by Jessica Gunn
“Are you okay?” Rachel asked, then cleared her throat. “I mean, obviously you’re probably not. I’m not either, for what it’s worth.”
I moved over to where she sat on a plush white couch and sat beside her. “How are you doing, besides the obvious?”
She looked ahead for a moment, staring at a collection of books in the distance, before scrunching her eyes. “Do you remember back when we first started learning more about our magik? Out in the park that night?”
The memory came back to me. Rachel had turned the river water into a puppet and I’d tried and failed to do more than make a few sparks of lightning.
I nodded. “Yeah. That’s the night we found out about Fire Circle Headquarters.” Not exactly, but close enough. We’d found an article about Headquarters burning down years ago with Hunters inside. At the time, it seemed weird anyone would rebuild and use the space after that, so we decided to investigate there first. “We were so confident we’d find something when we went to Boston.”
Rachel nodded and she balled her hands in her lap. A lock of her blonde hair fell over her eyes. “And then we went and found a real-life demon with real magik at Castle Island. Then Sandra got stalked by the same demon at the hospital. Then Riley’s gone and we’re in the Hunter Circles and all of a sudden everything’s changed. That’s what this feels like. As if the very moment we got comfortable as Hunters and with our magik, the entire world’s been tilted on its head again. Only this time, we find out we’re the possible bad guys—or at least the party with magik so old and out of place, we might as well be the villains here.”
She wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t sure she wanted to hear that right now.
“We’ll figure it out, Rachel,” I said instead.
She glanced at me, her blues eyes piercing… and shimmering. As if the magik in her veins was now blue and showed there, like how demons’ eyes were a dark burgundy. “When, exactly, are we going to ‘figure it out’? Lady Azar is coming to Alzan as soon as she regroups. If she can.”
“That’d be the best scenario—her running out of steam before fulfilling her plan.”
Rachel gave me a hard stare. “There is no best scenario. There’s only bad and worse. Don’t you see that?”
“I’m honestly trying not to.”
“Ben Hallen not picturing the worst-case scenario? Are you feeling okay?”
“I think we’re past that now. We either fight or we don’t. I’m just trying to find a way for us to end this battle before it reaches Cianza Alzan and threatens it. I don’t know that you and I will be enough to neutralize everyone else’s magik.”
She shook her head. “Probably not.”
“Does your magik even work anymore?” I asked. “I know Areus said that our magik would be dampened inside the Pyramid Building, but I haven’t tried at all.”
“No, but I can.” Rachel lifted her hand up and swished it through the air. Water collected from the molecules in the air and trailed behind her movements until a cone of shimmering blue water followed, although more slowly than usual. The water was the same shade of her eyes, not like normal water. “That’s different.”
I swallowed hard. It wasn’t a huge difference like how Shawn’s Ember witch ether had been orange while Nate’s ether was usually white. “Riley’s lightning was blue.”
Rachel looked up at me. “What?”
“During the fight. When he used it against me, it was blue.” I lifted a hand and focused on calling the smallest amount of lightning I could. Nothing came. “I think he came into his Neuian magik on his own. Maybe as part of the Power.” Finally, lightning sparked between and around my fingertips—a vibrant cobalt blue. I closed my fist as soon as the lightning appeared, putting it out. “I don’t know if the Neuians can be trusted. But if they’re at least more Good than Darkness, maybe Karen can save Riley from that demonic fate.”
“Maybe. But we can’t do anything from Alzan until they’re here,” Rachel said.
Voices sounded from outside the room as Nate and Shawn returned. As they rejoined us, I said, “Then we go back as soon as Krystin’s here and we stop Lady Azar.”
“We tried that before and failed,” Rachel pointed out. As if I needed to be reminded about that again.
“Then we at least try to get in her way a lot,” I said. “Whatever we can do. Anything to hinder her plans, just like we did the last time. What do you think?”
“Yes to what?” Nate asked.
“Doing what we do best,” I said. “Getting the fuck into everyone’s way.”
