Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven

by Bella Forrest

  Something had definitely snapped. Even I didn’t think I’d be able to wave someone away so easily, with one swift move of my hand. Wade nodded briefly, then ran over to Santana, Tatyana, and the others.

  With the incredible amount of adrenaline flowing through me, it didn’t even matter that I couldn’t feel half a leg and that I had a constant sensation of nails scratching my throat. I jumped into the fountain and pulled Finch above the surface. He’d suffered substantial burns, his skin crackling red and black, but he was still awake and breathing.

  His Esprit was at the bottom, the knife form rippling away until it returned to its original silver lighter state. It seemed to perfectly mimic his ability to change into someone else. “You’re too late,” he croaked, coughing and wheezing.

  I punched him again. And again. The third time my knuckles gave out with the sound of a crack. But it didn’t matter. Finch was out, fully unconscious. I dragged him out of the fountain, just in time for one of the security magicals to see us. He whistled to two others and ran over to take Finch back inside.

  “Someone needs to let Tobe out,” I said. “He has some control over these creatures.”

  “They’re spreading out too fast,” the magical said, looking up in sheer horror. “And our radios aren’t working.”

  “I don’t care! Make it happen!” I growled, and pushed him away.

  All three nodded. One of the guards retrieved Finch’s Esprit from the bottom of the fountain, and then they carried him inside.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  I looked up and around, stunned by the semi-apocalyptic image before me. Choppers were flying in from the city—magicals spilling out into the real world had certainly drawn the attention of the authorities, even though they probably had no idea what was going on just yet. Gargoyles glided across the sky in larger and larger circles as they moved farther away. Alton shouted orders, and magicals fanned out and used different spells to fire at the gargoyles and keep them somewhat contained.

  Many had died, and plenty were injured, including humans. I looked over to the coven, now burst open into the human world. The banquet hall was destroyed, with bodies lying on the floor. O’Halloran was still alive, though gravely wounded, and was being carried away by two other magicals. For a split second, I almost caved in, but my instincts refused to let me collapse. Instead, I seemed to jump back to full consciousness with renewed energy.

  Just fifty feet away from me was Garrett, among others, fighting one gargoyle. They’d managed to get the beast in one spot, and Garrett was pulling water pellets out of the fountain and shooting them at the creature in frozen form. Each smacked the monster over the head and further irritated it, while two magicals below were tossing entrapment stones on the ground beneath.

  The gargoyle managed to dodge several hits and swooped down, its jaws snapping open as it rammed Garrett into the ground. My heart stopped.

  “No! Stop it!” I cried out, and, to my utter shock, the creature obeyed, its massive body still pinning Garret down. “Stop it!”

  I made my way toward them. The other magicals took advantage of the creature’s confusion and settled the rest of the entrapment stones on the grass, while Garrett was wide-eyed and pale as a sheet of paper. “Move away from him!” I shouted. This had better work.

  The gargoyle shook its head, disoriented, its beady black eyes fixed on me. It didn’t know what to do, sensing my blood relation to Katherine Shipton. If I got too close, it would quickly figure out that I wasn’t her. I latched onto it with a mental lasso and threw it back, right in the middle of the entrapment stone circle. “I said move away from him!”

  That was the break the magicals needed. One of them uttered the spell, and bright white strings lashed out and trapped the beast under the net, while another produced a Mason jar and captured the creature in its smoky form. I then helped Garrett, who stared at me in amazement, back up.

  “I… Harley, I’m so sorry,” he mumbled.

  “Shut up, help the others,” I said, then looked over my shoulder. “Keep the gargoyles as close as you can.”

  I left him behind and limped across the grass just in time to hear my Rag Team discussing potential solutions.

  “We need a large-scale trap,” Tatyana said.

  “We need to draw them back,” Santana replied, shaking her head. “They’re fanning out, and we need to contain this fast. The coven will be spread thin. It will take a long time to clean up after this.”

  Wade cut in, his gaze scanning the sky. “We need to do both. Tatyana, what do you need to set a big trap? You’re one of the most skilled on the matter.”

