room, decorated only in a few places with old oil paintings and curtains over the windows. That was when my memory slammed back into me. Tatiana Viynar’s old hideout. Lady Azar’s Shadow Crest demons taking it over. Giyano and Riley. One not recognizing me while the other shepherded me to the enemy.
Giyano had never been my ally, but he’d once been Krystin’s. What had changed within the last six months? He’d been so obsessed with Krystin, had supposedly kept Riley safe while he’d been with Lady Azar. Now, Giyano appeared to be working for them all over again. Whatever Giyano was, I didn’t figure him to be wishy-washy in his loyalties like that. His hatred for Lady Azar was genuine—according to Krystin, anyway. But Krystin was just another person I didn’t know if I could ever trust again.
I yanked again on the ropes binding me to the chair. The rope dug into my wrists but didn’t budge.
“Screw this.” I called my lightning, hoping to burn through the ropes, but nothing happened. “What?” I called, closing my eyes and really focusing this time. Trying to block out thoughts of Riley and Giyano and the fact that my magik appeared to have up and disappeared when I needed it most.
I bellowed, pulling on the ropes with all I had. Giyano had captured me and left me tied up, magik gone, no chance of anyone knowing where I was. Except Jaffrin, but he’d sent me here alone to begin with.
He knew. He had to have known or at least had an inkling. And instead of sending me with my team, of risking Krystin possibly running off with Giyano again—this was the only explanation I could think of—he’d sent me. Me of all people. I was just as likely to kill Giyano on the spot, risk of Lady Azar’s wrath be damned, than Krystin was to side with him again.
Screaming again, I planted my feet and tried to pry my bound hands away from the chair by sheer force. And instead only succeeded in leaning too far forward and teetering to the floor. I landed on my side, my face slamming into the cement floor. A coppery-tasting liquid filled the corner of my mouth. I spat out the blood from my bit tongue and cheek and rocked back and forth, hoping to break the chair.
“Let me out of here!”
The door on the far wall swung open. Giyano casually strode inside as if I hadn’t been screaming my head
off. I stopped moving as he walked toward me, chuckling as he slid his hands into his front pockets.
“What?” I snapped at him. “Want to kick me while I’m down again? What kind of coward are you?”
“I’m not a coward,” he said coolly. “And neither are you.”
My eyes narrowed, but with my hands still tied behind my back, there wasn’t much more I could do. And being bound and helpless before Giyano cut way deeper than I’d ever wanted to admit. He’d taken Riley, for god’s sake.
Giyano squatted down so we were almost eye-level. “Would you like me to right you, or are you perfectly happy on the floor?”
“Fuck you. Teleportante.” But nothing happened. Giyano and the rest of the Shadow Crest demons must have made this room magik-proof in addition to taking away my powers once I’d been unconscious. I was stuck. And being honest, I couldn’t have lived with myself for abandoning Riley here when I was possibly feet away from saving him. But being able at least to teleport across the room and into a standing position might have been nice.
Giyano shook his head before placing his hands on my shoulders and pulling the chair up as he stood. “There. Much better.”
“For what?” Killing me I would have understood, for the same reasons Lady Azar had sent bounty hunters after Krystin. I posed a threat to her Alzan plans. But for Giyano to give a damn about even how I was sitting?
Giyano reeled back his hand and punched me square across the jaw. Lights danced on the horizon of my vision. More blood dripped onto my tongue.
I spat it out on the ground in front of Giyano. “Asshole.”
He frowned as he gestured behind him. I couldn’t see what he was pointing at because of where he was standing. “Now, is that any way to speak in front of a child?”
Giyano stepped out of my line of sight, revealing the small child I’d seen standing between demons outside the house some number of hours ago. With light blond hair and his mother’s nose, Riley watched me with an unaffected expression. As if he didn’t recognize me at all.
