by Jessica Gunn
Nate appeared at his side, trying to hold him, to calm him down. “It’s okay. We bought time. It’s okay.”
“Okay?” Ben shoved Nate away, his eyes wild, his voice echoing across the chamber. “She’s fucking got him still!”
“Krys…tin…” Giyano’s voice was barely there, not loud or strong enough to be heard over Ben’s meltdown.
I dropped my head closer to his face. “You fucking idiot. Why did you do that?”
Giyano shook. I thought he tried to laugh, but blood pooled in his mouth and poured out of his wound at unnatural speeds. He didn’t have much time left.
My heartbeat quickened and I squeezed his hand. Giyano knew about the Neuians. He knew about ancient magik and all the things Jaffrin should have told us but never did. He’d somehow become more a mentor to me than my mother or the Leader of the Fire Circle. Than Ben, even. And now he was dying.
He died for Shawn. For the both of us. For the prophecy.
“Get the hell away from that bastard!” Ben yelled.
I looked up at his red, blotchy face. “Ben—”
“No! It’s his fault! All of this is!”
Max called over another agent to watch over Rachel before joining Nate. They grabbed on to Ben and tackled him to the ground. “Chill out, Ben.”
Ben tried to shrug out of their grip but couldn’t. “Get the fuck off of me. I need to go after Riley. We can follow their trail. It’s there. I can feel it!”
Giyano squeezed my hand. I looked down at him again, but his eyes were already closed, his face paling as his body started to seize. His breaths had stopped completely.
My head snapped up, the blinding light of a vision searing my cornea.
In a flash I was inside of this chamber in a time other than this one. Zanka shoved me to the ground, my knees colliding with the stone.
Giyano’s hands were mine and his voice too as he greeted Lady Azar. “If you wanted to see me, all you had to do was ask.”
She reeled back a hand and punched me in the face, the gold of her rings tearing open my cheek. “You betrayed me, pet. You will never do that again.”
“Or we could both rot in Hell, whichever would be preferable for you.”
Lady Azar tsked me. “Is that any way to speak to your future queen? Or shall I give you some encouragement to remain loyal this time?”
She nodded over my shoulder at Zanka, who touched a hand to my back. A sense of warmth flooded me, the same directive magik I’d felt under Kinder’s control after she’d taken Zanka’s magik.
“I will never help you overthrow Aloysius,” I said, so far able to ignore Zanka’s magik, as if I’d become immune to it over time. “You should have thought about loyalty before you turned me against my will.”
Lady Azar pouted. “And risk not learning all you know about the Neuians? Who would be stupid enough to let that resource die? Bring him in.” She gestured to someone behind me whom I couldn’t see. Shuffling sounds followed along with the clanging and scraping of chains against ground. Another Shadow Crest demon brought someone before me, someone who made Lady Azar smile.
My heart sank, both in the vision and in real life. “Ashbel. How?”
Lady Azar grinned evilly. “Shape-changers and Zanka’s magik combined made it possible. I’ve kept your love to use for collateral at just the right time. And I believe that time is now.”
“Let him go!” I yelled. “Ashbel! Ashbel, are you okay?”
But he didn’t speak back to me; he only widened his eyes.
“You’ll find it’s difficult to speak with no tongue,” Lady Azar said. “Perhaps I’ll suffer you to the same fate you’ve bestowed on countless others if you fail me this time.”
I swallowed hard, resolve settling in. The knowledge that with Ashbel alive, Lady Azar didn’t need Riley flooded my system. And with two siphons for magik, overthrowing even Aloysius himself would be possible.
But if I acted out against her, she’d kill Ashbel for real this time. My love, my life. My world.
I lowered my head. “My life is yours, Lady Azar.”
“Queen of Darkness,” Lady Azar added.
Not yet. Not until Ammon is dead. I nodded. “Lady Azar, Queen of Darkness.”
Reality snapped back to me as Giyano’s hand fell limp from mine. I pressed two fingers against his neck, looking for a pulse I knew wouldn’t be there. Not with all the blood pooling around us from his wound.
