I frowned. “How do your parents know all of this?”
“Various sources. Most of it is firsthand knowledge, or information passed to them through mutual friends. They also read her files, prior to her entry into the New York Coven, and when they had to reassess her after the incident with Hiram,” she explained. “They thought she was a little unstable, but they admired her power, and her intelligence was more than impressive. I guess they took the power over the possible instability. Either that, or New York thought they could tame her.”
“Well, they thought wrong.”
“Oh, undoubtedly.”
There was plenty of overlap between what Tatyana had told me and what I’d read in Isadora’s letter. If my mom knew about Katherine’s obsession, which she likely did, then maybe she’d been trying to come up with spells that could combat her. It certainly explained why there was a large chunk about summoning a Child of Chaos in my parents’ Grimoire.
Is Erebus the key? I didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of summoning him in order to find out, not after what I’d been told about him. If I summoned him, I had to give a life in return. Nope… not doing that.
Katherine had really gone through some tough times. It couldn’t have been easy for anyone to get rebuffed and ousted by their own family. But being sent away for causing trouble wasn’t a good enough reason to kill your entire family and put an evil curse on the man you loved. There were countless serial killers out there who might’ve disagreed with me, but I wasn’t unhinged enough to see things from that kind of perspective. Although, if I break this Suppressor, who knows? I shuddered at the thought.
One thing was for sure—Katherine Shipton was ruled by her emotions. More so than most people. It worried me, given my Empath abilities, and the way my emotions seemed to affect my powers. I’d already experienced what could happen when my emotions got the better of me: sinkholes, training posts reduced to matchsticks, almost killing a room full of people with a chandelier. I didn’t mean to do it, but that didn’t remove the responsibility on my shoulders, or the consequences of those actions. Then again, that already set me apart from Katherine, because she definitely meant to do the things she’d done.
“Are you okay?” Tatyana asked, with unexpected warmth. “If I said too much, please tell me.”
“No, you didn’t say too much. I needed to hear it. It’s just… well, it’s a lot to take in at once.”
“You should see the notes I made, trying to remember everything they said at the Family Gathering. There are pages and pages. Russian is much faster than English, but I think I caught everything they had to say,” she said, smiling.
“Thank you for doing that. I mean it.”
She dipped her head. “It was my pleasure. It’s vital to know one’s history, no matter how bad it may be. That way, we can ensure it does not repeat itself.”
“How’d you get so wise, huh?” I teased.
“It’s the Vasilis way.”
A beep in my pocket took my attention away from Tatyana. A series of similar beeps went off around the room, the rest of the Rag Team looking to their phones. I did the same, seeing Astrid’s name pop up. There was a message attached, with links to a series of news reports of local weather anomalies. It simply read: Think we’ve found Quetzi. Alton knows. He wants us to go to each location—we need to leave now. Meet me in the foyer in five.
“It’s always Alton this, Alton that, Alton said we have to go here,” Garrett muttered.
“Yeah, because he’s our Director, dumbass. What’s your problem?” I barked.
“It’s not my problem, it’s Astrid’s,” he said coldly.
“What are you talking about?”
He pulled a sour face. “All of you, following him like sheep. And she’s just as bad.”
“You got something you want to say?” Wade stepped in.
“You’re all blind, every single one of you.”
“Spit it out, Garrett,” Santana pressed. “You’ve clearly got something on your mind.”
“Look at you all, ganging up on me because I dare to speak a bad word about Alton friggin’ Waterhouse. You all think the sun shines out his ass, when he has no problem keeping secrets from you.”
“What secrets?” I asked.
“Both of them, they’re liars.”
“Who?” Tatyana asked.
“Astrid and Alton. Aw, how cute, they’ve even got the same first letter.”
“Garrett, what the hell are you harping on about? We’ve got places to be, so either say what you clearly want to say, or shut your trap so we can leave,” Santana cut in, clearly irritated that he was getting in the way of us going after Quetzi. I shared her annoyance.
