“I would like to have better control over my abilities, sure,” I said.
“I’ll tell you a secret, but you must promise you won’t tell anyone, Harley.”
I nodded. “Cross my heart.”
“You want to make friends with Preceptor Nomura,” she whispered. “It took him twenty years to find his Esprit, but he was an expert in his field long before that.”
“Whoa. How did he do that?”
“Self-control,” Imogene replied. “It’s all about self-control, and I can’t think of anyone who is better equipped to teach you about that. Take your time with him, though. Don’t go straight to him with the request. Let him see you need help. He has many tricks up his sleeve, but he rarely shares them with other magicals. In our world, when we want to limit the powers of a delinquent magical, we take away their Esprit. You see, once you’re connected to yours, you’ll depend on it. Your raw abilities will shrink significantly, as the energy of Chaos settles inside the Esprit.”
“Ah, so Nomura doesn’t want other magicals to learn his techniques, because if they go dark-side and have their Esprits taken away from them, they can still do damage, right?” I concluded, and Imogene smiled brightly.
“Exactly. You’re smart as a whip, Harley. Should you ever choose to move to another city, do let me know. I’d be more than happy to put in a good word for you in the Los Angeles Coven, for example.”
“Apparently, I’m a Mediocre. Not sure LA would want me,” I said.
“Nonsense. Your greatness is not defined by such a label,” Imogene replied, shaking her head. “It’s one of the things I truly despise about our society. Labels on everything!”
I liked Imogene. She was ridiculously cool—and nothing like the rest of the Mage Council. No wonder everybody swooned over her. I couldn’t help but wonder what my life would’ve been like if I’d grown up with someone like her around. I wouldn’t be feeling so scared and insecure now, that’s for sure.
“Ms. Whitehall,” Wade greeted her, almost gliding across the store and bumping into me, as if I was in the way. My heart fluttered and—oh, God, he’s crushing on her. My ticker then sank, overriding his emotions. Why did I feel so… down, all of a sudden? Was my Empathy glitching? “What a surprise to see you here.”
“Mr. Crowley, it’s a pleasure to see you,” Imogene replied with a neutral but still incredibly charming smile.
If angels were real, there would be a choir behind her, singing odes to her beauty and serenity. Wade’s puppy-dog eyes were starting to get on my nerves.
“I see you’ve met our new recruit,” Wade said, giving me a brief sideways glance. Somehow, it felt as though he was looking right through me. Like I’m a prop.
“I hope you’re all treating her well, Mr. Crowley. I understand Harley is extremely gifted, and she’s already having a hard time being what you call a ‘late bloomer.’ She requires patience and understanding, most of all.”
My heart came back to the surface and grew three sizes.
“She’s a Mediocre, Ms. Whitehall. There’s only so much she can do, unfortunately.”
And in came Wade with a sledgehammer, ready to make me want to gouge his eyes out.
“See, Harley?” Imogene said, once again smiling like I was the single most precious thing she’d laid her eyes upon. I could almost hear those angels singing. “Like I said, our magical society has fallen so low, tangled in all these foolish labels. Don’t listen to a word they tell you, darling. You do you.”
“Oh, I’m doing just that, believe me,” I replied, then threw an acid smirk at Wade.
My stomach churned—that was him. He fell out of favor with her, and it burned. Hah!
“I’d love to stick around, but I’ve got a couple more meetings in the area before I head back to LA. Take care of yourself, Harley, and remember: labels are useless.”
She squeezed my shoulder gently, then waved both Wade and me goodbye as she walked out of the reliquary. I swear, if this was an animated movie, there would be birds, squirrels, and other cute forest critters following her around.
Wade felt sorry to see her leave, and I enjoyed every drop of that mild misery. That’s what you get for being so eager to call me Mediocre. I slapped him on the back, hard enough to make him grunt and loud enough for the rest of our team to turn their heads around, but kept a huge grin on my face to make it look friendly.
