The Hero: Hunter Circles Series Book Four

by Jessica Gunn

  It wasn’t my fault. I’d had no way of knowing what Zanka’s power was, that Kinder might have wanted to murder him and steal his magik. And if Giyano had known about Zanka’s persuasion magik, he should have told me.

  Instead, I’d become Kinder’s puppet and nearly destroyed everything and everyone I cared about.

  I slipped my feet into my running shoes and grabbed my keys from a hook by the door to my apartment. I’d retreated to the northwestern corner of Connecticut six months ago, hopefully hidden behind magik binding mine from use and view, tucked between acres of woods so deep no one looking would find me. Blending in had become a skill, and although this was a small town, it was the type where everyone kept to themselves. Thankfully.

  Rain puddles and dew-covered grass reflected the moonlight above. Hot, sticky August air clung to my skin like in my dream. Maybe mimicking the circumstances of the nightmare wasn’t the best way to deal with it, but I didn’t know what else to do. I never slept unless I was exhausted and because I didn’t do anything unless the locals needed help at their farms, I was never fatigued.

  Not for long, though. I was almost out of rent money. I’d need to get a consistent job sometime soon.

  Waiting wasn’t exhausting. Waiting was irritating. I had yet to come up with a way to prove my innocence to the Hunter Circles, so hidden and alone I’d remained.

  I took off down the steep hill near my apartment building and ran through the old downtown area with small shops stacked almost on top of each other, past the coffee cafe I sometimes frequented, and down to the nearby lake. Moonlight danced off the surface of the water, so unaffected by the world around it. So free.

  Something I’d never feel.

  A yell sounded over my shoulder, slicing through the sounds of crickets and other night creatures down by the lake. I turned to look for a source, but something solid slammed into me mid-run. I twisted in the air and slammed into the ground, skidding along the mud.

  My breath whooshed from my lungs as they seized and pain spliced up my side and back. Stars danced along the edges of my narrowing vision. I gasped, forcing air into my lungs again, craving oxygen and answers.

  Groaning, I lifted my shoulders from the ground and searched for my attacker. Two individuals clothed beneath the shadows of trees stood fifteen feet away. One had a swirling white light flowing around their palms.

  An ether-shaper.

  “What the hell do you want?” I shouted at them. Six months. I’d gone six entire months without running into any Hunters or demons or even witches. Six months. Why now?

  They didn’t answer; they just stood there unmoving, save for the white-lit ether sliding around the shaper’s arms.

  I forced myself to stand, grunting as I placed weight onto my bad ankle. Dammit. Messed it up—again. “I said, what do you want?”

  “Krystin Blackwood?” one, a man, asked.

  “Who’s asking?” Shit. I needed to get out of here, to get back to my apartment, grab what little I owned, and escape. First the nightmares and now this. Who else was waiting in these woods? And were they old Hunter allies or demons?

  The ground beneath me shook unnaturally, bouncing my body inches from the ground. I stumbled, lost my footing, and landed on one knee. I gasped as the dirt continued shaking, trying to get enough breath to say, “Teleport—”

  Another block of white ether soared across the distance between me and my attackers, this time flying at my face. I ducked, but not in time to avoid the corner of it slamming underneath my jaw. My head snapped back with blinding pain, sending me tumbling along with it.

  I rolled over and over, up into a standing position, and ignored the screaming pain coming from my ankle and hip. Who the hell were these guys?

  Finally, they stepped from beneath the shadows and into the light of the crescent moon… which reflected off golden emblems hanging from their chests branded with flames.

  Shadow Crest.

  “Oh, fuck,” I exclaimed as the ether-shaper shot out again, sending a horizontal tower of ether my way.

  I jumped sideways and grabbed on to a low-lying branch, using it to swing myself up and over the ether attack. When I swung back down, I abused the momentum, launching myself at the two demons. A risky move. I didn’t have magik or a weapon, but demons usually carried some sort of blade. I just had to steal it.

