We followed her into the hallway, then down the stairs to the second level, into one of the many open halls where various pieces of jewelry and fine art were put on display—dragons, shining suits of armor and elegant sculptures, necklaces and crowns, gold scepters, and a plethora of rings and bracelets bathed each room in a twinkling variety of metallic luster and colored gemstones.
“The thing with yellow jasper is that it can be easily confused with other types of cheaper, colored glass,” Not-Tatyana said as she stopped in front of a glass case, where a beautiful regal crown was mounted, its band loaded with yellowish crystals and diamonds. Before either of us could react, she drove her fist through the case, shattering the glass.
We all gasped and froze, while Not-Tatyana shrugged and picked the crown up. She bit her lower lip as she used her fingers to pry out the larger yellow jasper stones mounted on the front side of the crown.
“We’re going to be in so much trouble for this,” Astrid breathed, staring at the multitude of glass particles scattered across the floor.
Not-Tatyana chuckled, then handed over the yellow jasper stones to Wade. “Relax, it’s not like anyone’s ever wearing this piece of junk again. Here, do I look pretty?” She put the crown on her head and grinned. There was something slightly psychotic about her while under the possession of a spirit, and it felt wrong to find it funny, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Okay, we’re done here,” Wade replied. “Thank you for your help, but we need Tatyana back.”
“Typical man behavior,” Not-Tatyana said, raising her chin. “I give you what you want, and you toss me aside.”
“We have some pressing matters to attend to, that’s all,” Wade said, and I could feel the tension mounting as his rings started glowing red. He was ready to take action against the spirit if he had to.
Not-Tatyana shook her head slowly, her lips twisted with contempt. “That being said, you need to watch your back,” she said, shifting her focus to me. “None of your father’s victims stuck around to tell the tale, but someone knows you’re alive, little Merlin, and they’re not happy.”
“Wait, what? What are you talking about?” I asked, chills running down my spine.
The glow in her body faded, and Tatyana sighed, returning to us for a couple of seconds, her blue eyes visible again. “Did it work?” she asked, and Wade nodded. “Good.”
She blinked several times, then passed out. Dylan was quick to catch her, scooping her up in his arms.
“No, wait. What did she mean? Who knows I’m alive? Tatyana!” I called out, frightened and confused.
“She’s not going to answer now, sorry,” Dylan replied. “She’s out cold and will sleep through the rest of the night. I’ve seen her do this before. It’s exhausting.”
“Dammit,” I cursed under my breath. “Who was she talking about?”
“We don’t know, Harley, but it will have to wait until the morning, along with the wolfsbane,” Wade said. “Though I wouldn’t hold my breath, if I were you. Tatyana doesn’t remember the details of her possessions, not when she’s taken over like that. And she’ll need to replenish her energy to summon a spirit like Hession-Doren again. I doubt it’ll happen soon.”
I let out a frustrated sigh and ran my fingers through my hair. “Am I in danger?”
“When are you not in danger?” Santana chuckled softly, her dark humor infecting me. I felt a smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. “Listen, let’s get some rest for now. We all need our strength for tomorrow, because once the tracking spell is complete and we find out who’s been letting the gargoyles out, chances are we’ll have a bit of a fight on our hands. I doubt they’ll willingly surrender.”
“Santana is right,” Wade replied, then handed me the scroll. “Take this to Tobe first thing in the morning. Given that you’re a part of the investigative team now, you don’t have to sneak into the Bestiary anymore.”
“Pot, kettle, sure,” I retorted, then hid the scroll in the inside pocket of my leather jacket. “I’ll get the venom from Quetzi, and meet you all downstairs for breakfast, I guess?”
“No, it’s always going to be a mess for you until you learn to get the Empathy under control,” Wade replied. “Let’s meet in my office, right before breakfast. I’ll have the wolfsbane and the other ingredients by then, too.”
“Your office?” I said.
“I’ve been an illustrious member of this coven for a few years now. I’ve earned my own office,” Wade said, a tinge of pride adding gravitas to his tone.
