by Jessica Gunn
My jaw clenched. “That’s not good enough. She’ll be moving sooner than that, I think.”
Sam shrugged, lifting her hands in the air. “Hey, go if you want to. It’s your funeral. Just try not to get anyone else killed with you.”
“Can you keep looking into their communications and see if anything changes?”
She cringed.
“What?” I asked.
“If they’re inside Landshaft when Lady Azar moves on Alzan, I may not get a warning. None of us monitoring those channels will. Demons don’t exactly embrace technology, not for calls to war at least.”
Or at all. I hadn’t found a single piece of electronics inside Shadow Crest’s lair either time we’d gone there. Lady Azar and her entourage were Old Ones. They didn’t need modern technology when their magik could burn civilizations to the ground. And from what Krystin had told me about Alzan, that city was about the same.
“Just please keep me updated,” I said. “I want to know the second something changes. Even if you need to call my personal number to do it.”
Sam nodded. “I will.” She reached forward to end a call with the press of a button but stopped. “Ben?”
“What?”
“It’s not a good idea for us to converse so much.”
“I know that.” Hence the secure servers and headset.
“I’m just saying. If things develop, you’ll have to use official channels. And I can’t guarantee Jade will be even remotely as accommodating as I am.”
“Understood.” Especially if the Blackwood witch currently under my command wasn’t aware of things. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Sam.”
She nodded again and ended the call.
I shut the laptop and leaned my head back, releasing a long-held breath. My chest tightened, squeezing with anxiety. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Any of it.
“Want to tell me what all of that was about?”
My body froze and I opened my eyes.
Krystin stood in the doorway to my room, a hand on her hip.
Chapter 7
KRYSTIN
I hadn’t meant to listen in. But Ben said he was going to sleep, or at least nap until pizza had arrived. And what I’d heard instead didn’t sit well at all.
“It’s complicated,” Ben said as he stood from his bed to replace his laptop on the desk next to it.
“Look, I know it’s probably none of my business. It just sounded like you were monitoring something important.”
“I am,” he said, looking up to me. “But nothing’s wrong; don’t worry.”
I shifted my weight onto one foot and leveled him with a stare. “Are you sure? You’ve been acting strange for days now.”
“Yeah. Lady Azar still has my son.”
Obviously. “Are you sure this has nothing to do with whatever’s kept you cooped up at Headquarters?”
He returned the hard stare. “You know I can’t talk about that.”
I rolled my eyes and made my way over to his bed, sitting on the end of it. “That excuse is getting pretty old. At least let Rachel in on it.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“It’s… complicated,” he said, throwing up his hands. “Everything is right now. So much of everything is contingent on what happens here during the next few weeks.”
“Lady Azar and Alzan?” I asked, watching him.
He balled his hands into fists as he moved to his desk chair, facing me with a hard stare and wild, stressed eyes. “Honestly? I was talking to someone who has a way to monitor the Trade’s movements inside Landshaft.”
My response caught on my tongue. “That’s… so not what I was expecting.”
Ben lifted an eyebrow. “What’d you think was going on?”
“I don’t know. Not that. Maybe a new power or extra jobs like you used to do for Jaffrin. Not spying on the fucking Trade, Ben.” I rubbed my temples. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking about getting Riley home safe once and for all.”
I closed my eyes. “Spying on them isn’t the way to do it. Do you have any idea what Lady Azar will do if the Trade catches on and reports it to her?” Lady Azar might not directly run the Trade herself, but they fell under the umbrella of Landshaft, and she owned both that demonic city as well as Shadow Crest.
“She’ll attack us,” he said. “Put a bounty on our heads. But we already pretty much have that, don’t we?”
Fair point. “Let’s not make it a bigger price, hmm?”
Ben’s knuckles turned white from how hard he was squeezing his fingers into fists. “I can’t just sit here and wait. We’ve done enough fucking waiting.”
“I agree—”
“Then let me do this. It’s totally safe. I was able to tap into a network of people who already have spies within Landshaft, people in deep cover.”
“And who are these people again?”
Ben bit his tongue and looked away, a telltale sign he was trying to decide what and what not to say. “It turns out Topaz has connections to the Trade. Good connections—the spy kind.”
My jaw fell open, possibly all the way to the floor. “Topaz. Are you fucking kidding me?” I rose off his bed. “You contacted Jade Blackwood’s organization without me?”
Ben laughed, but none of this was funny. He lifted his hands in defense. “It’s not that simple.”
“Um, no. I think it is.”
“They were already at Headquarters—”
My brow knitted together. “What? They’d never go there.”
“We’re about to start the war, Krystin. The real war.”
“Jade hasn’t left the Amazonian jungle in so many generations that Blackwood witches are often taught that she’s a myth.”
“She’s not,” he said, looking me straight in the eyes.
“You’re joking. This can’t be real.” Jade Blackwood and her two sisters were the original Blackwood witches descended directly from the Powers. Jade had created her Topaz group thousands of years ago. But sometime in early A.D. times, the rest of the Powers, the Hunter Circles included, lost contact with her.
