Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood)

by Megan Joel Peterson

  At her silence, his grimace deepened.

  “With all respect, your highness,” he said, each word tight. “I don’t care what the Blood king plans. We will stop him, and we will keep you safe while doing so.” His eyebrow rose pointedly. “End of discussion.”

  “You know I’m not going to do that.”

  “You will if you want to do Lily any good. Getting yourself killed won’t help anyone.”

  She looked away, tired of an argument that he had to be aware wouldn’t change anything. “What happened at the airport last week?” she asked, and when her gaze twitched back to the front a moment later, she could see his irritation at the response.

  “We got lucky,” he replied. “Minus the rather large issue of losing you and Lily. Point is, we’re not doing that again.”

  “Why couldn’t I reach Katherine?”

  He exhaled. “Because her phone was destroyed,” he answered sharply. “Half our people in the city were destroyed too. It was a mess, tearing Banston apart to find you while tracking the Taliesin in case they got you first. A few pieces of equipment were the least of our concerns.”

  She couldn’t stop herself from glaring at his acid tone. “I would’ve called, Elias. You think I didn’t want to? I was just kind of under the impression you were all dead, so I didn’t figure there was much point in trying.”

  In the driver’s seat, she could see Nathaniel glance at them both, and behind him, Cole did as well. The wind of the car’s passage along the street became the only sound.

  Nathaniel cleared his throat, breaking the awkward silence. “We’re here.”

  Her gaze returned to the road. Beyond the car, downtown Croftsburg surrounded them, and a block ahead, the neon sign for a parking garage protruded from high on a wall. Guiding the car after Cornelius’ around the turn, Nathaniel eased over the bump of the entrance and then slowed further as the close air of the garage enveloped them.

  The cars continued upward through the tight confines of the tunnel, the sounds of their tires bouncing strangely from the ceiling and walls. At the beginning of the fourth level, Nathaniel pulled the car to a stop after Cornelius’, the others behind them doing the same.

  “Where’s your friend?” Elias asked.

  Cole eyed the vehicles dotting the mostly empty rows, and then shook his head. Without a word, he climbed from the car.

  Before Elias could protest, she followed.

  The smell of oil and wet concrete hung heavy on the air, and somewhere below, tires squealed as a vehicle descended to the street. Up ahead, a wall bearing a lit exit sign separated the garage from the elevators and stairs. As Cornelius and Gavin got out, she glanced back, seeing Spider and Bus standing by their own vehicle a few yards away, with Samson glowering behind. Katherine waited beyond them, and a host of guards took up the rear.

  Footsteps echoed from behind the stairwell wall.

  Harris came around the corner.

  She tensed, but Nathaniel was already moving. Stepping in front of her, his magic beat hers in rising to their defense, and in response, the cripples’ guns materialized, aiming for the detective.

  “Wait!” Cole cried as Harris froze. “This is–”

  “We know him,” Elias snapped. “The son of a bitch put a bullet through the queen.”

  Heart pounding, she kept her eyes on Harris as Cole looked back at her in alarm.

  Swiftly, Gavin strode forward, a pair of guards at his back. One of them grabbed the detective, pinning him as Gavin patted him down. A scowl twisted Gavin’s face as he located a gun beneath Harris’ coat. With a dark look to the detective, he handed it off to a guard and then grabbed Harris’ shoulder, giving him a rough push toward the wizards.

  Rocking from the shove, Harris eyed the man briefly and then started across the garage.

  “You didn’t tell me you were working with them,” he growled to Cole as he came closer.

  “I didn’t think you’d help if I did,” Cole answered.

  Harris’ expression made it clear he’d been right.

  “Put him in the car,” Cornelius ordered, ignoring the exchange. “We will handle him later. And call–”

  “No,” she interrupted, striding past Nathaniel. “If he knows how we can get inside, then–”

  “The boy is one thing, your highness,” Cornelius protested. “But this man shot–”

  “How can we get in there?” Ashe demanded, turning to Harris.

