The Changed: Hunter Circles Series Book Three

by Jessica Gunn

  Even friendship was too much to lose in the inevitable end. And I’d already gone through heartbreak enough times.

  “You’re welcome,” I said. “It’s not fair what they’d assume of you if we did.”

  Krystin nodded. “Even if I deserve it.”

  “You don’t.”

  She shrugged. “Thank you anyway.” She turned the doorknob and left the room, headed for her own.

  I didn’t get to thank her for waiting for me after I’d talked to the twins. For making sure I was okay even when she wasn’t.

  Chapter 10

  KRYSTIN

  Shawn’s hands clasped around mine, his fingers warm and shaky. Though we were both supposed to be meditating, or something close to that, he still had one eye open. I only knew because so did I.

  He frowned. “Stop worrying. I know you’re not going to hurt me.”

  “Willingly.” No, the problem was that I still couldn’t control my magik. Irritation wormed its way up into my back. I stretched, popping it. “I need to go somewhere and learn how to control this fire without burning anyone or anything down.”

  “I can keep it in check, Krystin,” he said.

  I gave him a blank stare. “Not without revealing your own magik. And last I checked, Jaffrin didn’t tell many people about you being an Ember witch.”

  “And like you said, it shouldn’t matter.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Look, I didn’t create those biases. And I don’t care about the people who think your magik is demonic. I was pissed you lied about it. But I’ve had time to think about it all.”

  “And develop your own magik problem.”

  “Yeah, that.”

  He closed his eyes and straightened his back. “Focus on finding that white light you felt inside me once before. Find it and hold on to it. I’m trying to do the same.”

  “Except before, it’d been with telepathy.”

  Shawn opened one eye again. “When the ether-shapers were trying to heal your magik and stop it from overtaking you, I jumped in and was able to sort of heal you again with the Alzanian magik. I saw it inside of you. The connection was weak, but it was there.”

  “So we unbind your powers,” I said. “Then there are no more barriers.”

  “I don’t think that’s the case.” Shawn rocked to one side and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He swiped across the screen a few times before holding it out for me to see. “I took a photo of the prophecy while we were in Jaffrin’s office a few weeks ago. Did you know he leaves that thing out in the open?”

  My eyes narrowed. “No. Let me see that.” I took the phone from him and held it closer to my face. The picture showed a piece of weathered, browning parchment inside a thin plastic shell with writing scrawled all over it. “He’s never even let us see the whole thing. Wait a second—this is gibberish.”

  Shawn pointed. “That’s because it’s not in English. And the translation of it wasn’t laying around. I looked.”

  “Jaffrin let you peruse his office one day?”

  “No. He left to talk to the Ether Head Circle and forgot to tell us to leave.”

  “Seems kind of careless. Why didn’t you take it then and there?”

  He shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t want him to question why I’d stolen it if I got caught.” Shawn frowned. “I wish it was the full prophecy too. I think you’re right about there being more to it than we think. It seems too simple from what Jaffrin’s told us. That one day we’re going to suddenly have this Alzanian magik not only in our system but under full control? That we’ll show up in Alzan and save the day?” He shook his head and took back his phone. “Too easy.”

  “Agreed.” But there wasn’t anything we could do with paper we couldn’t read.

  “I was wondering,” Shawn began, a pensive look creasing his brows, “do you have any contacts who might know that language? If they can translate it, then we can figure this out on our own.”

  “Contacts? No. I mean, there’re the witches and other Hunters, but I doubt they know that language. And any of the demons I mixed with before joining the team are all lower-level. They don’t know anything.”

  Shawn fidgeted on the ground. “What about Giyano?”

  My eyes narrowed. “Is this a test or something? Are the twins nearby?”

  “No. I was just wondering—”

  “I’m done with Giyano, Shawn. I wouldn’t even know where to find him.” I glanced down at my hand. Today, the mark was a dull outline of what usually glowed.

  “It was just a suggestion,” Shawn said. “Since he seemed so obsessed with the prophecy from what you told Ben and me the other night.”

