“Katherine wanted me to meet Jacob here, for you to then take him away,” I concluded, the full extent of Katherine Shipton’s viciousness slowly dawning on me.
Emily nodded enthusiastically. “And we got the Smiths as a bonus!”
“No, they have nothing to do with this! They didn’t… They don’t know anything!” I shot back.
“Like we care about that,” Emmett said. “Honey, this is all about you. Well, granted, it’s also about this precious little kid here, but it’s mostly about you and how you’re about to watch the people you love die… in agony,” he added, then looked at his sister. “Care to do the honors?”
“Absolutely,” Emily replied with a grin.
She pushed Jacob to the side as Emmett took her place in keeping him still with a knife against his throat. She then used her blade to carve a Chinese symbol into the palm of her hand, whispering a spell in Mandarin.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
“Oh, you’ll love this part.” Emmett snickered.
“Crap,” Garrett muttered.
“Crap, what?” I asked, shooting him a glance over my shoulder.
“Death by a Thousand Cuts,” he said, his eyes bugging. “She’s casting Death by a Thousand Cuts.”
It didn’t take long for me to remember the curse. I’d read about it during International Magical Cultures classes. It was a horrid thing to put someone through. I moved to stop Emily, but Emmett threateningly cleared his throat, reminding me that he still had Jacob.
Emily finished the incantation and slapped the carved palm against her chest. A red pulse shot out of her, before vanishing into thin air. Silence settled for about a second, until Mrs. Smith’s muffled scream made my blood curdle.
One by one, deep cuts were showing on her legs, the blood seeping through the beige fabric of her pants. This was a literal disaster unfolding, as the ancient Chinese curse was extremely literal. The victim suffered a thousand cuts, bleeding out in the end. Time was running out for Mrs. Smith, and I felt excruciatingly helpless.
Thirty-Eight
Harley
Every thirty seconds brought with them a new cut, the curse working its way up to Mrs. Smith’s knees. She struggled against her restraints, her screams muffled by the gag. I had to do something. I couldn’t let this go on.
“What do you want?!” I shouted at the Ryders.
“Take off your Esprit and toss it to the side,” Emily commanded.
That wasn’t a good idea. I’d grown accustomed to using my powers with it. It had become a part of me, and without it, I didn’t have the same strength and precision.
“Do it now, or I’ll have the hubby join in on the fun!” Emily added, gritting her teeth.
The last thing I wanted was for the same to happen to Mr. Smith. He was already crying out against his gag, tearing up as he watched his wife suffer. I took my Esprit off and tossed it on the floor. My brain was working fast, looking for ways out of this mess.
“What do you want?” I asked again.
“Why, for you to suffer, of course!” Emily answered. “We’ve been at this for a long time, pumpkin. It’s good to see it all finally come to fruition!”
“A new age is coming, Harley Merlin,” Emmett hissed. “Katie will ascend as a Child of Chaos. She’ll lead us into the future if we help her, and here we are, doing just that!”
“Again with that bucket of crazy,” I snapped. “You’ve been impersonating social workers and coven representatives, recruiting young blood—and when that didn’t work as well as you’d hoped, you started kidnapping them and killing their parents. Some of the kids, like Marjorie Phillips, ran off before you could get your claws on them, huh?”
Emily and Emmett didn’t say anything, but they both looked annoyed. I figured it was my chance to rile them up some more. Wade was still in the house, looking for a smart entry angle. I just had to play my cards right and take these two monsters down. The Ryders were worse than any of the creatures held in the Bestiary. At least those were mindless creatures of pure, toxic Chaos. Most couldn’t control what they were. Emily and Emmett, on the other hand, were perfectly aware of what they were doing. To me, that was unforgivable.
“Let me guess. Your boss, Katherine Shipton, has had you do her dirty work for quite some time, right? You, Finch, and who knows what other suckers she got to,” I continued. “But, you see, you underestimated the San Diego Coven, and, most importantly, you underestimated me. We caught some of your kids. They’ll rat you all out sooner or later. The coven knows we’re here. They know you’re here, too,” I said, pointing at my earpiece.
