by Jessica Gunn
Rustling sounded behind us, branches snapping, crunching underweight. I darted my gaze to the surrounding woods. “Hear that?”
Ben nodded, his hand already moving to the knife sheath I knew he kept on his waist. “Yeah. Are we past the wall?”
I nodded. “It let me punch you, so I’d say so.” I looked around, but peering into the darkness of a forest at night was pointless. Ben’s form right next to me was barely visible, forget anything far off.
“Think we should leave?” Ben asked.
“And let whoever’s here chase us away?” I reached for my own knife and pulled it out of its sheath. “I think I’d rather find out why they’re stalking us.”
A mighty roar sounded, a human voice but amplified somehow, and two figures charged out of the darkness. I ducked past the first one, leaving him for Ben to deal with, and knocked my shoulder into the other figure’s gut. Lightning sparked behind me, lighting the area from Ben’s palm, and a flash of burgundy eyes appeared in front of me before the demon disappeared into darkness. Not as if blending into it because it was dark again, but he literally shifted into shadow.
“Uh—that’s new!” I shouted, turning to help Ben.
He traded blows with the other demon and slammed a ball of lightning into him with a hiss, then dropped to the forest floor to knock his feet out from under him. Ben brought his knife up fast, slashing the demon’s chest and arm, knocking him into a nearby tree. Before the demon reacted, Ben charged and plunged his knife into the demon’s heart and twisted. The heart—home of all magik inside of a person.
An easy mark. Too easy sometimes.
The demon’s skin turned ashen grey, dried up like a mummy. Ben had the demon lit up with a cedo match seconds later, just in case.
I peered into the darkness again, trying to sense where the second demon had gone. I’d never seen any magik user—demon or not—do that. It was like he’d turned into darkness itself. But that didn’t make sense. Darkness wasn’t an element, and ether magik typically imitated the elements and included mental tricks. But just because I didn’t know something didn’t mean it wasn’t true. I’d learned that the hard way far too many times.
I reached out with my mind, though it was pointless. My Blackwood line traits didn’t do what I needed them to do. I read minds and got the occasional vision, but I couldn’t search for something out of nothing. There didn’t even appear to be a mind to read.
“Where did the other one go?” Ben asked, whipping around as he searched for the demon.
I shook my head. “Don’t know. He vanished.”
An evil laugh permeated the air next to my ear. I turned just in time to see the demon reform, a wisp of dark grey smoke against the night, and strike out. I blocked his uppercut and jabbed him three times in return, but he held his ground, latching on to me with too-big hands and throwing me up into the air.
I cried out as I sailed, grappling to catch myself with my telekinesis as a tree closed in on my personal space. I stabilize myself at the last second, the smell of pine enveloping me, and touched down, charging at the demon again the moment I stood straight.
Ben lunged, another ball of lightning gathering in his palm. But his hold was weak; he was tired, or scared, and if I saw it, so did the demon. His darkness-shifting powers scared me, too, but I swallowed the emotion. None of that mattered here—fear or confidence or pain. None of it. It was us or the demon, as it had been for generations, and that was the only reality.
I threw out my hand as I charged the demon, gripping on to air as though holding his throat with my fingers. With my other hand, I lifted him off the ground. A blind rage, untampered thanks to years of training, seeped through me.
“This is Hunter’s Guild, moron,” I told the demon.
“We’re outside the wall,” he replied. “Anything goes.”
I tightened my hold on his throat. “Any last words?”
The demon’s eyes narrowed.
“Guess not,” I said, snapping his neck.
Ben lit another magik match and we watched the demon burn up in purple flames. Two seconds. He’d been powerful. We’d been lucky.
I glanced over at Ben. “We should leave before we get more visitors.”
“Don’t suppose Giyano put the word out that everyone should go after us?” he asked.
Shaking my head, I said, “It’s because of the Guild. If we weren’t here, we wouldn’t be massive targets.”