“Come on, Wade! Nothing more for me to see here, so let’s get back to the coven,” I said. “You’ve got a report to file, and I need to get ready for a hot date!”
I was laughing so hard on the inside, as my stomach twisted itself into an incredibly painful knot—all Wade. Imogene had left him behind with a sour look on his face, and I’d gone ahead and made it even worse.
Whatever issue he had with Garrett, it clearly bothered him that I was involved, even if it was in the honeypot role. I planned to have as much fun as I possibly could in this deranged triangle.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It was around six p.m. when I found myself back in my room at the coven, feverishly reexamining the events of the day. The gargoyles’ obsession with me aside, there was something off about the way in which they kept getting out of the Bestiary.
Wade sent me a text after he returned the Mason jars to Tobe. “Confirmed, seven out of ten came from the Bestiary,” the text said. It was highly unlikely that seven gargoyles had simply escaped from what was supposed to be a super secure facility, with added magical security, a massive Beast Master, and countless charms and witchy tech on top. It didn’t make sense.
It reeked of an inside job. I mean, I might have understood one excessively stubborn Murray bypassing security, but seven? No way.
I wondered what Alton thought of all this, and who had made it onto his suspect list. I didn’t know anyone well enough in this place to exclude them—except for my Rag Team, whom I’d been actively reading on an emotional level, looking for guilt, or fear, or anything that could point to such a betrayal. In hindsight, neither fear nor guilt was an undeniable marker. One could be vicious enough to feel nothing while putting the lives of magicals and humans alike at risk.
No matter how I looked at it, the place with the most answers was the Bestiary, for the time being. Tobe must’ve been gutted to recognize the seven gargoyles as “local residents.” The other three were most likely wildlings, drawn to the city by the others.
I had three hours to spare till my so-called date with Garrett, so I decided to at least try and make myself useful. It just didn’t feel right to sit there while all of this was going on. Sneaking into the Bestiary wasn’t easy—not after more gargoyles had escaped. There were two security magicals stationed just by the door, turning everyone away. “The Bestiary is off limits for the time being, except for Director Waterhouse and the investigation team,” they kept saying.
I had to wait until their shift was over. There was a small window of opportunity when their replacements came in, and they stepped to the side to briefly discuss updates.
I slipped through the Bestiary door just as a displeased Preceptor Nomura left, giving the security magicals a brief nod—perfect timing for me. No wonder we’re having security issues, given how I still managed to get in. Me, the magical noob.
The gargoyle boxes were somewhere on the northern side of the Bestiary, from what I could remember about the layout. I snuck through, light on my feet, until I reached a massive glass case, with dozens of smoky, shapeless gargoyles swishing around, clearly discontent with their enclosure. Tough luck, you ugly bastards.
The box itself looked sturdy, as did the many others around it, all different heights and widths, all edges poured in brass, with various symbols etched into the metallic surface. The locks seemed intact, too. I held one between two fingers, turning it over to double check, though I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for. Signs of tampering, I guess. Magical or not, clearly someone can still mess with these things.
“What the hell are you doing here?�
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Wade’s low voice startled me, and I sprang to my feet with a yelp. His hand immediately covered my mouth, and he shushed me. We stared at each other, wide-eyed, for a few seconds, his skin on my lips making my cheeks flush.
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?” I shot back, pushing his hands away. The mild tingle in my lips was quickly upstaged by the knot in my stomach. I wasn’t sure whether it was mine or Wade’s.
“Investigating the boxes. Your turn,” Wade said, frowning.
It took me a moment to process that. “You’re on the cleanup team with us, in case you forgot. You don’t investigate.”
“I don’t have to investigate. It doesn’t mean I can’t. Especially not when I think Garrett’s doing a crappy job,” Wade replied. “Why are you here, Harley? Shouldn’t you be getting ready for your ‘hot date?’”
How did I end up the culprit in this picture?
“We’re just going out for drinks. It’s not the Academy Awards. No red carpet to get ready for,” I retorted. “I wanted to see if I could help. I just don’t know what I’m looking for, exactly.”
