Harley Merlin 18: Persie Merlin and Leviathan’s Gift

by Forrest, Bella

  In the box, Leviathan screamed. His claws dug deeper into the glass and every bioluminescent glow turned a warning shade of red. Through the transparent gaps in his scales, I saw his organs shaking. He managed to lift his torso a short distance off the ground before he flopped forward again. In that brief moment, I caught sight of his heart, pounding so fast it looked like it wasn’t beating at all.

  “This… is… cruel!” he roared. His scales shuddered together, making the sound of a porcupine shaking their quills. “This is… a forbidden spell!”

  I glared down at his spasming figure. “Don’t speak to me about cruelty.” He hadn’t given a second thought to the pain he’d put my daughter through—the pain and fear she’d keep going through with every Purge. Not to mention the disgusting notion of him taking her as his queen. His fear paled in comparison. Pure hatred added energy to the connecting strands between us. As the Darkness hit him, a fresh scream ricocheted between the walls of his enclosure.

  “Stop!” he whimpered. Cracks began to splinter across his armored plates, where they’d vibrated too hard together. His tail lay still, his head in his clawed hands.

  I shook my head. “Tell me what I want to know.”

  “I will… not bend!”

  I sent more Darkness hurtling down the Chaos wires between us. He sucked in an agonized breath and one of his transparent patches disintegrated into black ash; his teary human eyes staring at the floating wisps as they returned to Chaos. Even Purge beasts were scared of their own mortality, despite the fact that this one had been alive for centuries. Unless this was another trick to try and get me to stop. He’d hypnotized Persie with those eyes. Why wouldn’t he try it with me now that I had the reins?

  I dipped into both reservoirs—Light and Dark—as his human eyes lifted up and met mine. This time, there was no mistaking it. He was running scared.

  “You’ve got five seconds,” I warned.

  “Stop!” he begged. “I do… not know… the answers.”

  I pulled the pulses of Light and Darkness back. “Say that again. I dare you.”

  “It is… the truth!” he snarled. “I do not know how… Hell will come… to Earth. I do not know how… Persephone will fit… into the picture. I do not… know!”

  I resisted the urge to hit him with another bout. “Explain.”

  “It… is… a prophecy. My mother’s prophecy.” He slumped forward, breathing heavily. “It is all… I know. I have… no details. No… instruction.”

  “Converterent alica. A obumbratio. Restituerunt eum in lucem.” I whispered the curse reversal, rapid-fire.

  His breathing eased slightly. “Thank you.”

  “Keep talking. If you don’t, I’ve got more where that came from.” I wasn’t sure I did, but he didn’t need to know that. In fact, I was surprised I was still on my feet. My body and mind felt like they’d been hit by a freight train.

  “Before she was killed,” Leviathan wheezed, “my mother left a contingency in place. She knew her gift had to be passed on. It could not die with her. She knew I could ensure it on her behalf.”

  “Go on…”

  “The inheritance of her gift is a catalyst. It will light the fuse to bring the prophecy of Hell on Earth.” His eyes glinted menacingly. “And it has been lit.”

  I battled to stay calm. “What did she want from it? She didn’t mention any prophecy to me when I last saw her.”

  “Why would she?” he hissed. “You are the enemy.”

  “Monsters versus humans?” I snorted, but the joke was on me.

  He leered upward. “It has always been. You trap us. You incarcerate us. You treat us as though we are less than you. My mother wished to end that. She wished to see all monsters free. I grieve that she did not live to see the djinn take their freedom. It would have thrilled her, as it did me. One day, we will all be as the djinn are. And it will be thanks to my mother, who entrusted me with the task. I will not disappoint her.”

  Terror flared through me, racing like wildfire in my blood. He sounded dogged in his determination. As if it were already written in the stars.

  I’d celebrated right along with Kadar when the djinn got their freedom, yet I didn’t bat an eyelid when I walked through the Bestiary, filled to the brim with caged beasts whose energy fueled our world. But they weren’t ill-treated, and if we let them run wild, people would die. This was about global safety, not cruel imprisonment. Besides, Tobe took good care of them. He wouldn’t have taken up the role of Beast Master if it was immoral, or unkind. That wasn’t in his nature.

