by Jessica Gunn
“It’s not about running, Krystin.”
His serious, dark eyes met mine and froze me in place. So fast, I didn’t see it coming, he reached out and touched his bare hands to mine and held on tight.
Immediately, he pumped his dark, demonic magik into mine, flooding my senses with his cinnamon aura. Only this time, instead of pain or a sense of overbearing evil, I felt… bliss.
My cheeks flushed and though I squeezed my eyes shut against the daylight, my senses exploded. Sounds became louder, clearer. Smells—grass and dirt and snow. Breads from the bakery down the street. The crunch of debris under trucks in the road. The scrape of garbage bins being placed out for the morning.
Giyano chuckled. “There. We’re finally making progress.”
How was this making progress? Oh, my god. Was my body used to his magik now? His magik was elemental. My body physically could not be used to this.
“Shit,” I moaned as his power coursed through my veins and into my heart, warming my chest and making me giggle with the tingles that spread from my fingers to the tips of my toes. An electricity that burned as well as satisfied.
“Before I was turned into a demon,” Giyano said, his words reaching me past a haze of euphoria, “my father and I were archaeologists of sorts. We uncovered a secret in southern England, one that would change the face of the world you and I both know. But we didn’t act on it before he was killed and Lady Azar captured me. She’d turned me into a demon like herself. She doesn’t know what I do, and that’s why I run, Krystin. That’s why I choose to help you. Because you and your Alzanian destiny have the power to change the world. In the wrong hands, your power can be channeled for an evil so great, not even Aloysius can stop it.”
He let go and shoved me away from him. The sudden loss of contact brought with it a blanket of darkness, of despair and desperation to return to Giyano’s hold. I needed his magik, craved that euphoria his magik had given me. A heady sense of power and happiness and passion and strength.
But all that remained was darkness. That was the only thing that ever seemed to remain when all was said and done.
“Are you helping me because you feel bad about losing Ashbel to Lady Azar?” The veins in my wrists were black, tendrils of the inky shadows twisted up my arm.
He shook his head. “I’m helping you before you lose control or hand that control over to the wrong person and get us all killed. Before every plane of existence is wiped from reality.”
Giyano rushed me, holding a hand out, and shouted, “Teleportante.” With a thrust of his palm, I was thrown into the teleportation and landed on the floor of my bedroom in the team’s house with a thud.
The last thought I had before losing consciousness was how he’d been able to send me to my bedroom… if he’d never been there before.
I spent the rest of the morning on the floor, wallowing in self-pity and despair, waiting for Giyano’s magik to wear off. What the hell had that all been about? A traitor in the Fire Circle, someone willing to turn my power evil? Wasn’t that what he was doing?
The better question was: Why did I let him keep doing it?
Because he’s the only one who has answers. And answers were, after all, the only reason I’d stayed in the Fire Circle instead of running away from it all these years. Answers as to why my father had been murdered and by whom—resolved when I’d met Giyano in person. And now…
I closed my eyes again. Too many questions. Too many awful answers.
A knock sounded on my door.
“Who is it?” I asked, my voice verging on a wail. I didn’t want to talk to anyone or have anyone even see me like this.
“Shawn,” he said. “Are we still training?”
What was the damn point? He didn’t have magik. There was no Alzanian power to find. Maybe Jaffrin and his Fire Circle buddies had gotten it wrong.
“Krystin?” Shawn called through the door.
I rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself off of the floor. I caught sight of myself in my full-length mirror. The veins in my wrists remained darkened and my eyes were red and puffy. Like I’d been crying.
Yeah, crying over the withdrawal my body seemed to be having over losing Giyano’s magik. Like an idiot.
I wiped my face with my forearm and forced a smile onto my lips. “Yeah, one second.” I smoothed over my clothes, tugged down the sleeves of my shirt, and tried to make it look like I’d done nothing this morning but sleep. But this walk of shame was a lot longer and more obvious than any I might have done before.
