by Jessica Gunn
Ben locked his jaw so loudly, I swore I heard his back molars grinding together. “That’s—”
“Exactly what we feared would happen and already planned for, right?” I asked.
“You’re right.”
He turned and went back to speak to Dacher. I followed him but hung outside of the office door. They spoke quickly and quietly while I cracked my knuckles just to have something to do. Because right now, I felt pretty damn useless. Any one of us could throw out a requirem, but that wouldn’t solve the actual issue. Only a cure to Talon’s poison would do that.
Or dismantling Talon altogether.
“Ava,” Dacher said as he waved me in. “When can we expect the witches?”
I held back the shrug I wanted to give. “Soon. I’m not exactly sure.”
Krystin trailed back into the office too, a confused look on her face as she took in the sight of all of us. “Did I hear right that you’re offering Fire Circle as a sanctuary for more Ember witches?”
Dacher gave her a look. “Temporarily, then shifting to Ether Head Circle Headquarters.”
Krystin shuddered. “Have fun with that.”
“Krystin,” Ben warned.
She arched an eyebrow at him. “You couldn’t pay me enough, and you know that.”
Dacher cleared his throat. “Prepare another room for them. Krystin, see if we can get any of our ether-shapers to fix up a temporary wall again. We’ll—”
A large shimmering cloud in the hallway disrupted Dacher’s words. Eight figures emerged from the teleportante, a magik I was increasingly tired of seeing and using. Mostly because it always seemed to accompany trouble lately.
“Kian,” I called. He’d brought Syd and the other Ember witches with him. “Sorry, Dacher. I thought I had more time to—”
The Ember witches, Sydney included, turned sharply toward the rest of us. So fast their movements barely registered, Sydney pushed Kian out of the way and all eight of the others raised red-orange ether-filled hands and launched an attack. A huge, fiery, hot wave of Ember witch ether soared across the thirty feet between them and those of us in the office.
Syd’s eyes were focused on Ben and Krystin.
I dove out of the way, narrowly missing being hit. But the heat of it singed the ends of my loose hair. Grunts and cries rang out as Ben and Krystin fell, Dacher too, either hit by the magik or having avoided it. My knees scraped against the wood floor and the smell of burning filled my nostrils. I rolled over, watching in time to see a second wave headed right at Ben.
He dodged, rolling away. The wave of Ember ether slammed into one of Dacher’s bookshelves and set several texts on ethereal fire.
“What the hell!” he shouted. For a moment, his lightning hot glare landed on me. “You didn’t say they were traitors!”
“They’re not!” I shouted back. Sydney wasn’t, anyway. She’d helped us. And yet, this wasn’t the same group of people who’d been trying to keep their crazed power to themselves back at Syd’s apartment. These were direct attacks being made.
Sydney herself stepped forward and lifted her other hand. A bolt of ether slid from between her fingers and flew directly at Ben’s head.
“No!” I screamed.
Krystin pushed him out of the way. The bolt hit her in the side, but she didn’t cry out. Maybe—hopefully—it had only grazed her.
“Requirem!” Kian shouted. He’d finally stood again and had pressed his hands to two of the Ember witches. He did it again and again until they’d all had their magik access cut off.
They stood horrified, eyes drawn and mouths hanging open.
Dacher stood, shaking, behind his desk. “Ava, get Krystin to the Infirmary.”
“Sir, I’m fine,” Krystin spat, clutching her arm. Blood seeped out from between her fingers.
“That’s an order,” Dacher continued. “Kian, transfer all of them to Ether Circle Prison. If you don’t know how to get there, find someone on the Command. And Ben.”
Ben let go of Krystin long enough to look at Dacher. “Yes, sir?”
“I think I’ve figured out what’s going on.” Dacher’s words, spat with venom, hurt even me, and I wasn’t their target. But it was clear Dacher had the worst contempt for whoever was. “Get your cousin and your son and bring them here to Headquarters. Then I’m sending you and them to Alzan until this is over.”