Chapter 13
KRYSTIN
“I don’t know if we’ll be back before Lady Azar attacks,” I said, watching Areus carefully for any sign from him that this was a shitty-as-hell idea. “Although, to be honest, I’m not sure we’ll be able to get back, period.”
Areus nodded mutely, his face grave. It was entirely possible that we’d not be able to get back to Alzan because of my magik flaring. If this trip didn’t kill me, any trip thereafter could. Any amount of magik at all held that possibility. But I had to believe that the Powers had a plan, and that me seeing this prophecy through to the end was part of that plan. Maybe that was why I’d survived this long.
Maybe fate wasn’t done with me yet.
“Be safe, Daughter and Son,” Areus said, shaking our hands in turn. “I will assist your transfer back so that you don’t have to, Krystin. But upon your return…” He didn’t need to say the rest.
“Thank you.”
“Maybe we can find another way,” Shawn said, stepping back to the team. “Piggyback on Riley’s magik, maybe, through the walls around the city.”
Ben stiffened beside me but didn’t speak. His face was a mask for once, hiding his true feelings. And without telepathy, I couldn’t be sure what was going through his head. But I could take a fairly educated guess.
I reached out for him first, squeezing his hand harder than necessary. Anything to break through that mask of fake calm and connect with him again. He looked down, first at where our fingers intertwined and then up at my face. “It’s going to be okay,” I said.
“I hope so.”
“We’ll rescue Riley.”
His jaw hardened and he didn’t speak. He didn’t have to. The I’ve heard that before hung heavy in the air between us.
“Go,” Areus said. “Do what you can to halt Lady Azar’s march. We will begin preparations for the worst in the meantime and evacuate our citizens to the Pyramid Building and beyond.”
“Not too far,” Nate said. “They might help balance out the magik on top of the cianza.”
Nate was right. But protecting their lives while simultaneously putting them in harm’s way wasn’t the answer either.
“Maybe keep your teleporters and anyone with barricading magik nearby,” I said.
Areus nodded again. “We will. And I’ll be here to fight alongside you when you return. Until then, be safe.”
“You too,” Shawn said as he reached his hand out to my free one.
I took his hand and Nate and Rachel joined us. “Maybe take us to Headquarters, Shawn. Just in case.”
He nodded and then, in the blink of an eye, Areus helping along this transfer in my stead, we returned to the origin plane. To Fire Circle Headquarters.
We landed hard on the wood paneling on the second floor of Headquarters, right outside Dacher’s office. The landing was so jarring that I stumbled right into Ben, grabbing on to his shoulders as a wave of nausea sloshed through my stomach. I squeezed his shoulder, hanging on for everything I was worth as the room spun.
“Krystin?” he asked, drawing my face up to his.
I shook my head. “I’m fine. It’s my magik.” Which was not any sort of reassurance at all.
The sounds of people shifting and walking echoed down the corridor, sifting through what was otherwise unfiltered silence. I glanced up and over Ben’s shoulder and froze.
The door to Dacher’s office was open. He stood behind his desk
in the center of the room, his eyes wide and full of both shock and relief at the same time. But he wasn’t alone. Seven Ether Head Circle representatives filled the space between his desk and where my team stood in the hallway outside.
Chairman Otto stood next to Dacher, watching us all with narrowed eyes. “Seize them!” he shouted.
“Don’t! Stand down!” Dacher bellowed over the rising din.
I backed up, dragging Ben with me and bumping into Shawn behind me. He grabbed my shoulder and directed Ben and me toward the stairs, pushing Rachel and Nate along ahead of him.
“Go,” Shawn said. “Hurry.”
“We’re innocent,” Rachel argued, pushing back to get to Ben.
Nate hit the landing to the first floor before anyone else and said, “We can’t do anything if we’re caught.”
“You’re under arrest for exposing the Fire Circle a second time.” Chairman Otto’s voice boomed down the stairwell as the rest of us piled behind Rachel to get to safety. “And Ms. Rhodes and Mr. Hallen are to be detained for being Neuians in bed with Jaffrin.”
