The Hero: Hunter Circles Series Book Four

by Jessica Gunn

  “Off the top of my head, no.” Although there was that fire move I’d used on Giyano to heal him six months ago. But I doubted I could get to that place, that supernova in my hand, again without his guidance. And I was pretty terrified of the backfiring magik that was sure to happen after me not using my powers for so long. “I’ll be fine, Ben.”

  He didn’t look convinced. “If you say so.”

  “I do.” A wave of fatigue hit me then, as if my words had been a lie. And maybe they were. But Ben didn’t need to know that. A weight pulled on my eyelids as I laid there awkwardly spread across the couch. My ribs ached, but the comfort of the cushions and, reluctant as I was to admit it, Ben’s presence soothed my whirlwind thoughts and fears. “Ben?”

  “Yeah?”

  My eyelids slid shut and I released a heavy breath. “Any way I can lay here for a bit? Until Nate’s back? It’s been a long…” Six months was what I wanted to say. “Morning. It’s been a really long morning.”

  With my eyes shut, I couldn’t be sure, but I imagined a small smile on his lips. “Sure. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything.” The couch shifted the smallest bit, and then his footsteps sounded against the carpet all the way into the kitchen.

  I was out before his feet hit tile, a feeling of safety rushing over me for the first time in almost a year. Safety in a den of potential enemies.

  Exhaustion was a strange, powerful thing.

  My mind was a blank slate, free from dreams and images. Silence at last. Until I was thrown through the darkness onto a hard surface. Shouts and screams filtered in through the black around me, a light growing until the blurry darkness turned into light. Into reality.

  “Krystin!” Ben shouted. The smell of ozone sifted into my nostrils just before a snap of raw power struck the ground next to me.

  I flinched, my fingers digging into the carpet of the team’s living room. Ben’s attack flew inches over my head, but my recoil away from it sent a new wave of pain splaying across my ribcage. I rolled, ignoring the fire in my ribs, until I could see the fight unfolding above me.

  Ben’s form came into view, standing beside the couch. His jaw was clenched, both fists filled with lightning. “Krystin, get up!”

  A thin pillar of fire appeared, heating the air around us, and struck Ben in the chest. Water followed, dousing the flames on Ben and attacking the demon at the same time. It had to be a demon. No one else would come into the team’s house like this. But who?

  “Teleportante,” I groaned, thinking of the kitchen. My body felt weightless for a moment, my feet lifting off the ground, as I blinked out of the living room and appeared next to the counter, leaning against it for support.

  “Get back here!” someone shouted. A man. And not just any man.

  Giyano.

  My blood ran cold, but my hands moved, snatching the closest, largest kitchen knife from our holder. If he was here, if he’d attacked us inside our home…

  I preemptively swallowed down the pain from my ribs and ran into the living room with my knife brandished. Giyano stood above Ben, a pillar of fire holding him against the ground. Ben cried out as smoke rose from his shirt. Giyano was burning him.

  Footsteps hurried down the stairs, where Shawn emerged and instantly threw a wave of Ember witch ether at Giyano. He deflected with a surge of his own fire magik. Water soared across the room, turning into ice at the bottom of the fire pillar holding Ben to the floor. The fire sizzled out as ice climbed its way back toward Giyano.

  I readied myself, then threw the knife right at Giyano’s head. At the last second, his gaze and his hand snapped up, and he grabbed the knife by the handle.

  “A knife?” he asked, eyebrow lifted. “Really, Krystin?”

  “What the fuck do you want?” I shouted.

  Rachel’s hard gaze swung back to me over her shoulder. “Like you don’t know.”

  Oh, screw you.

  Giyano laughed, then kicked Ben in the side, lifting him up on a wave of fire and slamming him into the closest wall. The impact dropped the two paintings hanging there and knocked a ceiling tile loose.

  Shawn roared, jumping into the fray with a sword… my three-piece sword I’d left behind. He swung low—a move Giyano blocked—but threw up a palm full of orange ether in the next instant. It made Giyano’s body freeze and stumble backward as he grunted.