  “I need cover. Once the gargoyles get a sense of what I’m doing on the ground, they’ll come at me,” Tatyana replied.

  “That’s fine, Dylan and I have your back,” Wade said, then looked at Santana. “How can we draw them back?”

  “We could attract them with something. I don’t know, lots of fresh meat or something. Loud screams, anything that’ll stop them from flying ahead. Right now, they’re scattered over the park, chasing humans and magicals, but they’ll spill out into the city soon. Tatyana can use the edge of the park as a perimeter for her spell,” Santana replied.

  It hit me then. I could help, provided they had something to back me up with.

  “Guys, they listen to me,” I breathed. “The gargoyles! In the Bestiary, earlier. And at the church, too. Tobe said something about that… I’m related to Katherine Shipton, and, according to him, she nurtured a very weird bond with them. They obey her, and because of our blood connection, they get a little confused about me. Just now, one of them was about to munch on Garrett, and I made it stop. Once I get close and they sniff me properly, however, they decide I’m not really Katherine and they come after me, but—”

  “We could get you to call out to them.” Santana followed my train of thought, nodding. “Yes. I can do that. You just need your voice amplified.”

  “Do you have what you need?” Wade asked, and Santana tore one of the buttons from her shirt, showing it to us.

  She grinned. “All I need is this and the Orishas.”

  “Good. Raffe, I need you circling the park, man. Let that critter out,” Wade said. “You’re our best tool to scare that many gargoyles back into the park area. Tatyana, I’ll come with you and Dylan to set the trap. Astrid, take cover and start working Smartie. There will be a lot to fix, and we need to beat the humans to the punch. Harley…” His voice faded as his gaze found mine. I felt his concern tingling in the back of my throat. “You and Santana do what you have to, and stay safe.”

  I nodded, then watched him run off with Tatyana and Dylan across the park. Raffe gave Santana a brief wink, then darted away in the opposite direction. There was no time to ask about what ‘critter’ Wade was referring to, as Santana immediately ripped the hem of her shirt, producing a thin strip of fabric.

  She wrapped the button in it, muttering a spell in Spanish until smoke started to fizzle out from beneath. “Harley, I need you to hold still. This is going to be very uncomfortable.”

  “Usually when you people say ‘uncomfortable,’ you mean ‘painful,’ don’t you?” I replied.

  She gave me an apologetic smile, then pushed the smoking button against my throat. It burned through, and I hissed from the pain. It did feel weird and uncomfortable, once the pain subsided. I ran my fingers over it and felt the thing literally embedded into my throat. “Holy crap,” I murmured.

  “Now, repeat this chant after me,” Santana said. “Once you do it, it will amplify your voice to a ten-mile radius. Every creature within that circle will hear you, loud and clear, including the gargoyles. Damen sus voces, Orishas del Catemaco.”

  I looked out, watching some gargoyles come down in flames, while a couple were captured by well-organized magicals. Humans kept screaming and running, desperately trying to reach the city streets stretching around the park. They couldn’t see the gargoyles, but they could hear their growls and screeches, and they
could see the trees getting splintered as the creatures went after them.

  Alton, Garrett, the preceptors, and everyone left standing were putting up one hell of a fight to capture or kill as many gargoyles as they possibly could.

  Several gargoyles had flown deeper into the city. Helicopters had been deployed to find the invisible attackers and neutralize them. Obviously, the gargoyles had an advantage here, but the humans’ preservation instincts were strong, especially when they had access to military-grade machine guns and, I figured, thermal scanners—since some of the choppers had begun firing in a few gargoyles’ general direction.

  Automatic Gatling guns popped relentlessly in the distance. Some gargoyles were brazen enough to try and chomp on the helicopters, ripping the tail off one in the process. The aircraft went into a frantic twist, then crashed into a nearby building. My blood froze, as I realized the extent of the gargoyle’s damage—the innocent lives lost already.

  A shadow rushed along the edge of the park, shapeless but incredibly fast, leaving behind a scattering trail of black smoke. It swished up and smacked the escaping gargoyles back, its spine-chilling roars making my heart jump. What in the world was that? Was that Raffe’s doing?