Shawn stirred behind me, reaching a hand to my back. “Krystin?”
“He’s gone,” I said, tears flooding my eyes.
Why? Why cry for this bastard? He’d killed my father. Kidnapped Riley. Murdered both of Nate’s parents, for god’s sake! He was the fucking reason every single one of us was here today.
But he might just have been the only one with balls enough to be the hero.
“We need to move,” Avery said, appearing by my side. He walked with a limp, a hand pressed against his arm. “Two Hunters from Cassie’s team are dead. The rest of us need an emergency room or healers.”
“We can’t go to Headquarters,” Nate called from the dais, where Ben had finally stopped shouting and thrashing about. He sat there, head in his hands, rocking back and forth until he caught sight of Rachel. He crawled his way over to her and the Hydron agent keeping her alive.
Avery swallowed hard, his jaw setting as we all took in the number of wounded. “And I don’t trust Hydron.”
Cassie walked over, supporting one of her teammates. “Teleport everyone back to Ben’s house, then I’ll go to Dacher and report in. He already knows we’re here, right?”
Avery nodded. “Yeah. We’ll round up the healers from Headquarters that way.”
“Can we afford that time?” I asked, looking past them to Rachel.
“We’re going to have to. We have no idea what Jaffrin will do. It’s not like we can hide this or that we know what he is.”
My teary-eyed gaze fell back to Giyano’s body, lifeless and peaceful-looking. With his eyes closed, he looked just like the rest of us. Broken and beaten, a mission completed.
He looked human.
I wiped my eyes and nose and forced myself to stand. “Gather everyone and teleport them before any reinforcements show up.”
“Retreat, you mean,” another Hunter said.
“Not retreat,” Nate chimed in. “I landed an asanak on Riley. That’ll buy us time. Kinder was without magik for three months.”
“You’re assuming that she doesn’t have any more people with the Power tucked away,” Cassie said.
“Or another trick up her sleeve to get to Alzan,” Avery added.
Shawn and I exchanged a glance. “She doesn’t. There is no other way. But even if she broke through right now, there’s nothing we can do. We need to regroup and heal who we can. Besides, it sounds like overthrowing Ammon to become the heir of Darkness was first on her list. We got to her a few days early.”
Avery nodded, then clapped once loudly. “Let’s go, people. Gather up the wounded. We’re leaving.”
Everyone else did so, Shawn leaving me to help with Max with Rachel. But I stood there, watching over Giyano’s body. And Ashbel’s. They both were good people who’d gotten caught up in this unwillingly. Just like me. And Shawn. Like every member of my team. And maybe that was part of the reason Giyano had tied himself to us. Maybe he’d seen too much of himself in every single one of us that he hadn’t wanted to let us go.
Maybe he’d seen himself in me.
Carefully, I moved him next to Ashbel’s body, ignoring the trail of blood that doing so left behind. And when they finally laid together once more in eternal rest, I tugged a book of cedo matches from my pocket, lit one, and tossed it on them both.
“Rest in peace, friend. Thank you for all you’ve done for us.” The good… and the bad. For Giyano had made us strong enough to take on Lady Azar in any way he had to. “Thank you.”
I stayed until the purple smoke had dissipated up into the chamber’s ceiling
. Only then did I teleport to the house, the last one to arrive.
Chapter 26
Ben
Krystin teleported in last. The second her form became solid, she swayed, her knees buckling out beneath her. I rushed to her side, catching her as she fell to the floor.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, touching a hand to her cheeks. She was burning up, her body shaking.
She shook her head and pushed me away. “Giyano’s gone. And so is Riley.” She looked up at me. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.”
“It will be. Nate’s right. We bought time.”
“She’s lost a lot of blood!” Max called. “Rachel gets a healer first.”
“This man, Tyler, is next,” another Hydron agent called.