His eyes flashed with anger. “She’s his daughter, you idiots. They’ve been lying to you this whole time. She’s probably been spying on us all for him, feeding back to him all of our private conversations and having a good laugh about it. You ever wonder how he already knows everything, before we’ve even told him? It’s not because she’s his right-hand woman, it’s because she’s his kid.”
I could see the exasperated fury in his stiff shoulders and twisted, half-hurt expression. To be honest, I had no idea what to do with this sudden burst of information. I already had enough swimming around in my head. Still, it was a hell of a shock. The rest of the group were staring at him as though he’d just sprouted another head.
He shrugged. “What? You all deserve to know who you’re dealing with. She isn’t this little innocent, vulnerable thing you all think she is.” Yep, he’s definitely dealing with some issues here. What had they argued about? Whatever it was, it had left its mark on him. His tone was borderline spiteful.
“Look, we don’t have time to talk about this now,” Wade said, breaking the tense silence. “We need to get after Quetzi before he disappears again. I suggest you rein in whatever this anger is about, and try and get your head in the game. If you can’t do that, you should probably stay here.”
Garrett glared at Wade. “I’ll be fine. I’m coming with you.”
“Right, then, let’s go.”
As we ran for the exit of the coven, I wondered if it was true. Could Astrid really be Alton’s daughter? Now that I thought about it in a different light, it did make a lot of sense. Alton’s unwavering reliance on her, for one.
Twenty-Eight
Harley
Daisy skidded to a halt beside one of the locations from Astrid, the engine falling silent as I turned the keys. Wade’s Jeep pulled up a moment later, with an almighty screech of tires. I had Astrid, Tatyana, Raffe, and Jacob—our honorary Rag Team member—in Daisy with me, while Santana, Garrett, Dylan, and Wade were in the Jeep. We all spilled out and sprinted for an expanse of barren wasteland up ahead, on the outskirts of La Jolla.
It didn’t look like much, at first glance. An abandoned parking lot. But the charred bodies that lay sprawled on the dried-out earth made it clear that something awful had happened here. Their limbs were bent at awkward angles, dead eyes looking up or facing the dirt. We edged forward to take a closer look. I glanced at the body of the closest one, shuddering at the sight of the golden emblem embedded in the carbonized flesh. The Apple of Discord—a sure sign this person was part of the Cult of Eris.
“Look for the symbol,” I said to the others. They nodded and picked through the ten figures who’d lost their lives. Yeah, they were evil and deserved punishment for their unpardonable affiliations, but the only person I wanted to see dead on the ground like this was Katherine herself. Everyone else could just rot in Purgatory.
“There’s one here,” Raffe shouted, from the opposite side of the wasteland.
“Another here,” Astrid added.
“Yep, this one too,” Dylan said.
Wade lifted his head. “And this one.”
It took a few more minutes of checking to conclude that they were all part of the Cult of Eris. “They must’ve come looking for Quetzi,” I mused aloud. The others nodded.
; “Looks like he fought back, and then some,” Santana replied. “There’s no mention of a Fire ability in the old stories about him.”
I glanced at her. “What about lightning?”
“Right! Quetzalcoatl is known to manipulate the weather—lightning included. Makes sense, judging by these bodies.” They were charred and smoking, but their veins were doing strange things beneath the clear stretches of skin that could still be seen. Weird patterns had bloomed, fanning out like the branches and leaves of a tree. I’d seen pictures of victims who’d been struck by lightning, and a lot of them had these same, odd patterns all over, where the current had blitzed through them.
“Do you think he’s still here?” Raffe whispered.
As if summoned by the mere mention, the ground around us quivered. It started small, a vague vibration, before gathering strength. A howling wind tore across the dry landscape, the Rag Team bowing against the powerful gale. The vortex dragged in debris, and I shielded my eyes against the dirt and dust. It twisted into a terrifying tornado that powered up from the earth in a swift rush, growing bigger and bigger until it threatened to swallow us whole.
