Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven

by Bella Forrest

  “Don’t sulk, Mr. Kyteler,” Alton continued. “I wouldn’t pick on you if I didn’t think you have what it takes to be a top performer in this coven. You just have to put in the effort, that’s all. Anyway, moving on. Like I said, we’re hoping to get a higher score by the end of this year. Last year was quite… dismal, to say the least.”

  “We only got 203 points,” Wade whispered.

  “How bad is that?” I replied.

  “The San Francisco Coven took the fifth spot with 9,789 points.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  Clearly, the San Diego Coven had its work cut out for it. But was it worth it? How much money were we talking about? What artifacts were handed out as prizes? I made more mental notes to ask Alton later. My skull was becoming a pile of index cards and sticky notes.

  “The Bestiary has been checked from top to bottom, and there was nothing on the cameras,” Alton said. “So, please, all of you, be careful. Unauthorized access to the Bestiary will be severely punished.”

  “I do apologize,” Tobe said, staring at the marble floor beneath him, his head bowed in what felt like shame. “This has never happened before. The Bestiary has always been fully secured. I’ve never even needed additional security.”

  “Tobe, please,” Alton said gently, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Do not blame yourself in any way. We don’t know how the gargoyle made it out of its glass box, but we will find out, sooner or later. In the meantime, we just need to be more vigilant. We’ll be deploying a few patrols through the city, as well, particularly where the gargoyle was captured. The creature is likely to have left energy residue in the area. Other monsters still running loose might be drawn to it, which would bode well for our Bestiary. The more creatures we capture, the more energy is provided to our covens, and, of course, the more points for us.”

  “I’ll post a list of names for patrol rotations by midnight, tonight, outside the dining hall,” O’Halloran interjected. “There will be short, three-hour shifts, in pairs, in allocated districts of the city. Nothing too difficult. Just make sure you stock up on glass jars.”

  “That being said, I will let you know of any future developments,” Alton said, then smiled at me. “Now, I want you all to meet Harley Smith, who was quick-witted and brave enough to assist Wade in capturing the gargoyle.”

  Oh, crap, no!

  As soon as he mentioned my name, my body was nearly crushed under the landslide of emotions pummeling me from all sides. I instinctively grabbed Wade’s forearm and immediately chastised myself for it, but it was the only thing I could think of. The harder I squeezed, the less intense the emotions of two hundred magicals felt. This was all so new and… heavy.

  “Ouch,” Wade issued a low-voiced warning.

  “Sorry,” I murmured, but didn’t let go. Instead, I squeezed harder, overwhelmed by so many feelings at once.

  “Harley will be with us for the next month, and she’ll be attending classes with the juniors,” Alton added. “Given her late discovery, Harley is quite far behind, but I trust she will—”

  The mirrors behind him and Tobe all started to hum, their surfaces rippling more visibly and their bronze frames squeaking at the joints. The crowd forgot about me as they all looked at the mirrors, along with Alton and Tobe, who moved farther to the side.

  I gasped, finally able to properly breathe again.

  “Oh, man, I need to tell Alton not to mention me to people anymore—or ever again—especially in a crowd,” I muttered, then wiped the sweat off my forehead, letting go of Wade’s arm. I got a peculiar whiff of disappointment from him, before the hum got louder, reminding me that something weird was going on with those mirrors.

  “What’s happening?” I asked.

  “Someone is coming through,” Wade replied.

  “Is that normal?”

  “Normal, yes. But it’s usually expected. This wasn’t scheduled.”

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “Because Alton clearly wasn’t expecting it, as evidenced by the look on his face,” Wade grumbled, prompting me to get a better look at Alton.

  He was right. Alton was stunned, and not in a good way.

  Chapter Twelve

  “So, you people just… what, travel through mirrors? Like parallel dimensions or something?” I asked. I’d stopped wondering how weird things happened from the moment I accidentally tossed my first-grade nemesis across the road with just the power of my mind. I was more interested in the actual process.

