“Nope.”
Of all the times to get Empath-shy, why’d it have to be now? I’d have given anything to find out what was in Ryann’s mind. I was about to press Melody, putting on my Finch charm, when Mary Foster emerged through the wall and floated toward me.
“This is all exceedingly exciting,” she cried. “I did not care for that rude fellow’s brusque tone through those bulbous contraptions up there, but it made for a most rousing scene. And if you do happen to die, Finch, you will always be welcome here.”
My stomach churned. “Uh… thanks, Miss Foster. Good to know.”
“So, what is next on your thrilling agenda?” Mary bobbed eagerly, hands clasped.
I went to the tin box on the table and closed the lid. “I take these to Erebus and see where it leads us.”
“And what about ensuring your survival?” Melody leaned against the table. “Davin escaped by allying himself with a djinn, right? Perhaps you can do the same, without the Necromancy aspect.”
“You mean, without the key ingredient?” I sighed heavily. “Death is the only end to Erebus’s service. And if I can’t resurrect myself, then I’d just be… well, dead. But maybe you’re right—maybe I can get a different amulet that’ll keep me off Erebus’s radar. Or I’ll go after Davin and give it the old college try, see if the mojo transfers to us non-Necromancers.”
Melody nodded effusively. “You’d only need one resurrection. Perhaps it can grant you that, even if it’s not normally one of your skills.”
“Sounds like your best chance,” Luke chimed in.
I puffed air out of my lips. “Maybe…”
“We’ll get it from that devil. You mark my words.” Nash grinned, his eyes shining. “And when we’ve wrung him dry, I look forward to ending him, for everything he’s done to me. Let the hunter become the hunted for once. But don’t go thinking Davin will give anything away for free. It’ll cost us.”
“Believe me, I know that much,” I replied.
Nash chuckled. “That said, I have no problem helping you torture that scumbag for whatever he’s got. In case you were wondering, I will be coming with you. I’m not missing this opportunity for anything.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to.” I paused, my determination growing. “We’ll find a way to make him squeal like the mucky old pig he is.”
While revenge on Davin would have to wait, Erebus couldn’t. Wasting no time, I whipped out my phone and sent him a text:
I have the blood.
Short and to the point. Still, I’d never get used to sending a Child of Chaos a text of any kind. It was like sending the Queen of England a quick: u ok hon?
My phone pinged almost immediately.
Where?
Huh… That was odd. Gone were the autocorrect nightmares of his usual letter-esque endeavors into the digital world. Just a one-sentence text, no “Dear Flinch” in sight. San Jose, I texted back.
Another ping made my heart race, though not in the nice way. Meet me in the industrial park immediately. Same place as before.
“What’s got you so rattled?” Nash peered at me from across the table. I hadn’t realized I was rattled, but now that he pointed it out… he was right. Erebus’s uncharacteristic texting made me nervous about the mood I might find him in. He should’ve been jumping for joy. Not that Erebus would ever do that, but figuratively, at least. And those brief responses weren’t the hallmark of an ecstatic Child of Chaos.
“Erebus.” I nodded to the tin box. “I have to deliver this.”
Nash snorted. “He texts now?”
“Oh yeah. He’s getting more human by the day. You just wait until he starts Tweeting.” I heaved a sigh and tucked the box under my arm.
Melody put her hand on my shoulder. “Do you want someone to come with you?”
I opened my mouth to start the usual diatribe, but she jumped in before I could.
“And before you chatter about the danger, I don’t mean one of us actually going and meeting Erebus with you. I just mean one of us coming along for moral support and hanging back while you make the exchange.”
I relaxed. “Thanks for the offer, but it’s easier if I do this alone. If I’m not back in half an hour, you can assume I’m either dead or shivering on a clifftop somewhere, on a new mission.”
“Don’t say that!” She looked horrified.
“Bad taste. Sorry.” I offered an apologetic grin. “But I should get going.”