“Of course you don’t. You don’t belong here,” Wade replied.
“Tough luck. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Shh—” He covered my mouth again and pushed me against a tall, empty glass box. My first instinct was to kick him in the nuts, but that stilled when I heard voices not too far away. Garrett and Finch’s voices, to be precise.
Crap.
Wade muttered something under his breath, then opened the glass box and pushed me inside. “What are you—” I managed, then froze when he joined me and closed the glass door behind him. There was very little room in there for the both of us. Our bodies were almost glued to each other, and it was seriously messing with my senses.
“Shut up, or we’re both in trouble,” Wade whispered, then uttered another spell.
A charcoal haze emerged from beneath, and I caught a glimpse of his rings glowing warm red, his hands resting on my hips. My heart fluttered, while the box filled with what looked like black smoke—similar to that of a formless monster. I had to tilt my head to one side to see beyond the glass box.
Garrett, Finch, Poe, and the rest of the investigative team came around, checking each glass box along the way. “Alton said to check it again, so we’re checking it again,” Garrett said, rolling his eyes. One of his teammates had most likely asked what they were doing there. I was going to ask the same thing…
Blood was rushing through my veins, while I struggled to breathe. Not because of the black haze, but because of how close I was to Wade. Every inch of him, all hard muscles stretching over his tall frame, pushed against my body. I felt all soft and gooey by comparison. Tender and vulnerable. Tiny and… with lips still tingling from his touch. Get it together, Harley.
I focused on what Garrett and the others were doing, trying my best to ignore the fact that I was stuck in a box with Wade, surrounded by smoke meant to conceal us.
“Tobe said seven of the ten gargoyles that Crowley and his deadbeats captured were from the Bestiary,” Garrett said, turning an engraved lock over. “It means someone must be tampering with the locks, for sure.”
“So, what, inside job?” Finch replied incredulously. “Who would be dumb enough to do that?”
“I don’t know, man, but the stakes just went up on this one,” Garrett said. “This is worth at least six hundred points, I bet.”
“End-of-year bonus, here we come!” Poe chuckled, and Garrett instantly smacked him over the shoulder.
“You don’t get to drool over that bonus, you idiot. Not after the crappy cleanup job you did at the casino! Having Alton breathe down my neck is exhausting enough as it is. I really didn’t need Crowley snickering at me over your incompetence,” Garrett spat, then pointed farther down the corridor. “Now, go check that side. Look for any broken etchings on the seals. If either symbol is even partially scratched or destroyed, the locking spell no longer works.”
Poe nodded, filled with guilt and shame, then turned and went ahead, as instructed.
Wade’s heart thudded against mine, reminding me of how close we were to one another. His fingers were digging into my waist, most likely a reaction to Garrett’s words.
“Come on, let’s see what’s on the other side,” Finch said, pointing to the south, beyond our box. He got dangerously close, and I instinctively hid my face in Wade’s chest, the drumbeat of his heart amplified and pouring into my ears. He didn’t move a single muscle as Finch glided past the box, followed closely by Garrett and the others.
Once the coast was clear, he opened the door, and the black smoke dissipated.
Wade was the first to get out, while I needed a moment to breathe again. His gaze was dark and a little too intense for my frayed nerves, but I couldn’t look away, either. My heart was literally pounding.
“Would you like to stay in there?” Wade raised an eyebrow.
“Why were we hiding in the first place?” I asked. “Since when are you afraid of Garrett?”
“Who said I was afraid? This isn’t about fear, Harley. I just don’t want him or anyone else to see us here,” he replied, angrier than before. He really hated it when I brought up Garrett, it seemed. “Just so you understand, tasks given are clear. As per the regulations, we don’t interfere in the work of other teams. Not unless instructed by the coven director, or if lives are put in immediate danger. Neither is the case right now, so, technically—”
“You’re breaking the rules.” I smirked.
His shoulders dropped, followed by an audible exhalation. “Yes.”