Ben’s eyebrows slid together as his face paled. He turned to Krystin, who only shook her head. “Sir?” he asked. “I don’t have Riley this week. I’d have to—”
“Bring his mother too,” Dacher said. “As long as Talon has infected witches running around Boston, none of you are safe if I’m correct. We’ll debrief with everyone in twenty minutes after Krystin is seen to and the witches are contained.”
Then he was gone out the door.
Chapter 13
Not an hour later saw us all gathered inside of a meeting room on another floor. Krystin had been bandaged up and now stood beside Ben. The healers must have had their hands full in the Infirmary thanks to all the Ember witch attacks. Ben wore a dark expression and had his arms crossed, fists balled beneath his elbows. Shawn was next to them, looking worried but not saying a word.
Kian and I didn’t look much different. Whatever leap Dacher had made an hour ago had been enough to send Krystin and Ben into this state. Which, from everything I’d ever heard about them, wasn’t good. Anything that had them scared after what their team had supposedly gone through sent tremors through my hands.
I reached toward Kian for his fingers. He took mine between his and gave my hand a little squeeze but said nothing. Which was fine. The gesture was reassurance enough. I squeezed his fingers back.
Finally, Dacher came through the door with Jeremiah, his second-in-command, on his heels. Jeremiah shut the door behind them.
Dacher paced to the front of the brightly-lit, wooden-walled room, then turned to face all of us. “I think Talon is planning to take on the Neuians.”
My brow furrowed. I peered up at Kian, but he appeared to be just as confused.
Ben, Krystin, and Shawn weren’t, though. Their faces paled, Ben’s especially, leaving behind a sort of blue around his eyes. But no one paid it any mind.
Despite the apparent weight of Dacher’s words, I had no idea what he was talking about.
“No way,” Ben said, bringing one of his fists to his mouth. “There’s no way they’re that stupid after what nearly happened with Lady Azar.”
Darkness’s late heir? Ben’s team had tangled with her for the better part of a year, that much I knew. I’d been in and around Headquarters enough during that time hearing of all the ways they’d nearly destroyed both Headquarters and various other buildings across Boston in their quest to save Ben’s son. We’d all heard the rumors, the rest of us Fire Circle Hunters. His team, and Avery’s and Cassie’s, had become legends.
The petrified look now on Ben’s face was anything but heroic.
Dacher shrugged, but only nearly so. It wasn’t an “I don’t know what to tell you,” uncaring, apathetic shrug. No, it was a tired one. “Why else build an army of volatile, powerful Ember witches? Why else create them from other magik-users?”
“To take on the Hunter Circles?” Kian offered weakly.
“They wouldn’t need to for us,” Krystin said, her voice low. Her eyes were on the floor, but they seemed distant, as though she were still thinking something over. “Every demon has magik. Honestly, if Lady Azar had focused her Shadow Crest on the Fire Circle instead of Alzan, she could have taken us down.”
“And Cinead’s got White Flame,” Kian said.
Darkness’s new heir had control over the royal guard. Had had them in his hands for generations now. Landshaft aside, White Flame was one of the few Darkness groups we didn’t have a lot of information on.
“I thought we had ended all of that at Alzan,” Krystin said, her eyes still far away.
Ben’s eyes narrowed on Dacher. “Karen said a bigger war was co
ming. She offered Rachel and me safety and training—Riley too. Is it possible Talon is reacting to discovering this same information?”
“I thought she was just talking to talk,” Shawn said.
Ben shrugged, shaking his head. “Me too. Guess not.”
“What are you two talking about?” Kian asked, his words nearly a hiss. “Neuians?”
“I’ve never heard of them either,” I said. Or why they were to be as feared as high-ranking members of Darkness.
The three of them gave Dacher a long, weighted look.
Finally, Dacher spoke. “Last year, during the conflict with Lady Azar and the subsequent battle for the Powers’ city of Alzan, we discovered that there is a third, much older civilization. One that proceeds the Entity.”
I inhaled sharply. “What do you mean, ‘proceeds’?”
During our training period, all Hunters were taught that the magikal side of this world had begun with the Entity, a sort of shared consciousness of energy-based beings that had split when Aloysius, creator of demons and Emperor of Darkness, had essentially gotten bored of the status quo. If what Dacher was saying was true… it couldn’t be true. There was nothing older than the Entity. The Split had created everything in existence, or at least gotten the ball rolling.