  “You’re not too far from the truth, actually,” Wade said. “The coven is in an interdimensional pocket, like a strip between blobs of space. But the strip is infinite, and you can sort of poke it in different places. Think of our world as a giant bag of… blobs, bundled and glued together with this interdimensional strip. The mirrors are like holes in different blobs. You step into one, and you pass through the strip, then make it out into another blob.”

  “Like teleporting.”

  “Except you don’t get disintegrated and reintegrated upon arrival to your destination,” Wade replied. “Mirror travel only works with a particular spell and if you know your destination. And any mirror will work. It’s an old spell, conjured up by ancient Egyptian warlocks. They were the first to discover the magical properties of reflective surfaces.”

  I nodded slowly, watching in awe as three figures slowly emerged from the mirrors, like bodies coming up to the surface of a mercurial lake. Two warlocks and one witch came forward, all three in their late thirties or forties, and superbly dressed. Had this not been a magical gathering, I could’ve easily seen them sauntering down a runway for custom, tailor-made outfits—with a predominance of dark blues and gold, as they all seemed to adhere to a similar color palette.

  “Are those uniforms?” I whispered, taking in every detail, every crease and hand-crafted button, every thread and shimmering lapel. The warlocks were in full suits, complete with waistcoats and ascots, while the witch had opted for an elegant skirt-and-jacket combo.

  “You could call them uniforms,” Wade replied, his voice filled with tension. “Navy blue and gold are the colors of the California Mage Council. They tend to wear them when they attend assemblies such as this.”

  “Oh, this is the Mage Council,” I murmured.

  “Part of it, yes. There are seven members, but, as you can see, only three came to visit this time around.”

  “So we weren’t expecting them?”

  “Nope. Which is why I’m a little concerned.”

  “Yeah, I can feel that,” I replied.

  “And that’s creepy,” he shot back.

  “You’d better get used to it.” I shrugged in response. “Who are these Mages, exactly?”

  As Wade pointed them out to me, I couldn’t ignore Alton’s displeasure at seeing them here. They made him uncomfortable, for some reason. Putting two and two together, I figured this unannounced visit had something to do with the gargoyle getting out of the Bestiary.

  “That’s Leonidas Levi, the deciding vote in most Council-related conversations, and one of the most powerful warlocks I’ve ever met,” Wade said, nodding toward the eldest of the group, a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair and dark brown, almost black eyes. My gaze wandered to his ring, a solid gold piece with a multitude of gemstones that glistened under the amber light. “The other is Nicholas Mephiles, revered alchemist and one of the very few to achieve transmutation of stone to gold,” Wade continued, pointing at the short and stocky warlock, whose waistcoat looked a size too small and whose reddish beard covered a double chin.

  “So, what, a genius?”

  Wade nodded slowly. “You could say that, yes. Creating gold out of stone takes very precise formulation and time, and a lot of power. He singlehandedly funds the Sacramento Coven, and I think there are at least ten gargoyles in our Bestiary that came out of his Purges.”

  “Ah. The price paid for gold, right?” I concluded.

  “Exactly. Everything costs with Chaos,” Wade said. �
�And that’s Imogene Whitehall.”

  Imogene had my full attention. She reminded me of a fairytale elf, with delicate, diaphanous skin, sky-blue eyes that felt eerily familiar, and a cascade of pale blonde, almost white hair that poured over her back and shoulders. She was tall and graceful, with soft features and the warmest smile I’d ever seen, directed at me. Crap, she’s looking at me.

  I’d quickly learned to dislike the attention in that assembly hall, but Imogene felt… quiet. The emotions coming off her were unclear, at best. I found that relieving and intriguing at the same time. She gave me a brief nod, then shifted her focus to Alton, who stepped forward to address the Council.

  “What’s the deal with Imogene?” I asked, looking at Wade. I was surprised to see and feel him like that—he was in sheer awe of her, as if gazing upon a star. His reaction seemed perfectly understandable, given that she was by far one of the most beautiful and surreal creatures I’d ever come across. Wade had every right to crush on her. She’d chosen a simple pencil skirt and smart jacket, with a gold-threaded vest and white shirt, diamonds dangling from her delicate earlobes and matching the tear-shaped pendant resting in the dip between her neck and collarbones. And it all looked perfect on her. Sculptors and painters of the Renaissance period would’ve killed to have her as a model.