  “You’re forgetting something, Leviathan. The djinn didn’t try to take this world. They took their creator’s otherworld, as payback for almost killing them all.” I stood my ground, though I suddenly felt as though I was standing on weakened foundations.

  Leviathan hit me with a pointed stare. “What do you call what you do to us? You drain us for your own ends. We may not die, but you weaken us.”

  “That’s your narrative, not ours. Purge beasts are dangerous. They pose a huge threat to every living thing on this planet, including other Purge beasts,” I said, pushing aside the faint uncertainty in the back of my mind. “Anyway, your mother isn’t here, and you’re locked in a box. Neither of those things will change.”

  A grim laugh bubbled out of his cracked lips. “The prophecy has been activated. And she is still here. She appears in my dreams, as I appear in Persephone’s. I do not know how it will come to pass. I only know that it will. From the moment I named Persephone, I set off the chain reaction. It cannot be stopped. It is written in Chaos itself. There is nothing you or anyone else can do to prevent it.”

  I shrugged to try and hide my nerves. “Someone said that to me before. They were wrong.”

  “You asked for answers. I suggest you listen.” His eyes hardened. “Whether you want to believe it or not, Persephone is fated to create monsters. She is the catalyst. Someday, because she exists, all of Chaos’s beasts will roam free. My mother will see her dream come to fruition.”

  This doesn’t make any sense. Except that it did. Echidna had helped us a long time ago. Now, I understood why. She’d clearly seen Katherine coming a mile off and had known how that encounter would end. With time running out for her, she’d probably predicted what I’d do to get the power to defeat Katherine and made sure the naming deal was sealed. All of those steps and trials, back then, had been for this: her personal goals masked as aid. Ironically, the kind of patient game that Katherine would’ve admired, played by a skilled competitor.

  Leviathan continued. “It will be paradise for us. But it will be your doomsday. And magic-kind cannot stop it. It has already begun.”

  Persie… The implications were terrifying. And the fact that Leviathan didn’t even know what part my daughter would play terrified me more. She hadn’t asked for this. She hadn’t done anything to deserve this. But, somehow, she’d started a prophecy that, apparently, none of us would be able to stop. Or, rather… I’d started it, by agreeing to the deal in the first place. I should’ve known there would be more to it than just a name. Kadar had warned me that names have power.

  I snapped the Chaos strings that joined me to Leviathan and staggered away from the enclosure. Overwhelmed and exhausted, I had nothing left to say. Neither did he. But as he dragged himself up off the floor, I couldn’t ignore his cold laughter. It thudded into my skull like gunfire.

  Turning, I headed for the exit. Only, he did have one more thing to say. A parting shot to tip me over the edge into all-out panic.

  “It is only a matter of time before I walk free,” he crowed. “Just wait and see.”

  And the worst part was, I believed him.

  Twenty-Four

  Harley

  Sirens shrieking in my head, I chalk-doored right out of the SDC. Another moment in there and I’d have combusted. I needed to think, and I couldn’t do it so close to that monster. Even being in the same bubble as him right now was too much for my brain to deal with.
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br />   I dropped the concealment spell and a fierce heat prickled across my face. Dry and dusty and just what I needed. I drank in the scorched air as though I’d spent the last five minutes underwater. Anything to try and clear my mind enough to get a plan of action together. But how did you even begin to fight something like this? It wasn’t a person; it wasn’t even a clear scheme. It was an idea, a vision, a prophecy, dangling in front of my face like a rotten carrot. Taunting me.

  Think! You have to think! Freaking out would get me nowhere. Sure, I had plenty to freak out about, but I had to put that on the backburner. First, I needed backup.

  Whipping out my phone, I sent out the kind of group message that no one could ignore: Big trouble is coming. Hell on Earth big. Meet me by the oasis ASAP. I hadn’t just called on the support of the Rag Team. This required every damn hand on deck, including Finch’s New Muppet Babies. I needed everyone and anyone who’d faced evil with me before.