  “He’s obsessed because his ex died because Lady Azar couldn’t use him like she wants to use Riley. She’s been planning this crusade for centuries.”

  “Then let’s get back to this,” he said, retaking my hands and closing his eyes. “Our magik is there; it’s just not unlocked.”

  “Except when I’m injured or dying.”

  He shrugged. “Guess so.”

  I closed my eyes, humoring him. No amount of hand-holding and meditating was going to unlock this Alzanian magik. That much had become clear.

  So instead of looking for that white flame of pure magik inside of myself and Shawn, my thoughts turned toward Giyano and what Shawn had said. Giyano was pretty obsessed with the prophecy and saving Alzan. Maybe he really did know how to translate this? Wouldn’t that be perfect?

  No. There had to be another answer.

  “Why don’t we confront Jaffrin about the damn thing?”

  Shawn opened his eyes. “How many times have you asked before?”

  “Several. But I think we can convince him to let us know the full prophecy now that we’re together.”

  “Then let’s go,” Shawn said as he stood. “Right now.”

  “Don’t think it’s the best time, with the Ether Head Circle escort babysitters and all.”

  Shawn leveled me with a hard stare. “Do you want to know how to unlock this magik and stop Darkness from destroying all planes of existence or not?”

  “Well, when you put it like that, Mr. Dramatic, I guess I have no choice.” I stood too and joined hands once more with Shawn.

  He nodded once, then said, “Teleportante.”

  Shawn and I went through the usual motions to get into Jaffrin’s office. Talk to Lissandra, wait forever, then finally be allowed to walk up. We did, hoping that by playing by the rules, we’d get what we’d come for. Disregarding that Jaffrin had never told us anything before now, of course.

  His office was filled with file folders and boxes of paper, all of them scattered about the floor. Jaffrin waded his way around them in dark slacks and a button up with rolled-up sleeves. “What can I do for you two today? It’s not really a good time.”

  “Is it ever?” I asked.

  He paused, looking up. “No. Not lately.”

  Shawn leveled me with a hard stare, then turned to Jaffrin. “We want to see the prophecy. The full translation of it.”

  Jaffrin’s dark eyes widened. “Okay. May I ask why you’re suddenly interested?”

  “Maybe because you just rescued me from prison because of the damn thing?”

  Shawn stepped in front of me. “What Krystin means is we think it might help us get a better handle on figuring out the magik end of things if we know what we’re looking for.”

  Jaffrin considered our request for a long time, studying us as he did so. Finally, he paced to his desk and hovered a hand over a drawer. He closed his eyes and muttered something, then a bright orange light flashed.

  I blinked. “It’s that top-secret you have to protect it with magik?”

  Jaffrin opened the drawer and pulled out a manila envelope. Inside was a single printed page. “Yes. Darkness finding this in a raid would be bad. The same goes for anyone who doesn’t need to know about the prophecy.”

  “Who wouldn’t ‘need’ to?” Shawn asked. “If we
fail, it affects everyone.”

  “You know what I mean,” Jaffrin said, reading over the file. “This is the translation of the prophecy, and it’s a bit rough.”

  But instead of handing it over to us, Jaffrin lifted the paper higher in front of him and read aloud: “Two stones that once were one, broken by the Powers but meant for Daughter and Son. For when the final conflict with Darkness begins, only their power can save the city of origin.” He looked up. “That’s a rough translation, paraphrased. It goes on to mention things about betrayers and going to the city itself, but with Alzan out of reach…” Jaffrin shrugged. “The best we can tell is that somehow, you’ll get to Alzan, unlock the power that way, and when the final conflict starts, you’ll keep Darkness from destroying Cianza Alzan.”

  “That’s…” I started, but I really didn’t have words.

  “Not as helpful as we were hoping,” Shawn finished for me. “But at least that gives us something we can work with.”

  I glanced over at him. “Not really. What does it mean by two stones broken by the Powers?”

  “It’s enough,” Shawn said. “We can think on this for now.”