  “Isn’t it obvious? She’s perfect,” he mumbled, blatantly fawning over her. It quickly got irritating for me to watch, so I saved additional questions for later. Preferably when Imogene was far away and out of his line of sight.

  “Imogene, Nicholas, Leonidas,” Alton said, nodding at the Council as they took center stage. “What brings you all here today?”

  “I wish we didn’t have to do this, Alton,” Imogene replied, her voice as sweet and soft as the rest of her. A few more minutes of her and I would’ve wound up swooning like Wade.

  “But we must,” Leonidas added, in a sharp, dark contrast. “The gargoyle incident came to our attention, and we are here to deliver a stern warning.”

  “It’s taken care of, though.” Alton shook his head, frowning. “No one was injured. The beast was recovered and is now back in the Bestiary. There was no need for the Mage Council to come all the way here for that.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” Leonidas replied. “This is completely unprecedented, and, frankly, it’s unacceptable. No monster has ever escaped the Bestiary before, and it is cause for grave concern.”

  There was a certain gravitas in Leonidas’s voice that didn’t match the honey-like sweetness of his Persian accent. He’d probably been in the States for a long time, his English almost fully set in, but his roots still crept up, particularly in the weight he placed on certain consonants. One of my earlier foster parents was Iranian by birth, and I could recognize those inflections anywhere.

  “Like I said, we have it under control,” Alton insisted, and I could feel his discomfort stiffening my joints. He really didn’t like Leonidas.

  “We know, and we’re pleased to see the Bestiary otherwise well managed here.” Imogene smiled, then put on a pained expression. “But that doesn’t change the fact that a monster escaped. We cannot let that slide without repercussions, I’m afraid.”

  “The San Diego Coven is thus stripped of fifty points,” Leonidas announced, prompting the crowd to gasp and murmur in response. An overall air of discontentment filled me, by default. “Should further such incidents occur, the California Mage Council will submit an unfavorable review on the San Diego Coven, directly to the United Covens of America. You’ve already got slim chances of earning a decent score this year, Alton. Don’t make it any worse.”

  “And the penalties will be much more severe if other monsters get out,” Nicholas added, his double chin high and his brow furrowed. “The Bestiary is our most prized possession, and it is our most dangerous, too. We can’t afford any more mistakes. The San Diego Coven may have been randomly selected to manage it, but, Alton, you had a chance to turn down the nomination. Instead, you assumed full responsibility. It’s not a zoo, and Tobe here is not the caretaker. Death and destruction will swallow this earth if the Bestiary is ever let loose. We need you all to pay attention.”

  “That won’t be the case, I can assure you!” Alton shot back, standing on the verge of fury at that point and doing his best to hold it all back. His hands balled into fists, his knuckles turning white. “Consider your stern warning received and registered. Is that all?”

  “You’ve been here for, what, three years?” Leonidas replied snidely, raising an eyebrow. I had to admit, I wasn’t fond of the guy, either.

  Alton nodded. “That is correct.”

  “You don’t have much to show for it, Waterhouse. Get your house in order, and don’t become another Halifax,” Leonidas said. “We’re serious. Don’t screw this up. We’ll be paying extra attention to the San Diego Coven from now on.”

  I couldn’t ignore the chill running down my spine. The California Mage Council made me feel… wary. Apart from Imogene, who seemed genuinely nice. The other two had their noses so high, they were probably frosted. I could only imagine what the other four were like. Elitism seemed like a defining feature for them, and after my brief stint in a California prep school, I just didn’t want more of that.

  We were all made of the same stuff. Blood ran through our veins. We ate, we breathed, and we all certainly pooped. One’s riches should never be a standard for some kind of superiority, and I sincerely loathed anyone who tried to perpetrate that idea—particularly in the 21st century, in the age of smartphones and social media, the era of fights for equality and decency. History was meant to serve as a lesson, not a guideline. Errors were meant to be recorded and later avoided, not repeated. Elitism raised the masses once, to the point where the people got angry and toppled entire monarchies. Had we really learned nothing?

