“Maybe you should have asked those doves to coo an apology. I bet that would’ve worked like a treat.”
“This rebellious streak is your father’s doing, you know—he spoiled you. I may never forgive him for it.”
I grinned at her. “And I’ll always thank him for it.”
“Speaking of your father, we—”
I covered my ears dramatically. “If it’s about that slipper, I don’t want to hear it.”
“No, it’s not, you cheeky devil,” she replied, her tone exasperated. “We brought you a gift, to celebrate your first Purge. We were hoping to give it to you once you announced your engagement, but this seemed like as good a time as any. A Santeria’s first Purge is a very special thing, and it deserves a reward.”
I looked up at her in surprise. “A gift?”
“Ah, that got your attention,” she replied with a smile.
Delving into her bag, she pulled out a wrapped parcel and handed it to me. I tore at it like a woman possessed, revealing the beautiful present underneath. It was a blank journal, intended for the writing of a Grimoire. The cover was a burnished, bronze leather with shimmering blue stones embedded in the material. They trailed up the spine and across the front like the wisps of my Orishas, weaving in and out of the embossed shapes of a lake with a full blood moon above it. I was surprised to find a stylized version of Quetzi at the bottom right, representing my Aztec heritage. Still, the whole thing suited me perfectly. I couldn’t have designed it better myself.
“Thank you so much!” I gushed, clutching it to my chest.
“You must choose the spells you put in there wisely, for once they’re written, they can’t be undone,” my mom warned.
An idea drifted toward me through the haze of my Purge-weary mind. I remembered what Kadar had said to me about talking to a Child of Chaos face-to-face, the way folks used to. If my mom wanted me to be backwards, abiding by the old ways, then this was the perfect compromise. For my first act as Grimoire-writer extraordinaire, I would write a spell to summon a Child of Chaos.
I had no idea how to even start writing a spell like that, but determination was a pretty damn good motivator. I’d find a way to attain the right knowledge and the necessary Chaos juice to get it going, and with a little help from a certain Ms. Merlin, I knew we might be able to get it on its proverbial feet.
I also knew it could end up being my first and last spell in the Grimoire. But it seemed like a risk worth taking.
Thirty-Five
Harley
I crouched in front of the glass box and tapped gently. The feathered serpent slithered toward me, its violet eyes peering at me with curiosity. Its tongue lashed against the smooth interior, and a soft hiss formed condensation on the glass. I smiled as it ruffled its white-and-violet feathers, its bright-blue-and-fuchsia scales rattling together in something like contentment.
“How can you gawk at that thing like it’s anything close to cute?” Wade asked, pulling a face.
“Because it is. This thing is adorable!” I glanced at him, amused by his aversion. “What’s got you so creeped out about it? Not a reptile fan?”
“Not a Purge beast fan.”
“Are you saying you’ll just ignore yours, when it comes?”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t get attached to it, that’s for sure.”
“Looks like you’re in the minority here,” I said, nodding at Quetzi, who was nudging the partition between his box and Santana’s Purge beast. “Quetzi loves it, I love it, and Tobe is head over heels. And here you are, terrified of a little snake.”
“They’re just not my thing. Plus, you’ve got no idea how powerful this snake is.”
“What is your thing?” I asked, my cheeks suddenly burning as I realized what I’d said. He’s not going to say “you,” you sap. A romantic comedy this ain’t. After all the babbling I’d been doing lately, he probably already thought I’d lost my marbles.
He seemed oblivious to my embarrassment. “I’m fine with Purge beasts like Tobe. If they could all be like that, things would be so much easier. Instead of guessing whether they’re going to attack you, or paralyze you in your sleep, or rob you of your life breath by breath, they could just tell you.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“You’ve got a weird attitude toward danger, Harley,” he said with a smile.
“When you’ve lived on the mean streets of Mount Hope, nothing seems dangerous anymore. Put a gun in my face and I’d just shrug and give you my money,” I replied. “I think Katherine might be the only thing that actually one-hundred percent terrifies me. Give me a thousand car-jackings instead of her.”