Emily sneered. “I told you. Anyone sets foot in here, and you’re all blown to bits.”
“You won’t be able to hold them off forever. You know that, right? By the way, where’s Katherine? Why isn’t she here, huh?” I asked, then chuckled. “You’re cannon fodder, you dweebs. Whatever she wants to get out of this whole thing, she failed. And you’re the ones taking the fall for it.”
“And that is where you’re wrong. Katie has new recruits now. She’s spreading the word and setting the stage, Harley. We all have our part to play,” Emily retorted.
“Besides, we already have what we came for,” Emmett said, nodding at Jacob, then at the Smiths. “We’ve got this little tyke here, and your beloved foster parents—again, Katie’s idea, by the way. The downside is that we couldn’t get to Jakey ourselves, once he joined the Smiths.”
“Why not? You’re Shapeshifters. You could be anyone you want,” I fired back.
Emmett scoffed. “He’s a Sensate, you idiot! Besides, you kept popping up like a persistent zit by the time Katie gave us the green light to go after him.”
I glanced back at Mrs. Smith, the pain suddenly unbearable. It burned through me, almost melting my skin off. Her agonized expression sent chills down my spine as the cuts grew increasingly worse. We had to stop this. Now.
“Why not just compel him? Why all the elaborate theatrics?” Garrett asked, pretending to play along.
Emmett groaned. “It turns out Jakey here is immune to every mind control spell possible. It’s in his genes. Chaos designed him to be the perfect tool. We needed him to get emotionally attached to someone so he could lower his guard.”
“Then along came Harley Merlin, with her ethics and feels and all that garbage. And it worked,” Emily said, grinning.
“What does Katherine plan to do with him?” I asked, my blood boiling.
Emmett nudged Jacob. “Show her, Jakey. Show her why you’re so precious.”
Jacob sighed, then slowly put his hand out to the side, his eyes fixed on mine.
“Careful, though!” Emily warned him. “Don’t do anything stupid!”
Jacob began to tremble. The air moaned and rippled by his hand, before a bright blue gash tore through the very fabric of our reality. I was breathless.
“You’re a Portal Opener, too,” I gasped.
How the heck did he have so many rare abilities? What was so special about him?
I wasn’t going to get answers to those questions anytime soon. Saving him and Mrs. Smith was a priority, and I had to figure out a way to get to them before it was too late.
“This boy is truly precious!” Emily exclaimed, while Jacob closed the wormhole, his hands shaking. “The moment he started talking to magical rogues, we had a line on him. Took us a while to find him, though. The little scab sure knows how to hide!”
“And all these machinations so you could grab him and hurt me,” I concluded, then looked at Jacob, the obvious idea hitting me. “How well can you control your wormholes?” I asked him.
Jacob’s brow furrowed. “I’m still getting the hang of the destinations, but there are a few places I’ve been to, repeatedly.” Somewhere in the back of his head, I hoped the same idea was shaping up.
Though the Ryder twins weren’t going to make it that easy.
“You’re not going anywhere anymore unless we tell you to,” Emily r
etorted, narrowing her eyes at me. “Katie wants you to feel loss and guilt, helplessness and despair. We’re here to make sure that happens.”
“Katie underestimates me,” I spat, my fists balled at my sides. “Besides, she’s nineteen years too late to this party,” I added, pointing a thumb at myself. “Jake, remember that brief talk we had last Sunday, about control and determination?” I asked. Jacob nodded quickly. “I need you to apply what I said to everything you do. It’s universally true.”
“What is this? Pep talk crap hour?” Emily snorted.
Just then, Wade emerged from the wall between the bathroom and the den. The Ryders had warded the outer walls, but they hadn’t thought to do the same to the interior. Then again, they didn’t know exactly what Wade was capable of, where magic spells were concerned. In this case, I, too, was astonished.