Rachel threw a look over Shawn’s shoulder at Ben. I didn’t see Ben’s response because he was still behind me as we descended the stairs into the lobby, but I heard him cursing under his breath.
“Stop!” Ben shouted down at us. “Stop running.”
Nate froze, watching Ben. “They’re going to arrest us.”
I turned on Ben. “We can’t let that happen.”
“We’re innocent,” Ben said.
“So was I, and they held me for three months before anything happened, Ben,” I said. “We don’t have the luxury of time like that.”
“And we can’t kill them either,” he ground out through gnashed teeth.
“No one suggested that,” Shawn said, his hand lifted as though approaching a wounded animal. “But—like Krystin pointed out—we can’t afford any delay.”
Ben stopped, his face hardening to determination. “Stop running. Stop fighting this. Let them take us in. We can’t run from them.”
“Why not?” Rachel asked, surprising the hell out of me. She was always the good one out of the group, and now she wanted to evade the law?
He sighed loudly and turned to face the Ether Head Circle representatives as they tore down the stairs. He held his wrists up toward them for binding. “Because at the end of the day the Fire Circle can’t afford to lose any more allies or ties to higher-ranked officials. We’ve already lost too much.”
What the hell was Ben talking about? If they carted us away to Ether Circle Prison, we’d die there when Cianza Alzan exploded. And last I checked, Karen was kind of hinging on her two new family members to be at that battle, freshly made Neuian, to even out the cianza.
“Ben,” I said, hoping he could read my thoughts and not make me try to say words we didn’t have time to exchange.
“Just trust me,” Ben said as the first of the representatives came off the stairs. “Trust Dacher.”
The Ether reps surrounded us, grabbing our hands and slapping handcuffs on to them at the same time they used requirem on each of us to take away our magik. But instead of dread, I felt nothing but sheer relief once mine was gone. As if the word-magik alone had relieved the tension and pain of my magik backfiring. Too bad it wouldn’t stop the flare, only its symptoms.
Chairman Otto, the asshole who’d headed up my interrogations during my time at Ether Circle Prison, now stood next to Dacher at the bottom of the landing. “You’re all to be detained at Fire Circle Headquarters while we speak to you.”
“About?” I asked, trying my very hardest not to sound sarcastic. Anything could have happened while we were gone.
“What occurred earlier at your team’s home,” Dacher said before Chairman Otto could respond.
Chairman Otto glared at Dacher. “And about the change in Ben and Rachel’s status as Hunters.”
“Excuse me?” Ben snapped, his stare cutting desperately to Dacher. “What’s he talking about? Just yesterday I was a Leader candidate!”
Dacher frowned, but Chairman Otto spoke first. “Given not only the recent incident that resulted in your entire street being shut down for investigation by the Boston Police Department, but also the revelation as to your true heritage, it is the decision of the Ether Head Circle that you and Rachel be relieved of your duties as Fire Circle Hunters.”
Dacher’s face turned a blotchy red and he pushed his way between the Ether Head Circle reps and us. “This is preposterous. Especially now. Neither of them has ever shown any indication of turning against the Fire Circle.”
Chairman Otto and his entire entourage lifted their collective gaze to mine. “But Ms. Blackwood has. And yet she roams free while she should still be in jail.”
“Jaffrin worked against the Fire Circle from the start,” I snapped. “Maybe if any of you had ever listened to me, none of this would be happening right now.”
“Enough,” Chairman Otto barked. “Seize them and place them all inside the quarantine chamber. We’ll begin interrogating them immediately.”
I wrapped my fingers around Ben’s upper arm, digging in. I was not going back to Ether Circle Prison if this went south. No matter what it meant for Dacher.
Ben stilled, so the rest of the team, myself included, didn’t act either. “You do realize we’re on a time constraint, right? Lady Azar will attack Alzan any day now. You need us.”
“No,” Chairman Otto said, glaring at each of us, even Dacher, in turn. “We need Mr. Jacques and Ms. Blackwood. And only for that battle. Afterward, the rest of your team will be removed.”
