My mom tilted her head up to chase away fresh tears. “Tobe tried to deny the requests, but he got overruled.”
“So, you’re saying he might not have been totally contained?” Shivers pinpricked my spine.
“It’s a logical conclusion.” My dad sounded bitter. “I don’t know how he sends his mind out, or whatever it is that he does, but he’s found a way around the enclosure. At least on a psychological level.”
My mom nodded morosely. “And Tobe suspects that Leviathan has been experimenting with thawing and refreezing his enclosure, due to some discrepancies with the frost on the box that he’s noticed in Leviathan’s hall. Although he can’t say for certain. He’s never actually been able to catch him in the act. And that monster is crafty, to say the least.”
Leviathan isn’t confined to the Bestiary anymore. Physically, he remained in his box, but he’d discovered ways of getting into mischief without his body. I’d heard him in my head, for Pete’s sake. And the very idea that he could thaw himself left me, ironically, cold. I had to comfort myself with the thought that the box still held him fast. If it didn’t, he’d have been out here right now, enjoying the party and his stupid gift firsthand.
“Why didn’t you kill him? You said you fought him, and since you’re standing here now, I’m guessing you won.” I directed the blunt question at my mom. “If you were so worried about him getting to me, why didn’t you get rid of the problem?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that simple. The deal is hereditary. Echidna asked him to make the deal happen, and he obeyed. But it wouldn’t stop there. Basically, history would repeat itself. If he died, he’d pass it to another ancient monster who’d see it through. And so on. There’s no escaping it. I couldn’t kill him when we battled, and it wouldn’t change anything if I did now.”
No escape. The words buzzed in my head like furious bees. If that were true, then no amount of distance that I put between myself and the SDC would matter. I narrowed my gaze at my mother and she held it sorrowfully.
“That’s why you didn’t want me to go to another coven. You knew it wouldn’t make a difference, didn’t you?” Frustration leaked into my voice.
My mom sighed under the weight of so many heavy truths hitting her at once. “From the moment I made that deal with Echidna, our fates were sealed. Neither of us can get away from it, but I can keep you safe. I can help you fight Leviathan, once he reveals what he wants from you.”
Which is what, exactly? He hadn’t informed me of any extra details, either.
I swirled flat peach fizz around in a glass and stared at the blush liquid. “That’s the part I really don’t get. I understand that you probably thought you could stop this, like you stopped Katherine and Davin. You misjudged him. Fine. But I don’t understand why Leviathan would give me a Purge as a gift. How does that fit into his plan?”
“I don’t know.” My mom hung her head. “I don’t know why. I don’t know if it’ll happen again. And I don’t know what his plan is. But this is why I don’t want you to leave, Persie. This is why I want you near, so I can help you through whatever comes next.”
My dad nodded enthusiastically. “We’ll confront Leviathan. We’ll fix everything, once and for all. We’ll make sure you’re safe—that’s all we’ve ever wanted.”
A switch flipped inside me. “If that’s all you’ve ever wanted, then you should’ve told me the truth. Do you have any idea how it feels, to know you weren’t even named by your parents? To know that you’ve had some monster’s prints all over you from the day you were born? To know that the name you were proud of is actually a curse?” My body vibrated with rage that I couldn’t control. Someone had shaken up all my fizz, and now I was about ready to explode. “I asked you so many times if you were telling me everything. You lied. And I took the hit for it.”
“Persie, I’m sorry. I know you’re angry, but if you’d just calm—” I cut my mom off before she could finish.
“How can I calm down when I just heard that monster’s voice in my head? How can I calm down when I know he’s got some plan for me? How can I calm down when I don’t even know who I am anymore? You left so much out—so much!” My heart rattled at a sprint. “I gave you chance after chance to come clean, and you didn’t take any of them. Call it lying by omission, call it bending the truth, call it what you want, but it’s still a lie. One that’s shaped my entire life! And I… I honestly don’t know how this can be made right again. So no, you won’t clear this all up for me. I’ll clear it up my damn self. I’ll talk to Leviathan. Maybe he’ll fill in the blanks, since you two find honesty so freaking impossible!”
