“Not us. We’ve got to get back to work. Alton’s orders.” I shrugged, wolfing down a few mouthfuls of buttery potatoes. “Well, actually, he said I had to get back to work, but I figured I’d drag you guys with me.”
The others chuckled, reluctantly agreeing to help. Only Raffe remained silent. He’d been quiet ever since I sat down, though I knew his sullenness had nothing to do with me; proximity to his father and the darkness of his mood appeared to be directly correlated.
“Did the Mage Council leave?” I asked, looking to Raffe.
“No idea. I imagine they’ll want to speak to Alton before they go,” Wade replied instead. “Lay down the law, so to speak. With those kids still missing, and everything that went on with the Ryder twins, they’ll probably be fastening a noose around his neck.”
“But we defeated the Ryder twins,” Tatyana interjected.
Santana shook her head sadly. “Yes, but at the cost of those children.”
“You think the Mage Council cares about our successes?” Raffe muttered. “They tally up the failures and stack them against us. They don’t even notice the good we do. They couldn’t give a rat’s ass if we killed Emmett and captured Emily. Until they get Katherine Shipton in custody, the rest is meaningless to them.”
Raw anger brimmed inside Raffe—a spike of frightening fury that didn’t fit with the Raffe I knew. His emotions were as weirdly mixed and confusing as ever, the rage mingled with disappointment. One of these days I’m going to find out why, buddy.
“Okay, well, I’ll get changed, and then we can bash the Mage Council in private, without the risk of eavesdroppers,” I announced, tipping my head toward Garrett and his band of merry pals, who sat a short way off. I polished off the last of my plate. “Plus, there’s a whole lot I’ve got to tell you. Where should we meet? Wade’s shoebox?”
He shot me a withering look. “I’ll say it again: at least I have an office.”
“Yes, and I have several shoeboxes.”
“Why don’t we meet in the Aquarium?” Astrid suggested, hugging Smartie to her chest. “Alton said we could use it, now that we have ourselves some bigger fish to fry… if you’ll pardon the pun. Plus, it’s quiet and it’s out of the way, and with everyone gorging themselves until they explode, nobody will disturb us.”
I frowned. “The who said what now? This place has an aquarium? Is it like the Bestiary, but with water creatures?”
“You’ll see.” Astrid grinned. “I’ll text you the directions from your living quarters.”
“Now, get out of that dress before you ruin it with food stains,” Santana chided, a chuckle rumbling from her throat.
I pressed my hands to the embroidered bodice and feigned a sob as we all got up to disperse. “And I barely got to know you, my beloved. You didn’t even get to shine.”
“I don’t know about that,” Wade said, his deep green eyes fixed on mine. “I’d say you, and that gown, will go down in coven history as the most eventful pledge ever. You did good, Merlin.”
This is the closest thing to a compliment on my skills that’ll ever come out of Wade Crowley’s mouth, I guess. I’ll take it.
Dylan nodded. “We’re all pretty proud of you, dude.”
“Not ashamed to be seen with me?” I arched an amused eyebrow.
“Are you kidding?” Astrid yelped. “You made us the cool kids—the ones who roll with the wild child! The Merlin who won’t be tamed… and who called out Leonidas Levi in front of everyone.” Laughter rippled around my circle of friends.
Even Raffe mustered a smile. “Yeah, that was awesome. His face!”
I laughed. “Glad I could be of service. Now, stop distracting me with how legendary my pledge was. I need to get changed before the clock strikes midnight and I turn into a pumpkin.”
Dressed in the usual get-up of dark jeans, dark boots, a clean gray t-shirt, and my leather jacket, I followed the directions that Astrid had sent. A mindboggling labyrinth of corridors and staircases later, I arrived outside of a huge, frosted glass door. It arched upward, curving to a point like the doorway of a medieval church. Two white-gold handles were fixed in the center, both shaped like coiling fish, fitting into each other like the Pisces symbol.
Is this the place?
