The Changed: Hunter Circles Series Book Three

by Jessica Gunn

  The entire team turned to our Krystin, who watched the unfolding scene with wide, disbelieving eyes.

  “How?” I asked. “What’s going on?”

  Krystin was shaking her head, her mouth agape. “No. That’s not me. I’ve been here the entire time. With Shawn, like he said.”

  Iris looked down to the person who looked like Krystin. Maybe it was her. Except instead of being bound by Iris and Alexander’s ether abilities, this Krystin had been handcuffed around each wrist and each ankle, all four chains connected by a metal belt at her waist that had been engraved with runes. Magik-zapping runes. The kind that only the Ether Head Circle used because that magik had long been forgotten.

  “Tell them,” Iris said.

  Their Krystin looked up at me, remorse in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Ben. I-I just… Giyano’s magik called to me. I didn’t have a choice. It’s like a siren’s call, all-encompassing. It started on the night we met, with the body down by the Prudential Center. His aura called to mine and then when he marked me…” Her eyes watered, tears filling but not spilling over. “And then Kinder pumped me full of magik, good and evil. After you healed me, after Shawn tried reaching out to our shared magik, only the dark remained.”

  She shifted her wrist, but not far thanks to the handcuffs and chains. It was enough to call attention to the mark on her hand that Giyano had given her months ago, and to the dark veins than ran up one arm, all the way to her neck. The same veins she’d had when we’d fought Kinder near Cianza Boston.

  The same veins that’d disappeared while the other Krystin had been in prison.

  My mind spun, vision blurring. “I…”

  “It’s not me, you idiot,” our Krystin snapped. Except I wasn’t sure which Krystin was which anymore, if the woman Iris had brought before me was the real deal or an elaborate hoax.

  The Krystin next to me sure sounded like the one I’d grown to know.

  “Ben,” Iris’s Krystin said, tears finally spilling. “Please, don’t be fooled by the demon at your side. She’s a shape-shifter Giyano hired. He wanted to trick us all. He’s got a whole flock of demons at his side, ready to take down Lady Azar and rule Shadow Crest.”

  I looked over my shoulder, to the Krystin who’d been at the house the entire time. Even if she was fake, even if the Krystin by Iris’s side was the shape-shifter instead, clearly, the Fire Circle and the twins didn’t think so. Which meant Giyano was behind this either way.

  Unless…

  “Zanka,” I said, staring down the Krystin next to Iris. “It’s you. You’re a shape-shifter.”

  Rachel’s eyes widened. “Oh, crap.”

  “We didn’t see his magik,” Nate said, arming himself with ether that flowed around him, bright and white as sunlight. “It’s all been him.”

  “Explains why Krystin defended Giyano so much,” Rachel added, uncertainty in her tone.

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” I muttered.

  “Fucking idiots,” Krystin hissed. “I told you. But none of you believe me—you never have.”

  “Enough!” Iris bellowed. Alexander straightened beside her, reaching for the knife at his waist. “We’ve already captured Ms. Blackwood. Now we want her double to figure out why you keep attacking innocents. To find out what you hope to accomplish by attacking the Fire Circle like this.”

  Krystin’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not me. I’m not involved in this.”

  The shape-shifter demon cackled. “Such easy prey,” she sang. “Easy prey, easy prey.”

  Alexander drew his knife. “What is your plan to take down the Fire Circle? Kinder’s aura is all over this place.” His eyes wandered from wall to wall. “She was here earlier, plotting with Krystin.”

  “She was here to help me retrieve my son,” I spat at them. “To offer to train him. Which I declined because she’s a traitor and a demon.”

  Krystin’s gaze settled on mine. “What? After all the shit you gave me, you let her offer that?”

  “I didn’t take her up on it,” I snapped. “That’s the difference between us.”

  “That you’re too stupid to take the help you need?”

  The shape-shifter demon laughed again, then stood, puffing out her chest. Pulses of ether shot out of from her. Nate tossed them away with his own block of ether before the twins or Fire Circle police got there. Suddenly, Krystin was moving too, turning toward the kitchen and making a run for it.