Finally, I stepped over to the door and opened it wide. “Let’s go.”
Shawn stood there, hand lifted as though he were about to knock again. He wore dark jeans today and a dark T-shirt as if he didn’t feel the cold trying to work its way from the winter outside into our house. “Are you okay?”
I smiled up at him, thankful for having practiced in the mirror. “Yeah. Let’s get down to the training room.”
And we did, not talking the entire way. When we’d gotten into the basement, I flicked on the lights before taking a seat on the stack of mats in the corner.
“I don’t know what you want to try today,” I told Shawn as he stood before me. “I’m not sure what will kick your powers into gear.”
He shrugged. “Me either. You said you can feel it there?”
“I mean, yes. Your power… I felt the same inside myself when I was fighting Giyano in Shadow Crest’s lair. It’s warm and feels alive, but it’s dormant, hidden for some reason.” And if it was locked away and nothing we’d tried so far had worked, I didn’t want to tell him that probably nothing would.
Shawn sat before me, crossing his legs. “What about your telepathy?”
My brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“If you found the power that way, in my head… or does it not work like that?”
I wasn’t sure. I’d never used my magik that way before. And most of the time, I felt how powerful people were by their auras, of which Shawn had none. Only non-magik users, normal humans, didn’t have auras. “You want me to read your mind?”
“I guess so.” He grabbed a pair of wooden fighting sticks about twenty-four inches in length and flipped them around his fingers like oversized drumsticks.
At least he could fight. He was a better fighter than most of the magik-users I knew, anyway, who all relied on magik giving them the power to fight Darkness’s demons.
“Are you sure? Most people balk at the idea.”
Shawn nodded. “Yes. Maybe if you try to do it while we’re sparring, it’ll make something click. Like if there’s a wall blocking the power. If that makes sense.”
I stood from the mats. It did make sense. People were easier to read when they were doing something else. Snagging the other pair of fighting sticks, I fell into a stance and waited for Shawn to make the first move. He circled around me, watching every step I took.
“I don’t think so,” I said as I reached out to fake a snap at his right wrist and instead kicked out, hitting the top of my foot into his side.
He grunted but rolled with the hit, surfacing with a barrage of attacks. I blocked them all easily, weaving in and out of range, and tried to break into his mind. But opening up my telepathy power to a single person never worked as well as I planned it to.
Instead of only his mind, I instantly heard Rachel singing song lyrics in the shower and saw Nate’s dreams of kayaking as he slept through the entire day. And then there was Ben, dreaming about throwing footballs with Riley. My heart wrenched at Ben’s dream, knocking me off-balance as Shawn’s strike hit me straight across the shoulder with a hard smack.
I cried out and backed away, breathing heavily. “Hold on. I can’t zero in on just you.”
Shawn moved to strike again, coming in up high. “There’s no waiting in a demon fight. Isn’t that what Ben always says?”
I tossed up a stick to block his and fought hard against the onslaught of thoughts piling in. I hadn’t opened myself up like
this in a long time, and now I’d pay the price. The neighbor next door was compiling a grocery list. I heard someone down the street going over some fantasy conversation about getting back at their ex-boyfriend. So many thoughts and none of them Shawn’s.
I deflected his next two attacks, then came up with a wave of my own, knocking sticks until he missed a block and took one of my attacks to the back of his knee.
The second Shawn crumpled to the floor, holding his knee, a burst of white-hot energy seared into my mind. The pure power, so light and full and unlike any aura I’d ever felt before, blinded me.
I closed my eyes and fell back, knocking my back against the closest wall. “Shit.”
“Do you hear my thoughts?”
No. All I heard was white noise, none of his mind’s words. White noise and power. Good power. “I see your Alzanian magik. It’s definitely there. Just… locked.”
I blinked away the power until all I saw was Shawn on the floor still clutching his knee. His shirt had been knocked askew, revealing a tattoo creeping up from his hip onto his back. One I hadn’t seen before and likely never would have otherwise. His chiseled muscles made it hard to see from this angle with the lights above. I couldn’t make out what the design was beyond something that looked like a fire or wave of water.
