10. Ten

Ten

I plummeted out of the Aether and into my bedroom in Haven. The horrors of Ari’s memory still played in the back of my mind.

Ari was already here, silently watching. Tell them.

He was right. The corruption was dangerous. I was dangerous.

I covered my face with my hands. They saw what I’d done to the druid. I could hurt the ones I loved like Ari had.

I could hurt them.

“We’ve searched the whole city. She’s not here.” Felix’s voice carried from the living room, through the open door.

“She must be in Qaanir.” Cyrus sounded tense, as though he was speaking through clenched teeth. Even through the wall, I could feel the strength of his power. I wasn’t the only one losing control.

“But without Arsyn empowering the well, you could get stuck between worlds,” Skye said.

“I don’t care,” Cyrus said. “I must find her.”

Oh, shit.

“No. Don’t!” I stepped into the living room as Cyrus’s teleportation rune began to glow.

The room fell quiet as the weight of five stares landed on me.

I cleared my throat. “I—I’m here.”

Skye took in my wrist, still healing from the hunter blade. I covered the wound with my other hand.

“Are you all right?” Felix took a step closer but kept his distance. It hurt.

Skye threw his hands up. “Are we all going to keep pretending that Arsyn isn’t acting like a complete lunatic?”

“I lost control.” I couldn’t meet his eyes. “It won’t happen again.”

“Control of what, Enchanter?” Cyrus asked.

Ari’s aura was a comforting presence at my back. Its spicy scent filled my nose as I took a deep breath. He’d shown me his deepest secrets, so that I’d understand the level of shit I was in.

“It’s corruption,” I said.

Cyrus sucked in a breath. Skye’s lips pressed together in a grim line. Quillon’s face was carefully blank—Ari had already told him. Shael and Felix shared a confused look.

Shael shrugged. “Well, how can we get rid of it?”

I didn’t want to tell them the truth. There was no way to get rid of it. It was a permanent curse. A death sentence. Though, based on Cyrus’s expression, I suspected he already knew the answer. “I’m not sure yet.”

Shael broke the circle they’d formed around me, coming within reach. “How can we help you?”

“Well ... er ... there’s one thing that seems to help.” A blush crept up my cheeks. “When I’m around powerful magic, the corruption seems to lessen, especially when I’m touching the source.” I glanced at Cyrus. “Like a sun burning away the darkness.”

Felix tapped his chin and considered me. “So, you’re saying the way we can prevent you from going all Dark Syn mode is by touching you.”

“That’s one way to put it, yes.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so!” Felix jumped forward, wrapping his arms around me, and Shael piled on. Their auras enveloped me, chasing away the chill in my bones. I smiled against Felix’s chest. I’d basically just told them I could snap at any moment, and instead of running, they hugged me.

I should have known to expect the unexpected with this lot.

But even with their powerful magic surrounding me, I could still feel the darkness inside. Waiting.

I caught Cyrus’s gaze over Felix’s shoulder. I’d never seen the man sad, but this was the closest I could imagine. He understood the gravity of my situation. He’d known Ari longer than any of us. He must have known Ari’s price.

“How did you get infected?” Skye asked, studying me like a particularly dangerous specimen.

“Remember when Sebastian bit me?”

“During the siege of Qaanir?” His gaze went to my neck. “I’ll never forget.”

“You’ve been dealing with this for months?” Shael asked as he and Felix finally let me go, but Felix kept an arm around my shoulders, stroking the side of my neck, and Shael held my hand between his. Their magic still filled me.

I crossed my other hand over my stomach to hide my wound.“I thought I could control it on my own.”

Skye raised his eyebrows.“You just killed a man for insulting you.”

I cringed. “I was wrong, okay?”

“What makes you think you can control it now?”

My shoulders climbed to my ears. “Hope?”

“Not good enough.” Skye shook his head. “You’re putting us all in danger.”

Skye looked to Cyrus for backup, but Cyrus was strangely silent.

Felix traced the edge of my ear. “What makes it worse? If we know that, we can avoid your triggers.”

I chewed my lip. “The corruption seems to come out the most when I’m emotional or alone.”

“Great,” Skye said, beginning to pace the length of the living room. “And the unstable loner is the one infected with corruption.”

I glared at Skye. “Takes one to know one.”

“She will never be alone. One of us will be with the Enchanter at all times.” The cold Cyrus I’d come to know and love was back, and bossier than ever. He turned to Skye. “And perhaps it’s time she learned some meditation techniques to control her emotions.”

My mouth fell open. “I tell you anger triggers the corruption and you want me spending more time with Skye?”

“Skye’s right.” Cyrus straightened to his full height. “If emotion plays a part in this, then you need to learn control.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. I thought the worst-case scenario was them leaving me.

I didn’t want to talk about my impending descent into darkness anymore. “So, before the whole ‘druid murder thing,’ I had a thought. Chasing Sebastian when we hear he’s visited a compound won’t work. We need to get ahead of him.”

“How exactly do you propose doing that?” Cyrus crossed his arms. “So far, his targets have seemed random.”

“I’m so glad you asked.” I smiled. “Hunters are self-righteous and stubborn, not stupid. You know what they say, the enemy of my psycho ex-boyfriend is my friend. Or something like that.”

Skye scoffed. “So, you’re saying join forces with the second biggest evil in the worlds to fight the first?”