Emily and Emmett didn’t see or hear him come in behind them. I nodded at Jacob. He was quick to understand what he had to do, and he discreetly wiggled his fingers and opened up another wormhole—this time behind the Ryders and Wade. They didn’t even know what was coming.
“The Death by a Thousand Cuts curse starts with a hex bag,” Garrett hissed behind me. “Take these bastards away, and we’ll handle things here. Mrs. Smith has a few minutes before the cuts get closer to deadly.”
“Please hurry!” I gasped, trying so hard not to tear up from the Smiths’ emotions, and Mrs. Smith’s increasingly desperate screams.
The Ryders seemed confused. “What? No one’s going anywhere—” Emmett said, but got cut off when Wade slipped an arm around his neck and jerked him backward.
I dashed forward and tackled Emily. We fell through the wormhole. I heard Jacob cry out. I landed on top of Emily, on a patch of grass. She punched me in the ribs and pushed me aside.
I quickly glanced around and recognized our new location. Waterfront Park.
Then a punch rammed into the back of my head, and everything went white.
Thirty-Nine
Tatyana
“Find the hex bags!” Garrett shouted, anxiously looking around the living room.
The curse was still cutting away at Mrs. Smith, moving past her knees now. Her pants were drenched in blood. Dylan, Santana, and I turned the entire room upside down, tossing pillows away from the sofas, checking every nook and cranny in search of two small leather pouches.
Garrett whispered a spell in Mrs. Smith’s ear, making her pass out. He gave Mr. Smith an apologetic smile as he untied him. “Sorry, sir, I had to do something to ease her pain until we break the curse,” he told him.
“What the hell is happening here? Who are you people? What… What’s happening to my wife?!” Mr. Smith stammered as soon as Garrett took the gag off.
Garrett pressed two fingers against his forehead, knocking him out as well. “Not a good time to explain all this,” he replied, settling Mr. Smith on the floor.
“I can’t find the damn things anywhere!” Santana gasped, then rushed into the den.
Dylan made his way into the kitchen. I could hear dishes and pots being moved, the clanking noises adding to my anxiety. Every second that went by brought more deep flesh cuts to Mrs. Smith’s legs. Garrett grabbed one of the woolen throws from the sofa and ripped it into several pieces, using them to apply pressure on her calf wounds.
“If we don’t find those hex bags soon, she’s going to bleed out,” Garrett said to me.
“Santana! Anything?” I called out.
“Dammit! No!” she shouted as she came out of the den. She raced up the stairs. Based on the noises coming from above, she was tossing and trashing everything, in a frantic search for the hex bags.
My heart was pumping, worried sick, not only about Mrs. Smith, but also about Harley, Wade, and Jacob. They had two raging psychopaths to deal with.
Santana came back downstairs, cursing in Spanish.
She plopped herself down in the middle of the living room, crossing her legs. “I couldn’t find anything. My Orishas can give it a try.”
She closed her eyes, took three deep breaths, and exhaled. Green sprite lights came out of her. I counted twelve as they shot out and buzzed through the room. They quickly spread out, swooshing anxiously and bursting through the walls.
If anything of Chaotic origin could find an expertly hidden hex bag, it was an Orisha. With twelve of them, I hoped that we stood a chance.
I settled by Mrs. Smith’s side, joining Garrett in tending to her wounds, as more opened along her hips and across her stomach. Blood was beginning to pool beneath her, drenching the carpet. I swallowed back tears as I desperately thought of other ways to stop her from dying. I had to dig deep into my arsenal of dark magic to stop the curse from killing her.
I uttered a string of old Russian spells to slow everything down in Mrs. Smith. It bought her a handful of precious seconds, but we needed to find those hex bags.
Forty
Harley
It took me a couple of seconds to regain my eyesight.
The image before me became disturbingly clear when I saw Emily tackling Jacob, shoving his head into the ground. Wade shot to his feet and pushed out a time-lapse bubble with a fifty-yard radius, the air glimmering blue all around us.