I’d never been to this part of the coven before. Here, the architecture was more Grecian in style, with white-gold statuettes lining the hallway in designated alcoves and a white marble floor stretching beneath my feet, shot through with fragments of silver. Ceramic pots and vases, embossed with dramatic friezes, sat on Doric plinths, each one filled with white flowers—roses, lilies, and sprays of cream buds. I felt like if I pushed the frosted glass doors open, I might find a gaggle of Olympian gods on the other side.
Instead, I found the Rag Team… and Garrett. Despite his fairly permanent position on our squad, part of me couldn’t quite include him under the banner of the Rag Team. It wasn’t that I didn’t get along with him—we had no beef left to squash. He’d apologized profusely for hurling abuse at me over my heritage, and he and Wade were even working toward a friendship, or at least a civility. Still, he had a long way to go before he could officially become one of us, which probably suited every involved party just fine.
The group was gathered in the middle of the room. I hurried toward them and took up my spot in the circle.
“Suits you,” Wade said as I moved up beside him.
“Better than the dress?”
“This is… more you.” A smile tugged at the corners of his lips, and a pleasant prickle of affection danced through my veins. It was coming from him. I smiled back and stood awkwardly beside him, my limbs forgetting how to function normally. More to the point, I had no idea what to do with my clammy palms. Realizing that everyone was looking at me, I shoved them in my pockets.
“So, what is this place?” I asked, looking around in awe. “Is it part of the Bestiary?”
The Aquarium was a huge, domed hall with a curved ceiling that sparkled with sapphires. The majority of the room’s light came from the enormous tanks that lined every single wall, right up to where the ceiling began to curve. A bluish glow rippled outward, a wave pattern undulating across the marble. A few of the tanks were pitch black, making me wonder what they held within.
“Think of it as an auxiliary generator,” Astrid replied. “The creatures here are on loan from the Bestiary—we have them here even if the Bestiary is elsewhere. Most covens have some variation of it, as a temporary backup in case the Bestiary should fail, and as an energy booster for certain types of magic. It fuels the magical reserve within this room.”
“Now that’s cool.” Shadowed shapes twisted and turned behind the thick glass. Unable to help myself, I wandered up to one of the tanks and pressed my hand to the cool pane. I peered deep into the water, but I couldn’t make out anything. Wisps of black coiled through the liquid, like diluted ink falling into a painter’s cup.
I turned around, only for a glint in the distance to catch my eye. As I whirled back to face it, a hulking shadow burst out of the blue haze and hurtled full-pelt into the glass. The impact echoed across the Aquarium, and a shiver of terror shot up my spine. I half expected the pane to crack. It reared backward and hovered in the seemingly endless azure—a gray-and-white beast that was half-fish, half-horse, with razor fins spiking along its back. Its long mane flowed with the current, while deep gills opened and closed behind the muscle of its jaw. Black eyes stared into mine.
“A Hippokampos,” Astrid explained.
“Isn’t that part of your brain?”
She shook her head, smiling. “It’s a water creature. Half-horse, half-fish, as you can see.”
“Why is it staring at me?” I whispered.
“Maybe it likes you,” Garret suggested, with a wry grin.
Tentatively, I touched the glass again, only for the creature to rear back and charge the pane once more, the glass vibrating.
“Nope, I don’t think it likes me.” Cutting my losses, I wen
t back over to the group. “Anyway, let’s forget about water-horses. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
“News from Alton?” Santana asked.
I nodded. “He wants me to track down Jacob and Isadora. He thinks they might be able to help us if we need to evacuate and find a place where those kids can be safe. Something to do with the science of portal-opening and interdimensional pockets.”
I trusted the Rag Team with my life. Even Garrett had proven his loyalty, though we hadn’t brought him into the fold properly yet. I presumed Wade had invited him after their hatchet-burying. And if Wade trusted him, then so did I. The team needed to know what was going on, and Alton had given me the go-ahead.
“We have to find them first, before concerning ourselves with that,” Wade cut in.
“I know.” My tone came off sharper than I’d intended.
“Actually, we should probably attempt to do both at the same time,” Tatyana interjected. “If we find the kids but we have nowhere safe to place them, then we are back at square one. Katherine and her minions will only come for them again.”