Until I was born and my destiny as the Daughter of Alzan had been revealed.
“Did you speak to her?” The thought that he’d actually conversed with the matron of my witch line caused my stomach to flutter. That these titan-like figures, Kinder and Lady Azar included, were active in this time of war did not bode well at all.
Ben shook his head. “No. If she was actually at Headquarters that day, she probably only spoke to Dacher. I ran into a few of her associates, including a young witch our age named Sam Blackwood-Topaz. She knew who I was and told me she intercepts Trade communications for Jade because the Trade has been after Topaz for years along with Ember witches.”
“We’re all essentially one large, extended family,” I said, nodding. “The witch lines, anyway. But that they agreed to work with the Fire Circle at all, especially given the way most of my Blackwood line hates us…”
Ben nodded solemnly. “I know. That’s what has me worried. Not just for the fight at Alzan, but for the future.”
“Assuming there is a future,” I mumbled.
Ben’s eyes turned fierce. “There will be. Our best bet is to stop Lady Azar before she gets to Alzan. That’s what Sam said.”
“That’s what we’ve been saying for a year now, Ben. It doesn’t mean that’ll automatically be true.”
“Obviously not. If it was, we’d have rescued Riley by now.”
I glanced down at my hands, but only for a moment. “Honestly, I’m not sure that’s a factor in saving Alzan anymore.”
Ben’s eyebrows knitted together. “What do you mean?”
I slipped my hands under my legs and looked up at him, rolling my eyes. “You know, all of it. Depending on how big her army is, the world might be over before we even get to Alzan.”
He didn’t need to know about my magik backfiring. I was sure Nate or Shawn would t
ell him at some point. Ben seemed distracted enough as it was without having to worry about me.
I swallowed hard. But wasn’t me not telling him stuff in the past the reason we’d had so many issues to begin with?
“Don’t think like that,” he said. “If you do, we’ve already lost. We can’t afford that.”
I held his stare. “Actually, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Ben’s jaw locked. “What?”
God, he probably thought I was about to admit to colluding with demons again or something. I doubted he’d like the truth any better.
“After the fight with Lady Azar, my magik backfired. Badly,” I said, slowly so that it could set in for him a piece at a time. No need rousing the entire house for a conversation half of us had already held. Ben’s face darkened with every word. “I spent the afternoon icing my palms. Nate thinks it’s a slow-burn, a result of all the times I’ve had differing magik types in my system, and the recent change to ala-ether.”
I paused, waiting to gauge his reaction.
He pulled in a breath but didn’t look away. “You’ve survived two previous flares.”
I nodded and offered him a small, sad smile. “It’s not the same this time. The first backfire flare was because of Giyano’s magik. The second, in Ether Circle Prison, was because of the amount of magik I’d had in my system, the fact that it was of both ether and elemental types. This is… a result of that. An inescapable life sentence.”
His eyes narrowed and he scooted his desk chair closer to the bed, so that only a few inches now separated us. “What are you saying? You’re going to die because of it?”
I wanted to remind him he already knew the answer to that question. That he was, because of Hunter Circles training as a magik user, aware of what your magik backfiring did. But the worry etching into the skin around his eyes, the way his now much more blue irises contracted in the lower light, made the words freeze on my lips. “Not like most magik backfires. Nate thinks there might be time to reverse it since it’s coming on so slow.”
Hope scurried into Ben’s eyes. “Good. We’ll figure it out, then.”
My heart sank and I reached out for him, placing my hands in his. Our fingers interlocked. “Please, Ben. Listen to me. Just because it’s a slow burn doesn’t mean it’s… weak. This flare… this backfiring hurts. It started last night. Nate’s been researching ways to fix it ever since. But unless Areus or the Alzanian High Council has a solution, I don’t know what will happen.”
“We’ll ask when we go to Alzan,” he said, squeezing my hands. “We’ll figure it out. I’m not going to let you fall to this. Especially when it’s not your fault.”
All Ben had wanted since joining the Fire Circle was to protect people. Namely, his son and Rachel. Then Nate, Shawn, and me. And it seemed that lately he was on a new crusade.
But there may be no saving me this time. He was taking it harder than I even bothered to. I loved magik; now it might be the death of me.
My thoughts jumped to Giyano and all the tutelage he’d given me over the short months we’d known each other. I wonder if you’d have a solution to this if you were here.
“I’ll ask Areus tomorrow,” I said finally. “Don’t worry, either, Ben.”
He looked down at our joined hands. “It’s hard not to.”
I swallowed hard. At one point, I’d cared for Ben a lot. But then everything with Kinder and Giyano had happened, and my forced betrayal and too much magik had gotten in the way. And when we’d kissed a few days ago, when I’d confessed my feelings to him, I hadn’t been expecting to survive the fight with Lady Azar.
Ben had promised me that once this was over, when Riley was home and the battle complete, we’d be able to talk about whatever this was between us. Aside from a kiss here and there, we hadn’t had much of a chance to talk alone.
It made this conversation, and his sudden change in emotion, hard to follow.