To my surprise, Melody pulled me into a hug. “I know you hate physical contact, but deal with it for a minute. I’m a hugger.”
“Luke is staring,” I whispered. Even if I hadn’t been able to see his puppy-dog eyes over her shoulder, I’d have sensed his envy a mile off. He might as well have whined like Huntress.
She pulled away sharply and made a show of dusting my arms like a worried mom sending her kid off to college. “You be safe, Finch.”
“I will,” I replied with a smile.
Nash stood up and extended his hand. “We’re going to make this worth it, right? We’re going to give that lowlife hell, one of these days?”
“You bet your finest plaid shirt we are.” I shook his hand. It felt like a weird goodbye, considering I’d hopefully see them all again within the hour. But Nash probably still had nerves about this, so I didn’t mind giving the guy some reassurance.
He smirked. “Nothing wrong with plaid, pal.”
I took my bloody goods and headed for the exit. The three of them followed me to the door, looking like a dysfunctional family as they waved me off.
Once I was free of the Winchester House and its spiritual defenses, I opened the tin box and removed the three extra vials, slipping them into my pocket to stow for backup. If my mother had taught me anything, it was to always have a backup for your backup, and even another backup after that, if possible.
With the vials safely hidden, I used my charmed chalk to draw a doorway to the rat-infested alley outside the industrial park where I’d met Erebus before. This time, since I knew exactly where I was going, I didn’t have to rely on pricey cabbies charging me an arm and a leg to circle the block a few times. The edges of the doorway crackled as I whispered the Aperi Si Ostium spell, then opened onto the grim expanse of massive warehouses and foul-smelling dumpsters. The scent hit me the moment I walked through—that heady aroma of rotting food and chemical waste.
“Erebus?” I called into the gloom. This place was way worse after sunset. The wailing police sirens in the distance did nothing to help my anxiety.
“Over here.” Erebus emerged from behind a dumpster, looking—dare I say—a bit disheveled. His sleek shirt had come untucked from his pants, a few buttons undone. His pants showed a few smudges and dark, unsettling stains along the legs.
I approached hesitantly. “Everything peachy, Erebus? I thought you’d dance a jig after hearing I had your blood.”
“As if you don’t already know.” His dark eyes glinted, but it wasn’t an angry glint. More of a miffed glitter.
“Know what?” I wanted to see how much he’d found out about the crumbling cookie of his domain.
“You fraternize with djinn. Don’t play coy, as I lack the energy for our usual witty repartee. You already know what I am contending with,” he replied, his tone cold.
“Hey, the only djinn I know just turned up before I texted you, and he’s apparently wiped out. I didn’t have much time to chat with him. I have no idea what’s going on.”
I kept up the ruse, just in case he thought I was somehow responsible. I might’ve been friggin’ euphoric that he’d lost his otherworld to the djinn he’d enslaved, but that didn’t mean I wanted to pay for what they’d done. For once, it literally had nothing to do with me.
Erebus paused uncertainly. “You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“That those ungrateful beasts severed themselves from me and stole my otherworld.” He stiffened, his hands shaking with quiet rage.
I feigned astonishment. “Wh
at?”
“I felt the detachment a short while ago and attempted to return to Tartarus to investigate, only to be rebuffed by my own realm,” he hissed, staring at the dumpster as if he wanted to flip it. “Unable to connect to the djinn network, I was left in the dark, and literally left out in the cold. Until a Chaos spirit visited me. That vile witch, the so-called Storyteller. One of my first, now my ultimate betrayer—giving herself to free those cursed wretches. She told me all before she returned to the Chaos stream. A last jab, in utter defiance of everything I did for them!”
I gulped. This quiet anger was worse than his usual booming fury. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”
His lips twisted into a grimace. “You couldn’t have. Nobody but her could have. I showed too much to her; I trusted my creations too keenly. And now they have stabbed me in the back.”