“But why?” Garrett asked. “I mean, what does she want them for?”
“That’s the part we don’t know,” I replied.
“That is the part we don’t know?” Wade countered. “Let’s be honest here. We don’t really know a whole lot about her plan. We’ve got no idea where she is, and we have no idea how she’s keeping herself so well hidden.”
Raffe nodded. “We should’ve picked up on a hint of her whereabouts by now. It’s like she’s invisible.”
I raised a finger, a flashbulb going off in my head. “Not invisible, but as good as.”
“What do you mean?” Wade asked.
“Magicals tend to inherit at least one of their parents’ Chaos types, right? Based on Finch’s ability, then, I think it’s safe to assume that we might be dealing with another Shapeshifter. That’d be my guess, anyway, as to how she’s moving under the radar. Maybe she’s got a whole armory of people she can shift into—she could be anywhere, at any time, and we wouldn’t know.”
“Can we find that out? Are there records?” Santana asked, turning to Astrid.
“I’ve tried looking Katherine Shipton up before, but most of her records have been wiped,” she replied. “I don’t know how, or why, but someone has done a good cover-up for her. There’s barely a genealogy trail.”
I frowned. “But there is one?”
“At the New York Coven, they should have hard copies of her family tree, if nothing else.”
“Then I’ll kill two birds with one stone. I’ll go to New York to find out more about my father and look through her family tree at the same time—well, my family tree, too, I guess,” I replied, enthusiasm sparking inside me. “I’ll check the lineage to see if anyone else was detected as a Shapeshifter. If there’s a pattern, then we’ll have a clearer idea of what we’re dealing with.”
Garret grumbled. “Yeah, but given the stigma surrounding us Shapeshifters, it might not be the most accurate source of intel. I should know.”
“It’s the best we’ve got,” Wade cut in.
“We can safely assume that Hiram Merlin wasn’t a Shapeshifter, and we know that Harley isn’t one,” Astrid ventured, gesturing toward me. “So, by conclusion, we have to believe that Hester wasn’t one either. She and Katherine were twins, yes, but they were fraternal, not identical, so it might have skipped Hester altogether.”
Tatyana tapped her chin. “The maternal line may hold some answers.”
“We should probably get started on some Children of Chaos research, too,” Raffe said. “The one thing we’re totally certain about is that psychopath’s endgame of becoming one, right? So, if we can delve into some info on that, maybe we can figure out what she needs those kids for. And, maybe, we can figure out a way to stop her.”
“Good thinking,” I replied. “In that case, we’ll have to split ourselves into a few jobs.”
Wade nodded. “Finding the kids, finding Jacob and Isadora, finding out more about the Children of Chaos.”
“All while attempting to stay alive,” Garrett deadpanned. “How hard can that be?”
“No negativity allowed, chico,” Santana chided.
I smiled, as Garrett looked suitably chastened. “It’s a shame we don’t have Jacob here now. He could probably help us out with his Sensate ability. I don’t know what his range is like, but he could pick up some kind of trail.”
“A human bloodhound?” Garrett snickered.
I ignored him. “We need to find the kids before Katherine poisons their minds. The others might be harder to break than Kenneth Willow, but I’ve got no doubt that Katherine will find a way to make each and every one of them snap, to get what she wants out of them.”
“At least we know she hasn’t taken them out of state,” Astrid said. Everyone turned to look at her.
“How do you know that?”
“Magical state border security is very powerful,” she explained. “If Katherine took the kids across state lines, we’d know about it. She’s on the watchlist—one hint of her, and there’d be alarms ringing from here to Yuma.”
Dylan cleared his throat. “So the kids are still hidden somewhere in California?”
“Bingo!” Astrid punched the air with overzealous enthusiasm.
Just then, the frosted-glass doors burst open and four figures strode in—Alton, Leonidas Levi, Remington Knightshade, and Imogene Whitehall. I imagined Nicholas Mephiles was still at the banquet hall, enjoying the spread. There’d be no buttons left on his waistcoat by the time he was done.
