Harley Merlin 11: Finch Merlin and the Lost Map

by Forrest, Bella

  I raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to elaborate this time, or leave me hanging?”

  He grinned a wolfish grin. “A bit of both, but you should know the stakes in this game. You will proceed, and if you succeed in the next task, Finch, I will consider releasing you from your servitude. However, if you cross me, all your friends will die, and you will follow them. The same goes for Ryann, as she has decided to pledge her allegiance to your cause.”

  “You leave her—” I started.

  “These are the stakes, like them or not.” He glowered at me.

  I held my tongue, and he turned to Melody and Luke. “The same applies to the two of you. Finch knew better than to make friends in my service. A friend of my servant is nothing but a pawn. Obey the rules, and everyone has the chance to live. Disobey, and everyone dies.”

  Thirty-Seven

  Finch

  Your friends will die...

  Erebus’s ultimatum echoed in my head. I had to succeed in these next tasks, but in order to do that, I needed more information.

  I dug my fingernails into my palms, steadying my nerves. “I’ve got no problem drawing the map again, but I need some clarification. You left me on the edge of a cliff last time, and that’s not happening again.”

  Erebus narrowed his eyes.

  This was risky, but I had an ace to play. “You’re going to tell me why you want to reach Atlantis and how long you’re going to drag me along on this ride.”

  “You are in no position to make demands of me,” Erebus snapped.

  Time to play it… “I’d say I am, for once. You’ve still got strength, sure, but I know you’re not nearly as powerful in your shiny new meatsuit. That means you’re going to give me some answers, because you can’t dangle your ‘I’m a Child of Chaos, hear me roar’ thing over my head this time.”

  “Finch… this isn’t a good idea,” Melody whispered frantically. “Remember what I said.”

  “Finch is right,” Ryann said from the couch, fire in her eyes. “You couldn’t have done any of this without us, Erebus.”

  “Seriously, not a good idea.” Melody gripped my shoulder, but I didn’t turn.

  Luke came to my side. “And if you’re involving Melody and me in this, we deserve to know why.”

  “Give us the truth. Now.” My face twisted in anger.

  Kenzie stayed where she was, staring at the bottle. “Don’t, Finch.”

  Erebus sighed. For a fleeting moment, it looked like he might relent. But I should’ve known better. His hands shot up, his palms pushing outward. A thundering wave of pure energy barreled into us. My feet went out from under me as I hit the floor, his furious Chaos pinning me to the ground. Luke and Kenzie collapsed, and Melody fell behind me with a thud. Ryann fell too, pinned to the couch by the same force.

  “I will let this attempt at mutiny pass, just this once.” Erebus stooped over me, glowering into my eyes. “Get to work and draw me another map. I will be back by the week’s end to collect it. You are not my only port of business. I have places to be.”

  I strained against the invisible grip that held me, but it was too strong.

  “But, since you’ve performed so well prior to this attempt at defiance—here’s a morsel for you.” He leaned closer, his breath freezing my face. “You’re right about Davin needing more than a location, which is why you are still breathing. It means you still have time to remedy your mistake. Getting to Atlantis won’t just require a map. A gateway must be unlocked.”

  He vanished a second later, his grip disappearing with him. I sat up, dragging in eager breaths. For a slice of truth, he hadn’t given me much. Likely, he’d given me all he thought I deserved.

  After I rose shakily, I made a beeline for Ryann. She picked herself up, her whole body trembling. I helped her but couldn’t stop my lips from flapping. Everything I’d wanted to say came out in a torrent… just not the stuff I really wanted to say.

  “What were you thinking?” I asked, my hand on her shoulder. “Why didn’t you keep out of this? I told you I didn’t want you getting near Erebus, and now you’re right in his sights. You might as well have painted a giant target on your back.”

  She stared at me. “I stayed here to help you. You never would have made it through the poison trial if it wasn’t for me. I got you that formula. I couldn’t have kept out of it, even if I’d wanted to.”

  I reeled back, surprised.