“That’s good, then,” Shawn said, tugging down his shirt as he stood. “At least Jaffrin wasn’t wrong about that after all, huh?”
I nodded. “Guess so. Hold on.” I closed my eyes and built up mental walls again, tightly locking up my telepathy behind barriers that’d keep me sane. “I haven’t let my power go like that in over a decade.”
“Is it overwhelming?”
“Yeah. Pretty much.” I pointed to his hip. “What’s your tattoo of? Looked like fire or water or something.” Which was ironic, considering my own tattoo of a snowflake, hidden most of the time by a long pair of jeans.
Shawn froze, then looked down at the spot his shirt now covered. He chuckled once. “Hah, that? That’s, uh, a long story.”
“Sure it is. We all do stupid things when drunk. Let’s hear it.”
He shook his head, shifting his weight from foot to foot nervously. “Nothing like that.”
Then why was he so worried about telling me?
“Then how’d you get it?” I asked. “I mean, if you want to tell me.”
Shawn shrugged, his default response to everything, it seemed. “I was in New Orleans, back before I knew about demons. We took this ghost sighting tour. I’d never go back to the French Quarter now that I know about the demons that lurk there. But I didn’t back then. Anyway, this guy told us a ridiculous story and then my college friends and I all got this fire water tattoo to commemorate it. Stupid, I know. But we weren’t drunk at the time.”
“Fire water,” I repeated. “How… random.”
Something slid to the bottom of my stomach, a concern that something in his story didn’t add up. New Orleans? The French Quarter? That whole area might as well be Landshaft 2.0, if not for the massive Earth Circle presence in the area.
“Yeah,” Shawn said, chuckling again as he ran a hand through his sweaty hair. “That’s why I don’t talk about the tattoo too much. Or let it show. Stupid mistake.”
“Right.”
But as Shawn and I climbed back up to the first level of our team’s townhome, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to the story. And unfortunately for Shawn, my gut instincts were usually right.
Chapter 11
Ben
A shrill alarm broke through the blackness of sleep like a blinding strike of lightning. One moment I was completely out of it and the next, I sat up straight, confused.
What in the hell?
I rubbed the sleep and confusion out of my eyes with the palms of my hands as the alarm went off again. No—not alarm. My phone. Reaching over, I peered down at the caller ID.
Avery. What?
I swiped my thumb across the bottom and answered the call. “Hello?”
“Ben, it’s Avery.”
“What’s wrong?” If Avery was calling me—not Jaffrin, not some admin—then I almost didn’t want to know.
“Nothing,” Avery said. “At least, I don’t think so. But Jaffrin got word Hunter’s Guild has already been rebuilt.”
“What are you talking about? It was just destroyed.”
Something shifted on his end of the call, like he was moving around and had switched ears. “They did it with magik. Because of what the Guild stood for in the war.”
A neutral place, generally the only one mediators from both sides went to in order to speak with each other without worry.
“Okay, so why are you calling me about it?”
“Because Jaffrin doesn’t seem interested in scoping out the place,” Avery said, his voice low.
What the hell? Avery never went behind Jaffrin’s back about anything. He was the epitome of a stuck-up, goody two shoes. Especially when it came to being Head Boy of the Fire Circle. Not that Jaffrin’s treatment of him helped any. It was pretty clear Jaffrin was primping Avery to be a candidate when Jaffrin’s term as Leader was up.
“Again, why call me?” I asked. “Our team just went for a day and a half straight. If it’s not an official mission, I don’t understand what you want.”
“I want to check it out, but I don’t want to take my team and I don’t want to go alone,” Avery said. “Not after the attacks there. It’s too dangerous, which is probably why Jaffrin hasn’t assigned anyone to go.”
“When did he receive this information?”
“Early this morning.”