  “Damen sus voces, Orishas del Catemaco,” I chanted, shifting my focus back to Santana, who offered me a reassuring smile.

  “Good, now hold on to your senses, Harley. It’s gonna get crazy. I just allowed the Orishas to work with you on this,” she replied.

  Before I got a chance to respond, pure energy filled me up, nearly cutting off my air supply. I burned from the inside, and I felt my feet leave the ground. I glanced down, then gasped, as I saw myself levitating about thirty feet in the air, the winds gathering and howling around me. That was all me, the Elemental part of me, summoning the wind to raise me higher, to a better vantage point. I needed a clear, full view of the gargoyles, and my body seemed to react with Chaos before my brain could send an order down to my limbs.

  Whispers trickled into my ears, beckoning me in multiple languages to speak up. And I could understand each and every one of them, somehow. Holy hell, that’s what the Orishas sound like!

  “Stop!” I shouted, and nearly swallowed my own heart as it jumped back into my throat. I couldn’t recognize my voice right away. It was weird because it was mine, but it was also unnaturally loud, as if I’d just been fitted with a bullhorn the size of the Fleet Science Center.

  “Keep going!” I heard Santana below, encouraging me.

  “All of you skinny, ugly-looking bastards, stop!” I called out, my voice thundering across the entire city. Humans and magicals alike stilled for a split second, as did my targets—the four dozen gargoyles trying to spread into the city.

  Their ashen wings flapped frenetically as they snapped their heads to look at me from afar. “Yeah, you heard me right, I’m talking to you!”

  The gargoyles were baffled, but obedient. They all stopped, and slowly moved back into the park’s perimeter. “That’s right. Get over here. You recognize me, don’t you? Can you smell the Shipton blood? Come closer!” I bellowed.

  The magicals quickly figured out what I was doing and proceeded to move toward the edges of the park, sending the remaining humans away. Of all the gargoyles slowly coming back to me, Murray was the only one I recognized. His crooked face was quite unforgettable, and so was his wrath when he realized that I wasn’t Katherine Shipton at all, but the girl he’d already tried to kill before.

  Just then, a loud bang traveled across the green field, while police sirens wailed in the distance. A bright flash followed, nearly blinding me for a couple of seconds. I opened my eyes, then held my breath as I watched enormous, white energy beams lash out and weave themselves into a net that stretched out like a dome over the entire park.

  The gargoyles roared with fury, realizing what had just happened. They all tried to scatter again, but it was too late. The net came down hard and forced them all to crash into the ground. The net itself was pure Chaos energy. It didn’t affect the material world, passing through trees and living creatures alike, but it had one hell of an impact on the gargoyles.

  Almost fifty were recovered, trapped beneath the giant trap—courtesy of Tatyana’s extraordinary efforts. The magicals did their thing right away, just as Tobe emerged from the coven with a sack filled with Mason jars. One by one, the gargoyles were returned to captivity, while Alton directed the preceptors and security magicals to organize a massive cleanup mission and to bring the wounded inside.

  The winds beneath me faded, and I fell hard on the ground, suddenly drained. The button in my throat hurt to the point where tears flooded my eyes. Santana dropped to her knees beside me, her hands and her voice trembling.

  “This is going to hurt a little more than before. I’m sorry, Harley,” she said, then pushed the button deep inside.

  It didn’t hurt. It was freaking torture, as if someone had driven a red-hot knife right into my gullet. I choked and gurgled, then rolled on my side and retched, forfeiting the entire contents of my stomach along with the carbonized button. Fortunately, I hadn’t eaten in sixteen hours, so there wasn’t much for me to bring back up.

  I coughed and wheezed, as Santana gently caressed the top of my head. “Is… Is it over?” I gasped, my eyes still hazy and glazed with tears.