  “No!” I shouted. She couldn’t leave, not until we knew what the hell was happening. She hadn’t been responsible for whatever attack they’d come here to accuse her of, but that didn’t clear her name completely.

  Rachel gathered water from around her and lassoed it around Krystin’s middle, tugging her backward to the ground. “Stay, Krystin. We don’t know that—”

  Krystin glared at Rachel. “You too?” The water around Krystin’s waist started to steam, evaporating as flames appeared in Krystin’s hands. “You’re the real traitors here. You’re turning on your friends. Shawn and I haven’t done anything!”

  Krystin broke free of Rachel’s hold and swung her hand out. But instead of fire, a whoosh of air knocked Rachel out of the way. Krystin’s other magik.

  “Shawn, let’s go!” Krystin said.

  Shawn looked between me and her, expression unsure.

  Ether enveloped the whole room, turning it into a vacuum with little air. My throat seized and I blinked, watching as Iris and Alexander shot ether-cuffs out at Krystin. The shape-shifter demon rolled on the ground, laughing as her form changed from Krystin to just another faceless demon with burgundy eyes.

  The Fire Circle police jumped on the demon, holding her to the ground as the twins tightened their hold on the ether that’d enveloped the entire room. Nate squinted and the space around my head and neck seemed to open up.

  “Go, Ben,” Nate said.

  But if Nate could barely counteract the twins’ magik, there was no way I was leaving the rest of my team to whatever punishment awaited us.

  Heat swamped the room, heavier than the ether, and suddenly, a massive fireball coursed the length of the space, headed right for the Ether Circle twins. Krystin’s hands were still bound, but the firestorm raged from her entire body, a bright white flame that soared at Krystin’s will. She hadn’t even needed to direct it with her hands like Giyano or Kinder had.

  And the whiteness of it… Is that temperature or the power of Alzan leaking through?

  Shawn jumped, pushing the ether around him away with his own orange ether. He wrapped an orange ether shield around Krystin, holding her still. Her eyes narrowed on him, but he held fast.

  “Stop,” he said to her. “Just take a minute.”

  “There’s no time. If we don’t leave now—”

  Iris surged forward. “Asanak!” An ether whip emerged in her hand, aiming for half of my team.

  “No!” Nate called, sliding a block of his ether through the room.

  Lightning rammed against my fingers and arms, begging to come out, but the oppressive amount of ether in this room, the sheer amount of power, pushed against the four walls of our house, like a magik force shield was holding it all in, forcing a pressure-cooker situation that would soon hit critical mass.

  Would it take the whole neighborhood with it?

  Shawn twisted his way in front of Krystin, taking the brunt of the attack. He cried out as the whip landed across his chest. His orange either shield around her dropped, his magik gone. And, judging by Lady Azar still not having her magik back after three months, Shawn’s would be absent for a good long while.

  “No!” Krystin cried, a wild look of fierceness and rage encompassing her face. She glared at Iris and Alexander, the flames whipping around her in a wild, bright blue haze. The hottest fire I’d ever seen her produce. “Enough of this bullshit!”

  Krystin dove for the twins and Fire Circle police with her arms out, her blue flames coursing ahead of her.

  “Krystin, don’t!” I shouted.

  Sh
e stopped, blinking, but the blazes continued. She waved her hands around, trying to rope them in, but they flew on. Rachel summoned water, overcoming the blanket of ether rendering me useless, but her wave didn’t reach the twins in time.

  Krystin’s magik wrapped around their bodies, swarming like a supernova of white and blue and orange, swallowing their cries of pain. Krystin kept motioning as if to stomp out the fire, but nothing came of it.

  Shawn launched up and slapped a hand against her back. “Requirem!”

  The blaze died out as soon as Shawn spoke the word-magik, the only kind he could still work. Krystin dropped to the ground, her body shaking. “I didn’t… I couldn’t stop it…”

  It didn’t matter. The twins had fallen to the ground, their bodies burnt and smoking. They were dead.

  My stomach dropped, my mouth dry. What the hell just happened?

  “Freeze!” a Fire Circle police officer said, even as real sirens sounded in the distance.

