by Jessica Gunn
He paused, looking into the crowd. His gaze found mine and I nodded. “Everybody ready?” A chorus of “yes” sounded. “Good. Join hands, then, and let’s take her out.” We did and soon we were nothing but one giant chain of hands. “Here we go. Teleportante.”
The living room around us dissolved and was replaced by a clearing in a woods. The fifteen of us landed the teleport with ease. Early morning birdsong combined with the scent of pine and grass, settling my nervous bones. I inhaled deeply, pulling in what comfort I could from nature before we jumped into a nest of unnatural creatures. Demons.
“Krystin,” Ben said, pointing toward the mouth of a cave. The same cave we’d entered into severely unprepared months ago. “Grab Shawn and check for a shield. Nate, go with them.”
We all nodded and I walked forward toward the cave with the guys.
“It’s there,” Nate said as he held a hand out in front of him. “It’s much stronger than last time. I can’t break this.”
I looked to Shawn, who shrugged. Rolling my eyes, I pulled him forward. “Let’s try what you did at Headquarters.”
Shawn took the knife in his hand and pricked the tip of his finger. I grabbed my three-piece sword and did the same before throwing it over my back into its sheath. We pressed our bleeding fingers against the shield and called forth our magik. I thought of the Pyramid Building and the power there, the marble city, and the goodness rooted in our magik. A white, fine ether surrounded my palms and crawled across the now-visible shield like water flowing over ice. Warm enough to melt, making it weak enough to shatter.
The demons’ ether shield crumpled beneath our Alzanian magik, scattering into a million shards of magik that disappeared as soon as they hit the ground.
I shot Nate a look over my shoulder. “That was easier than last time.”
Nate’s eyes narrowed. “Almost too easy.”
“Remember, demons haven’t seen Alzanian magik or ala-ether in centuries,” Shawn said. “It’s ancient magik. Magik that defies anything they can build.”
“Enough talking,” Avery said, nudging his way through the crowd. “Let’s do this.”
Ben met up with him and they flanked the entrance to the cave. “On me.”
We followed Ben in, Shawn at my side. Although he’d never been here before because he hadn’t been on the team the first time we’d come here, Shawn moved as though he knew every small fault in the floor. But the farther into even the beginning of their cave system we got, the farther a chill crawled up my body, like a shadow creeping upward from the ground. Goosebumps broke out all over my skin, my brow slicking with sweat. Aura sickness.
“Ben,” I said quietly.
He nodded, walking ahead of me still next to Avery. “I feel it too. But if it’s not that bad out here, I doubt it’ll get worse. This compound isn’t that big.”
“No, but it means we’re not nearly as alone as we were hoping.”
Ben didn’t respond to that. He just kept his eyes on the hallways we walked down. Did he actually remember how to get to the main chamber?
A vicious, sudden wind ripped through our party, knocking us all to the ground. I gritted my teeth as my knees and elbows scraped the dirt. Others stood before I did, as I was much slower to collect my thoughts after the surprise attack. The sounds of blades and magik crashing together spread through the air, but before I could look up, steel clanged against the ground as people were disarmed. I reached down and dragged Shawn up beside me. My hands were already awash in white ala-ether as four Shadow Crest soldiers attacked.
I jumped into the fray against the closest demon, the air-elemental, sword held high. I slashed at him once, twice. On the third strike, he lifted a hand and my sword knocked off his wrist guard. With his free hand, he sent a tiny tunnel of wind at my face, knocking me off my feet and back against the cave wall. The hard rocks dug into my back, disrupting my still-healing ribs.
Shawn appeared behind the demon and swiped at the air in front of him. He sent the demon flying with his newfound telekinesis, then turned and did the same to a demon two of Cassie’s Hunters were fighting.
“I see you’ve gotten a quick handle on that,” I said.
Shawn grinned. “No better practice than a real battle.”
“Just don’t get too cocky.”
