by Jessica Gunn
Chapter 19
KRYSTIN
“Run,” I told Shawn, holding a hand up in front of me. If these guys wanted to attack or imprison us before we figured out our destined magik, they’d have to go through me first.
“Cianza,” Shawn hissed before tugging on the back of my tank top. “No magik, remember? Let’s go.”
We took off at a run from the man near the fruit stand and the group of people who followed after him. But every step away from the stand brought us that much closer to Cianza Alzan all over again.
My knees gave out first and I stumbled, nearly falling to my face. Shawn gripped the back of my tank top again and pulled me back.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Don’t thank me yet. I don’t know much farther I can run.”
I looked over at him. “Me either. And if we keep going this direction, we’ll hit the cianza.”
Shawn froze. “Then let’s not. What’s the worst they’ll do to us, really?”
I stopped too. “Kill us. Or imprison us.”
“If we don’t figure out this magik, we’ll die here anyway.”
“Thanks, Mr. Optimism.”
I turned back toward the buildings and found the fruit stand man and his crowd chasing after us with various weapons, all with differing degrees of sharpness. Swords mixed with brooms and other blunt objects.
“Hey!” I shouted toward them as they came. “Please, let’s talk about this.”
The fruit stand man charged forward ahead of the crowd he’d accumulated. “This plane is locked, inaccessible. Who are you and where do you come from?”
I glanced over at Shawn. The truth or not the truth? “I’m Krystin. He’s Shawn.”
“Are you Neuian?” another shouted.
“A Neuian from the origin plane?” someone else asked, a shock in their tone. “Impossible.”
“Look at their eyes,” said the man. “They can’t be Neuian.”
My eyes widened of their own accord. What the hell were they going on about? Neuian. What is that?
“We’re Hunters,” Shawn said, stepping beside me. Better we’re in it together than apart, I guess. “From the Fire Circle. The Powers, like you.”
The man from the fruit stand scoffed. “We’re nothing alike, Hunter. How did you get here?”
Someone cried out, “The walls are open!”
“No, they’re not,” I snapped. “We came here through blood magik to find our own magik.”
The man’s face twisted. “Blood magik?” He drew his sword and held it up. The others lifted their weapons in response. “Blood magik is forbidden here.”
“Yeah, probably because it’s the only way to break through the walls,” I said under my breath.
Shawn hissed my name and nudged me backward.
“What are the odds me using my magik will tip a cianza this big?” I asked him.
“Let’s not find out.”
“What if it’s the only option?”
“Don’t let it become the only option, Krystin. Please. We’re here to keep that cianza from blowing.”
I scoffed and turned but didn’t see much before Shawn tugged me out of the way as the fruit stand man’s sword swung down in a mighty arch toward my face. I came up, twisting around the man and disarming him within a few moments. Snatching up the sword, I pointed it at him as he lay there on the ground. The crowd behind us gasped and then went deadly silent.
“Stop!” someone called, slicing the air like a knife through water. “Stop! Don’t hurt them!”
I lifted the sword and aimed it at another man, who came barreling through the crowd without regard for anyone standing in his way. Shoving and knocking his way to the front, he stopped his sandaled feet in front of Shawn and me, his hands raised.
This man had a jovial face with warm, rosy cheeks, a lean body, chiseled cheekbones, and fine brown hair. “Please, put the weapon down, Daughter.”
My eyes narrowed. “Daughter? You’re not my father.”
Shawn’s head tilted. “I think he means the other kind.”
This new man looked to Shawn. His eyes grew wide with excitement and he reached a hand out. “Yes, yes. My name is Areus, keeper of the Pyramid. Mentor to Son and Daughter. I have been waiting so very long to meet you.”
My breath hitched, my grip on the sword loosening. “Mentor?”
Shawn shook Areus’s hand, though a pensive look twisted his brow. “We’ve been trying to figure out our magik and how to get here for a while now.”
Areus’s face darkened for a moment before he looked over his shoulder. “There is nothing to see here. Please move along before I involve the High Council.”