Quetzi shuddered, his tongue flicking out of his mouth as his feathers ruffled. I frowned at him through the glass. What have you got going on under those shiny scales of yours, huh? Clearly, there was some reason the serpent didn’t like Katherine, not that hating her guts was anything new; I had a feeling we could all get on that particular bandwagon. Still, the mere mention of her name made Quetzi mad. Whatever beef they had with one another, it ran deep.
I wondered if Quetzi would help us fight Katherine. If he had a grudge against her, maybe it’d be a win-win for all of us. Right now, we could definitely use all the help we could get.
I was still pretty shaken up after my first encounter with the Big Bad. It seemed impossible that we’d somehow managed to escape with our lives, though I guessed we’d only made matters worse, in a lot of respects. I’d pissed her off, big time, by trying to bury her alive, and put massive targets on our backs as a result. She’d already been after me, but we might’ve had a bit more time if I hadn’t made her extra mad. Now, there were no more ifs regarding her, only when.
“How’re you feeling about her after the factory thing?” Wade asked.
“Even more freaked out.”
He nodded. “I didn’t expect her to be so… I don’t know. It’s hard to put my finger on, but she wasn’t what I expected.”
“She’s got the Merlin-Shipton sense of humor, that’s for sure,” I muttered.
“When you were down in that hole, what did she say to you?”
“It wasn’t what she said down there that scared me,” I admitted. “It was what she said before, when the rest of you were running for it. She said she’d kill me last. She said she’d make me watch you all die, slowly and painfully—and creatively, since that seems to be her speed—and I really think she meant it.” Bitter tears sprang to my eyes, though I quickly forced them back. I wasn’t going to shed tears over Katherine’s threats. No way.
To my surprise, Wade crouched down beside me and put his arm around my shoulders. “We won’t let that happen, Harley. We know what she’s up to, and we’ll fight her tooth and nail until she surrenders or we kill her. She isn’t getting her hands on any of us, I promise you that.”
“You can’t promise that,” I murmured, my heart racing at his closeness. I could smell the spicy scent of his cologne and see the faint graze of stubble that ran along the edge of his strong jaw. Damn, you’re a handsome bastard. Ugh. Why’d you have to be so freaking cute? Seriously, it’s not cool, man.
He flashed me a smile that made my insides squee. “I just did.”
With him being so close to me, my mind turned to Stella and the way she’d jumped fearlessly to protect Channing from Katherine’s magic. She loved him so intensely that she’d nearly sacrificed herself, even though he didn’t love her back; it was kind of awe-inspiring. Do I feel that way about you, Crowley? Would I save you from a ball of destruction? Yeah, probably.
Realization dawned. Wade had done the same thing for me, in shielding me from the debris of the collapsing factory.
Wait… does that mean… no, it can’t, can it?
I had no idea what to do about it. He’d given no thought to his own life when he’d knocked me to the ground and covered me like that. He’d thought only of my safety. Surely, there was only one reason he’d have done something so insanely stupid.
>
This is your moment, Merlin. You’re all snuggled up, he’s being charming, and he saved you from a cave-in. It’s now or never.
“Wade… can I tell you something?” My heart was hammering a mile a minute, my palms clammy and gross. If he’d reached out for my hand, he’d probably think he’d touched an eel instead.
He looked down at me. “Sure. What’s up?”
“I… I’m getting really frustrated with these restrictions,” I said. “Like, I want to be satisfied with the way things are, but I can’t. There’s so much more that I could explore, and I feel like I’m being held back—like I can’t just reach out and grab what I want, you know?”
Smooth, Harley. Way to chicken out by chatting all vague and stuff. He’s not going to have a clue what you’re talking about.
“With the Suppressor, you mean?”
“Uh… yeah,” I replied, my heart sinking. “Like, if I could just let it all out at once, then maybe I wouldn’t have to feel this… this all-consuming whatever inside me, all the time. It’s messing with my head. It’s making me act all crazy, and it’s getting to the point where I’m not sure how much longer I can go on without… uh, letting it all out. Or, at least, getting it to come out. How do I even do that? I don’t have a clue.”