  I should run. Distract them and teleportante away. But I wanted to know why Shadow Crest was after me, aside from the obvious. I was one of the few things standing in the way of Lady Azar’s ultimate plan to get to and destroy the Powers’ city of Alzan. But I wasn’t involved with the team anymore, and without a connection to Shawn, we’d never complete our shared prophecy.

  Why come after me here after so long? And how the hell did they even find me in the first place?

  The other demon, an earth-elemental, swung his arm up, launching an archway of dirt and rock right at my side. I moved to dodge it too fast and instead of knocking me off course, it slammed me into his companion.

  I grabbed on to the demon’s neck as we fell, slamming against the muddy ground. I got a leg around his middle and pulled, hanging on as he thrashed against the ground to try to dislodge me.

  “What do you want?” I asked again as I yanked on his neck. If I could just put him under and make this an even fight…

  But rather than answer, the demon slammed his head back into mine. Pain screamed across my nose and jaw. For a moment, all I saw was bright white light. Then it faded to the still black of the forest at night, my grip on the demon’s neck weakening, a coppery taste in my mouth. Blood.

  Don’t, I told myself. No losing this fight. If I did, they’d either kill me right here on this cold earth or drag me to Lady Azar for her to do the deed. Neither were acceptable fates.

  I squeezed my arms together and yanked the demon’s head to the side. A disgustingly satisfying snap echoed in the air around us as his body went limp.

  A small pillar of earth swung out of the darkness, knocking into my shoulder and pushing me away from the dead demon. I skidded in the mud. Raindrops fell through the trees and their leaves, sprinkling onto my bare arms, cool against my hot skin.

  I looked up to the earth-elemental demon who now stood feet from me, a twisting chunk of stone flying around above his palm. Mud and water slipped from my legs and elbows to the ground, leaving behind a splashing sound.

  “You will pay for that,” he growled.

  “I still don’t understand why. I haven’t killed any demons in months.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “For Alzan’s Daughter, there is no other fate but death.” He reeled back his palm, the churning stone with it, and tensed his arm. “Lady Azar will be happy to see your dead body on her dais.”

  “I’m no threat to her anymore, asshole. You can pass that along to her if you want. I’m never going to Alzan.” I’d never be able to. I couldn’t walk into Boston to even wave at Shawn anymore, let alone team up with him to complete the prophecy.

  The demon’s eyes narrowed. “There are but two weeks before the attack happens. She wants to make sure there are zero complications now that the conduit has been turned.”

  My eyes widened. Two weeks? Conduit turned? I gasped. Riley.

  The ground beneath me shook, humming with the force of the demon’s power. I slid in the mud, my footing gone. The ground was too slippery, too impossible to stand up again.

  That’s when the demon howled like an animal and launched the stone in his hand at my face.

  Chapter 3

  Krystin

  My fingers curled into fists against the ground and I braced for impact. I had one chance to get out or this would hurt. A lot. My lips moved, tongue forming the word. “Teleporta—”

  The stone attack slammed into me, crushing into my ribcage. The impact knocked all breath from my lungs. I gasped as I slid against the slippery ground once more. Mud filled my mouth and I spat it out, wiping at my lips with my arm. It didn’t do much since it was also cov
ered in mud.

  I understood why Shadow Crest and Lady Azar wanted me dead. What I didn’t understand was why it’d taken them six months to come to this conclusion. If I hadn’t gone back to the Fire Circle yet, why would they think I would now?

  The demon stalked toward me as I picked myself up again. I wheezed, watching him and trying to ignore the stabbing pain throbbing in my chest. At least one cracked rib, maybe two. Or worse.

  The rain poured down on top of us, soaking through my minimal clothing. Somehow, the quartz crystal around my neck had stayed in place throughout the fight. Steam rose from where the water droplets landed on my bare skin. A nice reminder that I could lock away the fire-elemental power inside of me, but I would never be rid of it.

  “I won’t interfere,” I said, though I knew it didn’t matter. The demon would complete his mission one way or another, and I’d either be alive and holding a knife in his chest or I’d be dead at Lady Azar’s feet.