“Unnecessary,” groaned fruit stand man from the ground.
Areus offered him a hand and pulled the man up. “Nonsense, brother. These are the two who will save us all.”
“Brother?” I asked.
“Tirus,” he said, introducing himself. He had a good head of height on Areus. “I didn’t mean you harm.”
I scoffed again. “Much. It’s fine. Definitely wouldn’t want us to be Neuian or anything.”
“Krystin,” Shawn snapped.
I spun on him. “What, I can’t have a little fun?”
But the way Areus’s face drained of all blood at the mention of these Neuians told me that maybe it wasn’t a thing to joke about after all.
“Have you come into contact with them?” Areus asked.
“We don’t even know what Neuians are,” Shawn said.
Areus nodded quickly, then took off through the crowd again. Shawn and I hurried behind him, dodging people as they stood and stared.
“Please, follow me to the Pyramid Building. We’ve so much to catch up on. To teach you,” Areus said. “And do not mention the Neuians again. If you don’t know, you soon will, and I’d rather have prepared you for more before then.”
“For what?” I asked. Despite the fact that we were following a complete stranger, I welcomed the space now growing between me and the cianza. Its effects lessened as we followed Areus back into the city settlement, where he climbed into a cart drawn by horses and invited us to join him.
“Quick,” he said. “It’s an hour even by horse. We have no time to waste.”
“You’re not kidding,” I said.
“How long have you been waiting for us?” Shawn asked as Areus drew the cart into the street.
“Too long, I’m afraid,” he said, almost quiet enough that it might have just been to himself. “Let’s not discuss anything further until we’re inside the safety of the Pyramid.”
“Safety from what?” Shawn asked.
Areus looked over his shoulder, his stare hard. “Prying eyes, hungry ears, and whatever darkness your arrival is heralding.”
I gulped. I guessed that about covered it.
Though it took us longer to reach the entrance, the pyramid Areus spoke of crested the horizon almost immediately after we left the city settlement. But unlike standing on the mountain looking over at it, I could now see the pyramid in details. Namely, that it was humongous.
The pyramid stood hundreds of feet tall, towering up into the cloud cover above. Each story appeared to be made out of different gemstones, creating an amazing rainbow-like exterior that rose all the way to the amethyst cap. Obsidian, lapis lazuli, moonstone, hematite. Diamond and sapphire, tiger’s eye and opal. All rising up into the clouds.
My breath hitched somewhere in my chest. “That is magnificent,” I whispered, positively awestruck.
“The stonework alone,” Shawn said.
“Wishing archaeology had been more than just an elective?”
His eyes didn’t move from the pyramid before us. “More than you know.”
I grinned, watching as the pyramid grew larger the closer we got. By the time Areus had stopped his cart at the entrance to the pyramid, I could no longer see past the middle and into the sky. The structure looked like a leviathan or an enemy alien ship from all those cheesy sci-fi movie
s when we were this close, overtaking the sky in my current view.
“Hurry,” Areus said as soon as his sandal-covered feet hit the marble beneath us. “The High Council of Alzan, which resides inside this building, will want to see you, I’m sure. But I’d hoped to have you for a bit before then. Come along.”
We followed, but my walk slowed the second we stepped inside. Sweeping arches made from rose quartz ran beneath stairways leading upward. The ceiling in this atrium rose three, maybe four stories above us, becoming glass that seemed to stretch on much farther up the center of the pyramid. As if someone had created one giant, long window to the stars. Potted plants with huge green and orange leaves dotted the walls on which ornate bronze and silver lanterns hung.
Where the city settlement had been impressive in its marble structures, this pyramid was unlike anything I’d even seen before or likely would ever come across. It was otherworldly, strange, but beautiful. And the gemstones it’d been made out of, their energy flowed into me, through me, inducing a constant state of calm and focus, strength and stability. Of power.
“Shawn,” I said as Areus led us through the atrium and into a corridor to the right.