“I’m talking about you,” Ben said. He pointed at me. “What you are. Giyano must know—”
Ben’s eyes went wide as fire ropes wrapped around him and flung him into the woods. A loud thud sounded from where he must have landed.
“Another demon?” I asked. Did these guys ever sleep?
“Hello, Krystin,” purred a voice from the darkness. The figure stepped into the small clearing. Moonlight glinted off his dark hair, highlighting his strong jaw and high cheekbones.
“You again?” I asked. “Find a new hobby.” I should be terrified of him. That fear should have been bone deep. Giyano was an Old One. But I stared him down, defiant.
Giyano looked over his shoulder to where his fire ropes had Ben strapped to a tree. “A new hobby? You think I actually enjoy dealing with this constant thorn in my side?”
“Me?” Ben hissed, his entire body trembling with rage. His eyes went wide with fury. “Are you fucking kidding me? Give me back my son, you bastard!”
Giyano waved a hand in the air behind him. The ropes around Ben tightened and he gasped—in surprise or for air, I didn’t know. Probably both. “Silence. Krystin and I need to have a conversation.”
I squeezed the hilt of my knife. No way in hell were we doing anything other than fighting. I glanced from Giyano to Ben and back again. Any move I made might result in Ben getting hurt—or killed. And as much as he annoyed and frustrated me, I couldn’t allow that.
“What do you want?” I asked, but only to buy me some more time.
“Are you aware of your destiny?” he asked, as if it were the most casual question in the world.
“Let my friend go and maybe I’ll tell you,” I said.
“Your cavalier attitude says you don’t know but think I’ll be baited, or that you do know and know you can’t beat me,” he said. “In either case: no. Do you know what you are?”
I narrowed my eyes. “What’s it to you?”
His smile thinned. “I think you know.”
“Hurray—yes, I know you killed my father. I know it’s because of my destiny to save Alzan.” My free fist balled. If I could just catch this asshole off-guard, I might be able to save Ben and get us out of here. We weren’t inside the anti-violence wall, but we might still be close enough that its dispersing effects might keep Giyano from following our teleportante. “What I don’t understand is what that destiny has to do with you, aside from the obvious.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “It’s for that obvious reason that I’m here. You’re dangerous, Krystin. Your destiny, everyone involved, whether they are on Good’s side or not… it all comes down to you.”
That was the vaguest, most unhelpful thing I’d ever heard. “Why’s this city so important anyway?” I knew it was built on a cianza. But so was Boston. And Los Angeles. Alzan wasn’t special. Was it the power of the Son and Daughter from Alzan’s prophecy itself that Giyano wanted? I couldn’t use that power now, not without the other half. But the Son had kept himself hidden thus far.
A slow grin crept across Giyano’s face. “Now you see.”
“You’re insane if you think I’ll ever let you use me for your own agenda,” I said. “I don’t care what you hold over my head.” I might not have wanted this destiny, but hey, it was mine. And I got to decide how to use it and this power inside me.
“Our agendas, as you say, are not so different.” His words were like black velvet. Smooth, enticing, powerful. Whatever his plan was, he was confident it’d work. “One day soon you’ll come to see your power wasn’t meant for Good. N
ot the way you were brought up to think.”
In the blink of an eye he was next to me, his breath warm on my face. My skin burned, an orange glow dancing on our chests. I didn’t bother looking down to confirm. And with him this close, with the reputation he had, I didn’t plan on moving, either. Not without an opening.
I forced a laugh. “After all the man-hours the Fire Circle’s put into keeping tabs on me, I highly doubt the Powers have been lying about my role in this war.”
“It’s not your role they’re scared of, Krystin. It’s your power.” His gaze raked across my face, searching for something and apparently coming up short. “They should all be afraid. Lady Azar included. For all the ambition she has, I’m afraid she’s fairly clueless.”
My stomach dropped. Lady Azar’s best weapon thought her stupid? Well, that was interesting. I’d known from all the written histories that she and Giyano didn’t get along—something that traced back to the Salem Witch Trials.