  “Almost, yeah,” she replied softly. “Alton is sending out a major cleanup crew now. They’ve launched some temporary flashes to wipe memories on a three-mile radius, as per protocol. The humans who actually saw all this were all nearby, fortunately. Astrid’s got Smartie hacking every single smartphone and social media network to wipe out everything about this event, and the preceptors are working on a mass spell to send out some kind of malware. It’ll take a few days to wipe the memory of every single human in the city, but we’ll be okay. Thanks to you, Harley. You were amazing.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle before another cough cut me off. I was curled up in a fetal position on the grass, hearing gargoyles squeal as they got sucked back into Mason jars, and magicals talking to one another.

  For a while, I didn’t move, my eyes half closed. Gasps and whimpers came through, as they all realized they’d lost some of their friends and colleagues in the disaster. A dark shadow covered me, blocking the sun’s warm light, but I didn’t have any strength left to look up. I still couldn’t feel my leg, and bile was still searing through my throat.

  But I could breathe, at least. It was over.

  “Stay with me, Harley.” I heard Wade and felt a pair of arms lift me off the ground.

  A heart beating against me, thudding nervously. My Empathy was off. I was drifting away, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. My eyes closed.

  “Harley, stay with me, please,” he murmured.

  He was just a whisper in the darkness that swallowed me.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  I’m drifting…

  It’s so peaceful, so quiet.

  Wade’s soft voice came back for me in the darkness. “Harley, wake up.”

  Should I? Why? I’m so comfortable here—wherever “here” is.

  I peeled my eyes open, welcoming the warm sunlight on my face. The ceiling above was white, with white neon strips. The infirmary. My gaze found Wade, sitting at my bedside, his brows drawing shadows over his green eyes. He looked tired. He felt worried.

  My heart fluttered at the sight of him. Was that me, or him?

  “Hey. Welcome back,” he said, his lips stretching into a warm smile.

  It felt so good, soothing my very soul—much like a drizzle of honey, sweet and soft. “Hey,” I murmured, my voice scratchy and raw. “What happened?”

  “What do you remember?” he replied, carefully analyzing my face. He reached out and brushed a lock of hair from my forehead, his fingers gently touching my skin. A myriad of tiny sparks spread out underneath, as if his touch was mildly electric.

  I replayed the entire tragedy in my mind. The tracer spell. Finch. My relation to Finch and
Katherine Shipton. The gargoyles and dead magicals. The broken window of the coven… Oh, God, the massacre in the park. The giant trap. My mangled body.

  “Everything up to the point where the gargoyles came down,” I said, quietly wiggling my toes. I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized I could feel my leg again. Wade nodded slowly, then straightened his back and swiftly went back into his stuck-up mode.

  “You passed out after that. You’ve been here for two days now, which actually helped a lot with your healing. The new physician is really good at his job,” Wade replied.

  “New physician?” I asked, frowning. “What happened to Adley de la Barthe? Did she die—”

  “She was arrested,” Wade said. “A lot of things came to light while you were under, Harley. Things we didn’t even think were possible.”

  “Why was she arrested?”

  “Finch Anker—or Finch Shipton, actually—is a Shapeshifter,” Wade explained. “It’s a relatively rare ability, and virtually untraceable, unless a Reading is done. Adley did Finch’s Reading when he first came into the coven, as standard procedure. She didn’t declare him as a Shapeshifter, and Alton was quick to realize that as soon as we got a minute to breathe and go over everything. Once she was cornered, she confessed. She’s been having an affair with him since before he joined the coven. She facilitated his entrance here and kept his ability a secret, at his request.”

  “But why?” I asked, trying to make sense of it all. Then a memory hit me hard over the head. “Oh, crap. I remember. Ugh, now it makes sense! Back at the general assembly, when I first got here, I saw Adley looking at Finch, and I could feel her… well, her love for him. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. It wasn’t my business. Did she know who he was from the very beginning?”

  “She claims that she didn’t, and that Finch just didn’t want anyone knowing about his Shapeshifting skill. She identified his Telekinesis as well as his ability to work with metals, which is usually attributed to Earth Elementals,” Wade continued. “Though, he’s never shown his Esprit’s shifting abilities. He’s kept a lot of himself secret, in fact. That was all we knew about him, along with his uncanny ability to work charms and hexes—but that was relatively generic, since one third of the coven is good at that.”