  Giyano’s eyes narrowed. “Call off your teammates, Krystin.”

  “We’re not a team anymore,” Rachel said as she helped Ben stand.

  To Rachel, I said, “Speak for yourself.” I glared at Giyano. “What do you want?”

  But that’s when I saw it, glinting off the light produced by Ben’s newest lightning attack. A gold medallion hung low on Giyano’s chest—one imprinted with Shadow Crest’s symbol.

  My gaze snapped to the demon’s, my gut twisting. “You’re working for Lady Azar again.” Except he’d never do that. Not willingly.

  He shrugged as a firestorm grew around him, knocking away the ether attacks Shawn kept firing at Giyano. “We all have a price.”

  My eyes narrowed, but before I could ask what that even meant—since he hated Lady Azar more than he hated any of us—Giyano let the firestorm loose, heading right for Ben and Rachel. It soared at them with such speed and ferocity that they wouldn’t be able to get out of the way.

  They joined hands, their lips moving to form the word teleportante, but I’d ripped the crystal off my neck at the same time and stomped on it, destroying it on the ground beneath my feet. Then I launched myself directly into the path of the firestorm, landing with enough time to draw my arms up and, for the first time in six months, use my magik.

  My veins screamed as my changed blood raged through them. The fire bent to my command, arching up and over the three of us as my magik swallowed me whole from the inside. The flames raged at my will, but they were so thick, I couldn’t see a thing through them.

  I swung my arms around and then up, circling the fire into a ball in front of me. But by the time the flames died down and the smoke cleared, Giyano was gone.

  And so was Shawn.

  Chapter 6

  Ben

  My chest stung. I stood there in the middle of the living room blinking slowly. Trying to process what’d just happened. But no sense of logic, no reason at all, came to me.

  Water whipped past me, accompanied by a shout. A cracking, hardening noise followed. I watched as the water transformed into an ice-lance at Rachel’s command, then headed straight for Krystin. But she turned at the last second and melted the ice with fire.

  “I’m not in on this!” Krystin shouted at Rachel. “I swear I’m not. I have no idea why he’d come here or why he’s working for Lady Azar again.”

  Rachel swung her icy glare on me. “It can’t possibly be a coincidence that on the same day Krystin shows up, Giyano does too. Come on, Ben.”

  “I’m not working with him,” Krystin said, her voice low. Her eyes had hardened. “Remember that Shadow Crest attacked me, too. That’s why I’m here.”

  “We have no proof of that.”

  My teeth ground together. “Why would he attack us, anyway?”

  Krystin’s eyes widened as if she were surprised by the question. “I have no idea, Ben. I haven’t talked to or seen anyone in six months. And before that, Giyano disappeared after I healed him. Lady Azar must have taken him back. Or maybe Zanka worked his magik on Giyano before Kinder got to him. Either way, I have no idea what his plans are.”

  “Except to steal Shawn,” Rachel said.

  Krystin threw up her hands. “Yeah, except that. But since Shadow Crest attacked me this morning, too, as you keep ignoring, Rachel, it’s probably safe to say Lady Azar ordered her soldiers after the two of us because she’s marching on Alzan soon. With Shawn and me out of the picture, she’s got a free and open path to the city.”

  “She did anyway, since you nearly killed us instead of working with Shawn to unlock your magik.”

  Rachel’s wor
ds stung me and I wasn’t the target. “Okay, enough,” I said, coming to stand between them. “Right now, we’re all we’ve got. Let’s trace the teleportante trail before it’s gone.”

  “What about Nate?” Rachel asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s been gone for days and won’t answer his phone.”

  “And he hasn’t shown up at my place,” Krystin added. Her eyes were focused across the room, to where Shawn had last been standing before Giyano’s final attack. To her three-piece sword Shawn had adopted after Krystin had disappeared. She looked back over her shoulder at me. “What are the odds Giyano has Nate too?”

  “He’s not a part of the prophecy,” I said.

  “No, but if you knew he’d been taken, Nate would be great bait.”

  Rachel’s eyes narrowed on Krystin. “You sure you don’t know what Giyano’s up to?”