  Jaffrin set the paper back on his desk. “It’s all we have. We always assumed it’d be easy to fill in the blanks.”

  “Why never show us this before?” I asked. “I’ve been a Hunter since I was thirteen. Shawn graduated months ago.”

  Jaffrin’s jaw set hard. “You were too young back then, and without Shawn, it was unlikely to have made a difference. And ever since Shawn joined the team, it’s been on the busy side here with Kinder’s attacks and Hydron’s operations. Not to mention you being imprisoned for three months.”

  I bit my tongue rather than allow myself to speak. I’d already said my piece to him.

  “Thank you for showing it to us today,” Shawn said, much better at politics and being a nicer person than I ever hoped to be. “We’ll work with what we’ve learned.”

  My phone started ringing. Shawn’s too. I glanced at him as I tugged mine out of my jacket pocket and held it up. Ben.

  “I should take this,” I said, looking up at Jaffrin. “It’s Ben.”

  “I’ve got Nate,” said Shawn. “Something must have happened.”

  Jaffrin nodded and I swiped to answer Ben’s call. “I’m with Shawn, we’re at—”

  “Where are you?” Ben hissed into the phone. “Get over here. Right now.”

  “Fire Circle Headquarters, as I was trying to say when—”

  “Shawn’s with you?”

  “Yes. Ben, what the hell is going on?” I looked up and met Jaffrin’s questioning gaze. Shawn was texting, probably telling Nate he was with me. “Why are you freaking out?”

  “There’s been another attack.”

  “Okay?” There were demon attacks every night. That was the reason we so often had to patrol every day instead of something more reasonable.

  “Giyano’s style,” Ben amended. “The twins aren’t with us, though. They’re at the house, waiting for you and Shawn to finish training.”

  My stomach dropped, but only for a second before I forced a calm expression onto my face. “Ah, right. That makes sense then.”

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  I held up a finger and spun from Jaffrin and Shawn. “No, we can make it for dinner with them no problem. We can go patrolling afterward.”

  “Everything okay?” Shawn asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  Ben’s voice quieted. “Is Jaffrin in the room with you?”

  “Sure thing.”

  “Shit. Well… Meet us outside the Prudential Center when you can. Nate will be there to walk you over.”

  Prudential Center? “That’s…”

  “Close to the cianza, I know. Especially after it grew. We’ll be quick.”

  “It’s fine, that’s a great restaurant. I’ll talk to you later.” I hung up the call and turned back to Shawn and Jaffrin. “Sorry. I thought something was wrong, but it turns out Ben’s bad at picking out dinner places.”

  Shawn looked at me like I was the stupidest person on Earth, but Jaffrin seemed to buy my excuse. He turned his attention from me to the prophecy before him, putting the papers back into an envelope and shoving it back into his desk. He locked it away tight. A bright orange glow emanated from the drawer. There was no way Shawn and I would ever get into that thing to read the translation for ourselves.

  “You should return home,” Jaffrin said. “I can’t imagine it looks good to the Ether Head Circle representatives that you spend so much time here consulting me.”

  My eyes narrowed. “As opposed to Hunters not seeking guidance from their Circle Leader?”

  Jaffrin nodded slowly. “It’s just best. You’re dismissed.”

  I walked out the door without further argument. I hated being in that room with Jaffrin anyway. But as soon as Shawn and I had made it down the hall, I grabbed his hand and used teleportante to bring us to the Prudential Center’s bathrooms.

  Nate met Shawn and I outside of the Prudential Center, his expression unreadable.

  “Come on,” he said, not making eye contact with either of us. “We need to be quick before the twins realize how long you’ve been gone.”

  He led us around the corner and a few blocks down. The oppressive feel of the cianza’s magik fell on top of me like a heavy blanket, warming my blood but in all the wrong ways. My hands burned, already glowing with my fire-elemental magik. I shoved them into my jacket, praying it wouldn’t set on fire.

  “Is it the same as the others?” I asked.