  “I should yell at you for not asking Harley and the others for help. But Erebus would use them, in any and every way possible. I, on the other hand, can have my mind wiped, which will stop Erebus from trapping me in any kind of deal. I can be made to forget as far back as necessary, to prevent it. So, rant all you like about me being a target. I already know the trouble I’m in. I wouldn’t leave you to do this alone, even if I could go back and stop myself from knocking on Kenzie’s door.”

  I blinked. I didn’t know what to say.

  “Oh, now you go quiet on me?” She rolled her eyes.

  “What do you mean, Kenzie’s promised to wipe your mind?” I found my voice.

  Ryann’s expression softened. “We discussed just pretending to wipe my mind, at first, but then we wondered what might happen if we had to do it in front of Erebus. Kenzie told me she can deposit memories into an animal’s mind, as a backup, should it come to that. So, it’d be more of a temporary forgetting situation.”

  “We just wanted to make sure we had all bases covered.” Kenzie leaned across the back of the couch. “And she’s right—you’d have been screwed without her. Frankly, so would I. She might be my new SDC favorite.”

  Ryann nodded. “So, don’t harp on about me being involved. We can’t change that now. All we can do is look forward.”

  My gaze fixed on the blue bottle with swirling lights. “That’s really your mom and sister?”

  Kenzie gritted her teeth. “Yeah.”

  “Was that part of your deal?” I asked.

  “No, it wasn’t,” she replied bitterly.

  “I’m sorry Erebus came to you.” I looked at my old friend. “He chose you because you know me. I got you all into this. Who knew a person could be vulnerable by association, huh?”

  Kenzie shoved me in the arm. “Don’t get all wallow-y. I don’t blame you for this. I got something out of it, even though it might not look like it.” She nodded to the bottle. “Erebus broke my mom’s curse. Yeah, he stuck her in a bottle right after, but that was partially my fault. I ran my mouth, and that was the price I paid.”

  “Even though we can’t bring in the others, we’ll make this work together,” Ryann chimed in. “What else are friends for?”

  Ouch… still in that bittersweet friendzone. They might as well call it the Finchzone.

  “How did he cure your mom?” I segued away from my embarrassment.

  “We found the source of the curse,” Kenzie explained, before diving into a wild tale of portals, blood magic, a surprise uncle stalker, and dilapidated warehouses in rural Shreveport. She also went into detail about how her mom and sister ended up in the bottle. That part made me want to spit in Erebus’s face. To have what she’d always wanted in her grasp, only for it to be ripped away… I couldn’t imagine the pain. And I hated Erebus all the more for doing that to her.

  The bottle on the table drew my attention as the sparks inside expanded rapidly. White light filled the glass. A moment later, the whole thing shattered violently, the shards sending everyone for cover. Everyone except Kenzie. She stared in horror, no doubt fearing the worst.

  The two glowing lights spiraled through the air and came to rest on the floor. The light stretched out, growing limbs and solidifying, until two physical bodies lay on the ground. Kenzie’s mom and sister, still and unmoving.

  Kenzie sprinted to kneel between them, pressing her head to their chests one after the other. “They’re breathing! They’re alive!”

  “They are?” Ryann hurried to help, checking their pulse and airways. No doubt a trick she’d learn
ed from Dr. Feelgood.

  “He said our deal would be a one-time thing, and I kept my end of the bargain.” Tears trickled down Kenzie’s cheeks. Something I’d never get used to. “I guess he kept his. I w-was so sure he would k-kill them.”

  Ah, Erebus, just when I had you in the unmitigated evil category, you go and do this.

  “Are they okay?” Melody approached the two figures.

  Ryann nodded. “They’re out cold, but alive. We might have to wait until they wake up to find out more, but everything’s physically working.”

  “He kept his end of the deal,” Kenzie murmured, clutching her mom and sister’s hands. “He kept his promise.”

  “Why don’t we get them into their beds, so they’re more comfortable?” Ryann suggested.