We backed off as best we could, but the winds kept trying to knock us off our feet, buffeting us this way and that until it was impossible to know which direction would lead us to safety. It all happened so suddenly that we had no chance to run back to the cars. I couldn’t even see them through the dusty haze that settled over the wasteland. The miasma was too dense.
Quetzi, what are you doing? We’re not here to hurt you!
I racked my brain for a way out of this as a gust made me stagger back. Astrid and Jacob had already hit the deck, both of them scrabbling around to try and get back on their feet. Tatyana’s eyes were glowing white, her spiritual energy holding her to the earth. Santana seemed to be doing a similar thing with her Orishas, while Dylan and Raffe were leaning so far forward I thought they might tip over. Still, it appeared to be working, their muscle power giving them some leverage against the winds. Wade, meanwhile, had his arm wrapped around his eyes to block out the dust. I was struggling, too; my mouth, nostrils, eyes, ears all filled with scratchy particles that itched like crazy.
An idea sparked in my head, though it was a risky one. Fight fire with fire. How about air with air?
Lifting my palms as best I could, though the gales pummeled against them, I drew on my Chaos energy and let it flow through my veins. It ran, hot and cold, and syrup-thick to the edges of my fingertips. I closed my eyes and forced my thoughts to drift away, leaving nothing but the idea of Air, and what I wanted to use it for. Nomura had told me I had to concentrate, so that’s what I was damn well going to do.
Air spiraled out of my hands, erupting in a burst of powerful wind. My eyes flew open, my nerves on edge at the thought that it might backfire horribly, the way it had done before.
Come on… here goes nothing.
Tensing my muscles, I sent the gust of Air toward the tornado, using it to combat the vortex and divert it away from us. It thundered upward in a shimmering blockade of pure Elemental force, pushing against the tornado and edging it back to a safer distance.
For a split second, I saw something in the center of the vortex—a familiar, reptilian shape. Sweat poured down my face, trickling all the way down my spine. Despite the titanic effort, I was in awe of my own control. My Esprit glowed vibrantly, the darkened diamond practically spitting with energy.
Yes, Merlin! This is the stuff!
The tornado swept forward again, my entire body feeling the push of it against my Air wall. I sent out more and heaved it into the tornado. It jolted backward in a drunken tilt, the top part wobbling violently, like an ice skater about to tumble to the rink. Quetzi was doing this, I had no doubt about that, and the history books were right—he was crazy strong. It was all I could do just to keep the tornado at a safe distance. If I was going to get to Quetzi and stop him, I needed to get into the eye of the storm.
Leaving the others behind, I trudged through the powerful gusts, the dust and sand whipping against my face as I reached the edge of the tornado. Each particle dragged across my skin, a trickle of liquid finding its way into my mouth. From the familiar, metallic taste, I knew it was blood. My blood. Undeterred, I pressed on, sending out another flow of Air to form a bubble around me as I forced my way inside. It wavered and swayed but, miraculously, it held, letting less of the violent tornado get its gusty tentacles on me.
Without warning, the wind died. The roar of the tornado echoed around me as it twisted up and up, but it didn’t touch me. Even without my bubble, everything was weirdly still inside the eye of the storm, my boots firmly on the ground. At the center, Quetzi slithered toward me and rose up to his full height, balancing on the back end of his thick tail. His feathers ruffled as he eyed me closely. He was a serpent, but I could’ve sworn he smiled at me.
“Very impressive,” he said. “But you should know I’m still not going back.”
“You can’t stay out here, Quetzi,” I replied. “You’re already making headlines.”
“Am I? That’s exciting. I haven’t been in the spotlight for years.”
“I mean it. You need to come back with us now. Maybe we can speak to Alton, see if he’ll give you a better place to live.”
“No.”
“That’s it? No?”
“Why waste time on fancy words, when a simple ‘no’ works very well by itself?”
I rolled my eyes. “If you stay out here, Katherine is going to catch up with you. I don’t even want to know what she’s going to do to you when she gets her hands on your scaly ass.”