“Remember what was at stake.” My dad’s voice cracked. “If your mom didn’t agree to Echidna’s demand, we wouldn’t have been able to beat Katherine.”
I scraped back the chair and got up, aware of their eyes on me. Looking at Genie, I saw a supportive smile and gave her a subtle nod in return. I was done. The aftershock would get me later. People would talk about this party for months, but I figured they’d make up their own minds about what happened here. But they didn’t have to take it home with them, and they weren’t feeling all the feelings that collided inside me: sadness, confusion, hurt, and fury.
Genie hurried over at my signal, already one step ahead. I needed a magical to get me out of here. She strode at my side, making me feel less awkward and alone just by being there.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
“I will be. Please, get me out of here. Not to the SDC—anywhere but there.”
She nodded. “Can do.”
Genie hadn’t yet uttered the spell to get us away from this nightmare when something gripped my waist and wrenched me backward. For a split second, terror gripped just as hard. Had Leviathan come back to claim me for his grand, unknown plan? No. The lasso of Telekinesis dragged me to the edge of the long table, where my mom now stood, visibly shaking. Her palms were up.
I wrestled past the lump that balled up in my throat, dumbfounded. “You said you’d never use magic to control me.”
My mom dropped the Telekinesis faster than you could say “major betrayal.”
“I’m sorry, but you can’t wander off like this. It’s not—”
I cut her off. “If you say it’s not safe one more time, I’m going to lose what’s left of my mind! You swore you’d never use Chaos against me. I guess that’s just another thing you lied about.”
My mom clasped her hands together like she was praying. “Persie, forgive me. Instinct kicked in. Leviathan isn’t done, and you can’t face him alone.” She looked desperately at me. “Please, Persie.”
I had no idea what to do with my hands, except ball them into fists. “There’s nothing you can say that will change my mind. There’s nothing anyone can say. You got me into this mess, and I’m going to get myself out of it. So, either help me or stay out of my way. That’s the only choice you’ve got to make here. But if you touch me with magic like that again, don’t expect a choice in the matter.”
My dad walked slowly to my mom’s side.
Oh, here it comes. More of the same. I braced for the broken record, all the while fending off hot tears that threatened to spill. I just wanted this day to be over. Happy eighteenth, eh?
“She’s right, Harley,” my dad said quietly. “We can’t put this off anymore. Leviathan already came to her, and nothing stopped him. Not this bubble, not the hexes you and Melody used. Nothing. It’s time for her to go to him. You should take her.”
My mom sagged in his arms, melting into a weeping puddle. “But what if he hurts her?”
She cared. I knew she cared. That’s where all of this came from, when it boiled down to it. And I cared that she was so upset, but my head was so full of insanity and hydra and Leviathan and Purging that I didn’t know what to do or say to make any of it better. How could I try and comfort her when I couldn’t even comfort myself? And I knew that any words that came off my tongue right now would be laced with a venom I didn’
t mean.
“You’ll be there to stop him. Hexes might not have worked, but you’re still you. You controlled him before. If he acts out, you can do it again,” my dad reassured her.
She controlled him before? That was news to me, but so was a lot of what I’d heard today. She’d said that they fought, but I guessed I’d misinterpreted how the battle had played out. She evidently won with her beast control rather than brute force.
My mom steadied herself again and stood tall. Heaving in a shaky breath, she nodded. “Okay.”
“What?” I had to be sure I’d understood her.
“Your dad’s right.” She hiccupped pitifully. “It’s time.”
Ten
Persie
After the fake, starry night of the riverside, seeing daylight had the same jarring effect as emerging from a movie theatre. The Bestiary basked in the late afternoon amber that shone through the dome overhead, but the sun’s touch refused to warm me. Instead, a numbing cold coursed the tributaries where my blood should’ve been, and my forearms prickled with goosebumps.