As if on cue, another half dozen demons ran into the hallway, battle cries screaming as magik fought against magik, steel against steel. Shawn and I fell back to back and advanced that way toward the new group.
A mixture of lightning and water twisting together into a tornado soared on ahead of us, dowsing the demons in water that also electrified them. Avery appeared next to Cassie, who joined Shawn and me as we lunged for the closest pair of demons.
The scene became a stormy sea of blades and magik, and for the most part, the demons were outnumbered by the rest of us.
At least until a massive wave of blue fire scorched down the hallway. Everyone scattered, demon and Hunter alike, and those near me took the chance to advance on the chamber room. I got down a few halls, Cassie, Avery, and Shawn behind me, before the blue fire appeared again, snaking around our bodies. The fire yanked us down, folding hard against the stone floor.
I turned over fast, coming face to face with Giyano.
“Not so fast, my dear.” He lifted his hand, in it a ball of blue fire, and threw it directly at me.
“Teleportante.” I disappeared, blinking to right behind Giyano, and knocked the handle of my sword against his head as hard as I could. He stumbled, momentarily dazed, as the other demons and Hunters found us. We were all now squeezed into this tiny hall, at the end of which I could see the dancing, flickering flames of the torches in the main chamber.
Giyano roared, spinning fast toward me and drawing his own sword. I parried his first attack but got none in of my own. We danced around the tight space, weaving around the other fights also happening, dodging magik as we went. Slash after slash, hit after hit of our swords until finally he stopped.
I froze mid-swing, sure this was some sort of distraction tactic. “What? Finally realize what an asshole you’re being?”
Giyano’s nostrils flared. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Screw you,” I said.
“Where have you been?” he purred.
I backed away quickly, putting a few paces between us. “You’ll soon find out.”
“Tell me.” His words appeared genuine, not forced or faked in any way. Part of me still questioned why he’d go back to Lady Azar, or why, once he’d gotten stuck here, he’d continue to follow her every order.
My eyes narrowed. “You want to know? Fine. I was learning about the Neuians.”
Giyano’s eyes went wide and he dropped his sword to his side. “What?”
“Yeah,” I said, holding my free hand before me. “I also learned to do this.” I pulsed out a wave of Alzanian magik. As soon as the pure white ether touched Giyano’s skin, it burned him.
Smoke rose from his melting flesh until he stamped it out with his sword hand. “What is this?” he demanded.
I lifted my sword once more, with both hands this time, and said, “Alzan’s magik.”
There was a moment where neither of us did or said anything. But just as quickly as it came, the moment dissolved as a firestorm picked up around him. He roared again, the flames leaping out across the distance between us. I threw up a small shield made of ala-ether, but all I did was succeed in flowing the firestorm over me.
“Enough!” someone bellowed right as a series of lightning strikes filled the hallway, electrocuting everyone, demon and Hunter alike.
Only the voice hadn’t been Ben’s. And Ben’s lightning wasn’t red.
I fell to my knees as the red lightning coursed over and through my body. My limbs felt heavy and useless, though I tried to force myself back to my feet anyway.
The others did the same, and only once I looked down at the end of the hall did I find Ben with his knife stuck into a demon’s heart.
As the demon’s skin turned gray, the red lightning strikes around his fingertips faded. A demon with the same power as Ben.
I jumped up while Giyano was still down and ran for the main chamber. I grabbed Shawn, Rachel, and Nate as I went and met up with Ben at the entrance. We rushed in together, Ben in the lead. But I didn’t think any of us was prepared for what we found.
We watched from the doorway as, one by one, demons stalked down the center of the room, marching up to a platform that had three people standing on it. All three of them froze the moment Lady Azar spotted us. She stood up on the dais with Riley, his hands on a demon’s head as he took in their magik, and someone I’d never seen or met before.
But as soon as we stepped into the room, I recognized more and more of this new person’s features.
My heart dropped straight through to the floor, the shock of it so awful and confusing, that my brain couldn’t process what it was seeing.