  The detective’s face tightened.

  “You can't trust–” Elias started.

  “How?” she snarled, flames racing up her arms.

  “Whoa!” Cole broke in, rushing between them with his hands raised. “Hang on! Just…” He swallowed and then looked back at her, an insistent expression flashing across his face. “Back off.”

  Trembling, she eyed Cole and then eased away, her gaze twitching from him to the detective.

  “You shot her,” Cole continued to Harris. “And my dad has her little sister. So she’s pissed, alright? But she’s not what they said. And she’s not what you think. She didn’t mean to hurt Malden. It was an accident.” He glanced back at her. “And you didn’t kill him, by the way. Malden’s alive.”

  She blinked, her anger faltering with confusion. “What?”

  “Malden’s alive,” he repeated. “He’s in physical therapy. He’s going back to work for the department soon.”

  A breath escaped her. Reeling, she looked away.

  “Malden?” Elias asked.

  “A… another detective,” she managed. “In Utah.”

  She looked up to find Harris watching her guardedly.

  “Ashe isn’t a killer, Detective,” Cole said. “Not like my dad claimed. She just wants to protect the innocent in this, same as you. So please… help us.”

  For a moment, Harris didn’t speak, his eyes running over her as though he couldn’t decide whether to trust what he saw. “The man in the boathouse a few weeks ago,” he said, his tone giving nothing away. “What was that?”

  She swallowed, struggling to bury every trace of her reaction that she could. “He said he’d killed my friends,” she answered, nodding toward Spider and the others.

  “Cripples,” Harris said, a hint of a question in his tone.

  She glanced back in time to see Spider’s eyebrow twitch coldly at the man in response.

  Harris ignored the girl’s expression.

  “My dad is going to kill everyone here if you don’t help us, Detective,” Cole said. “And he’s going to use Lily to do it.”

  Harris’ gaze flicked to him, and she couldn’t read what was going on behind his eyes.

  “Your family,” he continued to her. “What happened that night?”

  She paused. “Brogan killed them.”

  His mouth thinned at her response and he looked away.

  “Detective,” Cole urged. “We’re running out of time.”

  For a moment, the man didn’t respond. “You really think your father’s going to do that to the kid?”

  “I know he is,” Cole replied.

  Harris’ gaze returned to her. Slowly, he drew a breath. “What do you need?”

  Cole exhaled, the tension almost visibly leaving him. “The tunnel below Chaunessy. I need to know how to reach it, what kind of defenses it has, everything.”

  Harris’ brow drew down. “Tunnel?”

  “Yeah.”

  The man shook his head, his eyes flicking to the wizards. “I’ve never heard of any tunnel.”

  “What?” Cole said incredulously. “No, the council – the Taliesin council – they had a tunnel under the building. They…” He trailed off at the blank look on the man’s face, and then turned to her helplessly.

  She hesitated. “Are there other ways we can get in?” she asked Harris.

  “Your highness,” Elias protested. “This man isn't–”

  Her hand twitched, cutting him off, and though her gaze never left the detective, she could see Elias and Cornelius share a
dark look from the corner of her eye.

  Harris paused. “The wizards monitor everything. I have access codes to the doors, but they’ve got cameras and guards on each one.”

  She grimaced, looking away. That was it then. They had to go and the wizards’ backup plans were the only ones left.

  Even if there was no chance they wouldn’t be bloody.

  “Call the others,” she said to Elias, her voice hard. “Have them get ready to–”

  “Who’s Charles Brentworth?”

  She glanced back to Harris.

  “What?” Cole asked.

  “Why?” she demanded.

  Harris looked between them. “Is he connected to that council?”

  She nodded carefully.

  “I heard some wizards talking about him several days ago. Sounded like he was one of their prisoners, somebody important.” Harris paused. “If there really is a tunnel below Chaunessy…” He shrugged noncommittally.

  She looked to Cornelius and Elias, and watched the former’s expression go stone-like, while the latter just turned away. Behind her, displeasure radiated off Nathaniel in waves.