Astrid then cut in, taking the crown off Tatyana’s head. “You guys go ahead. I’ll clean this up and prepare an apology for Alton. He won’t have an aneurism if I’m the one to tell him what we did here.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. Alton is easy on you.” Santana giggled. “I mean, considering the number of times you’ve died for the coven, the man is in your debt for life.”
We left Astrid behind with a murmured thank you, then headed downstairs to our rooms.
I spent some time looking at my mother’s box, wondering if there was any way for me to open it. I was dying of curiosity as to what I’d find inside. I turned it over several times, hearing a faint jingle. Holding my breath, I peeped through its keyhole, but all I saw was darkness. Exhaling, I realized I was too tired for this. I hid it back under the bed and tried to get some rest.
Come morning, we were going to unmask the traitor in our midst, and that was supposed to be enough to remove the dark clouds hanging over my head. However, as I settled under the bedcovers, I couldn’t stop myself from shaking.
Somebody knew that I, Harley Merlin, daughter of Hiram and Hester Merlin, was alive… Someone knew and didn’t like the idea of me walking and breathing. Could the gargoyles have something to do with all that? It didn’t make sense. It didn’t fit with the timeline. The coven found out about my origins after we captured the last batch.
But still… Who, and why would anyone want me dead?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I didn’t hear my six a.m. alarm. My eyes shot open, and a sudden feeling of panic took over when I realized that I’d overslept. I checked my phone and yelped. It was 7:46 a.m. and the breakfast hall was opening in fourteen minutes.
“Crap, crap, crap!” I jumped out of bed and put on the first shirt and pair of jeans I could get my hands on, along with my leather jacket, then rushed straight to the Bestiary.
Oversleeping was not in my nature, but with everything that had been going on, it didn’t exactly come as a surprise. I didn’t even realize how disheveled I looked, until I came face-to-face with two of the security magicals stationed by the Bestiary door. There were also messages from Wade that needed a reply from me, all of them ending in “???”, a written testament of his impatience and my being horribly late.
“Hey, guys,” I said, putting on a friendly smile. “Harley Smith—sorry, Merlin. Harley Merlin. Still getting used to that.” I laughed nervously. “Investigative team member. I need to get in.”
“We know who you are,” one of the magicals replied, as he stepped aside. I offered a brief nod in return and pushed past the door, while checking my phone.
Where the hell are you???
I quickly typed a reply, telling Wade I’d be in his office in ten minutes. “Tops,” I murmured while tapping the on-screen keyboard and navigating the Bestiary’s glass corridors.
The air felt thicker than usual in there, formless smoke rippling and swirling around in the boxes as I headed toward Quetzi’s enclosure. I hit send, then slipped the phone in my back pocket and glanced around, looking for Tobe.
“Tobe!” I called out, stopping in front of Quetzi’s giant glass box.
The thick, tall grass trembled in the glass enclosure, notifying me of the monster’s presence. Quetzi’s huge, feathered head popped out, his turquoise eyes wide and fixed on me. The creature slithered closer to the glass pane standing between us, with jaws opening to reveal those gorgeous but deadly pearly fangs.
Hissing and growling erupted from nearby boxes. Various monsters were shaping up, clawing at the glass and snapping their monstrous teeth at me, ferociously hungry. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, eat me!” I muttered, then checked my surroundings again.
Gargoyles were gathering in full view inside one of the larger enclosures. But they were quiet, watching me intently with black, beady little eyes. “Oh, you’re not into eating me, then? I’m not part of the gargoyle diet, after all, huh?”
“Actually, it’s the quiet ones you should be most afraid of,” Tobe replied, emerging from a nearby corridor. “The loud ones are just… well, just loud. Territorial, mostly. The quiet ones are the stalkers. It’s like in an African savannah. It’s not the roaring lions you need to be afraid of, but the quiet lionesses rushing toward you through the tall grass.”
I dry-swallowed a sudden clump of fear, then gave him a weak smile. “Thanks for the insight. I’ll keep that in mind and just refrain from taunting anything that came out of a Purge,” I said.
