“Tobe, my man!” I hollered as I walked straight up to the Beast Master. He was feeding pellets to some tiny creatures through a tray in the glass of their box. They looked like half-armadillo, half-moth hybrids.
He looked up at me in surprise. “Harley? What may I do for you on this rather subdued afternoon?”
It’s been a long time, Tobe. I still remembered how it had felt to inhabit his form. I’d almost gotten away with framing him for the gargoyle mess all those months ago. If he really knew who I was, I wondered how he’d react. Would he swipe my head off with those terrible claws of his? Probably not. Tobe was a pussycat. He’d be more likely to offer me some sage pearls of wisdom about reforming my character than decapitate me.
“I was hoping you could help me with a little plant problem,” I replied. Santana and Raffe were flanking me like nervous bodyguards at a political rally.
“Santana, Raffe.” Tobe dipped his head in greeting. “Is everything well with all of you? I hate to pry, but you seem rather agitated.”
“Everything is A-OK. Right, guys?” I glanced at them. My warning was clear. I didn’t know if news had reached the old furball about my breakout. Right now, it didn’t seem worth it to ask. Not with so many blackcoats lurking about.
Santana nodded slowly. “We’ve just got a lot on our plates, that’s all. Too much coffee, too.”
“Caffeine is not good for the body or the soul,” Tobe replied. “Stimulants rarely are.”
“Speak for yourself.” I laughed. “I bet you haven’t needed a sip in all your life. You were probably born stimulated to the max.”
Tobe eyed me strangely. “I suppose I was, in a manner of speaking. Now, back to the matter at hand. What’s this plant problem you require assistance with?”
He held my gaze, his amber eyes reminding me how wise and serene he was. It was a stark contrast to Naima, who had never been calm a day in her short life. His intent stare made me feel suddenly guilty. A sharp jab to the gut. I’d put him through a massive ordeal, even though I’d known he’d eventually get cleared of all the accusations against him. That had been a tough day at the office. My divided mind sometimes liked to remind me of what I’d done to him. Tobe, who’d never harmed a fly, yet people had believed him capable of releasing those gargoyles. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who should have felt guilty about what happened to him that day. Thinking about that, I felt the guilt retreat.
“I was hoping you could give us access to the Devil’s Tongue Triffids,” I replied, doing my best Harley impersonation.
He frowned, rumpling his furry forehead. “Devil’s Tongue Triffids? Why on earth would you need access to those?”
Devil’s Tongue Triffids were a rare species of Purge monster that manifested as gigantic, carnivorous flowers that spat streams of vicious neurotoxin to trap and kill prey. More of the substance drenched their petals to entice prey in and render them immobile so they could be devoured. The neurotoxin was stored in bulbous sacs at either side of their main stem and had to be squeezed out while they were dopey from sleeping gas.
“It’s for a project that Preceptor Bellmore gave us,” Santana interjected before I had time to answer. I was shocked at her willingness to be my accomplice. The fiery girl had hidden depths, especially when it came to protecting Harley. I contemplated the kind of rift I could put between them if I told Harley what I’d heard Santana say about the president catastrophe. Another time, maybe. It didn’t seem like a good idea to divide and conquer right now.
Tobe nodded reluctantly. “Well, I suppose I could—” He stopped mid-sentence as two figures came running through the hallway of the Bestiary, veering off toward us. My heart lurched. What the hell was the real Harley doing here? The crap was about to hit the fan.
Tobe’s eyes narrowed at me. His spidey-senses hadn’t been wrong about something being up.
Harley skidded to a halt, with Wade behind her. “Why weren’t you answering your phones?” she hissed at Santana and Raffe. We were out of sight of the security guards, but we needed to keep a low profile. Hard to do, with two of the same person standing in front of the Beast Master General.
Wade gaped at me, his eyes wide. He shook his head, as if he thought he was seeing double. His mouth only stretched wider as realization started to creep in. He glanced from the real Harley to me, and back again, then back to her again. It was like something out of an old comedy sketch, Wade doing the quadruple-take of comic disbelief. Tobe wasn’t too far off, either.