Harley, you bumbling coward.
“That sounds like… a lot is going on,” Wade said, his brow furrowed. He looked even more adorable when he was completely baffled by something, and I was clearly confusing the heck out of him. Despite my best efforts, he didn’t seem to be picking up on the subtext. I just looked like a babbling idiot, and he looked like a beautiful, bemused, gorgeous creature that I wanted to smooch the face off of.
Enough with the mush! I’m about to barf. Now, if he’d stop blinking those deep green peepers at me, maybe I could get a grip. Lovesick puppy dog was not a state I’d ever thought I’d find myself in. The hard-as-nails Harley I knew would have kicked my ass for getting this way, yet here I was, melting into a puddle of adoration, waving goodbye to tough-guy me.
Fortunately for my self-respect, Tobe appeared, interrupting Wade’s and my weird moment.
“Sorry to disturb you,” he said in his signature growl, “but Alton has asked me to pass on a message. He wishes to see you in his office, Harley, at your earliest convenience. I believe he meant now, but I think he was being polite.”
“Thank you, Tobe. I’ll head there right away.” I sounded a little too eager, jumping at the chance to leave the awkward conversation with Wade. He was confused; I was confused; we were all confused. It seemed better to leave the situation to stew for a while, until I could muster the balls to admit how I felt. Stella’s warning rang in my head—that I should probably come clean while I had the chance. Yeah, but not now. I look like a beet and it isn’t cute.
“See you later, maybe?” Wade asked.
I nodded effusively. “Yeah, sure, absolutely, love to.”
Wishing I’d stopped at “Yeah, sure,” I hurried out of the Bestiary and headed toward Alton’s office. By the time I got there, my cheeks had just about cooled and my heartrate had returned to a normal pace. Rapping on the hefty double doors with their ominous lion-knockers, I pushed through into the office beyond. Alton sat behind his desk, and he looked up as I entered. However, he wasn’t the only one in the room. Sitting in one of the high-backed armchairs was a bald teenage boy.
I frowned. “Sorry, am I interrupting something? I can wait outside until you’re done.”
“Not at all. In fact, we were just waiting for you,” Alton replied, gesturing for me to sit. “Harley, this is Tarver. He’s new to the San Diego Coven, recently moved here from—where did you say you were from?”
The boy smiled nervously. “Iowa.”
“Yes, Iowa, of course. Anyway, I was wondering if you might do the honors of taking Tarver on a tour around the coven.” Alton looked to me with a steady, slightly weird gaze.
“Me?”
He nodded. “Yes, I’m sure you know enough of the coven by now to show him the ropes.” He smiled a secret smile that kind of creeped me out. All of this was unsettling, but what could I do? I didn’t want to seem rude to this kid.
“Um… okay?” Confusion fogged my brain. I was still fairly new, too; I hadn’t even known there was a pool here until a couple of days ago, and I still doubted I’d seen everything this place had to offer. Wade had given me the quick tour, or so it seemed. There were probably a bunch of rooms and cool things that I’d yet to discover, so why did Alton want me to take Tarver around?
“Off you go, then,” Alton instructed.
“Okay… uh, let me show you what this place has to offer,” I said, putting on a smile. Tarver practically leapt out of his seat with excitement and followed me out of the office and into the labyrinth of the SDC.
I took him to all the usual places first, like the banquet hall and the Main Assembly Hall, and explained the points system to him. I tried not to make us sound too lame, but we were still lagging way behind the other covens without any sign of a boost to our ranking. Even battling Katherine Shipton face-to-face hadn’t won us any favors with the Mage Council. Apparently, according to Alton, it “was still undergoing further verification, as to whether it could qualify as a viable means of awarding points,” as they could only take our word for it. Even with the bolstering witness statements of Channing and Stella, Levi was being a complete tool about it. They’d given us an extra hundred for rescuing Micah, but that still left us with a long way to go.