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Krystin said through gritted teeth. “But I’m also sure I know how Giyano thinks. If Giyano’s got Nate, he’ll still be alive. Shawn too.”

  My stomach twisted and I released a long-held breath. “He wants you.”

  Krystin’s eyes met mine, though her expression was indecipherable. “Maybe.” She shook her head. “Probably. But not for the same reasons as six, eight months ago. If Giyano really is working for Lady Azar, I’m a hindrance to his boss’s plan.”

  I nodded as I processed her words and walked to the spot where Giyano had last stood. His teleportante trail left goosebumps on my skin, a remnant of the unnatural abuse of space and time. “We need to follow the trail before it’s gone.”

  “What if it’s not just Giyano on the other end?” Krystin asked as she retrieved her old three-piece sword and twisted the handle in her palm.

  That was a good question. One I was starting to think didn’t matter anymore. “We have to go for Shawn and Nate. I’m not leaving anyone behind.”

  Krystin laughed once, a bitter, betrayed sound.

  “What’s so funny?” Rachel asked.

  Krystin shook her head and then walked over to my side. “That you have to ask says everything. Let’s go.”

  I winced as though her words had been a physical blow. The truth was, I had sort of left her behind. I hadn’t trusted Krystin. And then, instead of helping my teammate, I’d let our enemy make her an ally.

  Krystin held her hand out, palm up. “Ready?”

  “Are you?” I asked her.

  She looked up to me, her blue gaze meeting mine. A chill swept down my spine all the way to my toes. Krystin still looked stunning, even after everything. And when my fingers brushed hers, preparing for our own teleportante, it felt like a tiny fire had started where our hands met.

  It thawed the ice wall that’d grown around my heart six months ago.

  We appeared on the other end of the teleportante inside of a house. A ordinary-looking one with off-white walls, plain carpet, and… furniture? Not much of it, though. A couch here, a table and chairs there. Enough to have been lived in but not well or often.

  “What the hell?” I asked, turning around. The lightning in my hand died out almost instantly. If this was some random person’s house and we’d teleported inside in the middle of the night, I could only imagine the trouble we’d find ourselves in.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Krystin said as she folded down her sword and stowed it behind her back. When her hands reappeared, they were covered in two tiny firestorms. “It’s Giyano’s house.”

  I looked over to her, an eyebrow raised. “Excuse me?”

  She stalked across the living room and into the kitchen. “What an idiot.”

  “Giyano?”

  She nodded. “He’s screwing with me.”

  Rachel caught up to us and stayed on Krystin’s heels. “How exactly do you know what Giyano’s house looks like?”

  “Because he took me here when he rescued me from Ether Circle Prison.” Her words were matter-of-fact, a staccato, as she slowly tread across the kitchen to a door that probably led to the basement. But there was a whole other hallway to investigate, too.

  Rachel looked to me. “See, this is what I mean. How can we trust her?”

  Krystin shushed her, a finger to her lips. She pointed to the basement door. “There,” she mouthed.

  Which seemed pointless because whoever was down there had probably already heard us walking. A sickening pit of dread formed in the back of my throat. Something’s not right.

  “Trap,” I whispered.

  Both Krystin and Rachel nodded emphatically. Clearly, this was a way for him to catch us all. With Krystin and Shawn dead, Alzan would be too. And with me and Rachel out of the picture, Riley didn’t stand a chance.

  “Stay alert,” I said before calling lightning to my hand.

  Rachel didn’t have her water canister backpack, so she pulled water to her from the air, in much smaller an amount than she would have if she’d had the backpack. Even still, it wouldn’t take much to do damage.

  Krystin on the other hand… She kicked open the door and hurried down ahead of us, nearly leaping down the stairs. But before her feet touched the bottom landing, she froze.

  “Not so fast.” Giyano’s voice filtered up past Krystin and into my ears. “Wouldn’t want them to accidentally die, would you?”

  “Screw you!” she yelled at him.

  I piled in behind Krystin with Rachel right beside me. “What?” I froze when I saw the blazing spheres of blue fire. And inside of them were Shawn and Nate. They knelt against the bottom part of the globes, banging on the interior walls, their mouths moving in inaudible screams.