“We don’t know a whole lot,” Krystin said. “But apparently the Entity was created by the Neuians, a much older race of vaguely human ancestors of ours with powerful magik. They were involved in some epic civil war and created the Entity as a weapon to try to win or end it. Instead, they ended up nearly destroying their entire race in the process.”
“Some sort of reseeding of the human race happened,” Ben continued. “And remnants of the Entity’s power, a being that contained both forms of magik in itself at the same time, were passed down through lines. Like Cianzas, that magik was essentially neutral until forced in either direction.”
“People with the Power,” Kian said, his words slow and awestruck. “I thought that was nothing more than a myth.”
Ben’s face paled slightly more. “Unfortunately not. Kinder, the most wanted Fire Circle criminal, has it. Though people tend to forget that since earth-elemental magik is her power of choice.”
“There is one other,” Dacher said, his eyes narrowing on Ben, but not in an accusatory way. More like… worry. “The Power was created by accident by the Neuians, but Neuian magik is not the same. It’s ether-based and incredibly powerful. Lady Azar was tempting fate by trying to capture the cianza at Alzan.”
I didn’t know much about cianzas. I knew Boston had one, and that cianzas were places of neutral magik, where dark magik from demons and light magik from everyone else were balanced until that balance was lost and the cianza exploded. For this reason, only non-magikal Hunters like Kian were allowed to patrol near Boston Commons, under which Cianza Boston sat. But, like these Neuians, what had happened at Alzan last year had been keep from most of the Fire Circle.
Apparently.
“What does this have to do with Talon?” I asked.
“Those infected witches you just brought to Headquarters went right for Ben and Krystin,” Shawn said. “That wasn’t a normal Ember magik outburst. I know what those look like.” He’d probably experienced it with his own magik as a child. “I think Talon’s creating Ember witches to use their volatile, incredibly strong magik as weapons to fight the Neuians.”
Dacher nodded. “I believe you are right. The Neuians are stronger than even some of the Old One demons. If they’ve awakened because of Lady Azar’s tempting of fate with Cianza Alzan and continue to be a problem, we can only assume war is coming.”
“They may be trying to keep the war balanced,” Ben said. “At least, that’s what I hope. I see no reason why they’d otherwise get involved.”
“Then they must have a seer,” Krystin said. “Because if they’re thinking the balance is out of whack all around, something big must be going down in Darkness’s Empire. Something we don’t know about.”
“There’s a massive power vacuum,” I said. “That’s how Jerrick went from being second-in-command to Lady Azar in Shadow Crest to owning the Trade and Talon.” And therefore, Landshaft too.
“If Talon is training Ember witches as soldiers to fight the Neuians, and if they keep freely threatening Fire Circle Headquarters, then I need to move my son,” Ben said. “He can’t defend himself right now.”
Krystin gave him a grave look. “I can unbind his magik if it comes to that.”
Ben bristled. “Absolutely not. We take him to Alzan, where Areus can keep an eye on him like Dacher said earlier.”
“Unless Alzan becomes a target again,” Shawn said.
“Doubtful,” Dacher said. “Lady Azar only attacked because she had a way there. Even if the protection magiks surrounding the city are down, I don’t think many other demons are foolish enough to follow in her footsteps. Not with you and Krystin having your Alzanian magik unlocked. Unless they have someone else who has the Power, I doubt Talon will be able to get to Alzan.”
“I hope you’re right, Dacher,” Ben said. “I’m not risking Riley falling into enemy hands again.”
I stepped forward, shaking my head. “What I don’t understand is why you’re telling Kian and me all of this. We didn’t even know about the Neuians until just now.”
“Because we’ve decided to keep it quiet,” Dacher said. “Even the Ether Head Circle doesn’t want the truth of them out there yet.”
“It may be time to act,” Krystin said. “If Talon is planning to take on both the Hunter Circles and the Neuians, we’re heading for one hell of a battle.”