Still, Tarver didn’t seem to mind. He walked along happily enough, taking in all the sights and sounds of the coven. He seemed nice, though a little quiet. I’d tried to make small talk throughout our tour, but he hadn’t bitten. Instead, he’d grown more and more fidgety, to the point where I was starting to wonder if he was the mole and I was about to get attacked.
As we reached one of the empty training halls, Tarver looked around surreptitiously.
Is this it? Is this the moment when you’re going to strike?
I prepped my palms for any eventuality, tensing my muscles in readiness. After my fight with Katherine, I was exhausted and completely spent in the magical sense, but no mole was going to take me down today. No chance. I had to have reserves somewhere.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” he said, turning back to me.
I frowned. “Oh, yeah?” This guy and Alton were acting really strange, and I didn’t like it one bit. With Shapeshifters and curses like Krieger’s being bandied about the place, nobody could be trusted.
Tarver reached up to the underside of his jaw and pulled away his skin in one horrifying movement. I nearly screamed, clamping my hand over my mouth as I saw the face underneath. I couldn’t quite believe it.
“Jacob?” I whispered, before leaping forward to hug him, gripping him tight. “You’re safe, you’re safe, you’re safe. Isadora said you were, but I didn’t know what to believe. You’re here—you’re here and you’re safe!”
He chuckled. “Yep. Thanks for the warm welcome.”
“What’s with the Scooby-Doo mask trick? You’ve got to warn a girl before you go tearing your face off in front of her. And why didn’t you just tell me who you were in Alton’s office, you dope?”
“Alton said I should try and see if the mask fooled you,” he replied, grinning. “Looks like you’re the benchmark for this working.”
“Yeah, it worked!”
“Well, that makes me feel a little calmer about all of this,” he said. “I was really worried back there, sure you’d realize it was me. See, I’ll be staying incognito at the coven and helping Alton out with a bit of spy work, so this disguise has to be flawless.” He took the mask and put it back on, the fleshy material melding perfectly to his face. Creepy didn’t even begin to cover it.
A sad thought then crossed my mind. “Did Alton tell you about Isadora?”
He nodded. “Yeah, he filled me in on everything.”
“I tried to rescue her, but she
wouldn’t come with me,” I said, my voice catching in my throat. The image of her on the ground at Katherine’s feet, being forced to do things beyond her control, was a vision I couldn’t shake.
“That sounds like her.”
“There’s a spell on Isadora,” I explained. “That’s why she refused. She said Katherine would kill her if she came with me.”
“I know,” he said. “But we’re going to get her back, one way or another.”
I smiled proudly. “You read my mind.”
“I knew you wouldn’t abandon her. That’s why she worries about you—she knows you’ll do whatever it takes to protect her, which is why she’s been protecting you all this time. Keeping her distance to stop you from becoming a target.”
I chuckled wryly. “It didn’t do much good, in the end. I think I’ve had a target on my back since birth.” Shaking off my gloomy state, I patted Jacob on the back. “In the meantime, before we can go after her, we’ll need to find out as much as possible about Katherine’s plans and locate the rest of the missing kids. We got pretty lucky with Micah, and I know we can do better.”
Jacob gasped, startling me. “I almost forgot something!” He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a letter, handing it to me with a shy smile. “It’s from Isadora.”
I glanced down at the envelope with wide eyes. On the front, written in elegant cursive, were the words “As promised.” I realized the letter must contain everything Isadora knew about Hiram, Hester, and Katherine—the trifecta that had brought us all to this point. The full truth about them, finally.
But Isadora had also mentioned something else. A secret I might not want to hear. Something dark, that might even have to do with me, instead. Her vague statement had been lurking at the back of my mind ever since she’d given it. Now, she was delivering the choice she’d promised—to discover the matter for myself, whether I liked the outcome or not.
Given how anxious she had been about telling me, a part of me wondered whether I was better off not knowing. I didn’t have to open the envelope. I could bury it under my mattress and forget it existed. But then I’d never know my family’s story. Or mine.
Harley Merlin 3: Harley Merlin and the Stolen Magicals Page 35