“Hey! Hunters aren’t all that bad.”

“So far, hunters have attacked us in the streets,” Skye said, counting on his fingers, “attacked us at a festival, nearly killed us in an ambush, and now they’re willingly getting infected with corruption and turning on their own.”

I pressed my lips together. “Touché. But we’re kinda out of options. The only ones that can stand against corrupt hunters are hunters .”

“I’m in.” Quillon reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled a waxy ball that looked suspiciously like the explosives we’d had when we went into the underwater temple in Draqaar. “I’ve found the best alliances are made with enemies.”

Cyrus tapped his fingers on his biceps. “Where should we begin?”

“The Gray family in California. According to Sabrina’s map, their compound still stands. From what I can remember, Max was always level-headed.”

Cyrus sighed. “Sounds like as good a place to start as any.”

I clapped my hands together. Finally. A goal. Something to do. Something to help us gain ground. “Let’s go, then.”

“But we’re not teleporting,” Cyrus said.

“How long a drive is it?” Shael asked, squeezing my hand.

I shrugged. “A couple of days if we stop for the night.”

Shael grinned. “Road trip!”

“Can we hurry this up, please?” I crossed my legs at the ankles and wiggled my hips, trying to appease my aching bladder. We’d been driving all day and Cyrus had been stingy on the bathroom breaks. He hadn’t even stopped when a game of Punch Buggy had devolved into an all-out brawl in the back seat.

“Y-yes. Certainly.” The hotel receptionist’s hands shook as he placed a set of room keys on the counter. He’d gone two shades paler when the six of us had walked in. Luckily, Ari wasn’t with us, or the guy probably would have called the cops immediately.

Cyrus’s resting Aegis Captain face wasn’t helping either. Cyrus picked up the keys as a woman dressed like she was a benchwarmer in the marching band came out of the gilded elevator with a luggage cart.

Quillon pulled a tiny flintlock pistol out of his bag before handing his luggage to the clerk.

Felix slapped his hands to his cheeks. “I didn’t know a gun could be adorable.”

I snorted. “What are we hunting? Gnomes?”

Quillon pressed a button on the side. There was a click, and mechanical whirring as the barrel expanded to the length of my arm. A glass scope spun around and snapped into place atop the rifle.

“It’s a grow-er not a show-er.” Quillon gazed affectionately at it. “That’s what you Earthlings say, right?”

“Something like that,” Felix said.

“Um ... Sir?” The luggage clerk clutched Quillon’s suitcase to her chest and swallowed thickly. “There are no weapons allowed on the premises.”

Quillon scoffed and rested the rifle on his shoulder. “These are my tools.”

“And these are my weapons.” Shael waggled his fingers at the clerk, shooting sparks that Skye snuffed out with a stream of water pulled from the fountain in the foyer. “How am I supposed to leave these in the car?”

Wide-eyed, the clerk shot a look at the receptionist. He reached for the phone, but Quillon raised his free hand and purple threads of his magic shot from his fingers, wrapping around the two employees.

He leaned casually on the counter, his rifle still propped on his shoulder, and gave the receptionist a grin filled with a level of spellbinding charm only a Daevasi king could muster. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding. You see, we’re a team from the Aegis.”

Cyrus grumbled under his breath, but I elbowed him in the ribs, earning a fresh glare from him.

“You know, the peacekeepers and protectors of the realms,” Quillon continued. The two workers gazed at him with gentle smiles on their faces. “Surely allowing us our weapons leaves this ...” Quillon’s gaze drifted over the lobby, decorated in gold and vintage furniture “... grand establishment safer under our protection.”

The receptionist nodded slowly. Purple mana hovered around his head. Felix and Shael piled our luggage onto the cart, and we crowded into the small elevator.

“That was scary,” I said once the doors slid closed.

Quillon inspected his perfectly manicured fingernails. “Humans on Earth are so easily compelled.”

The elevator dinged, and we filed out into the dimly lit hallway.

Cyrus led the way. “I got us two attached rooms.”

“Can we all fit into two rooms?” I wrinkled my nose.

“I assumed you would have Felix and Shael in your bed,” Cyrus said. Something about his tone suggested ... jealousy? Couldn’t be.

I slipped under Cyrus’s arm as he unlocked the door and rushed to the bathroom. I couldn’t help feeling a pang of disappointment when I saw the normal-sized tub. I’d been spoiled with my bathroom in Qaanir. The soap didn’t smell like vanilla or even lavender.

I peed quickly and washed my hands. My eyes caught on the remnants of the cut from yesterday. It had already completely healed.

I dried my hands and squinted at my wrist. Not even a scar remained. That was fast healing, even for a hunter.

When I emerged from the bathroom, only Felix and Shael remained in the room. “What happened to everyone?”

Felix rolled over onto his stomach on the queen bed. “Cyrus said something about the responsible ones going out to get supplies.”

“And we’re the ones left behind?” I crossed my arms and scoffed.

Shael fished a deck of cards from his jacket pocket. “Who wants to play strip poker?” He waggled his eyebrows at me.

I was beginning to understand Cyrus’s reasoning.

Felix perked up. “I’m in. Pup?”

I bit my lip. Fuck it. Why be super mature and resist fun when there was no one around to congratulate you for your courageous sacrifice.

I pointed at Felix. “Two pairs of pants, maximum!”