Soon a string of these exchanges followed and although I didn’t trust that organization, I was glad for all the triage help they were giving us. I left Krystin to go to Rachel’s side again and held her hand. She’d fallen unconscious sometime during the fight and I was almost happy she hadn’t had to witness the end of it. Or my freak out.
“Avery,” Krystin called from halfway up the stairs. “Help me grab what supplies we have.”
He nodded and followed her up to the second floor. Some of his team, the ones who weren’t totally incapacitated, went too.
In a flash, Cassie teleported in with Dacher and the whole three healers the Fire Circle had on tap. Dacher’s eyes widened as he took in the carnage around him.
“Here,” I told them. “The healers are needed for Rachel and Tyler first. Then some of the others. But they’ve lost the most blood.”
The healers jumped in without another word as Dacher pulled me aside. “Speak, Ben. What’s happened?”
“We went like we told you,” I said. “Lady Azar got away with Riley, but Nate hit him with an asanak. We’ve bought days, maybe weeks. I don’t know how long it’ll hold for.”
Terror shone in his eyes. “Asanak on a child?”
“There wasn’t another option,” I hissed. “You think I wanted my son to experience that?”
Dacher laid a hand on my shoulder. “We will take care of this. And the Ether Head Circle will move on Jaffrin shortly. They were gathering sources to keep him contained. It turns out they’re not sure if their prison can hold him.”
“Of course not. Why would they actually be helpful?” I turned to look at the scene before me. Krystin and Avery hurried down the stairs into the living room, carrying our mediocre first aid kit, some rubbing alcohol, and a bunch of towels they’d torn into strips.
“This is unprecedented, Ben,” Dacher said quietly, his head pointed toward me and away from the others. “To remove a Circle Leader… That hasn’t been done for many generations. And for a reason such as this, there are no procedures. We have no way of knowing what he’s capable of doing in retaliation. Or who might come looking for revenge on his behalf.”
The front door burst open beside me. Everyone, even Dacher, flinched. I fell into a defensive stance in front of Dacher as Jaffrin stalked into the room with two of his Command on either side of him. The only member missing was Dacher.
“What has happened here?” Jaffrin asked. “I got a call from Hydron stating the agents who were supposed to be at Headquarters were on a mission.” His gaze swung toward me and twisted into surprise when he saw Dacher. “Your mission, I presume?”
Dacher nodded. “They were needed.”
“They’re mine to command, Dacher, not yours,” Jaffrin spat. The four other Command members filled out around Jaffrin.
Krystin and Shawn rose from where they’d knelt next to injured Hunters. Nate did the same. We were the only others with magik in this room. If he made a move, only we’d be able to stop him.
“Stand down,” Jaffrin ordered.
“Not a chance, asshole,” Krystin spat. “I knew you were shit from the beginning.”
Jaffrin’s Command bristled, except for Dacher. He stepped behind me and watched from afar.
“Excuse me?” Jaffrin asked.
“You’re Neuian,” Shawn accused. “An enemy of the Powers, of Alzan. You were going to let Alzan burn.”
Jaffrin’s angry face shifted to a calm confidence, settling right before his eyes turned from dark brown to cobalt blue. The sides of his face glowed as twisty, vine-like tattoos surfaced on the sides of his face, high on his cheekbones, and wrapped around his eyes. “I take it you made it to the city, then?”
The Command members around him jumped away, a look of horror on their faces.
One that slipped into smiles.
They knew. His entire Command except for Dacher knew!
My breath stopped, pulse racing in my ears. No. We can’t handle another fight right now. Lightning lit in my hand anyway, preparing for the worst.
Krystin’s eyes darkened and she reached out for Shawn’s hand, making some sort of sawing motion. He nodded. “Yes,” she said. “We did. And boy did Areus have a lot to say. Especially about your role in all of this. Like how you brought the stolen stone of the Son to the origin plane to use as a weapon.”
Jaffrin laughed, a smile half-cocked on his face. “Guess there are no more secrets then.”