“Holy shit,” I exclaimed as everything suddenly made that much more sense.
Lady Azar laughed as her demons chased us into the room. Giyano appeared at my side, casting me a sidelong glance as he took the stage to stand next to Lady Azar.
“No need to stop on their account,” she said, addressing the room at large and the two figures on the stage. “Keep draining, my dear Riley. The time for you to ascend is coming.”
She turned to the man standing beside Riley, his hands also outstretched. But the rest of his body… it’d been beaten—badly. Purple bags hung under his eyes and his clothes hung off his bones. The man’s narrow face had been made skinnier from what must have been hunger or some other type of abuse.
Another demon approached the dais as the rest of us Hunters filed in. Ben had frozen, his eyes watching Riley as he finished taking power from the demon in front of him. No one dared make a move as a second demon was brought onto the dais, this one for the other man. A man who, even emaciated and covered in bruises, still shocked the absolute living hell out of me.
“How?” I whispered, mostly to myself. Mostly because no one else here knew the story. Or what he looked like. Or, really, what this meant for Giyano.
Ashbel reached for the demon and placed a hand on either side of his head. His eyes flashed white in color. Then the demon dropped before him, unmoving.
Ashbel, Giyano’s ex-lover. Ashbel, who should be dead. An Ember witch Giyano had saved from the pyre in Salem during the witch trials.
Giyano stood before him, staring down at me. When he noticed me standing there, watching him and Ashbel, he lifted his chin up the tiniest bit.
Understanding came screaming over me even as Ben cried out so loudly that it spurred the fighting back into action. My mind blocked it out, blocked everything else out.
Somehow, Ashbel hadn’t died. For some reason, Lady Azar had been keeping him to use as blackmail against Giyano.
That was why he went back to Lady Azar after everything. Because the absolute only thing Giyano cared about other than stopping Lady Azar from using Riley to get to Alzan was Ashbel.
And Giyano wouldn’t have been on his Riley-saving mission had Ashbel not died in the first place.
She’d blackmailed him all along.
Giyano’s eyes shone with a fierce protective glint, a determination that cut straight through bone to my soul. And I knew in that moment that if I or any of my comrades did anything that got Ashbel killed, we’d all die.
Even me.
Chapter 24
Ben
Giyano’s face turned a blotchy red, as if the flames he wielded had crept beneath his skin. In a flash, he jumped from the dais, building a massive storm of flames as he flew, and launched them down at all of us.
Nate was there, building up an ether shield alongside one of Cassie’s Hunters. I hadn’t realized her team had magik-users. But I also hadn’t realized Lady Azar had another person with the Power in her back pocket. Suddenly, her offer to trade Riley for Krystin and Shawn made total sense: she wouldn’t need Riley if she’d had this other man all along. Which then begged the question why she’d kidnapped Riley in the first place.
Demons and Hunters both screamed as the flames leapt onto them. I turned and patted out a fire that’d caught on the back of Avery’s shirt. He nodded a thank you before shoving me out of the way of a sword attack from one of the demons. He spun, stabbing the demon through the heart.
“Thanks, man,” I said.
He nodded. “Go get your son. We’ve got your back.”
But with Giyano going crazy with unrestricted flames, I didn’t know if anyone in this room would make it out alive.
Krystin’s voice cut through the chaos, louder than everyone else, even Lady Azar. “We can save you both!” she screamed, standing before Giyano with a ball of her new Alzanian magik in her hand. Tendrils of power stretched out from the ball, reaching up into the air like a fire in slow motion. “I don’t know how she did it, Giyano, but it doesn’t have to go this way. We’re here now. You both can live!”
What the hell? What was she talking about? Giyano was going to die, hopefully by my hand. For everything he’d done, including turning on Krystin in the end.