Phew… I guessed I was off the hook. Although, it felt a little too easy. Maybe I’d gotten lucky this time.
“Can’t you make more?” I suggested.
“That is beside the point, Finch!” he snapped. “Of course I can, but that does not lessen the traitorous sting of what they have done. And creating more will mean creating a new Nexus, as the Storyteller destroyed what I had carefully crafted in the undertaking of this mass treachery. But perhaps the djinn were due for an improvement. Had this come at another time, I might have welcomed the challenge of conjuring new entities, far greater and certainly more loyal than before. But I have a veritable mountain of toil to get through, and now those weak specimens have gone and added to it.”
I frowned. “Does that mean Atlantis is off the table for now?”
“You would like that, wouldn’t you?” He sneered. “But no, that is not the case. I may not be able to undo what they have done, but I will deal with the djinn and reclaim my otherworld in due time. Atlantis remains my first priority. Sorry to disappoint you. Now, you said you had what I require?”
I held out the tin box. “Yep, all here and accounted for.” Not exactly true, but he had the number he’d asked for.
He lifted the lid and checked the vials before closing it again. “Good work.”
Good work? Seriously? That creeped me out even more. Erebus had become someone I didn’t recognize, distant and wrapped up in his own thoughts, and a little shaken by what had happened with the djinn. No snark or sass, just a simple “good work” for my efforts. Man, whatever he wanted in Atlantis truly had to be worth it if he was paying this price for it. He’d lost his djinn minions, and therefore his pseudo-omniscience, and he’d lost what was probably the only home he’d ever had—I didn’t know much about his origin story, so I couldn’t say for sure. All for the sake of Atlantis.
“The djinn were meant to be part of my legacy in the mortal world. How easily such things are lost… and how unexpectedly that which we create, with painstaking care, can be taken away,” he said, unprompted. “But I might yet regain that chance, that hope, that dream of a legacy, when I leave my mark on Atlantis. It is all I have now.”
Holy butterballs… is he… emoting? Sincerely? His voice sounded faraway, underscored by a hint of pain. This usurpation by the djinn had really hit him hard. And why wouldn’t it? They were his children, in a way, and they’d collectively decided they didn’t want him anymore. I wasn’t about to put my arm around the guy and hand him tissues, or even muster a “there, there” for him, but it made for some weird spectating. The almighty Prince of Darkness, reduced to a lost, worried semi-human before my eyes. Honestly, I had no idea what to do with that.
“I must be going. There is much to do, and no djinn to assist me. But at least I have you, Finch.” Erebus snapped out of it, casting me a sardonic smile. “This is why making deals with mortals is more efficient than granting life to unworthy beasts. I will call on you again in due course. Expect my summons.”
Taking the tin box, he twisted his hand and evaporated in a flash of black smoke and red light, leaving me alone in the darkened alleyway. The scent of decay in my nostrils and the confusion of witnessing a half-broken Erebus bounced around my head. Had he not been a titanic assclown, I might’ve felt sympathy for him. But, the truth was, he’d hit a losing streak, and that felt damn good. His world was unraveling before him, slipping through his fingers.
As I drew a doorway back to the Winchester House, I patted the spare vials of blood in my pocket—my insurance policy. The prospect of my freedom made it impossible to care for Erebus’s suffering, and now that I’d seen him at his lowest point, it made me realize just how weak this road to Atlantis had made him. Nash and I wanted to punish Erebus for his crimes against us, but it looked like the universe had started that ball rolling. If there was any justice, he’d finally find out what it felt like to be brought to a snapping point by circumstances and forces beyond his control, the way he’d done to us.
If I had my way, Erebus wouldn’t leave any legacy at all. In any world.