There is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men. Herman Melville’s words had never rung truer. Leviathan had caused this mess, but my parents had exacerbated it with their lies and omissions. They’d been so focused on protecting me they’d failed to see that, without all the details, I wouldn’t be able to protect myself.
Now I’m finally getting the chance to put my money where my mouth is. Moving through the glinting glass boxes under the curious eyes of countless creatures, we headed for Leviathan’s hall: my parents, Tobe, and me. Genie had asked if she could come along, but the request had been vetoed.
“Are you sure of this?” Tobe asked, his talons clicking on the marble floor, threads of silver and gold forking through the grayish-white material.
Is he talking to me? The eerie presence of the other beasts made it impossible to concentrate. They’d fallen unnervingly quiet, staring as I passed by. Not even the gargoyles neared the glass. Maybe they knew I’d had enough of a fright today to last a lifetime. Or, maybe they knew that something far scarier awaited me.
“Yes,” my mom answered. “We have to deal with this now, before it gets any worse.”
I Purged a hydra! Does it get worse? Who was I kidding? Of course it could get worse. We all knew it.
“You do not sound certain, Harley.” Tobe paused in front of familiar doors.
I stepped forward, trying to copy my mom’s chin-up trait. “Well, I am.”
Aren’t I? The simplest solution tended to be the best one, but speaking directly to Leviathan no longer seemed like the simplest or best solution. Nope, it seemed like the most nerve-wracking thing I’d ever done in my life. And I wished Genie could’ve been here, to lend me some of her courage.
“Very well, Miss Persie.” Tobe dipped his head and opened the door with an elegant flourish. “Rest assured, I will not leave your side. You will not be alone in this, I swear to you.”
“Thanks.” I swallowed hard. My throat twisted so tight that sucking in a breath felt like a mammoth challenge.
The cold dropped to Baltic conditions the moment I put a foot inside that hall—atmospherically and internally. About the same temperature as the frost between my mom and me, which showed no sign of thawing. Although, in fairness, she did look sorry. No, sorry was way off the mark. She looked as though she were single-handedly walking me to the gallows, all shaky and grim.
“I’ll be with you too.” My mom walked level with me to the enclosure at the far side of the gloomy hall. A few anemic lamps tried their best to cast some muted light on the situation, but the darkness gobbled it up.
“Even if you don’t like it?” My tone softened, the walk over providing an antidote to the venom that’d been on my tongue. No matter how upset I might’ve been about the secrecy, I was glad to have my parents here. The cavalry, in case anything went wrong.
She gave a strained smile. “Exactly.”
I stopped a few yards shy of the enclosure. Fresh, frosty plumes spread out across the glass interior, as if someone were breathing against it, watching us from the shadows within. Dread turned my feet heavy.
Spots of stinging cold burned sharply at the nape of my neck and tingled out across my back, like someone trailing unwanted fingertips up my spine. No, more like someone was sneaking up behind me to whisper something deadly in my ear. Or worse. More patches of goosebumps shivered over my skin, white hot and freezing cold at the same time. An allergy to the beast in the box.
The frost melted away from the glass, revealing wall-to-wall smoke so dark and thick you wouldn’t have known there was glass at all. A huge cube of light-swallowing black. I stumbled back in shock, caught by my dad’s hands. Two seconds ago, I would’ve tried to push him away. But a lot could change in two seconds.
“You have come.” A grim laugh muffled its way through the fog. And the voice echoed strangely, deep and resonant, and seemingly all around me at once.
Tobe slammed a hefty paw into the glass in a way that would definitely get a person kicked out of an Aquarium. “I knew you were thawing yourself, Leviathan! I would chastise you for it, but I know it would do little good. I have suspected for some time.”
“Yet you never thought to ask?” The grim laugh turned smug. “A useful trick. If you want to chastise anyone, it ought to be those who came to take samples of my being. Samples that did not belong to them.”