“How can there be two of you?” The Beast Master ruffled his feathers. “Unless… no… I was hoping you would not go through with it.” His gaze returned to Harley, who’d finally noticed me. Well, there was no use pretending anymore.
Shaking off Harley’s form, I shifted reluctantly back into my old self. Tobe wasn’t going to like this. The moment he saw me, his face morphed into a mask of pure resentment. His eyes darkened as he drew up to his full height. His bestial muscles bulged beneath his fur, his wings shooting out to either side, each feather flashing like a blade. His hands splayed out, revealing the savage claws at the ends of his paws, while his talons clicked on the marble floor like the raptor’s from Jurassic Park. I got the feeling I might face the same end as Samuel L. Jackson in that movie.
He growled, flashing his fangs. “You.”
“Ta-da!” I waggled nervous jazz hands at him. Humor could defuse most situations. This one? Maybe not.
“How dare you come here!” Tobe spat. I’d never seen him so angry. Actually, I’d never seen him angry, period.
“See, the thing is—”
He cut me off. “How dare you hide yourself in front of me? How dare you deceive me? You are arrogant, and make no mistake, you are lucky I do not disembowel you where you stand.”
“So, there’s a chance of that not happening?”
He stood even taller, dwarfing me completely. Oh, crap. This wasn’t going to end well. Tobe was going to kill me before I even got my hands on Katherine. I wasn’t sure which I was more annoyed about. And I was going to make a total mess of the nice marble floor.
Harley stepped between us and put her palms to Tobe’s chest. “Tobe, you need to calm down. He’s not supposed to be walking around like this. I’m sorry he came here, I really am. The security personnel can’t know we’re here, or I’ll get thrown in Purgatory! We got lucky, since they didn’t see me come in. We don’t want to do anything that might make them suspicious.”
He looked at her and instantly calmed. His body relaxed, and his wings folded in. “I apologize for my outburst, Harley. There are certain troubling memories that appear to have gotten the better of me. I didn’t know you had gone through with the act of freeing him; otherwise, I would have been more alert to strange happenings.”
“I know, Tobe. I’m sorry for not telling you. There hasn’t been much time, but please be assured that we were going to,” Harley replied. His paw covered her hand and held it gently.
“I believe you.”
“We portaled into Purgatory and managed to get him out, and we’ve been extra careful to cover our tracks. He’s not supposed to be out, but I guess he doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation.” Harley shot me a cold look. “It’s the only way we can get Katherine before she completes the third ritual. I know it looks reckless, but it’s our only choice.”
Tobe sighed. “I understand, Harley. I just wish such a grave task did not have to fall upon such young shoulders, and I wish you did not have to put yourself in such danger to achieve it.”
“Me, too.” She smiled up at him. Did she take conflict de-escalation classes or something?
“I’ll call Astrid, get her to fix the cameras,” Santana said. She plucked out her phone and dialed a number, wandering off behind one of the glass boxes. I hadn’t realized my little outing would cause this much hassle. Believe it or not, I hadn’t intended it to.
Harley turned to me. “You need to shift into someone else, pronto.”
I shrugged. “F
ine by me.” I gathered my Chaos energy into my center and shifted into the only person I could think of. He wasn’t here, so I doubted he’d mind. Plus, being surrounded by the Muppet Babies had made me nostalgic for my younger days. A more teenage body would do just nicely.
“Seriously?” Harley arched a disapproving eyebrow at me.
“No good?” I’d picked Jacob, just for kicks.
She sighed. “It’ll have to do.”
“For what it’s worth, Tobe, I’m sorry for getting you arrested. It sounds mega cliché, but I’m not that guy anymore. I don’t expect you to believe me, but… let’s let bygones be bygones, eh?” I flashed a grin. I was aiming for charming.
“I do not know that I can forgive what you did, but—” Before he could finish his sentence, the lights went out in the Bestiary. Emergency bulbs glowed dimly in the blackness, and I heard creatures throwing themselves against their glass enclosures. The thuds were ominous, like approaching footsteps in a dark alley.