“That’s a good approach.” He chuckled. “Now, what brings you here so early in the morning?”
“I need your help,” I replied, handing over the tracking spell scroll. “We found something that can help us trace the disruptor charm we found under Murray’s box to its original maker. We have all the ingredients, except for the last one.”
Tobe read through the scroll and offered a single, soft nod. “And you’re certain this will work?”
“It’s worth a shot, don’t you think?” I said, then shrugged. His big amber eyes settled on my face, and I felt his concern seeping through me like cold air through a window that wasn’t closed properly. He was worried about something, but I couldn’t say what, exactly.
Is he wary of the tracking spell?
“I do. It’s just that this is a very old, forbidden spell. They’re forbidden for a reason, Harley.”
“Alton gave us access to look for something that could help us. This was the only one to which we have all the ingredients,” I said, trying to analyze his emotions.
If it’s an inside job, Tobe shouldn’t be excluded from the suspect list. But what would be his endgame?
“Do you know why these spells are forbidden?” he asked, frowning slightly.
“Wade said it’s because they could be devastating and deadly in the wrong or inexperienced hands,” I replied, tucking my hands in the back pockets of my jeans.
“It’s also because they’re highly volatile and downright unstable. Some are so precise in the ingredient quantities that, if you put just one milligram over the specified limit, you could blow yourself and those around you to pieces,” Tobe replied, then gave me the scroll back. “Which is why I’m asking again. Are you sure this is the only way?”
“If we don’t come up with something by tonight, Alton will take the matter to the Mage Council, and I understand that will be really bad for the coven. Terrible. Sucky. Pick your favorite doomsday term.”
He sighed, then moved his massive lion head around, stretching his neck muscles. I heard his bones crack as he waved his arms back and forth a couple of times, then took several deep breaths.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m about to go in and get you some of Quetzi’s venom, Harley. It’s not like he’ll just open his mouth and drip it into a jar for me.”
He fumbled through a nearby drawer—one of many mounted beneath the glass boxes—and retrieved a jar with a polished copper lid. He produced a huge set of golden keys from his right wing, hundreds of them jingling on a solid ring. I was surprised to see he carried those with him, since I hadn’t once heard them clinking as he walked.
“What else do you keep between those feathers?” I chuckled. “Swords? A Boeing 747?”
He laughed, then selected the right key to insert into the lock mounted on Quetzi’s enclosure. “Just a couple of useful knick-knacks. Now, watch this door, and keep it closed, no matter what happens, okay?”
My stomach tightened with the prospect of watching something horrific unfold right in front of me. “No, how about you just watch your back in there and get out in one piece, instead?” I replied.
“I’ll do my best, but Quetzi is a worthy opponent,” Tobe replied, then twisted the key in the golden lock. Its rune etchings lit up white as it clicked open. A flash of light traveled across all sides of the glass enclosure, temporarily revealing the magical sigils hidden in each crystal wall. The box was now open.
Tobe stepped inside, prompting Quetzi to raise his feathered head and look at him.
I moved closer, keeping my hands against the glass door, in case the monster decided to make a run for it. The one thing I knew for sure was that a monster was debilitated by its magical enclosure, despite its ability to maintain a form within.
Quetzi’s tail rattled beneath the grass in a threatening manner that made my spine tingle. With careful and considered steps, Tobe inched closer. Quetzi raised his head to stay at his eye level. His jaws popped open, his pink, forked tongue rolling back—a sign that he was about to bite, not kiss.
“Hello, old friend,” Tobe said slowly. “I need some of your venom, that’s all.”
He wiggled the small jar, for Quetzi to see, but the serpent didn’t seem to care much. He lunged forward and went straight for the kill. I held my breath as Tobe dodged the attack, and Quetzi immediately came back and tackled him.
They became an agitated, entangled mass of giant feathered snake and Beast Master. Tobe growled and held his own, trying to catch Quetzi in a chokehold. They tossed and turned in the tall grass for about five minutes, until I saw Quetzi’s fangs sink deep into Tobe’s wing.