Dacher nodded solemnly. “I believe you’re right.”
Kian lifted his head. “Then let’s take the fight to them. If we can take out Talon, maybe even just Mason and Jerrick, then we can stop this program they’re running to poison magik-users into Ember witches.”
Ben shook his head. “That’d be ideal, but—”
“But what?” Kian shot back. “You’re too busy? Your team alone could make a huge dent in a fight with Talon. Add another couple teams of magik-users, and we’d be golden.”
“And if we lose?” Shawn asked. “There’d be no one left to defend Fire Circle Headquarters.”
“They don’t want Headquarters,” I chimed in. “They want us all dead. They don’t need to take the building to do it. All they need to do is tip and explode Cianza Boston.”
“We cannot penetrate Landshaft without a way to combat aura sickness,” Dacher said. And he had a good point. When the weight of too many demonic souls surrounded a human, they died. “That’s the main reason an attempt to take out the Trade has never been successful. As soon as they retreat into the demon city, there is little we can do.”
“It’s what Hydron plans to do.”
Everyone turned to the new voice. Brian stood in the doorway with Max. No one had even noticed they’d opened the door.
Jeremiah raised an eyebrow. He’d been silent this whole time, listening to our conversation. But now he was looking at Brian. “Please enlighten us on how exactly Hydron plans to do that.”
Max met Dacher’s eyes over Jeremiah’s shoulder, but the look was full of guilt. “I should have said something last year when people in the raid on Lady Azar’s lair were having problems. Hydron has a way to combat aura sickness.”
Dacher’s eyes went wide. “Excuse me?”
Ben clenched his fists at his sides, then shoved them behind his back to clasp them. “I knew we shouldn’t have ever trusted Hydron. That’s a key tool the Hunter Circles could have been using.”
Max raised his hands. “I know, Ben. But like you, I’m sworn to certain secrets and procedures.”
Ben shot him one hell of a glare. “Like you said, we could have used that last year.” Then, he added more quietly, “A way to combat aura sickness. You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Look, this is part of the reason Hydron was okay letting me finally come back to Fire Circle Headquart
ers,” Brian said. “They agree Talon needs to be stopped.”
“Oh good.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Wouldn’t want it to be because you wanted to reunite with your teammate.”
Brian lifted his gaze to mine. “I didn’t have a choice, Ava.”
“You did,” I said simply. “And you made it.” If he’d really wanted to get in touch with me, there were ways. The Internet, for one. I would have done the same had I known he was alive. But his cousin and Hydron had clearly had other plans.
Dacher loudly cleared his throat. “No one is going to Landshaft. I’ll speak with Jolene, Leader of the Water Circle, as well as whoever is currently in charge at Hydron. Even with a way to counteract aura sickness, going into the demon city could incite a war if we’re not careful. This is not a direction to take lightly.”
“And Riley?” Ben asked.
There was more to that story. There had to be. My gut clenched watching the look Ben was giving Dacher, like no matter what might happen, his son would be in mortal danger. Why was his son so important to this conflict?
“Honestly?” Dacher asked. “I still want to send both of you and Rachel to Alzan. Your magik, and your heritage, will be discovered.”
My gut twisted. His heritage?
“Wait a second…” Kian said, his eyes narrowed and flitting between Ben and Dacher. “You said you got this hypothesis about Talon warring with the Neuians because the infected magik-users turned on Krystin and Ben. What do they have to do with the Neuians?”
Ben dropped his gaze to the floor for a moment before meeting Kian’s. Suddenly, the blue tinge around his eyes didn’t seem so weird. “I am one. So is Rachel, and Riley too. Although Riley is more powerful than even the Neuians want to admit.”
Something rattled in the back of my mind, a sign, like a tiny, dim yellow orb. Something I should have remembered but couldn’t.
Kian’s jaw locked. “You’re one of them?” He looked to Krystin. “You too? I thought you were a witch.”
“I am,” Krystin said. “It’s a long story, but my magik is now connected to Ben’s. We’re fated, and I’m no longer the witch I used to be. Which is fine. All my magik ever did was screw me over. Ben’s magik saved me.”