  The demon didn’t say anything, just continued his slow walk toward me.

  Okay. Enough of this.

  My hands squeezed into fists at my sides and I raised them, falling into a ready stance. I could do this. I’d gone one-on-one with more demons than I could count. So what if I didn’t have magik or a weapon? No big deal.

  I clenched my jaw, then launched for the demon even as my ribs screamed in protest. Water rolled off me as I wrapped my arms around his middle and tackled him to the ground. Or I tried to. His big, built form seemed to absorb the impact and instead of falling into the mud, I stood there, arms wrapped around his abdomen.

  The demon laughed and reached around to grab the back of my shirt. “However entertaining you might be, this fight is over.”

  Unlock your magik, my mind whispered to me. But I didn’t want to. Then anyone could locate me, including the team. No matter how this demon fight ended, I never wanted them to find me again. Period.

  But Alzan. If it fell, so too would the rest of the world.

  I swallowed hard as my options flew by my head like a point-of-view video. That’s when I felt it, the hilt of the knife still latched in a sheath at the demon’s side. I roared, ignored the pain tearing through my ribcage, and snatched his knife from its sheath. As soon as the cool metal was in my slippery hands, I wrapped my fingers around the knife’s hilt and pushed against the demon’s chest.

  He complied, throwing me off of him like a ragdoll. I watched the trees as I soared and grabbed on to one of them to halt my trajectory. I swung up and over the branch, coming down hard on the demon’s back as bark bit into my palms.

  The knife’s blade slid easily between the demon’s shoulder blades as I glided down his muddy, wet clothes. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I stepped back and kicked his lower back. He stumbled to his knees, grunting in pain.

  I slammed my palm against the back of his head. “Requirem!” There, his magik was temporarily gone. That should keep him from running away before I got answers. Touching the knife’s edge over where his heart would be, I said, “Tell me how you found me and who else might be after me.”

  The demon laughed, a pitiful sound of surrender. “Your old teammates made it easy. And to think they call you the traitor.”

  I inched the knife into his skin. The demon’s body went rigid. “I’ll end you. I don’t care about that world anymore.”

  “That world is still yours. Whether you live in it or not.”

  Anger bubbled in my veins. I tightened my grip on the knife as rain continued to fall, coating us both in cold water. “Screw you.”

  He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Krystin Blackwood, traitor of the Fire Circle, is scared to kill a demon? You have changed.”

  I shouted something unintelligible. I’d never get any information from this guy. Not more than he’d already given me. “Save a spot for Lady Azar in hell, you bastard.” I slammed the knife down as hard as possible, slicing through muscle and sinew, until the knife reached his heart.

  The demon’s skin turned grey and cracked in death. I kicked his body over and hoped the rain and mud would take care of decomposing his magik-less soul of a body before morning.

  I stood there in the pouring rain, my chest heaving, adrenaline racing through every vein in my body.

  It felt good to kill a demon again. But why it’d happened, what these Shadow Crest bounty hunters had come here for…

  Riley’s a demon. Fuck. Did Ben know? And Alzan. Two weeks.

  I wiped my face again but nothing changed. I needed to get home, find some dry clothes, and wash the mud off of myself. Then… I didn’t know.

  My shower walls looked like they belonged to some insane movie scene by the time I finished rinsing all the mud off of me. Now, I sat on the floor at my coffee table with a cup of coffee and the last two pieces of toast I had in my apartment. My ribs ached, but there wasn’t much I could do about that at the moment.

  So there I sat, eating my sad excuse for breakfast and staring at the knife I’d stolen from the earth-elemental demon.

  I had to go tell Ben. He had to know what’d happened to his son. But it’d been six months since everything had gone insane and I’d left. He had to know by now if it’d happened a while ago.

  Maybe it didn’t. Maybe Lady Azar just turned Riley days ago.