  I picked up Inez, surreptitiously choosing the lighter party, though their mom looked so frail that there probably wasn’t much difference. Meanwhile, Luke scooped Kenzie’s mom into his arms. Together, we carried them into Kenzie’s mom’s room and laid them on the carefully made bed.

  “I’ll stay with them,” Kenzie said. “You guys have a lot to talk about. I’ll tell you when they wake up.”

  I smiled at her. “If you need anything, you know where we are.” She didn’t hear me—too busy staring at her mom and sister, who were alive and hopefully well. I couldn’t blame her. She had them back. That had to mean everything.

  We stepped back into the living room.

  “If I’m getting out of my deal, I should get started on redrawing this map.” I stood to the side of the couch, staring at the broken glass shards.

  “Do you know what Erebus meant about the gateway?” Melody sat on the floor cross-legged.

  I shook my head. “No idea. The map called it the Gateway between Life and Death, but that doesn’t sound like a door you just walk into. If anything, that sounds like a door you stay away from.”

  “I wonder if it’ll become clearer when you redraw the map, like a second draft of a book.” Melody tapped her temple in thought.

  “Only one way to find out, I guess,” I replied, glancing at Ryann. “Before I start ransacking my brain for that map… I want to tell Harley and the others I’m okay, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea to go to the SDC and tell them face-to-face.”

  Ryann smiled. “Already handled. Harley got antsy a day or two ago when I hadn’t come back—you know how she is. I told her I was with Kenzie, and that she’d gone out to try to find you in Morph form, so I had to stay to watch her body and family. In a day or so, once you’re in the middle of redrawing the map, I’ll send her another message to let her know you’ve been found, and that you’re okay. Maybe we could say you’re searching for an artifact for Erebus?”

  “That could work.” I smiled back. She really did have all the good ideas.

  “She also said that if you or I need anything, we could call her any time.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, I know the drill by now.”

  “If you’re going to redraw the map, may I suggest more comfortable surroundings?” Melody cast a conspiratorial look at Luke. “This apartment is nice, but we’re all going to need rooms. And I imagine Kenzie will want some privacy, now that her mom and sister are back. As the SDC appears to be out of the equation, why don’t I host you all at the Winchester House? It’s roomy, and there’ll be plenty of quiet spots for Finch to get his thinking cap on.”

  A gunshot rang out in the street below. Another chorused back.

  “You know what, that might not be a bad idea,” I replied, with a nervous laugh.

  “Scared of a little shootout?” Ryann grinned at me.

  I raised a sarcastic eyebrow. “It might interrupt my concentration on redrawing a super-complex map to Atlantis.”

  “Then it’s settled!” Melody chirped. “You’re all coming home with Luke and me. And, while you’re busy recreating that map, Finch, I’ll stick to my promise. I’ll rummage through this brain of mine to find a way to free you from Erebus.”

  Oh Melody… why did you have to say that? Honestly, it felt like tempting fate.

  A vast horizon of uncertainty lay ahead of us. Atlantis beckoned, we’d have to race Davin to it, and, just to make things extra difficult, we needed to unlock a gateway we knew nothing about. It seemed insurmountable. But, as I looked at the motley crew around me, I drew some courage from their determined faces. Sure, this journey would be hard and strange and dangerous… but I wouldn’t face it alone.

  What’s next?

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading The Lost Map!

  See the details for the next book, Harley Merlin 12: Finch Merlin and the Djinn’s Curse, right after the following announcement:

  I’m excited to reveal my brand new fantasy called Darklight, which releases September 8, 2019. All-new characters, an exciting, all-new world… I’ve included a sneak peek of the first 3 chapters in this book, so keep turning the pages if you’re curious! (P.S. And I hope you like the cover.)

  Blurb:

  "Vampires don’t exist. At least, not anymore..."

  I celebrated when vampires were declared extinct.

  Those monsters had preyed on humanity for millennia, committing senseless, brutal murders. Like the rest of my colleagues at the Occult Bureau, I looked forward to a world where we could all sleep at night—where constant cover-up jobs were no longer required to keep the public calm and unaware.