He nodded. “I know. I feel it, too.” His brow furrowed. “But not the cianza. It’s like its effects dissipated as soon as we stepped inside the pyramid.”
My eyes narrowed and I looked down at my arms. “You’re right. I don’t feel the cianza either. Just the gemstones.” I picked up my pace until I walked beside Areus. “Why don’t we feel Cianza Alzan anymore?”
He smiled. “The Pyramid Building has magiks that nullify its effects. It is a temporarily, fluctuating measure. When the cianza shifts or slightly tilts, as it is prone to do from time to time, we do still feel it here.”
“Well, did you expect it not to shift when you have people living that close to it?”
“Krystin,” Shawn warned.
“What? That’s a fair question.”
Areus stopped outside of a door and pulled a key out of the pocket of his tunic. He unlocked the door, pushed it open, and ushered us inside.
“Please, take a seat and I will explain everything,” Areus said, gesturing at the room.
Library, more like it. The octagonal room, at least fifty feet wide at the middle, was home to more bookcases and books than I could count with one glance. The marble floor that continued from the hallway into this room was covered in ornate carpets. A desk with a small torch lamp sat in the middle part of the room, where all the bookcases met. And ten feet from where we stood was a set of six white ottomans, a few of which had arms to make them into proper chairs.
I swallowed hard as I took it all in and followed Shawn over to the seats. He took the first one he came upon, but I crossed the area to one of the seats that had an arm. Something told me I’d need the support.
Shawn’s gaze lingered on me, as if he were worried either about me or something I’d say. “Thank you for helping us back there.”
I shook my head. I’m fine. We’d been waiting for this for months now, right? I didn’t think either of us expected to come to Alzan before Lady Azar marched on the city, but if we were already here, maybe we’d have a better chance of stopping her. Assuming we unlocked our magik. If it was even still there after Shawn’s stone was broken and his magik cleaved from his body.
Areus sat on a chair between the two of us and clapped excitedly. “It was my pleasure. As I said, I’ve been waiting a long time for you two.”
“Exactly how long is ‘a long time’?” I asked.
“Several thousands of years.”
What the actual— I looked at him, deadpan. “You’re not serious.”
“Oh, but I am.”
Shawn’s surprised gaze met mine. “But that means you’re…”
“Two thousand years old, give or take a decade,” Areus said, still smiling. Where Shawn seemed to rely on shrugs to get his point across, Areus similarly adored his smiles. Fantastic. “I was here when the city fell.”
“Are you immortal?” Shawn asked. “We’re Hunters. We know that demons from Darkness have the potential to live forever as well.”
Areus’s smile became a sad one. “Unfortunately, no. I’m still alive because my duties are not complete. When they are, I will begin to age as we all do. Alzanians do not have expanded lifetimes like demons. Magik like that is unnatural. Evil.”
“Duties?” I asked.
“Waiting for the two of you, to train and guide you before the final conflict. To assist you in preparing to save Alzan.”
I grimaced. “Unfortunately, that might be a lot sooner than you think. Lady Azar will be making her way here in a week. That’s not enough time to fix Shawn’s magik and unlock the power we’re supposed to have, much less learn it in time to stop her.”
Areus frowned at Shawn. “What does she mean, ‘fix your magik’?”
“There was an attack on Fire Circle Headquarters in Boston. Krystin and I think that one of the stones mentioned in the prophecy was being housed there. It was broken by the demon who attacked Headquarters. I was also hit with an ether-shaper asanak move. I haven’t had my magik in six months, and with that stone broken…” He shook his head. “Unless you have a way to bypass that loss, I’m probably not going to be able to help Krystin defend Alzan.”
Areus froze, his stare becoming blank. “There was an Alzanian stone in the Fire Circle?”
“The Leader had it, a man named Jaffrin,” I said.
Areus didn’t say anything right away. Instead, he stood and began pacing. “I wonder…”
“Wonder what?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Never mind. But Son—”
“Shawn. My name’s Shawn.”
I held in a laugh and bit my lip. “I’m Krystin, before you go trying to call me Daughter.”