  Nate shook his head but didn’t say a word until we came upon Ben and Rachel another block over.

  Rachel was just about to throw a cedo match onto the torn up, bloody body when we walked around the corner into the alleyway. She froze, looking up at us. “Finally.”

  “This has got to stop,” I said, glancing down at the body. Bile rose in my throat. “Another victim?”

  Ben spun on me. “You think?”

  “Hey, watch it,” Shawn said, a hand up in my defense. “We just got here.”

  “We know,” said Rachel.

  I looked to Ben, eyes narrowed. “What’s going on?”

  “Do you swear you were at Headquarters?” Nate asked.

  “Seriously?” After rescuing me from prison, after all the talks we’d had since then, they still didn’t believe me? “Yes. I was talking to Jaffrin with Shawn. He can vouch for me if you’re that worried about it.”

  Shawn nodded. “We were asking him for a full translation of the prophecy, something we haven’t heard before.”

  “And still didn’t. Not really.” What Jaffrin had given us was vague and I could tell from the way he refused to even let us look at the paper that he’d left something out. Like more information on those “stones” mentioned in the very first line. I’d bet my life that those were responsible for unlocking our magik, much like how a crystal can—and already had—bound both my magik and Shawn’s at some point in our lives.

  Ben stared the two of us down, parts of him warring. I wished I still had telepathy. That I could get into his head and see what the hell was going on. “This is getting out of hand. If he’s here killing so openly like this, we have to tell Jaffrin. He needs to put all of Boston on alert.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from speaking. Something was off, that was what my twisting gut told me. But the logical part of my brain said Ben’s initial reaction the other night was correct: every demon needed to feed off life energy. Giyano was no different.

  Then why go to the trouble of cutting people up like this?

  That’s when I saw it. My stomach roiled and I backed up a step. A tiny birthmark at the corner of the victim’s right eye.

  “Ben,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.

  “What?” he snapped.

  I pointed to the victim’s body. “He is—was—a Cassano witch. Giyano’s hunting witches.”

  Ben turned and e
xamined the body once more, his fingers on the remains of the body’s throat to look for a pulse. “Shit.”

  “We can’t keep this one a secret,” Rachel said. “We shouldn’t have hidden the first victim.”

  Ben nodded slowly but didn’t speak.

  “You can’t,” I said. “They’re going to think it was me.”

  “I don’t know—”

  “Ben, please.”

  His eyes hardened. “Aren’t the Cassano witches technically family to you?” he asked. “Or was it just Drew?”

  The bite of loss stung deep at the sound of Drew’s name. He’d died in Kinder’s attack on Hunter’s Guild three months ago.

  “We could always walk away,” Shawn suggested, his words pouring out slowly. “Let another team find them.”

  “No,” Nate said, rounding on all of us. “Have you all lost your minds? We need to take him back to Fire Circle Headquarters and let Jaffrin call the shots. We can’t keep hiding Giyano’s victims from him.”

  Ben dipped his head and ran a hand through his hair. “Nate’s right. Let’s bring him back to Fire Circle Headquarters. We don’t need to tell them it was Giyano. Let them make their own decisions.”

  “Ben,” Rachel said, eyes wide. “Are you serious? You want to protect him?”

  “No,” he snapped as he spun on his cousin. “But I don’t want to risk Krystin, either. Right now, both Jaffrin and the Ether Head Circle think she and Giyano are working together. We already broke into prison for her.”

  “And look where that got us,” Rachel said. Her gaze immediately fell, then rose to mine. “Krystin, I—”

  “It’s fine,” I said, though it wasn’t at all. “Like you said, let’s take him back. What you do after that, Ben, is up to you.” I walked past my team and touched a hand to the one part of the victim’s arm that wasn’t covered in blood. Then I held my other hand out to my team. “Let’s go.”

  A tsk, tsk sounded and then someone said, “Not so fast.”

  Chapter 11

  BEN

  I spun fast, my Fire Circle knife in my hand and ready to strike Giyano. But it wasn’t him I found.