“Man,” I said. “Whatever she did to you really screwed up your loyalty for her, huh?”
The fire holding me captive squeezed impossibly tight, like I might burst if he continued. I cried out, but no one would save me. No other Hunters had been at the Guild tonight and no other demons would be stupid enough to cross Giyano.
“Insolence,” he growled. “Here. Take this as a reminder of what we’ve spoken of tonight, for soon you’ll see I’ve been right all along.”
He lifted a palm and pressed it to one of my shoulders. Fire flamed but didn’t burn my skin. The heat and pain tore into me. My veins burned white hot—no, not my veins. My magik. It burned within me, twisting with the addition of his, forcing his magik into a space in which there was no room. The inner vessel holding my magik seemed to expand to accommodate his elemental magik but refused to bend too far.
What was he doing to me? Why?
“Stop,” I croaked.
“Not yet,” he snarled. “I need to—”
Lightning cut off his words, striking Giyano with enough force to knock him sideways, off-balance and away from me. The burning stopped and suddenly Ben was there, freed during Giyano’s fall. He kicked Giyano in the side as Giyano twitched, electrocuted.
I looked up at Ben, my eyes wide and tearing up. I curled over as the fire in my veins burned hotter, twisting my gut. My stomach roiled and emptied.
Ben laid a hand on my shoulder and swept back a lock of hair that’d fallen into my face. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
I nodded, relaxing into his teleportante. After we landed first at Fire Circle Headquarters—somewhere not even Giyano was stupid enough to follow our trail to—then hopped again to home, I turned my face upward toward Ben. If he hadn’t been there to teleport us out of there… I wouldn’t have made it.
“Nice shot.”
“Lucky shot,” he said.
“How?”
Ben lifted up his hand, his pointer finger out of place. He popped it back into the joint and chuckled to himself. “I got lucky. If I hadn’t been able to move my hand that slight inch, I couldn’t have called lightning to me.”
“Fire wielders don’t always have to call,” I said.
His eyes narrowed. “You complimented me before. That sounds like a turn of conversation.”
I shook my head as my stomach rolled again. “It was, but only because I think I can teach you to do that with lightning.”
He shook his head, a relieved smile on his face as his eyes roamed over me. Like what had happened back there with my magik had been a lot worse than I thought. Maybe it was. “Do you ever stop training?”
I wanted to shake my head, to tell him that if I stopped, the demons would win. But instead, the world darkened, my vision narrowing down to a single pinprick of light. Then the light was gone and I succumbed to unconsciousness.
My magik still scorched.
I dreamed I stood in a ray of multi-colored lights, a rainbow of bright energy swirling around me. A clearing in woods made of earth and air. Ether. All the elements. I spun in circles, taking it all in, though it was impossible because everywhere I looked, something new popped up. A flame. A wave of water. A white light, a dark light. One emanating from within me.
But then the flame sprung forward and attacked, engulfing me whole.
Chapter 12
BEN
Krystin writhed around for hours and the only thing the three of us could do was watch. We’d been trained as Hunters, but not really as magik-users, and Krystin’s issue—whatever it was—had started when Giyano had burned her.
Nate sat by her side most of the night, stopping short of holding her hand. His brow creased as though concentrating. I watched him, waiting for whatever sort of deduction it was clear he’d made. But he remained silent, her guard for whatever she was going through.
Finally, Nate relaxed from his stone-still position beside her. “It’s backfiring.”
“What?” Rachel asked from her seat on the ground. She’d been resting against a wall for the last three hours.
“Krystin’s magik.” He pointed to the mark on her shoulder that Giyano had created. It’d faded considerably, and I was pretty sure it’d disappear by morning. “That’s the only explanation. But it can’t be that bad if she’s still alive.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
Nate turned his head to me. “They didn’t teach you what happens when you expend a considerable amount of magik compared to what you’re used to? Or when your body has to handle a mix of elemental and ether-based magiks? Which, by the way, it normally can’t do even in the small dose Krystin was given. This is so weird, guys.”