“What the hell?” Harley muttered, her figure a silhouette.
“Something weird is going on for sure.” I scanned our surroundings. Overhead, electricity crackled, and temporary flashes lit up the Bestiary for a second before plunging it back into darkness. It was as if someone were lighting matches and blowing them out again.
Every crackle was followed by the snap of charmed locks. The glass boxes were being opened. One by one. I realized I was holding my breath. I’d seen this happen before. This was the work of a very powerful Electro. And she was trying to take down the Bestiary.
I only knew of one such Electro: Thessaly Crux.
Twelve
Harley
“What’s going on?” I yelled, grabbing Finch’s arm in the darkness. It seemed too coincidental that this had happened while Finch was out exploring. Panic bristled through my chest. This couldn’t be happening.
“An Electro. It’s got to be Tess,” he replied.
“Did you say an Electro?” Tobe’s voice echoed softly.
“Nothing else could cause this.” Finch sounded certain, but I couldn’t see enough of his face to be sure.
“If it’s that one from Marie Laveau’s garden, I’m going to wring her neck!” I snapped. This was happening too quickly. If the Bestiary fell… The Bestiary can’t fall. I won’t let it.
“Krieger and I installed a backup security panel after the unfortunate incident with Quetzi. Come with me.” Tobe’s paw grasped at my wrist and dragged me after him, with Finch following close behind, his hand around my other arm. Together, we sprinted through the gloom and headed toward one of the far walls. As he’d promised, a metal panel had been fixed into the façade. Tobe wrenched it open with his beast strength and pulled down hard on a big red lever.
“Guys, keep the beasts in their boxes!” I yelled to the others. Security personnel should have been fumbling around in the darkness, but I couldn’t see them, and I definitely couldn’t hear them. The Bestiary had fallen into an eerie silence. Something bad had already happened to them, I just knew it. All I could hear were the terrifying clinks of the charmed locks as they dropped off, failing thanks to the glitching atrium, and the creak of the glass doors as they swung open.
A second later, I saw a ball of fire light up as Wade went running to slam any of the opening boxes shut. The others were doing the same, with Santana’s Orishas flying around her, casting a glow on what was going on. We couldn’t have these beasts on the loose, not again. There was a horrible irony in the fact that this was happening while Finch was in the Bestiary.
“What can we do?” I asked as we reached a panel. I was breathless with fear. I’d seen enough when Jacob almost cracked the interdimensional bubble to know that this would be a freaking catastrophe if the Bestiary failed.
“Flip those switches as quickly as you can,” Tobe replied.
Creating a tiny ball of fire in my palms, I lifted the light so Finch could maneuver the switches. Everything in this panel was magically connected to the central stem, the very core and battery of the Bestiary. If that stayed cut off, then we were all doomed.
“Finch, flip the switches!” My heart clenched with anxiety. If Thessaly Crux was in here, then she would likely be on the prowl for anyone who might stop her or try to arrest her.
“Yes, ma’am.” Finch stepped up and pressed all the power switches, using the light from my fireball to see by. Meanwhile, Tobe was yanking down all ten levers on the massive panel as if there was no tomorrow, which there might not be if we didn’t get everything up and running ASAP.
Nothing seemed to be working. The switches had been flipped, the levers had been yanked, and still the Bestiary was steeped in darkness.
“Is she in here with us?” I whispered, my hands shaking.
Finch shook his head. “I doubt it. She’s a smart one. She won’t get any closer than she needs to. She’s nearby, maybe just outside the coven. My guess is, she’s touching the central stem with a Gemini device.”
“A who-said-what-now?”
He sighed. “They really don’t teach you anything here, do they? Magical contraption. Two devices, actually. They’re rare and illegal, naturally. One must be connected to the central stem; the other will be in her hands. I’ve seen them used before.”
“How did someone find their way into the Bestiary to fit the counterpart device?” Tobe asked, yanking down his last lever.
Finch shrugged. “She must’ve found a way to sneak it into the coven to attach it. Robotics, maybe? I know she has a tech guy. Trouble is, there are no cameras directly pointing at the stem, right?”