  Maybe they hadn’t blocked off the whole street. Maybe everyone outside of this house had heard the attack, seen Krystin’s flames, or smelled the fire burning our living room floor where the twins had once stood. Maybe they’d heard their cries for help.

  Shawn maneuvered Krystin into a standing position, though he still stood between her and the Fire Circle police officers.

  “Everyone needs to back up for a second,” I said, finally able to breathe again. With the twins gone… dead… their oppressive ether had gone with them. “Krystin can’t control her magik. She hasn’t been able to since—”

  “You’re all under arrest for aiding and abetting, and you can count on two more murder charges being added to your warrant, Ms. Blackwood,” the officer said. “This insanity ends now. Jaffrin will be the judge.”

  Nate and Rachel appeared at my side. Nate said, “You’re not taking us. That attack was unwarranted. You barged in and assumed Krystin was at fault. Did you even check to make sure that demon wasn’t a shape-shifter?”

  The demon in question laughed again, still rolling around on the floor, seemingly entertaining itself. “No checking. No one ever checks. He was right all along.”

  They’d just assumed Krystin was to blame, as if there couldn’t possibly be another answer after Giyano’s return. Are you kidding me?

  But I’d also thought the same. Shame washed over me as though I’d put on a wet, lukewarm shirt from the wash.

  “I’m not going with you,” Krystin growled from Shawn’s arms. “You people are insane. You caused this. Kinder was right.”

  My eyes narrowed. “No, Krystin.”

  Her fists started to glow red, as if the requirem had already worn off.

  “Shawn!” I called, but Krystin shoved him away in the next second.

  “I’m sorry, Shawn,” she said as she backed away.

  Rachel and Nate gathered their magik, reached out with them to try to capture Krystin. My lightning grew in my hands, turning into ropes the way Giyano had used fire as cables.

  “I can’t wait for this situation to end to escape,” Krystin continued. “Alzan is more important than this feud.”

  “Krystin, wait!” Shawn shouted as Nate and Rachel set their magik loose, lunging across the living room for Krystin. But she disappeared in a teleportante in the next instant. Gone.

  Shawn waved his hands through the space. “No. How? My requirem.”

  “Chase the—”

  But Shawn used teleportante before I’d finished my sentence. I guessed asanak blocked all magik except for the universal word-magiks. Which made sense since even normal humans could use them without having other types of power.

  I ran to the spot where Krystin’s teleportation trail started, feeling it out.

  “Teleportante.” I followed the trail to Hunter’s Guild, where I found Shawn pacing in the woods.

  “She’s gone,” he said, searching the dark woods. “The trail ends here.”

  My chest heaved as I felt for Krystin’s trail, for any indication of where she’d gone next. “They all do at Hunter’s Guild. Maybe she’s inside?”

  He paused. “Where it’s neutral ground.”

  “Don’t know that it’s neutral enough to keep her safe right now.”

  Shawn took off toward the entrance of Hunter’s Guild. I followed right on his heels, jumping over logs and brush that lay in the way. My lungs seized from the effort, the sprint to the door, the wait as we were let inside.

  Dozens of demons and Hunters and witches were here tonight, all of them stopping to stare as Shawn and I burst through the door. I scanned the crowd as Shawn ran to the back-corner booths that were too hidden by shadows to see from the door. He turned, empty-handed, and shook his head.

  I glanced up the stairs to the second floor to the inn rooms that inhabited the space. “Upstairs.”

  We ran upstairs. Checked each room. Plenty of residents, but none of them Krystin.

  Shawn turned to me with the most terrified, heartbroken expression I’d ever seen—even on my own reflection when Riley had been taken as a baby. “She’s gone, Ben,” he said, his exasperated tone disbelieving. “She’s gone.”

  Chapter 20

  BEN

  No. This wasn’t possible.

  I ran to the railing and scoured the first floor of Hunter’s Guild. Just three months ago, I’d done the same thing, except instead of finding a lively atmosphere filled with people looking up at Shawn and me, I’d seen destruction and dead bodies from Kinder’s attack. “She can’t just be gone. It’s barely been ten minutes.”