  Alton was boiling. The mention of Halifax seemed to make a little vein pop in his temple. I could see it throbbing from where I stood.

  “Who’s Halifax?” I asked Wade, who was nervous and concerned. The Mage Council and the mention of the United Covens of America seemed to hit a nerve in him, too.

  “The previous director of the San Diego Coven,” Wade muttered. “A useless slob. Always took the easy way out and hammered us all into Mediocrity. He was more focused on setting a little fortune aside to buy a farm somewhere in the Midwest than on helping magicals strive to achieve more, and better.”

  “Did he get his farm, then?”

  “He was penalized a fortune and fired for utter incompetence, then Alton was brought in,” Wade said. “Last time I heard, Halifax was back on the East Coast, working three jobs to cover his mortgage. No coven wanted him after the San Diego debacle. They agreed to let him live as a rogue, but he’s under constant monitoring.”

  “Will that be all, then?” Alton repeated, gritting his teeth.

  Leonidas narrowed his eyes at him, and they glared at each other for what felt like an eternity. But then Leonidas chuckled and walked back through the mirror without another word. The others followed, and they all disappeared beyond the silvery ripples of the mirrors, leaving a very annoyed Alton behind.

  “I’m pretty sure we closed it up nice and tight, this time,” Alton said, mostly to himself.

  “I promise I will be more vigilant.” Tobe sighed, his massive shoulders dropping.

  “There’s only so much you can do, Tobe.” Alton shook his head. “You’re there all the time, and you do an exemplary job of keeping the monsters in their place. It’s up to us to offer assistance. We’ll just need to draw up a good plan to avoid another Council visit. Levi seems eager to see us burn.”

  This Bestiary issue sounded a lot worse now. After all, the California Mage Council had felt it necessary to step in and issue a warning. It wasn’t just the danger that it posed to the outside world; judging by how concerned the San Diego Coven magicals felt, they were seriously worried about the financial and regulatory repercussions.

  From what I’d learned
so far, Halifax had already done a lot of damage, which Alton was trying hard to undo, while looking after the Bestiary with Tobe. They simply couldn’t afford any more mistakes. The worst part was that they had yet to figure out how the gargoyle had escaped in the first place, and I didn’t know enough about whatever magic and technologies were used in the Bestiary to form an opinion.

  All I could do was feel the weight of their worry as the entire coven feared for their standing in the magical world, their funding, and their safety, as well as that of the billions of humans who stood to suffer and die if the Bestiary was ever set loose.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The crowd grew noisy around me, their restlessness bursting through me with knee-shattering vertigo and way too much anxiety for me to handle. Wade seemed to notice, and discreetly wrapped his fingers around my forearm, squeezing gently, while Alton raised his voice to calm everybody down.

  “Take it easy,” Wade said, his voice low and strangely soothing.

  “Everybody, please be quiet,” Alton shouted. “There is no reason to worry, or to panic! We’ll simply have to take additional measures so we can keep everything under control, that’s all.”

  “How do you propose we do that?” one of the magicals asked, her sultry tone echoing from the other end of the assembly hall.

  “Focus on Alton,” Wade whispered in my ear. My skin tickled, and instead of doing as he suggested, I instinctively focused on him. Right then, he was radiating calmness and reassurance. He was the closest thing I had to an anchor that could keep me from spiraling into panic.

  “We’ll put together two teams,” Alton explained, then moved toward the edge of the podium. “One to further investigate the Bestiary, and one to do an extensive follow-up cleaning in the affected areas of the city, particularly where the gargoyle was active. Like I said, chances are there might be some monster activity wherever the creature left energy residue. The investigation team will work closely with Preceptor Nomura and Tobe to look into the Bestiary and check every single glass box, every charm, every spell, and every lock in that place. If needed, Preceptor Bellmore will be more than happy to assist.”