Tobe shook his head. “The radiation is much too powerful. It distorts and corrupts any image that anyone attempts to capture. Although, I did not see anything out of the ordinary via the mirrors angled toward it.”
I looked toward the beautiful central stem of the Bestiary that ran from the ceiling to the floor in the dead center of the room. It contained batteries forged from crystal cylinders and held thousands of wires in neatly wound patterns, running through the entire stem like veins and capillaries, each one sending power across the globe. On that stem, somewhere, was one half of the Gemini device.
“There’s one way we can stop the device,” Finch said.
I glanced at him. “How?”
“We need to flip these switches again, in a certain order. I’ve used a Gemini device before—I know how to overcharge it so it breaks.” He looked panicked, but that nagging doubt in the back of my head wouldn’t shut up. This was all too weird, and way too convenient.
“You want us to power down the Bestiary?” I couldn’t believe I was saying it.
He shook his head. “Not exactly. Look, I know you don’t trust me completely, but if you do as I say, you’ll get autonomy back. Not only that, but you’ll send a pulse back through the other end of the Gemini device that’s powerful enough to fry Tess’s hands. Hopefully it’ll knock her out, but first things first.”
“If you’ve got any part in this, Finch, I swear to God I’ll—”
He grabbed my hands and stared into my eyes. “I know how this looks. Believe me, I do. But if the Bestiary stays down, the whole magical world will collapse into the real world. The interdimensional pockets will spill out.”
I glanced back at the room and saw Wade, Santana, and Raffe sprinting across the Bestiary floor, slamming doors to keep the beasts at bay. Raffe had gone full djinn, rounding up any escapees and hurling them back into their boxes. There was terror on their faces as they came face-to-face with a huge serpent. Between the three of them—Santana, Raffe, and Wade—they wrangled it into submission and slung it back into confinement.
Tobe stepped up behind me. “I do not know why the backups aren’t working. I can only assume there is a device attached to the stem, as Finch has said. I only hope he’s as trustworthy as he attests to being.”
“Come on, Harley.” Finch gripped my hands tighter. Why do I have to make the choice?
“You really think this will
work?”
He nodded. “I really do.”
“Then… we have to do it.”
“Finally!” He looked back at Tobe. “Now, there is no room for error. None. So you’ll have to do exactly what I tell you. To the letter, got it?”
Tobe and I nodded.
“Tobe, you get back on the levers. Harley, you’re on switches.”
I forged a small ball of fire in my right hand and held it close to the panel. “Which ones?”
“Tobe, pull the second lever. As soon as he’s done that, Harley, you need to push the fourth switch in.”
That nagging doubt was getting louder. “How do you know all of this?”
“I’ve seen the panel before. I saw Tobe’s sketches when I was plotting to let the gargoyles go. Katherine wanted me to get them for her, but I was arrested before I could. I’ve still got the memories, though. So I know which switch and lever does what, and I’ve always been good with electronics. This will work.”
My suspicions softened. Maybe his checkered past had finally become useful. After all, he’d had free rein of the coven before he was suspected of being Katherine’s associate.
“Tobe, pull it. Harley, get ready.” Finch cast me a hard look. “It’s now or never.”
I gritted my teeth. “Fine. Tobe, do it.”
I made a vow, there and then—if Finch was playing us, then I would see him punished for foxing us again. He wouldn’t even make it back to Purgatory once I was done with him.
Tobe pulled down hard on the lever, and I flipped the fourth switch. As fast as possible, we made our way through the pattern that Finch gave us until, at last, there was only one switch left. The main switch, the one that would hopefully bring life back to the deadened Bestiary. It was my job to press it, and I’d never been so scared to flip a switch before. To my right, Tobe pulled down the last lever, leaving the rest up to me. Praying that I was right about Finch, I lifted the plastic casing of the last switch and pushed on the yellow bar. It clicked down, and now we had nothing to do but wait.
Harley Merlin 6: Harley Merlin and the Cult of Eris Page 9