So sometime after we’d left, then. “Okay. You want me to go with you, then? My whole team, or…?”
“You,” Avery said. “I’m sure we can handle it. But I also wanted another team leader to come just in case we find something. To verify.”
My eyes narrowed. “What exactly are you expecting to find?”
His voice lowered again. “I don’t know. That’s why I’m not going alone. And why I’m asking you to join. Obviously when Kinder attacked the first time, magik-users didn’t stand a chance. So I’m not sure I’d have any luck, either. But it might be interesting to see who flocks to Hunter’s Guild on the first night it’s reopened.”
My stomach roiled. “Are you saying you’re expecting Kinder to attack again? That her aim was to shut down the Guild?” If the attack at Arnie’s was any indication, Kinder was purely after powers and magik. The Guild would have a plethora to choose from, so would Arnie’s bar. If the Guild became a target again, I didn’t want to be there when it was attacked.
“Maybe,” Avery said. “I don’t know. But I’m going tonight to scope out the place. I figured one lone Hunter, maybe two, won’t get noticed. But a whole team of us would.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek. The rational side of me screamed this was a bad idea, but Avery had a point. With the Guild down even for a few days and now reopened, a lot of people might show up. And given the demon and Hunter mix, it might be a good way to glean information about what the other side thought about Kinder’s attacks.
“All right,” I said. “What time?”
“I can meet you outside the Guild in an hour,” Avery said. “Just have to check out of Headquarters for the night.”
“One hour. See you then.”
The call clicked off and I stared down at my phone, weighing the risks and potential rewards of what we were about to do. If anyone from Darkness’s Empire had any information about Kinder’s whereabouts or exact agenda, Avery and I needed to take this risk.
But I wouldn’t send us alone.
I hopped out of bed and threw a hoodie on over my T-shirt before stalking down the hall to Krystin’s room. Her door was still shut, though the sounds of some TV show playing downstairs told me at least someone else was awake. The last few days of constant action had worn us out. I’d slept for almost twelve hours straight myself. Something I haven’t done since college.
; I knocked lightly on her door and shoved my hands into the front pocket of the hoodie as I laid my covered head on the door frame. I was still exhausted. My head buzzed around the fog of sleep, even Avery’s words not enough to wake me up.
Footsteps echoed behind Krystin’s door. The doorknob twisted and she opened the door. “Hey.”
I lifted my head. “Morning. Er, night.”
She looked over her shoulder at her alarm clock. “Damn. Talk about confusing nights and days.”
“I know. I’m all messed up too. Hey, do you have plans tonight?”
Her gaze flashed up to mine, confused. “Um, Ben—”
I closed my eyes. Idiot. “No, not like that. Avery called.” Except part of me did want to ask her for plans like that. It was the same part of me that had liked our kiss a week ago way too much for people who’re supposed to be working on a team together. A team with a hierarchy, albeit a small, not really functioning one.
Her brow furrowed. “Really? I didn’t realize that weasel had our numbers.”
I chuckled. “Weasel?”
“He liked to rat me out when we were younger,” she said. “Whenever I showed up late or got caught at a bar underage.”
“Sounds like Avery.”
“What’d he want?”
“Hunter’s Guild has been rebuilt and is up and running as of tonight, apparently. The glory of modern magik at its best.”
She whistled low. “I can’t believe it’s back already.”
“Me either. And I couldn’t believe Avery had a decent idea for once too. He wants to go tonight and see who shows up now that they’re open again. He’s interested in what information we can find out about what Darkness thinks is going on.”
Krystin looked off to the side, tilting her head. “It’s not a horrible idea.”
“I was wondering if you’d like to go?”
She glanced back at me with a smirk. “And ruin the fun guys’ night out?”
“Ha ha. You wish.”
Shrugging, she said, “Sure. I don’t mind. Besides, I figure the reason you’re asking is because you either don’t trust Avery’s intentions or you want another magik-user with you—just in case.”