  Keeping the phone in my hand for when the replies came in, I took to pacing. I’d been doing that a lot lately. My boots thudded on the parched earth, sending lizards skittering for cover. Taking a slow breath, I mopped my face with the hem of my t-shirt. Maybe picking the middle of the Mojave Desert hadn’t been a smart move. But my friends knew this place, and they knew what it meant—we only came here when something serious cropped up.

  I should message Persie. I clutched the phone and stared out at the barren landscape: rusty-colored rock clusters, peppered spiny cacti, sparse shrubs, and a few skeletal trees. Meanwhile, a few tumbleweeds bounced across the dried-out ground. Feeling a tight clench in my chest, I sat down on a scalding rock and shifted around until it cooled a bit. I wasn’t even sure why we called it the oasis. There wasn’t a drop of water anywhere.

  “Should I message Persie?” I asked a nearby lizard. The reptile eyed me as if I were an idiot. “You’re right. Not yet. Not without a plan. There’s no point in panicking her too.” The lizard scuttled on its way, and I had no idea if I’d given it the right answer or not.

  A doorway opened in the oscillating air. Two figures tumbled out.

  “Melody, Luke… Thank Chaos. I wasn’t sure the message would get through.” I sagged under the weight of everything that had just happened.

  Melody rushed up to me. “Harley, what’s wrong? Is everything okay? I guess not, given your message, and… no, you definitely don’t feel okay. Your emotions are all over the place, and… my goodness, they’re so strong.” She knelt beside the rock and grasped for my hand. “What’s happened? We left Easter Island as soon as we could.”

  “Is it Persie?” Luke’s calmer voice rang out. I adored Melody, but she talked a mile a minute, and I couldn’t process it right now.

  Before I could answer, five more chalk-doors opened in quick succession. Nash and Huntress strode out of the first one. Wade, Dylan, and Finch bolted from the second. Ryann, Garrett, and Astrid emerged from the third, while Santana and Raffe exploded out of the fourth. Tobe stepped out gracefully, bringing up the rear. Part of me waited for another door to open and Tatyana and Saskia to step through. Instead, my phone pinged: In an important meeting at the UMN. I’ll ring you when it’s over. Hope you’re okay. Tx. I guessed a meeting with the magical UN was a decent excuse, but I still missed seeing her here.

  O’Halloran was missing, too, but that had been a deliberate move on my part. What Leviathan had told me could impact how the coven, and the rest of magical society, looked at my daughter. And I wouldn’t have O’Halloran making any rash decisions about what to do with her. Not if I could help it.

  A barrage of voices hit me at once.

  “Harley, what’s going on?” Wade jumped in.

  “Has something happened to Persie?” Santana’s voice clashed with his.

  “Is it the coven?” Raffe added.

  Astrid held onto Smartie. “Or the missing magicals?”

  Everyone spoke at once, a melting pot of words, making the heat and the noise feel unbearable, wrecking my eardrums and my nerves.

  “Stop!” I shouted. “Everyone, just stop and I’ll explain. Please.”

  Silence rippled through the group.

  I bowed my head and stared at the dusty, red soil. “I just met with Leviathan, to pry some information out of him.” I didn’t lift my head to look at Tobe, but I didn’t need to. I could feel his shock. “And before you give me a lecture, Tobe, just hear what I have to say.”

  “As you like,” he replied stiffly.

  “I took matters into my own hands.” I raised my eyes to the desert, watching a tumbleweed get snared in a spiky bush. “And I’m glad I did.” I repeated everything Leviathan had told me, leaving nothing out. Then I waited for the reactions to flow in.

  “You may think your ends justify the means, but this was badly done, Harley,” Tobe grumbled. “Yes, this is something we needed to know, but you should have come to me first. I have a duty of care, even to vile specimens such as Leviathan.”

  “Would you have let me do what I had to do?” I met his disappointed gaze.

  His whiskers shivered. “No.”

  “Then… I’m sorry, but I had no choice.” I watched his furry brow crease, a mix of emotions morphing across his face. He cared for his beasts, I knew that. But there hadn’t been another choice, and he’d just cemented that.

  Astrid wiped dust from her glasses. “You think he’s telling the truth?”