Understanding slammed into me and I looked to the stage again, where Lady Azar was now holding Riley’s hand. The man next to them stood with wide, scared eyes at the scene before him. At Giyano as he squared off with Krystin. A wave of Ember witch magik flickered in his hands, the same orange ether Shawn once wielded.
Holy shit. That’s the guy Giyano had been in love with, right? But didn’t Lady Azar have him killed hundreds of years ago?
Water snapped around my middle and tugged me sideways. A rush of ether slid past where I’d just been standing.
“Head in the game!” Rachel yelled as she ducked from more demon attacks, water canister backpack on her back.
Right. Krystin could handle Giyano. At least for now.
I looked around for my next target and found Cassie halfway between me and the dais where Riley stood, holding on to Lady Azar like a scared child clinging to his mother. My teeth ground together. Riley had nothing to fear and she was not his mother.
Lightning built in my palms and I let it loose, wrapping the demon attacking Cassie with strikes that bounced from him to another demon a few feet away. He yowled, giving Cassie the opportunity to strike. His body grayed and fell to the floor as soon as Cassie pulled her knife from him. She turned to me and nodded a thank you before jumping into the next fight.
I ignored everything else around me and stalked toward the stage, making it almost fifteen feet from Riley before the heat from a fire raged close to my head. I spun at the last second and deflected the torpedo-like fire attack from Giyano with a quick twist of my wrist.
My lightning slammed into fire, exploding with a sound that deafened me for a long moment, during which I watched Krystin sail Giyano into the air and up against the ceiling. Then she spun and ran for the stage, Rachel on her heels.
I jumped in and the three of us raced toward Lady Azar. Krystin reached out and squeezed the air, pulling on seemingly nothing until Lady Azar fell to her knees. But whatever hold Krystin had had on her broke and she stood, laughing as Krystin stayed on course.
“What? Did you think you could go turn your magik into something ancient and still beat me?” Lady Azar cackled again, her shoulders shaking. It sent her whole outfit into ripples, the loose fabric at her back and legs dancing in the air. She hadn’t been in her armor tonight, which meant they probably hadn’t sensed us coming. It was the only thing that’d kept her from calling in reinforcements. If she’d gotten that message out, we’d have died from aura sickness as soon as more demons appeared.
As it was, every step I took was weighed down with the same feeling of pure dread I’d had at that house in the woods.
“Hand him over to me!” I demanded.
Lady Azar’s eyes met mine, an eyebrow lifting in a challenge. “Take him, if you think you can.”
I roared and jumped, zapp
ing lightning underneath my feet to give me a boost as I launched from where I stood up onto the stage. I landed on Lady Azar and we tumbled, rolling. Ashbel backed away, his fearful eyes jumping from one threat to another. But his quick steps stopped and he stumbled. That’s when I saw the chains holding him in place bound to the dais even in the midst of all this fighting.
Riley stood there, tears welling up in his eyes. “Mommy!”
The false awful word cut through to my soul, shattering it. I’ve lost him. He’s gone.
But he wasn’t. Riley was standing right there and all I had to do was throw Lady Azar off of me long enough to teleportante over to him and out of here. But where would be safe if she was still alive? Where could I possibly have taken him?
A wind kicked up around us, sliding into the space between our bodies, and Lady Azar shot me off of her with her air-elemental magik. My knees hit the ground first, then my hands and face. I groaned with the impact, already able to feel how badly bruised I’d be.
I looked up, watching as Lady Azar stalked toward me, a small cyclone in her hands. Twisting and writhing and totally at her control. Unlike the rest of this fight, which was utter chaos. Some of our fifteen Hunters had fallen and so had demons, but not many of either side remained standing. And yet Lady Azar was still winning.
“You can’t take him back, Ben,” Lady Azar said. Her golden-slippered feet barely touched the ground as she walked, as though she were hovering instead. Golden jewelry hung from her neck, wrists, and ears, and only now did I see the small golden tiara tucked into her wild mane of red hair. It was a new addition.
She did it. She overthrew Ammon and became Darkness’s new heir.