“No, they will not,” Dacher said. “Until a few days ago, Ben and Rachel were unaware of their true heritages. Indeed, neither of them knew they had magik until a few years ago. We’ve traced what we could through history since the incident with the Neuian, Karen, and discovered that no magik has been reported in either of their families for generations. Long enough that their grandparents’ parents wouldn’t have known.”
Ben’s jaw set hard. I didn’t need telepathy to know that he was thinking of his parents. Of their “accident” and death. Had it really been an accident after all?
Chairman Otto gestured with his hand. His Ether Head Circle Hunters fell in closer around us. “Even if you were to set all of that aside, this team has, time and again, broken rules so sacred to the Hunter Circles that they should be barred from participating for good. The number of times they’ve been recorded to be colluding with demons alone is enough for punishment.”
“Well, that’s mostly me,” I said. “Get your facts straight. None of them had anything to do with Giyano.”
“He saved our asses,” Ben added. Shock had me blinking. This couldn’t be Ben. It had to be a double, a much more level-headed twin. “More than your Circle was ever able to, despite the leadership role you’re supposed to have. That’s why we turned on Jaffrin and why we’ll question every move you make too.”
“Ben,” Dacher warned.
“No,” Ben snapped. “If I’m a Leader candidate, then I want these idiots to know that the days of them bullying other Circles around is over. Especially if they’re not going to be there to back those other Circles up when shit hits the damn fan. I’m tired of this.”
“Ben, please,” I said.
Ben lifted his cuffed hands and turned in the direction of the quarantine chamber we’d both spent too much time near or inside of over the course of the last year. “You want to hold us while the world burns? Do it. But I’ll make damn sure my team is at Alzan when Lady Azar is. The quarantine chamber isn’t strong enough to hold all of us.” Then, more quietly, he added, “Jaffrin made sure of that. His secret weapon: our magik-infused team.”
Maybe Jaffrin had planned to help save Alzan all along.
“Take them,” Chairman Otto said, his tone furious as redness slid up his cheeks. “We’ll sort this out in the morning. And if you do try to escape, know that the Ether Head Circle will track you down. There will be nowher
e in the entire world your team can hide. And the punishment will be far worse than ex-communication from the Hunter Circles.”
I bit down hard to keep from speaking. Nothing I had to say would make this situation any better.
Ben lifted an eyebrow. Rachel opened her mouth to cut him off, apparently seeing his retort before anyone else, but he still got out the god-awful words, “Is that a threat, Chairman Otto? Are you saying you’re going to kill us?”
Chairman Otto didn’t flinch, even as Dacher seethed visibly at his side. “If need be.”
“Ben,” Rachel hissed quietly.
“I’ll remember that, Chairman,” Ben said before falling in line behind one of the Chairman’s Hunters. Ben remained silent the entire walk to the quarantine chamber and during each long moment that passed as they locked the five of us inside, then led Dacher out of the room.
The lights shut off, save for the emergency bulb above the door on the other side. Silence fell in around us.
“Now what?” Nate asked, his form cloaked in shadows.
“We wait,” Ben said. “No one, no one, is to break out of this chamber. Got that, Krystin?”
My eyes narrowed, though I doubted he could see my reaction. “I’m hurt you think I’d disobey a direct order.”
“We’re playing their game for now,” Ben said. “It’s too dangerous for us—and Dacher and possibly everyone—not to. But given how old the Alzanian magik is, I can’t believe that the magiks protecting the quarantine chamber would be able to block it entirely.”
“Uh, I can’t use that magik, remember?” I asked. “And no one has magik until requirem wears off.”
“I can,” Shawn said. “I can break us out if we need to.”
“Not yet,” Ben said.
Shawn shook his head—which mostly just looked like a black mass moving in the dark. “On your mark.”
“The chamber should keep our magik in check, Rachel,” Ben continued. “Let’s work with Nate on techniques to keep that process going. Krystin, get some rest. I… I know it seems weird, but I feel like I’ll know when they get to Alzan. Before Krystin and Shawn do.”