  “No. You rapped on his fishbowl, pissed him off, and he knew saying something like that would get you riled. He’s full of it.” Finch shrugged. But his concerned expression didn’t match his words.

  Kadar appeared. “Even if he spoke the truth, a prophecy is not a certainty.”

  “He said it himself, he doesn’t know the details.” Ryann nodded in agreement. “Maybe Echidna thought he’d be out of his box by now. Considering he’s still in there, and it doesn’t look like he can get out by himself, perhaps the prophecy is moot.”

  “But… what if it’s not?” Garrett asked tentatively. “If the prophecy is written in Chaos, doesn’t that break down a couple of obstacles? So far, Leviathan has been able to speak to you and Persie, when neither should have been possible. If he had those liberties, who’s to say he won’t be granted others?”

  Santana lowered Slinky to the ground, where he took off to chase some lizards. “What the hell is Chaos’s deal, anyway? Why does it keep letting people do this kind of thing? Doesn’t it have some kind of say?”

  “I don’t know,” I said quietly. Wade came to sit beside me on the rock, his arm slipping around my shoulders. I sensed him trying to conceal his emotions from me. After twenty years of marriage, he still hadn’t figure out how to do it successfully. Right now, I felt all sorts coming off him: confusion, anger, disappointment, panic. No good vibes at all. And I sensed some of those feelings were aimed at me, and the fact that I hadn’t spoken to him before I’d gone GI Jane on Leviathan.

  Melody stood back up. “Chaos works in the same manner as its Children. It can’t intervene if someone wants to imprint something like this into the Chaosverse, but it can occasionally offer solutions on the sly.” She fidgeted awkwardly. “But we shouldn’t forget that Purge beasts are creations of Chaos. In Chaos’s eyes, it may believe that they have as much right to a free existence as we do. It might not want to stop this or give us a solution, and it’s not as if we can ask how it feels about the situation.”

  “Yeah, but Chaos is in us, too.” Nash ruffled Huntress’s fur. Closing her eyes contentedly, Huntress lay her head on her forepaws. I knew how she felt. This was a lot to take in. “I don’t pretend to know Chaos personally, but I doubt it’d be too happy about razing our world to ash for the sake of one monster’s last wish.”

  “That’s the part I don’t get, either. Why does it have to be ‘Hell’ on Earth?” Finch frowned. “I’ve seen plenty of Purge beasts who like a nice forest or a pretty lake more than fire and brimstone.”

  Tobe ruffled his feathers nervously. “I may have the
answer to that. Purge beasts are better suited to the atmosphere of otherworlds, as that was their natural habitat before magicals came into existence. Otherworlds take many different forms, but there is one similarity: none of them are inhabited by anything, or anyone, other than a Child of Chaos. There are no buildings, no infrastructure, nothing to inhibit their roaming. I imagine Echidna’s vision emulates that, destroying anything that does not coincide. It would be a hell for magicals, not beasts. Essentially, you would all be treated as Echidna believes beasts have been treated.”

  Finch puffed out a sigh. “Well, that makes more sense.”

  “Okay, say that’s the plan—what do we do to stop it?” Santana brought her usual brand of no-nonsense to the table. That was what I loved about her.

  “And what do we do about Persie?” Wade peered down at me. Terror spiked off him in barbed waves. “If she’s the catalyst of all of this, what does that mean for her?”

  Nash scratched between Huntress’s ears. “A glass box and a set of Atomic Cuffs, if the UCA get wind of this.”

  My heart jolted. “They wouldn’t. I won’t let them.”

  “You think they’d give you a choice?” he replied solemnly. “And that’d be the soft approach.”

  Astrid cast me an apologetic look. “The UCA has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to global threats. They might even arrange an ‘accident,’ if they thought Persie posed enough risk. I’ve seen it happen before.”

  “No…” Tears jabbed at my eyes. “They’d have to go through me first.”

  “They’d have to go through all of us, sis,” Finch said grimly. “But we do have to prepare for the possibility. It’s not going to be easy to keep it off the UCA’s radar if devils with pitchforks start popping up all over the place.” He was trying to make light of the situation, but I could tell that he was worried.