I shook my head. “No. Doesn’t sound good, though.” I knew the whole spiel about bodies—human and demon alike—not being able to hold both elemental magik and ether magik at the same time. Bodies couldn’t handle it, and you’d… burn from the inside out. “Oh.”
“Yeah,” Nate said. “Exactly. I should have figured it out forever ago, but it’s not like Giyano’s attacked us directly more than a handful of times. He’s never gotten close enough.” He reached out and held Krystin’s hand. “Her magik is ether-based. I felt it the night we met. I… can’t use her magik or anything, but I recognize it. Ether to ether. It looks like Giyano tried forcing some of his magik into her, whether to track Krystin or brand her, I’m not sure. But his fire is elemental-based. I can feel it corrupting Krystin, burning her from the inside.”
“In an evil sense, or…?” Rachel asked.
“Magik only. Ether isn’t inherently good or evil. The two sides of this war have nothing to do with what’s happening here.” Nate squeezed Krystin’s hand once, then let go. “I… If I’d realized this sooner, I might have been able to do something, but I think she’ll be okay. Giyano didn’t give her too much elemental magik.”
“Enough to cause this, though,” I said.
Nate nodded. “I think he wanted to send her a message. And he succeeded.”
I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorframe. I hadn’t known about magik backfiring. And even if I had, without Nate’s training, we might not have known what was going on. Maybe that was the basis of teamwork right there—one Hunter filling in the blanks when the others didn’t know. But for me, as their leader, that was unacceptable. I might have been a magik user, but I’d never learned anything beyond my own power.
My gaze fell to Krystin’s form on the bed. She’d stopped seizing and writhing, now looking like she was sleeping and nothing more. “Is there anything we can do to help her?” I asked Nate. “Can you infuse her with more ether or something?”
A small smile edged his lips. He shook his head. “I wish it worked like that. She should be out of the woods soon.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, swallowing down the feeling of helplessness threatening to overcome me. “Good. I’ll keep an eye on her. You two should go get some sleep.”
“No,” Rachel said. “We’ll wait this out with you.”
I s
hook my head. “There’s no point. If Giyano shows up again, or god forbid he comes here, we need to be ready. Go rest.”
Rachel frowned. “You need rest, too.”
“I’m fine.”
Silence followed, but eventually, they stood and left the room, closing the door behind them.
I took the seat Nate had vacated next to Krystin’s bed and peered down at her. Just like the other night, I wondered how it was possible for someone so fierce and determined in her waking state to look so peaceful and innocuous asleep.
“You need to wake up soon,” I said. “Turns out you were right after all. This team needs help. Your help. You’re more fit to be their leader than I am. And I—” My throat closed around the words, tightening around the cowardice of not being able to say them to her face when she wasn’t unconscious. Of admitting that maybe something more than attraction and annoyance lay between us. “You’re the only one who can help us scare off Shadow Crest. Who else will bring Riley home? We need you—I need you. So wake up.”
Wake up, Krystin.
Her eyelids fluttered and my heart jumped as if it were actually possible that my words alone had stirred her.
But Krystin’s slow breathing continued and her eyelids settled. Asleep.
We let Krystin rest for most of the day after she finally woke up. Around two in the afternoon, when she hadn’t yet come out of her room, Rachel forced a plate into my hands.
I looked down at the sandwich. “What’s this for?”
She looked at me, deadpan. “Bring it up to her. Figure out what’s going on in her head.”
I wanted to tell her that nothing was wrong in Krystin’s head. She probably felt too exhausted to move. But the way Rachel’s stare pinned me to the wall told me I was wrong. “Fine. Okay. I’m going.”
Rachel smiled. “Good. We’ll be waiting for you guys down here.”
I rolled my eyes at my cousin, then turned for the stairs. At the door to Krystin’s room, I stopped and listened. She wasn’t moving around inside, but a lavender scent floated through the space between the floor and door.