Emmett took him on, using a combination of Telekinesis and physical attacks, but Wade stood his ground, employing his own exquisite skills. Wade’s military-type training was obvious, compared to Emmett’s raw and inconsequential moves. My warlock launched fireballs in quick succession, following up on each round with a Telekinetic pulse. Still, Emmett was ferocious and fast, pushing Wade into some spine-tingling brushes with death.
I, on the other hand, felt only half-functional without my Esprit. But I had to try something. I ran toward Emily, who was still straddling Jacob. She put her hand out and launched fireballs at me. I dodged them all like an athlete, suddenly aware of how much Nomura’s Esprit-less training had actually helped me.
She tried to hold on to Jacob and stop him from getting away through another wormhole. Unfettered by her attacks, I used my Telekinesis to grab her by the throat, then tackled her. We quickly became a mass of two bodies, squirming and wrestling each other, and I delivered punches wherever I could.
She wasn’t easy to take down, though. I’d seen what she and her brother were capable of, back by the bus stop. But it wasn’t just my life hanging in the balance anymore. I pummeled her in the ribs, then slapped the ground around us, prompting it to shiver and crack. The earth opened up and began to swallow her.
“Ex Parte Titan!” Emily chanted, and rammed her fist into my chest.
The blow was so hard, it threw me backward. The air left my lungs as I landed on the soft ground, ten yards away from her. My limbs were made of jelly, but my consciousness refused to let go. I had too many people to save, including myself.
“There’s… no way… in hell… I’m letting Katherine freakin’ Shipton take me down,” I groaned, rolling on one side in an attempt to catch my breath. My whole torso was throbbing, and it felt like Emily had finally broken something in me.
She stalked toward me. I caught a glimpse of Wade delivering a devastating blaze to Emmett, who ducked and whispered a curse. Whatever it was, it had an immediate effect on Wade, gripping him like paralysis and forcing him down on one knee.
My pulse was racing as I suddenly found myself in a vulnerable position. Not just about to get killed by Emily Ryder, but also about to watch the single most important man in my life get destroyed… I couldn’t envision such an ending. My brain did not compute.
So, as Emily towered over me and took another knife out, grinning with the anticipation of slitting my throat, like she’d done to the Cranstons and the Devereauxes, I took a deep breath. It hurt like a thousand knives being driven through me all at once, but I had to do this. I instantly relaxed, and I put my arms out, my fingertips tingling. The winds were coming. They’d answered my call.
It had been impossible to maneuver my Air ability without an Esprit. The few tim
es I’d succeeded, I was holding on for dear life. This was my Hail Mary, it seemed.
“Time to go bye-bye, Merlin bitch!” she said, baring her teeth at me like an animal. Emily raised the knife in the air, then came down fast and hard.
Just before the tip of the blade reached my chest, a powerful gust of air knocked her to the side. The impact was so powerful that I heard her bones break, just before she was thrown on the ground and rolled to a stop. Lying on her belly, Emily Ryder’s left leg and arm were bent at unnatural angles. She screamed in agony.
It wasn’t over yet. I rushed to her side and tore a piece of my shirt off, which I stuffed in her mouth. I was in a lot of pain, barely able to even sit up straight, but I’d managed to take one of the psycho-bundle twins down.
“Can’t have you casting curses and crap,” I grumbled, then produced my own set of Atomic Cuffs from my back pocket. “This is going to hurt, and I am so not sorry about that.”
I pulled her broken arm down. The bone cracked. She howled until she passed out, while I put the cuffs on, relishing the sight of the bright energy string surrounding her wrists.
“Yeah, I don’t know any anesthesia spells or whatever,” I added, my tone flat and anything but sympathetic. I knew she couldn’t hear me anymore, but it felt good to say this stuff out loud. “You’ll just have to suffer. Hopefully forever.”
I then looked up. Wade had finally taken down Emmett, who was lying in the grass, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. His face was pretty roughed up, his eyes swollen and quickly turning purple—and Wade didn’t look much better, but at least he had control. Wade was on top of him, fumbling through his pockets for a pair of Atomic Cuffs.
Harley Merlin 2: Harley Merlin and the Mystery Twins Page 33