A burst of blue energy shot out of Jaffrin’s form, filling the entire room and knocking everyone over. I fell once again to my knees, looking up in time to watch Krystin and Shawn envelop themselves in white ala-ether and walk through Jaffrin’s magik to his side. They were holding hands, each drawing a knife with their free one. They slipped the tips of the blades across their hands then rejoined them, their blood touching.
Then they leapt for Jaffrin as all the remaining Hunters jumped on Jaffrin’s Command. They wrestled them to the ground easily—we had the bigger numbers, and they had no magik.
I jumped in too, tackling Jaffrin from behind and wrapping lightning around his body. We didn’t hold Jaffrin down so much as momentarily surprise and restrain him. But it was long enough for Krystin to get a hand around his arm. I grabbed out for her, too—just in case—and then in a moment of utter silence, the ala-ether encased us and the world went dark.
When it sprang back into existence, full of color and sound and being, we were inside a massive arched room made almost entirely of marble and stone.
“Ben!” Krystin exclaimed. “What—why did you—?”
“Areus!” Shawn bellowed. “Get Areus in here now!”
“I can’t hold him,” Krystin said, teeth gnashing together.
I struck Jaffrin again as he struggled, continually sending out pulses of blue energy as he seized. Neuian magik. Others rushed over to see what was happening, but almost all of them backed away in the same breath. Still, Jaffrin fought.
“What is—oh!” said a man as he skidded to a stop next to us. “Guards. Guards! Get the High Council. Take this man to the prison!”
“Don’t have time for that,” Krystin ground out.
“How did you—?”
“No time,” she said, cutting him off.
Areus’s face twisted with understanding. Then he looked up at me. “And you. Who are you?”
“Ben Hallen,” I said. “I’m with them.”
His jaw clenched. “Hmm.”
Guards appeared in the next breath, teleporting in only long enough to grab Jaffrin and teleport back out again.
“He’s Neuian,” Krystin shouted. “You can’t put him in a normal cell. He’ll escape.”
“He also might know things we need to find out,” Shawn said. “Take us to him.”
Areus touched a hand to both of their shoulders. “In time. We have spaces from the first war to handle Neuians,.”
I watched the exchange, my heart in my throat. So little of this was easy to process, least of all that the Fire Circle had just lost its Leader and probably most of its Command. Dacher would be acting Leader until a replacement was found or he was officially voted in, but until then it was anyone’s guess.
All of that
loss, and still more might follow if the healers couldn’t save Rachel or Tyler or any of the others.
And Riley was still in Lady Azar’s clutches.
My stomach roiled as bile slicked the back of my throat. A cold sweat broke out on my forehead.
“Ben?” Krystin asked, reaching out for me.
“I’m fine.”
“You look like you’re going to be sick.”
I shook my head. “How do we recover from this? What can our next move even be with this many casualties?” Not to mention this new threat, the Neuians. “This is pointless. When does it end?”
Krystin’s fingers dug into my shoulder, pulling me back to reality and setting me firmly inside of it. Her dark blue eyes found mine and stared me down until I was convinced I could at least pretend to be as strong as she was right now. “It ends when Lady Azar does. And thanks to Nate, thanks to Giyano, thanks to the Alzanian High Council imprisoning Jaffrin, we have a shot.”
My eyes narrowed, panic setting in low in my stomach. “How? She still has Riley. She can still get here.”
“I don’t know, Ben,” she said. “But we’ll figure out. Because of them, we can figure it out.”
I pulled in a staggering breath and righted myself, lifting my chin. If Krystin still had faith, then so did I.
I had to.
“Let’s go home, Ben,” Shawn said. “Let the Council here do their thing. We have to check on everyone else first. Fix those messes. Then we can make a game plan.”
I nodded and inhaled deeply again. Both of them were right. “Like a team.”
Krystin smiled at me, though it was weighed down with everything that’d happened. “Like a team. We have to keep our heads in the game.”
But what if the game was already tied?
I had a feeling we’d just entered overtime.
Thank You For Reading!
The team’s fight against Shadow Crest continues in The Power, Book Five of the Hunter Circles Series, out September 25th, 2017.
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