“No!” I cried out, and slapped the glass. To my utter shock, Quetzi stopped, then pulled his enormous head up to look at me, somewhat confused. Worth a shot. “I just need some of your venom, that’s all! Please.”
Quetzi seemed to ponder the issue for a while, before he let Tobe go.
“Okay. Wow. I can’t believe that actually worked,” I breathed.
Tobe was equally befuddled, his gaze darting between Quetzi and me. He recovered the jar he’d dropped in the grass, then removed the lid and slowly brought it up to Quetzi’s head. The serpent stared at it for a few seconds, then opened its mouth and pushed one fang into the inner lip of the jar. A clear, slightly shimmering liquid poured out—the venom we needed for our spell.
“Thank you, old friend,” Tobe said, and Quetzi instantly replied with a menacing, irritated hiss.
“Maybe you should get out of there,” I said, anxious to the point where I felt my heart struggling against my ribcage.
Tobe nodded, then carefully moved back and out of the enclosure. He quickly handed me the jar of poison and put the lock back on, another flash of light announcing that the protection spell was back on. I gawked at Quetzi for a while, as he quietly watched me for about a minute, then slithered back into the tall grass.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“Guess I was right. Quetzi seems to like you.”
“And not in an I-want-to-gobble-you-up-for-breakfast way,” I murmured, then gave Tobe a concerned look. “Are you okay? He bit you.”
“It’s fine,” Tobe replied, shaking his feathers with a pained expression. “I’m immune to his poison after all these years. It’s the bite that hurts, but I’ll be okay, don’t worry—” He stilled as his eyes settled on the gargoyle enclosure to my right.
I followed his gaze and froze, clutching the jar to my chest. There were dozens of gargoyles inside the massive glass box, and they were all lined up on the sharp edge of a large rock, staring at me. “This is many kinds of weird,” I murmured. “Why are they all looking at me like that?”
Tobe hummed, scratching his furry chin. “I think I know now. It makes more sense, now that we know more about your bloodline…”
A few seconds went by as I waited for him to continue. “Are you deliberately building
up suspense here, Tobe? Help me out, man, what is going on?”
“Do me a favor, Harley. Walk over to them, slowly. And raise your hands to your sides. I want to see how they react to your movements,” he replied, further baffling me.
“Shall I do a 360-degree turn and flaunt it like a supermodel, too?”
It was Tobe’s turn to give me a frustrated scoff. I sighed, then did as he suggested, raising my hands as I walked toward the gargoyle enclosure. They all blinked, some cocking their heads to one side. None of them seemed on edge or aggressive, not until I reached the glass wall, and they got a better look at me. One gargoyle came closer, sniffing the glass in front of me. Our eyes met, and it startled me with a savage shriek. The rest joined in, flapping their bat wings and rushing in circles, some smacking their open jaws against the glass, desperate once more to eat me alive.
“That’s enough, move back,” Tobe said.
He didn’t need to say that again. I hurried back to his side, my heart jumping like a sloppy track athlete running too fast to be able to handle the hurdles. “They changed their minds, or what?” I asked, utterly confused.
“You see, it didn’t make sense at first. Gargoyles are very primal beasts. They live to hunt, to eat. They cannot be trained. They do not harbor any feelings. They’re monsters, in the purest of forms,” Tobe explained. “But with you, they seem conflicted, at least from a distance. Once you get close enough for them to… smell you better, basically, they go back into hunter mode. In all my years looking after these creatures, few magicals have ever had such an impact on gargoyles. Even fewer were able to actually herd them, command them. One of those magicals was Katherine Shipton.”
I nodded. “Ah. Auntie dearest.”
“Yes. Ever since she was a little girl, she used to sneak into the Bestiary without her parents, back in New York. She formed a bond with the gargoyles. A most peculiar thing. And she did the same with the ones out in the wild. In fact, she had this way with them that made it easy for her to use them as weapons.”
Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven Page 31