  “Do you know where the prisoners are located?” Cornelius asked tightly.

  Harris eyed the wizard. “A few miles from here in an old hardware store on the edge of downtown.”

  She fought back a grimace, feeling like she was being dragged farther from Lily with every second.

  “And how do we get inside?” Cornelius pressed in the same tone.

  “Access is restricted to just those in charge of the prisoners,” Harris answered. “And they don’t share the codes with anyone. Though…”

  He paused, and she glanced back to see him studying her again.

  Her brow drew down warily. “What?”

  “Mud got moved to guard duty yesterday.”

  Elias scoffed. “Oh, great. Him again.”

  “Wait, did you say Mud?” Spider said, coming closer.

  “You know him?” Ashe asked her.

  Spider tossed a glance to Samson. “You could say that. Bastard found Sam and I when we were kids, said he’d help us, and then tried to sell us out to the first bunch of ferals he saw. Would’ve thanked him for it, if he hadn’t slipped away while we were busy trying not to die. How’d you meet him?”

  “Sort of the same way,” Ashe replied dryly. She turned to Harris. “What’re you thinking?”

  “You can’t trust that weasel to help us,” Spider argued, and her eyes flicked over Harris as though to include him in the epithet.

  Harris met her gaze. “I’m not that stupid. I’m just going to get him outside the building and then,” he glanced across the Merlin, distaste for them all still lingering in his expression, “you ask him about getting to the prisoners. The Blood and the Taliesin never come out of the building. They use portals to travel to just outside Chaunessy. But Mud can’t do that, so he’ll know what you need to get past their security.”

  “Fine,” Ashe said. “Let’s go.”

  Cornelius gestured to Gavin, who jerked his head at the detective in a wordless order to get in the car. Doors opened and then slammed around her while the others did the same.

  “Ashe.”

  She glanced over at Spider. Giving Cole an oblique glance, Spider grimaced as she came up beside her. “Look,” she said, keeping her voice low. “Far be it from me to agree with wizards, but… you sure about this? You’re risking a lot based on the word of a guy who tried to kill you.” She paused. “Two, actually.”

  Ashe hesitated, feeling her expression mirror the girl’s own. “You see another option?”

  Spider looked away. “It just sounds like a trap. Claiming not to know about any tunnel, getting you to head for their prison rather than the main building…” She shook her head. “He works for the Blood, and they would’ve had more than enough time to plan something between when Cole called and you showed up here.”

  Ashe exhaled, her gaze sliding to the vehicle holding Harris.

  She knew they were right. Elias, Cornelius, Spider, all of them. Harris couldn’t be trusted, and there wasn’t a shred of evidence to say he wasn’t just trying to finish what he started a few weeks ago. And Cole wanted to save his dad. It was incredible he’d helped them get this far.

  A phantom ache throbbed in her chest, and her hand twitched with the impulse to rub at it, if only to make it go away.

  Harris could be leading them into a trap, and everyone here could wind up dead as a result. But at the same time, her only other option consisted of throwing what Merlin were left at Chaunessy and hoping any of them made it inside the walls alive.

  “We have to try.”

  “And if he’s lying?”

  “Then you shoot him,” she answered, her voice tight. “And make sure to aim for his heart.”

  Without another word, she headed for the car.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “You sure this is the right place?” Cole asked.

  “They didn’t want the prisoners near Chaunessy,” Harris replied. “Security risk.”

  “No, it’s just… a hardware store? How’s that useful?”

  “Apparently the former owners left lots of material for building cages behind,” Harris responded wryly. “And from what Mud said, the old security was still in place, so it worked well.”

  Barely listening to them, Ashe tilted her head around the corner of the alley to get a better view of the squat building nearly two hundred yards away. Hemmed in by newer structures, the one-story block of brick sat trapped at the rear of a weathered parking lot. Cameras were mounted on each corner, however, keeping every angle covered without a blind spot to spare.