“I had no choice,” Tobe said bitterly. “Nevertheless, you will behave now.”
The smoke unfurled, and I saw Leviathan for the first time. He became more than the voice in my head, and more than the hushed-up mystery that had covertly chased me through the years. The name that made every adult in the SDC tight-lipped and nervous. The beast himself.
A twisted demon, swaying on the teal rope of a coiled serpent tail. Where I had sun-starved, freckled skin, he had a patchwork of scales and armored plates, brushed with an oceanic palette that I’d used a few times in my dream sketchbooks. Cerulean, cobalt, cyan, sapphire and ultramarine—all of the striking blues, nothing powdery or pale—blending into glinting iridescent patches of skin and scale. It looked pure black, but when the light hit, tones of emerald and olive green showed through faintly. And there were several transparent sections—a pearlescent membrane of some sort—with blue lights and organs pulsing inside. His whole terrifying form had a mesmerizing quality that made it impossible to look away.
He looked primed for war. Bulky arms covered in armor plating, and hands that clacked jagged silver claws against the glass. Huge sea-urchin spines protruded the length of his back and his jutting jaw, and long, crooked teeth reminded me of an angler fish. The dangling, gray-white appendage that hung over his face only added to the image. A pulsing green orb nestled at the end, matching the rhythm of his internal lights.
Am I the prey you’re trying to entice? I blinked rapidly, trying to stave off the hypnotic effect of all the glowing lights.
“Leviathan,” I murmured, startling myself. I hadn’t meant to. My tongue had spoken without my permission, like he had control of it and wanted to hear his name.
His eyes met mine. So human that I could almost forget the rest of him, his eyes were a shade I’d never be able to replicate properly in paint: a pale tone of blue just kissing white-flecked silver, or the faintest hint of lavender, depending on how the light caught his irises. Tobe’s paw shot out and pushed me gently backward, making me realize that I’d stepped way too close to the glass, drawn in by his gaze. I shook my head, feeling unsettled by the magnetism I felt.
“Welcome.” His voice cut through me. Soft and violent, both at once. “You are here. At last.”
I cleared my dry throat. “You knew I’d come?”
“I hoped.” His strange eyes glittered, and that lavender sheen flashed.
“Don’t bat your fishy eyes at her, Leviathan.” My mom stepped in, putting an arm in front of my chest. “You gave her no cho
ice but to come here. You whispered in her freaking ear and made her Purge a giant hydra.”
He didn’t take his gaze off me. “A hydra? Intriguing.”
“We’re lucky it didn’t kill anyone. You deliberately did this so she’d speak to you. Don’t pretend otherwise.” My mom hated this… thing. The disgust warped her face into a mask of fury. But I wanted to hear what he had to say. I’d come to hear him out, and that was exactly what I planned to do. Even if he scared the living daylights out of me.
“I called. That did not mean she would come.” He chuckled, the green orb taking on a pink tinge. “Tell me more about this hydra.”
I felt a nervous flutter. “Me?”
“Who else?” he said simply.
I pushed against my mom’s arm, feeling the resistance. She still thought I needed protection. But his soft tone made me think otherwise, weird as it might have been. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, to be honest. I guess that’s why I’m here—to find out more.”
“In good time.” He smiled, all the rows of his teeth mashing together in perfect tessellation. “First, I should introduce myself properly. I am Leviathan. By now, you likely know some stories about me.”
“Yes,” I replied dumbly.
“Ah, but I am not what you have heard.” He scraped a silver claw toward Tobe. “He is the only one who vaguely knows me. And that is not saying much. One day, I hope you will be close to me. I hope you will know all there is to know. In a way Tobe here could never understand.”
“I think I know you plenty,” my mom interjected, stepping in front of me.
Leviathan scowled, his blue lights turning red: a warning. “Why do you keep doing that?”
“What?” she shot back.
Harley Merlin 18: Persie Merlin and Leviathan’s Gift Page 9