HARLEY MERLIN 13: Finch Merlin and the Locked Gateway
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Read more by Bella Forrest
DARKLIGHT
(BRAND NEW! Fantasy)
Darklight (Book 1)
Darkthirst (Book 2)
HARLEY MERLIN
Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven (Book 1)
Harley Merlin and the Mystery Twins (Book 2)
Harley Merlin and the Stolen Magicals (Book 3)
Harley Merlin and the First Ritual (Book 4)
Harley Merlin and the Broken Spell (Book 5)
Harley Merlin and the Cult of Eris (Book 6)
Harley Merlin and the Detector Fix (Book 7)
Harley Merlin and the Challenge of Chaos (Book 8)
Harley Merlin and the Mortal Pact (Book 9)
Finch Merlin and the Fount of Youth (Book 10)
Finch Merlin and the Lost Map (Book 11)
Finch Merlin and the Djinn’s Curse (Book 12)
Finch Merlin and the Locked Gateway (Book 13)
THE GENDER GAME
(Action-adventure/romance. Completed series.)
The Gender Game (Book 1)
The Gender Secret (Book 2)
The Gender Lie (Book 3)
The Gender War (Book 4)
The Gender Fall (Book 5)
The Gender Plan (Book 6)
The Gender End (Book 7)
THE GIRL WHO DARED TO THINK
(Action-adventure/romance. Completed series.)
The Girl Who Dared to Think (Book 1)
The Girl Who Dared to Stand (Book 2)
The Girl Who Dared to Descend (Book 3)
The Girl Who Dared to Rise (Book 4)
The Girl Who Dared to Lead (Book 5)
The Girl Who Dared to Endure (Book 6)
The Girl Who Dared to Fight (Book 7)
THE CHILD THIEF
(Action-adventure/romance. Completed series.)
The Child Thief (Book 1)
Deep Shadows (Book 2)
Thin Lines (Book 3)
Little Lies (Book 4)
Ghost Towns (Book 5)
Zero Hour (Book 6)
HOTBLOODS
(Supernatural adventure/romance. Completed series.)
Hotbloods (Book 1)
Coldbloods (Book 2)
Renegades (Book 3)
Venturers (Book 4)
Traitors (Book 5)
Allies (Book 6)
Invaders (Book 7)
Stargazers (Book 8)
A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES
(Supernatural romance/adventure)
Series 1: Derek & Sofia’s story
A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)
A Shade of Blood (Book 2)
A Castle of Sand (Book 3)
A Shadow of Light (Book 4)
A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)
A Gate of Night (Book 6)
A Break of Day (Book 7)
Series 2: Rose & Caleb’s story
A Shade of Novak (Book 8)
A Bond of Blood (Book 9)
A Spell of Time (Book 10)
A Chase of Prey (Book 11)
A Shade of Doubt (Book 12)
A Turn of Tides (Book 13)
A Dawn of Strength (Book 14)
A Fall of Secrets (Book 15)
An End of Night (Book 16)
Series 3: The Shade continues with a new hero…
A Wind of Change (Book 17)
A Trail of Echoes (Book 18)
A Soldier of Shadows (Book 19)
A Hero of Realms (Book 20)
A Vial of Life (Book 21)
A Fork of Paths (Book 22)
A Flight of Souls (Book 23)
A Bridge of Stars (Book 24)
Series 4: A Clan of Novaks
A Clan of Novaks (Book 25)
A World of New (Book 26)
A Web of Lies (Book 27)
A Touch of Truth (Book 28)
An Hour of Need (Book 29)
A Game of Risk (Book 30)
A Twist of Fates (Book 31)
A Day of Glory (Book 32)
Series 5: A Dawn of Guardians
A Dawn of Guardians (Book 33)
A Sword of Chance (Book 34)
A Race of Trials (Book 35)
A King of Shadow (Book 36)
An Empire of Stones (Book 37)
A Power of Old (Book 38)
A Rip of Realms (Book 39)
A Throne of Fire (Book 40)
A Tide of War (Book 41)
Series 6: A Gift of Three
A Gift of Three (Book 42)
Harley Merlin 12 Page 33