  “With a teleportante she could literally be anywhere she’s been before.”

  And since I was starting to realize there was a whole lot about Krystin that we didn’t know, that net of “anywhere” expanded rapidly with every passing second.

  “Hunter’s Guild is the most logical,” I argued. “It’s neutral ground.” This building was one of the few places left where anyone from both sides of this war could come to and be utterly safe. Which was part of the reason Kinder’s attack three months ago had been so disturbing, and why the Hunter’s Circle was still concerned an attack could happen again.

  “It’s supposed to be—doesn’t mean she’ll be safe here,” Shawn said. “Krystin probably stopped to lose her teleportante trail and then kept moving. The protection magiks would have erased it. She probably didn’t even need to come inside.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek as my fingers wrung the railing. Where are you, Krystin?

  Two sides of me warred. Part of me wanted to protect her from whatever the Fire and Ether Circles were about to do to her. But the other half, the one that held grudges as long as the sun burned in space, didn’t give a fuck.

  No. That wasn’t true. But admitting I did care meant admitting that part of this had been my fault. I’d trusted Krystin when, even from day one of her being on this team, it was obvious she had more going on with demons than hunting them. That Giyano had singled her out so quickly back then only supported that gut feeling. I’d trusted Krystin and then let my guard down. And in doing so, I’d allowed her to be used by everyone else. I’d stopped protecting her instead of getting to the bottom of it all. And now I’d never know the truth.

  “Where else would she have gone?”

  Shawn shook his head. “I have no idea.”

  “What was she talking about, your plan?”

  His gaze fell. “We had discussed leaving the Fire Circle, but not before making sure you and Rachel and Nate wouldn’t suffer any consequences because of it.”

  I turned to him. “Leave the whole Circle? Why?”

  “Because of exactly this type of situation.” His eyes hardened, focusing on a point somewhere in the distance. “Jaffrin never trusted Krystin—that’s why she wasn’t put on a team for so long. And from what I understand, Jaffrin only assigned her to you because of the Lady Azar and Shadow Crest situation. Krystin’s magik—and mine—are too dangerous to have around Cianza Boston. But something made him want to ri
sk tilting the balance of it. And with the Ether Head Circle having their heads up their collective asses, with no one understanding this war isn’t anywhere near as black and white as they want it to be, Krystin’s in more danger from the Hunter Circles than she ever was from Darkness.”

  My breath hitched, an angry confusion bubbling inside me. “Are you kidding me? Kinder wanted her dead.”

  He shook his head. “No, she didn’t. Kinder understands the need to save Alzan, just like Giyano. But Krystin’s a Fire Circle Hunter, something Kinder can’t forgive. Like Giyano, they were both out to toy with her, with us. And now…”

  “Now you and Krystin are separated.”

  “For the moment.”

  “What if that moment lasts for too long?”

  He shrugged, jaw muscles clenching. “Then she’ll remain hidden and Alzan will fall. If we can’t find her, if she stays hidden, it’s over. All of it.”

  I rubbed my eyes, as if that’d clear up the situation. It didn’t. This was my fault. I should have trusted that she’d never side with Giyano if his intentions were evil, that Krystin had had things handled. But Giyano had kidnapped Riley. He’d handed him over to Lady Azar twice, knowing full well what her plans for my son were. He’d killed Krystin’s own father.

  Unless Krystin had been right about that too, and it’d been Zanka this entire time. Just another person who hated Giyano as much as we did.

  Krystin was my teammate. My right hand. How had this gone so bad so fast?

  “This is my fault,” I whispered.

  Shawn glanced over at me. “Not all of it. As team leader, you’re subject to believe things Jaffrin tells you. He’s in charge, after all. He’s supposed to be someone we can all trust and look up to.”

  “I might be a leader, but I’m not a puppet.” I haven’t trusted Jaffrin since we discovered he’d withheld information about Giyano, specifically that he’d been involved in each of our lives at some point. “I should have listened to Krystin. Believed her.”

  “There’s no point to worrying about that anymore.” Shawn pushed off the railing and nodded toward the front door to Hunter’s Guild. “I have an idea of who might be able to help us find Krystin.”