  Giyano stood in front, his hands at his sides. Shit. Did that mean another fire-elemental demon was here? Or was Giyano really powerful enough to control an element with his mind?

  Krystin stepped onto the basement landing and moved toward Giyano a foot at a time. She raised her palm in front of her, holding it out to him. “Stop this. You don’t need them.”

  Giyano, dressed in the more traditional Shadow Crest leather armor filled with reds and golds, looked nothing like the victim I knew Krystin was hoping he’d be. Instead, he wore the golden Shadow Crest medallion with easy pride and a strong stance, hands at his sides.

  There’s no way to get to Giyano without losing one or both of them. If we attacked, he’d close the spheres and burn them alive. But if we didn’t…

  Krystin kept walking toward him, though Giyano didn’t so much as breathe too deeply. “Why’d you tell me to stand down earlier, hmm? If you wanted any of us dead, we already would be.”

  Giyano lifted a shoulder in the most non-committal shrug I’d ever seen. “Maybe I don’t need you dead.”

  “You sure as hell aren’t taking me alive to that bitch,” Krystin spat, swinging her hands up. She tugged on the air, which translated to the spheres of fire crashing to the ground.

  The spheres cracked and split on impact, spilling Shawn and Nate onto the cement floor. Their clothes caught fire, blue flames licking up their forms. They immediately rolled to the ground. Water shot past my shoulder, then split to cover each of them, dousing the flames.

  Rachel.

  “Go,” she said at the very moment a new wave of blue fire shot across the basement floor.

  Krystin jumped, directing the flames away from us like she had back at the house. As she dove, she withdrew her three-piece sword and snapped it into place. Giyano caught the blade against an arm guard and swung up, smashing a fist into Krystin’s jaw. The opening I needed.

  I flicked my hand and let my lightning loose, aiming for Giyano’s legs. The lightning ropes snaked around each ankle. I squeezed my hand, pulling the ropes together, and Giyano tumbled to the ground.

  “Thanks for the trick, you bastard.” I kicked his side with all I had before lifting my hands and bringing a ball of lightning down onto his chest.

  Giyano whipped a hand up, a wave of fire following that took the brunt of my attack. But the smashing of two elements at such intensit
y sparked a shock wave that sent the three of us flying, Krystin right next to me.

  My back smacked against the stairs. Pain burst along my spine, though I considered it a good thing I’d felt it at all. But then a weight fell against my front—a person. I wrapped my arms around Krystin out of instinct to keep her from falling from the middle of the staircase to the bottom.

  Krystin spared me a quick glance before ripping my arms off of her and using teleportante to appear first next to her sword, and then teleporting again behind Giyano.

  I lashed out with lightning as they battled, her sword versus the smaller saber he’d produced from a sheath on his back. Metal scraped against metal, the sound grinding against my ears. I twisted my hands, guiding my lightning around Krystin until the strikes snared Giyano’s form.

  Krystin jumped back, allowing me to pump the lightning at its full potential, the same way Giyano had once wrapped me in his own elemental fire ropes.

  Giyano’s clenched jaw and jerking form were the only indication he’d been hurt at all as he was struck by lightning. I pulled Krystin out of the way and over to the others.

  Nate sat up, blinking slowly as he took in what was happening. His eyes roamed from me and Rachel over to Krystin, then widened. “You’re here.”

  Krystin nodded. “Sorry I made you chase me around New England.”

  Shawn, similarly out of it, focused in on Krystin’s sword. “I want that back.”

  “Not a chance,” she said as she helped him stand. “It was mine to begin with.”

  Shawn winced and pushed Krystin away. “Get off of me.”

  She raised her hands. “Sorry.”

  Giyano groaned, pushing himself up off the floor.

  “We need to go,” I said as I collected my team into a huddle. I shot another strike of lightning at the demon. He collapsed to the ground again, sparking. “Talk later.”

  We joined hands and Krystin said, “Teleportante.”

  In a flash, we were back at the team’s house.