  Behind her, Nathaniel made an annoyed sound, and she closed her eyes briefly before pulling back. Because of the cameras, the Merlin wouldn’t be able to get close, and the magical defenses on the building meant an outside attack could never be fast enough to beat the wizards inside to an alarm. There wasn’t a better plan than the one they had, but that didn’t stop it from leaving her sick to her stomach at its risk.

  At the other end of the alley, the chain-link fence clinked as Spider and Samson slid past to join them. “Bus, Memphis and Blackjack have the next street and the vehicles covered,” the girl said quietly as they came closer. “So what’s the plan?”

  Fighting the urge to let her gaze go to Nathaniel, Ashe didn’t answer. “Everyone else in place?” she asked Elias.

  He nodded. She echoed the motion, pretending not to see the wary look Spider was giving her.

  “Make the call,” she told Harris.

  The detective eyed her briefly and then turned away, drawing out his cell.

  A moment crept past. Her eyes slid toward the rooftops as though she could see the wizards hiding there.

  Harris cleared his throat. “It’s me. Yeah. Because you gave me the number. I–” He grimaced. “Listen, I think I might’ve spotted someone connected to the queen, but it’d be better if you identified them too.” He paused. “Because if I go to Brogan and I’m wrong…” He waited. “Fine, I’ll share credi– no, just share.” Another moment passed. “Fine.”

  He hung up the phone. Drawing a tired breath, he scowled. “It worked. He’s coming.”

  “Get him in the car so he can’t run, and we’ll take it from there,” Elias reiterated.

  The detective just headed for the sedan parked inside the alley entrance.

  Trying to ignore the look that passed between Elias and Nathaniel, she followed the others back into the shadows. Dumpsters and moldering cardboard boxes crowded the rear of the alleyway, while decomposing trash plastered the concrete. Her nose wrinkling, she stepped carefully around the overflowing garbage to hide behind one of the rusted bins.

  “Awesome,” Cole muttered, and she glanced over to see him extracting his foot from an unidentifiable substance on the ground.

  “Quiet,” Elias ordered from across the alley.

  Cole shot him a dark look.

  She tu
rned back to the entrance, sparing a glance for the doorway just beyond the garbage bin. They had options in case this went wrong, so there wasn’t any reason for concern. Not yet, anyway. Either the path through the building or the one past the fence would get them out of here.

  Assuming they could extricate themselves from the garbage in time to escape.

  Grimacing, she pushed the thought away and tried to focus on how little she could breathe and remain conscious. The seconds were like a physical pressure, filled with eye-stinging fumes and the instinct to draw more air, and just when she was certain the little bastard wouldn’t show, the sound of shuffling footsteps carried down from the street.

  She fought the urge to sigh in relief. It wouldn’t go well, and she needed all the oxygen she could get. Shifting slightly for a better view, she peered through the gap formed by two of the dumpsters.

  An oversized coat drawn around him till he looked like an anthill with a head on top, Mud edged into the alleyway entrance, his gaze twitching around on overdrive the entire time. Looking first one way, then immediately the other, he barely paused at the sight of Harris before continuing his scan of the alley and the street.

  “Where are they?” he asked. “The people you saw?”

  “A couple blocks from here,” Harris answered. He gestured to the sedan. “We can take my car.”

  Mud started down the alley. From the corner of her eye, she saw Spider and Samson shift position, getting ready to move.

  “So what’d they look like?” Mud asked.

  “Eh, African-American guy, maybe early twenties or so. Thought I remembered him from Utah.”

  Mud froze. Across the alley, Ashe heard Samson give a low growl of irritation that would have put Nathaniel to shame.

  “Really?” Mud asked, suddenly thoughtful. “You saw him here?”

  “You know someone who looks like that? Good, then you’ll–”

  “Anyone else with him?”

  Harris shrugged. “We’ll see when we get there, right? Hop in.”

  Mud didn’t move. “You sure you didn’t see anybody?”