“Okay, cool. Got it. Now what?” I replied, secretly pleased to see he was able to stray off the path, at least once in his lifetime.
“We keep looking. Check every corner, every nook and cranny, twice. I don’t trust Garrett and his deadbeats to find the damn moon in the sky, not to mention evidence of magical tampering. Everything that feels off, strange, or simply irks you, tell me. Okay?”
I gave him a brief nod and started looking at all the boxes around us, ignoring the agitated, shapeless billows of smoke contained within. Less than five minutes later, I looked over my shoulder to steal a brief glance at Wade and found him on all fours in front of a gargoyle box. His face was glued to the floor, his gaze fixed on something underneath.
The smoke inside rippled into the form of Murray, my hellish gargoyle stalker. He imitated Wade’s pose, while sneering at me. His body wasn’t consistent, though, each movement giving off wisps of black fumes. I narrowed my eyes at it, tired of being afraid. He’d ruined my Daisy, and seeing him stuck in there didn’t feel like it was enough to soothe my broken heart.
I drew my face closer to the glass as Murray lifted his to my eye level, his fangs extra long, sharp, and eager to cut through me. My anger and grief were most likely beaming through my eyes, because Murray seemed to enjoy it. “Yeah, but you’re in there, and I’m out here,” I whispered, then tapped the glass with one finger.
The gesture seemed to startle Murray, as he dissipated into black smoke, and it took him a while to regain his gargoyle form. I tapped the glass again, and he disintegrated once more. The slightest vibration on the glass surface seemed to have that effect on the monster’s attempts at a form. I wondered if Tobe walked around the Bestiary, rattling a baton against the glass boxes, just to mess with the prisoners like a mean warden.
“The bottom of this box feels a little uneven in the far corner,” Wade muttered from below, then muttered something else—a spell, based on how his rings lit up red—and reached under Murray’s box.
“This isn’t from here,” he said, then stood up, holding something between his index and thumb. “And apparently everyone else missed it. I guess I’m better at finding secrets around here than the entire investigative team. Of course, the investigative team doesn’t have my knowledge of revelation spells.”
“Because you’re a diehard nerd?”
“Precisely,�
� he replied proudly.
I leaned in to get a better look at what he was holding. It looked like a two-inch copper coin, with beads, twine, shards of bone, and dried herbs glued on one side, into neatly organized little clusters.
“What’s that?” I asked.
Wade’s gaze found mine, and it didn’t say anything good. “It’s a spell disruptor. A very complicated charm,” he said, then slowly brought the object up between us, pointing at various parts. “See this? This is dried amaranth, for invisibility. It makes the disruptor untraceable, if used in the right amount and with the appropriate spell. These are hoodoo beads, called ‘chain breakers.’ They’re used to counteract spells. This… This is a custom-made charm, designed specifically to disrupt the Bestiary’s protections. It’s very complex and… impossible to decipher.”
“What does that tell us?” I asked.
“It tells us that we’re dealing with an extremely capable magical who’s past the stage of learning existing spells, and is creating new ones,” Wade replied. “This here is unique. All disruptors are built on a round, copper base, but the elements on top are the ones that dictate its purpose. Thing is, I think it fully bypasses any alarms that Tobe might have set for the boxes. Otherwise, I can’t explain how he doesn’t realize that monsters are getting out. This is grade A sabotage.”
“Do you have any idea who made it?”
He shook his head, and I could feel his concern weighing on my shoulders. “Whoever it is, this is evil. This is deliberate. It’s meant to get us all in trouble. And they’re doing it covertly, so it’s obvious sabotage. You were right, Harley, this is an inside job, the worst of its kind.”
I stared at the disruptor, trying to wrap my head around its apparently complex build. Something told me my classes with Preceptor Bellmore would be most useful, if I wanted to understand what this thing was made of. I was curious about the process for manufacturing such an object.
“What are you two doing here?” Tobe’s voice thundered straight through me, and, judging by the stunned look on Wade’s face, him too. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven Page 25