  But the end of vampires wasn’t the end of our problems. It was only the beginning.

  Other blood-sucking creatures began to lurk in the night. As soon as I turned twenty-one, I became a ground agent at the Bureau because I wanted—no, needed—to join the fight.

  And then Dorian Clave burst into my life—turning everything I thought I knew into quicksand. Vampires like him were killers who devoured humanity’s inner darkness until shadows danced beneath their skin. Yet there was more to him than that.

  He showed me that light cannot exist without the dark, and that trying to fight this balance would have consequences our human minds couldn’t even comprehend.

  Because sometimes darkness needs to exist.

  Pre-order links:

  Amazon US: Tap here

  Amazon UK: Tap here

  Amazon AU: Tap here

  Any other store: Tap here

  Keep turning for the bonus chapters!

  Darklight Chapter 1

  I focused on the five dark silhouettes perched atop the Ferris wheel of Navy Pier Park. The ride was closed for renovation, but crowds of tourists bustled on either side of its boarded-up enclosure: a steady stream of warm targets.

  “Team A, be ready,” I breathed into my comm, and glanced to my teammates behind me within the wheel’s perimeter. Six helmeted heads nodded back, their hands tightening around silver barrels.

  “Team B is going in,” came the low, confident voice of my brother and second-in-command.

  A large helicopter whirred overhead, drawing closer to the wheel and slowly circling it.

  I glanced at my watch. “Greta, you should be in position.”

  “Yup, and waiting for your command, Lyra,” came the clipped voice of Team C’s leader.

  “Start the haze,” I replied.

  The hiss of decompressing gas filled the cool spring night, and Greta boomed through a megaphone: “Please evacuate the pier. This is an emergency. Head for the children’s museum. You will receive further information there. I repeat, please evacuate the pier.”

  Beyond the enclosure’s walls, a semi-dense fog billowed from the ground, covering the crowd. Shouts and cries rang out, followed by a stampede of panicked footsteps. I refocused on the wheel’s apex, ignoring the guilt that panged in my chest at the sounds of alarm and confusion. The smokescreen could be inconvenient and frightening, but ultimately it would prevent the tourists from being targeted.

  The silhouettes started shifting, clearly noticing the helicopter and the commotion. I caught the rustle of an opening wing.

  Placing
some distance between myself and the base of the wheel, I raised my gun, and my colleagues did the same. “All right, Team A. On my count. Three, two, one…”

  I aimed for the largest shadow and fired, my entire body vibrating from the force of the bullet’s release. I heard the creature’s rasping cry, as guttural and grating as a vulture’s, followed by four others as my teammates hit their marks.

  But the shadows barely jerked. Instead, their massive wings shot out, and they launched into the air so fast that I lost them in the darkness.

  It was far from my first encounter with the strange avian species, but I still shivered when the light from the nearby Wave Swinger attraction touched their sleek, ink-black forms. In many ways, each resembled the common stork—long and graceful, with an extended beak, broad wings, and thin, dangling legs. But these weren’t the kind you’d see carrying babies on greeting cards.

  At least three times larger than the biggest earthly stork, they soared through the sky like dark omens, propelled by unnatural speed and a craving for blood. Their talons resembled an eagle’s, while their beaks were sharp and strong enough to puncture metal—they could suckle a human dry in three minutes if they found a main artery.

  There was a reason we called them “redbills.”

  “Zach, get to work!” I yelled.

  Gunfire exploded from the helicopter, peppering the birds with artillery. It took more than a single shot to bring them down—even with bullets specifically designed to deliver their death.

  “Spread out!” I ordered my team. “Don’t let them dive!”

  The redbills began to circle the aircraft. The chopper was their greatest source of aggravation, and, judging from the way their beaks angled toward it, they were preparing to strike back. I leapt onto the wheel’s frame and pulled myself up the metal skeleton for a better angle. I fired a round at the largest predator.