“I’m going to be okay,” I told him. “As long as I don’t use my magik too much, it won’t get worse.”
“But you’ll still have the backfiring,” he said, pulling himself closer to me. “You’re still in danger.”
“I’ve been in danger since the day I was born,” I reminded him. “I’ve made it okay so far.”
His jaw locked and he stared at me for a long moment before dropping the ‘strong leader’ mask he wore so well. Suddenly, he was nothing more than a man scared of losing someone again.
Ben had already lost enough.
“Promise me you’ll talk to Areus when we go to Alzan,” he said. “Don’t say you will and then don’t. Alzan needs you and your magik in the final conflict. We all need you and Shawn to fight Lady Azar.” His eyes held mine for a long moment. “I need you, Krystin.”
But “I need you” sounded a whole lot like something else. Something neither of us was ready for. Maybe he was right about waiting.
I touched a palm to his cheek and smiled at him. “I promise. As soon as we ask him about the Neuians and what he thinks about Rachel’s and your situation. That’s the important bit.”
“You’re what’s important to me.”
I shook my head, smiling at him. “There’s no me being important to you if you’re not here anymore. Let’s sort that out first.”
A smile broke out on his lips. “There’s no winning with you, is there?”
No. There was no winning against me. And I wouldn’t let a little magik backfire stop me. Not yet.
I pulled away from him and smirked. “Not a chance, Sparky. Now, tell me all about this chatting with Topaz.”
Chapter 8
Ben
My head felt clearer in the morning. The eleven or so hours of sleep might have contributed to that. I hadn’t slept that long without being forcibly made unconscious since before college. Then again, the past four years had made college, football included, look like an easy walk on the beach, with the sun shining and a beer in my hand.
I showered, changed, and hurried downstairs as the sun started to rise. No one else was up yet, though it wasn’t exactly early. I didn’t expect anyone to be awake for another hour or two. Not on a day off.
I padded into the kitchen, my bare feet cold on the tile. At some point I should to call Sandra and let her know about all the developments. Preferably before Amanda did.
Three pizza boxes greeted me from the kitchen counter. I picked through them, two of which were empty. I folded them down and put them in the garbage before grabbing two slices of pizza and warming them up.
Their aroma filled the kitchen. My stomach growled. Maybe I shouldn’t have just gone to sleep after Krystin left last night.
“That is the most non-adult thing I think I’ve ever seen you do,” Shawn said as he walked into the kitchen. He went straight for the coffee maker.
The microwave beeped and I took out my pizza. “This is the easiest breakfast. Besides, no time for a five-course breakfast if we’re going to Alzan today.”
He nodded and started making coffee. “You’re probably right.”
“Krystin told me about her magik last night.”
He glanced over his shoulder at me. “The whole thing or a Krystin version?”
“Whole thing, I think. That it’s backfiring and she shouldn’t use her magik much right now.”
He turned back to his coffee. “Yeah. It’s not good. Hopefully, Nate finds something in his research or Alzan can help her. Otherwise, I’m worried the battle at Alzan could be her last.”
My eyes narrowed. “As in?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure. And before you say anything, I’m not trying to be a dick about it. I have no idea what will happen.”
“But you’re still mad at her.”
“It’s hard not to be, Ben. You know Rachel doesn’t totally trust her again either.”
In fact, I was sure only Nate and I did. “Well, thank you for not letting it impact the team too much.”
He shrugged again. “Sure thing. It�
��s your call, anyway.”
That gave me pause. “Do you think it’s a good call?”
He turned as the coffee began brewing. “I trust you and your judgment. That’s good enough for me.”
“Thanks…” My phone rang before I could finish my sentence. I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced at the caller ID. “It’s Dacher.” I swiped the screen to answer the call. “Hi, sir.”
“Ben, I hope you’re having a good morning.” He sounded more awake than I could ever hope to be at this hour.
“Just woke up, sir.”
“Good. I would like you and your team to come to Headquarters this morning at eleven. We’re having a formal event.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Sir? We were heading to Alzan today, as planned.”
“Yes, Rachel informed me last night that you hadn’t gone yet. I was hoping to get this over with before you go. You know what it’s about, Ben. Congratulations. It’s official as of today. You can leave after the ceremony.”
I thought it was official before now, at least in this capacity. “Okay, sir. See you at eleven.”
“Thank you.”
I hung up the call and glanced at Shawn. “Guess we’re not going to Alzan until later.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Formal event at Headquarters today. Might want to polish your Fire Circle knife.”
I gathered with the team around 10:30 a.m. and we made our way to Fire Circle Headquarters on foot. At this time in the morning, it shouldn’t have taken too long to get there. And it didn’t. We strolled through the doors to Headquarters with ten minutes to spare.
Lissandra, the front desk admin, waved us over with a grin spanning her entire face. “Good morning, Ben. Team. What a wonderful day it is today.”
She must know. “It’s something all right.”
Lissandra’s gaze focused on me. “Come on, Ben. Smile.”
I plastered on a fake one. “I am. Are we in the grand hall?”