  I leaned back against my couch and rested my head on the cushions. If I set foot in Boston ever again, if I so much as teleported into the team’s house for five minutes, they’d have me arrested and imprisoned for life. Or killed. And even if it was the former instead of the latter, I never wanted to see the inside of Ether Circle Prison again so long as I lived. But calling Ben or, worse, telling him via text message seemed like a super shitty, impersonal thing to do. And text messages often got misunderstood enough as it was, without the fate of a child hanging in the balance.

  The demon’s knife seemed to mock me, reflecting early morning light streaming in from the window behind me. A reminder that no matter what I did, I’d always be a part of this war. If not by action, then by birth. I couldn’t change being one half of the Alzan prophecy. Or being a Blackwood witch.

  Mom. There was an idea. I was reasonably sure she didn’t hate me for what’d happened. And there was that whole “unconditional motherly love” thing, right? What if I went to her and told her what I’d learned, then she could go to Ben or Jaffrin or whoever was in charge of the Fire Circle if Jaffrin had died that night.

  But as soon as the idea popped into my head a shower of dread fell upon me, running my veins ice cold for the first time in almost a year—since before Kinder had changed my magik from ether to elemental. No. I had to tell Ben myself—in person. He’d never believe it otherwise.

  He still might not believe it.

  “Then how?” I asked aloud as I crunched on the last bit of toast. My fingers trembled around the coffee mug as I thought of walking into that house again. Or Fire Circle Headquarters. After what I’d been an unwilling party to, after what they thought I’d done…

  My free hand wrapped around the crystal hanging from my neck. If I destroyed the crystal, my magik would return and they’d be able to find me very easily. If they were looking.

  I sighed and then threw back the rest of my coffee, steeling myself for the inevitable. Then I stood, my ribs screaming in pain at the movement, and threw the demon’s knife into my trash bin. If I showed up armed, Ben would kill me on the spot.

  This is a shitty idea.

  But I shook out my shoulders, grabbed my wallet, and headed down into town for the bus. Four hours and two Greyhounds later, I climbed off the bus and into South Station in Boston. There, I hopped the subway and rode it out to the closest stop I could get to the team’s house, looking over my shoulder every step of the way.

  Clutching my still-aching ribs, I knocked on the townhome’s front door and waited, watching for the curtain on the window next to it to slide over and reveal a member of my own team. It didn’t.

  Then the door opened.

  Ch
apter 4

  Ben

  I scrubbed the sides of my tired face with my palms as I walked toward the door. Even at ten in the morning it was too early for visitors, considering how late Shawn and I had been out last night. Rachel hadn’t gotten home until sometime this morning herself. Which I only knew because I’d fallen asleep on the couch while trying to unwind to some mindless baseball game reruns.

  Ignoring the curtains and blinding sun likely on the other side, I unlocked the front door to our townhome and pulled open the door. “Look, I don’t know what’s—”

  “Ben.”

  My body froze, my blood turning to ice the second her voice reached my ears. Coldness swept through me, binding my feet to the floor and my hand to my cheek. My gaze flitted up to hers, but my brain was working in slow motion, unable to process any one of the thousands of thoughts whipping through my mind in this moment.

  The slow motion ended and sounds from the city street outside came crashing in. A car’s horn, a plane flying overhead. Our neighbor yelling at someone standing in the street. With the sounds, it was like color snapped back into reality, my blood and body heating to immeasurable levels. Lightning bloomed around each fingertip as my body thawed, moving so fast, I wasn’t sure I’d made a conscious command to attack.

  I threw my hand forward and wrapped it around Krystin’s arm, pulling her off the street and into our house, where whatever happened next wouldn’t be viewed by civilian eyes. My lightning snapped around her as she fell to the floor, shocking her all over her body. Krystin writhed but didn’t fight the attack. Instead, she curled up into a ball and winced until the lightning storm had ended.

  “What you want?” I spat, instantly on guard. She’d nearly killed all of us last time without lifting a damn finger. I wouldn’t let her so easily get a second chance, not without knowing if she was still working with Kinder. I reached with my free hand and pulled out my Fire Circle knife, brandishing it for her to see. “Why are you here?”