Quetzi tutted. “I’m one of the most powerful creatures of raw Chaos. Please, show the appropriate level of respect. Besides, as far as I can tell, we serpents don’t have asses.”
“Sorry, it’s just that we’re kind of running out of time here. Judging by the bodies on the ground, she’s got a hell of a lot of people after you.”
“You saw what I did to them, yes?”
“Yes.”
“So, why worry? She’ll keep sending her people, and I’ll keep frying them. Eventually, she’ll get the picture, and I can find myself a nice little part of the world to live out the rest of my days. Everyone wins.”
“And if she comes for you?”
He lashed out his tongue. “Oh, I’m counting on it.”
“You are? Is that what this showy display is for—to entice her here?”
“I don’t whip up these kinds of frenzies for just anyone, although it’s nice to stretch my muscles a bit. Hundreds of years in a box is terrible for the physical body. I already have aches in places I didn’t know existed. Just this morning, I had the awful feeling I’d grown limbs—honestly, I could feel this terrible ache in a leg I don’t even have.”
I couldn’t help but smirk. “What’s your beef with Katherine, anyway? I know why I hate her. Why do you?”
“She’s a vile specimen,” he said simply.
“Come on, there’s got to be more to it than that.”
His scales rattled. “I don’t believe in mortals becoming gods, and that’s what she wants. You think this is a recent occurrence, but it’s not. Even before she did away with your dear old Papi, she had this plan. Katherine has been at it for years.”
“What? How do you know this?”
“She used to come into the Bestiary and talk to her gargoyles about it—about how she planned to become this almighty being and make everyone else pay. She talked of judgment, and a new world order, all ruled over by her and created in the image she’d envisioned. Had she a mirror, she would have asked it if she was the fairest in the land. You, Ms. Merlin, would’ve ended up with a poison apple shoved in your mouth.”
“So, you want to kill her before that can happen.”
He chuckled. “Before she kills me, yes. Even if I were to go back to the coven with you, which is by no means going to happen, she’d find her way to me eventually. Whether it’s today or tomorrow, or a m
onth from now, one of her maggots would weasel in and take me. Here, at least, I’m on even footing. Here, I can fight. The Bestiary box renders me limp and useless.”
“Is that what she wants you for—to kill you?”
“You’re quick.” Sarcasm dripped from his fangs, both of them where they ought to be.
“If that’s the case, why does she want you dead? Seems like a lot of work if she’s just going to end you.”
“A much better question. Smart witch,” he replied. “Katherine requires the sacrifice of an ancient god for the first ritual. Ancient god meaning me. I was worshiped as one, so, technically speaking, I qualify. Not to mention the purest Chaos at my heart—gifted to me as I was Purged from the Princess of Culhuacan, Atotoztli. A woman of exceptional prowess, her power more formidable than any before her. She was said to have birthed the entire Aztec Empire from her womb. So, you see, there aren’t many creatures like me left, with godlike powers. What do you think of that? I’m precious, aren’t I?”
Wow, someone thinks a little too highly of themselves. Then again, he was, like we already knew, worshiped as a god, once upon a time. That clearly made him legit. How the mighty had fallen. Now, more than ever, I could understand how frustrating it must have been, being cooped up in a glass box all these years. Still, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t drag him back there by his tail, if I had to.
“What about the other rituals? Do you know anything about them?”
He flicked his tongue. “Sadly not, or else I’d tell you.”
“Well, shouldn’t you be hiding, too, if Katherine is after you?”
“There’s no point. I thought I explained that already. She will come after me regardless. Hmm, just when I thought you were making progress, you go back to dim-human mode.” He fluffed out his feathers. “Anyway, most of those weather signs that you picked up on were an attempt to throw these pestilent agents off my tail. That failed, and they keep chasing me, in annoying swarms, so I’ve decided to switch to all-out warfare. She can come for me, and I will be ready for her.”
Harley Merlin 4: Harley Merlin and the First Ritual Page 31