We all whirled around in surprise. Their entrance had brought the Aquarium creatures to the fore. Leonidas banged hard on the first tank he passed, sending a shockwave through the rest. Immediately, the water beasts turned on their tails—or tentacles—and swam for the depths once more. Puffs of inky fluid merged with the clear water, the creatures dispersing.
Two uniformed magicals strode in behind the quartet, dressed in black regalia. I didn’t recognize them from the faculty, nor did anyone else seem to. I saw my confusion reflected back at me in the faces of my friends. What the hell is going on?
“Glad to see you took my advice. We’ve been searching for you,” Alton said, breaking the tension with a smile. “You see, I didn’t mean you had to get back to work right away, Harley. You could’ve enjoyed your celebration a little longer. Still, I admire the fighting spirit in all of you. Undoubtedly, we’ll be eating leftovers at dinnertime, so you’ve hardly missed out on much.”
“Indeed you haven’t,” Levi remarked, his nose wrinkled in disgust.
Alton ignored him, though I could feel the director simmering with irritation. See, you piss everyone off, Leonidas—even one of the most patient men in the biz.
“You’ll be pleased to hear that we’ve actually come to lessen the workload,” he continued, gesturing to the militant pair. “These two will be working with you from now on and helping out with the investigations. A job shared and all that.” He laughed, but it didn’t reach his eyes. I got the feeling he’d been shanghaied into bringing these two on board. “This is Stella Chan and Channing Madison, from the Los Angeles Coven.”
Stella looked to be in her early twenties, with poker-straight, black hair that framed her stunning Asian features in a severe bob. Her dark eyes looked dead ahead, devoid of emotion, while her hands remained firmly behind her back. Beside her stood a giant beefcake of a dude with a sharp buzzcut. His biceps were the size of my head. Steely gray eyes stared at the farthest wall of the Aquarium, as muscles twitched in a square jaw that would’ve put Johnny Bravo to shame. Glancing at my friends, I noticed them gawking, too. He was almost comically muscular and looked like he might burst out of his military uniform at any moment.
“They’re here to assist,” Imogene said, urging them to come forward. “With so many magicals out there, looking for the missing children and setting up security measures, Leonidas thought you could use some
extra hands. In these uncertain times, help must be welcomed.” I could tell she wasn’t entirely keen on the idea of it, either. Then again, Levi had the deciding vote. What you say goes, isn’t that right?
Seeing Imogene again, I wanted to take her to one side to ask her about the silver bracelet on her forearm. I’d never seen a device that could deflect the powers of Empaths before, nor had I read up on any. After all, I was still plowing through the stack of books that the Rag Team had suggested I read, to get myself up to speed with all things magical. If such devices existed, I was eager to know about them. If anyone had one, of course it was going to be her. I mean, she searched the globe in her spare time, looking for rare and powerful magical artifacts—most of which ended up in the Esprit shop at Waterfront Park’s hidden underworld of bars, restaurants, and stores.
An idea popped into my head. If I didn’t get the chance to speak with Imogene before she left, I would find a moment to slip into that shop again and ask if they knew anything about anti-Empath charms. If they had one, maybe they’d let me examine it.
Only Remington remained quiet throughout the unexpected arrival, his gaze fixed on Dylan. A rush of strange familiarity bristled through my veins, combined with a deep-rooted flicker of nervous affection. He didn’t know I was watching him. His caramel eyes glimmered with unspoken sadness, while his brows pinched in a frown. It was almost like he knew Dylan, or at least about his orphan background.
Magicals raised in the human foster system tended to generate a certain feeling of pity from coven-raised magicals like Knightshade and others. I made a mental note to ask Dylan about his biological parents, to satisfy a personal curiosity—from one foster kid to another. I’d always dreamed of a happy ending to my origin story. I obviously hadn’t quite gotten it, but maybe Dylan could, for both of us. That was all any of us wanted.
“I tried to tell the LA Coven that they’ve already given us far too much,” Alton said, making a point of avoiding Levi’s gaze, “but they insisted they could spare Channing and Stella. I’m sure you’ll make them feel welcome.”
Harley Merlin 3: Harley Merlin and the Stolen Magicals Page 4