“But those are your titles,” Areus said as if we’d affronted him somehow.
“And Shawn and Krystin are our names. Please use them,” Shawn said.
Areus nodded. “As you wish, Shawn. Your magik was not contained in that stone, that much I can assure you. I’m not sure where your Fire Circle Leader got that stone or why he thought it belonged to you, but… No.” Areus shook his head again and began pacing. “There’s a small possibility, a minute chance… but that’s impossible.”
“What is?” Shawn asked.
Areus stopped pacing and turned to him. “Never you mind.”
“Then how do we get this magik we’re supposed to have?” I asked. “We’ve felt its presence. Shawn’s used it to heal me before. That’s all we’ve been able to do, even when one of us is almost dead.”
Areus’s eyes darkened. “There was an incident in the First War.”
“When this city was moved from the origin plane?” Shawn asked.
“Darkness attacked us as their first strike. And when the tides of battle turned in their favor, when the cianza began tilting and threatening to explode, we were forced to move the city to safety. Or rather, the Daughter of Alzan was.”
Silence reigned as Areus let the weight of his words sink in.
My mind whirred around what he’d said. “The Daughter moved Alzan? I am the Daughter and I’m pretty sure I’ve never been here before.”
Areus sat with such weight, it was as if his clothes and body had suddenly been made out of stone. “You have not. But… a mistake was made. My own, I’m afraid. When Darkness attacked Alzan in the First War, we thought it was the final conflict.”
“It was that bad?” I asked.
Areus nodded. “Most of the First War was fought on the higher planes of existence between Aloysius and his top demons and the Powers themselves, including us. When Alzan fell and Aloysius was forced into the much more physical form he holds now, the conflict ended. The cianza at Alzan’s center has been with us for as long as the prophecy, if not longer.”
I closed my eyes and leaned against the arm of the chair as I realized what Areus was saying. “Oh, no.”
Shawn looked to me. “What?”
I turned to Areus. “Are you telling me a Son and Daughter already fought for Alzan? Is that why we never figured out how to access the magik we’re supposed to have?”
“It’s all a lie?” Shawn asked him.
Areus shook his head. “No, you misunderstand. You two are the rightful Son and Daughter, but when the First War happened, when we thought the final conflict was upon us, we prematurely called forth a set of protectors, a set of Son and Daughter, using the stones named in the prophecy. That’s where your magik was to be stored originally. However, the Son never received his stone or his power. He was fighting in the war efforts and I never met him. I think his stone, the one your Circle Leader had, was stolen from Alzan by an emissary for another civilization.”
Areus stood without another word and disappeared into a row of bookshelves. Shawn and I exchanged confused glances while we waited for him to return. A minute or so later he did with a wooden, undecorated box between his hands. He placed it on the chair in front of us and opened it. Inside sat a single quartz stone so much like the one Kinder had found in Jaffrin’s safe. The same one she’d smashed.
“Did the stone your Leader have look like this one?” Areus asked.
“Exactly like it,” Shawn said.
“Interesting.”
“I wouldn’t call it interesting,” I said. “I’d call it suspicious as hell.”
Areus frowned. “I’m inclined to agree.”
“Kinder said the stone was made from raw magik. That’s why she wanted it,” I said. “But when she held it nothing happened. Kinder has the Power. If the stone had contained magik, she’d have stolen it.”
“The Power,” Areus echoed. “Now there’s a magik almost as old as the Son and Daughter’s, and just as rarely spoken about in Alzan.”
“Well, you might want to change that,” I said. “Because the Power is exactly how Lady Azar plans to get through the magik walls protecting and hiding Alzan. One of our teammates—his son has the Power and he’s been kidnapped by Lady Azar.”
“Then we have much work to do.” Areus gestured for us to stand. “Come. We have a ritual in Alzan for unlocking powers. Since your magik will be ours, the same type that is, it should work. I regret that our calling forth of a first set of Son and Daughter named has interfered with you two receiving the magik.”
