Harley Merlin 8: Harley Merlin and the Challenge of Chaos

by Forrest, Bella

  “You will obey me!” I howled, like I’d done in the gargoyle box, sending out a powerful pulse of reverse Empathy, channeling everything I had into it. But, no matter how deep I dug, and how many emotions I dragged into my chest, kicking and screaming, it wasn’t enough. Leviathan kept trying to throw me off, unfazed by my words.

  “No, I don’t think I will, but nice try. That tickled more than before,” he replied.

  What am I doing wrong? I had about two minutes before I couldn’t hold on anymore, so I had to come up with something quickly. To be honest, I didn’t think I had it in me to go another billion rounds with this dude. If he threw me off, that’d be it—game over. Either I’d have to tap out and run for the door, or he’d end up breaking me, one way or another.

  “Sometimes, the Darkness needs to be fed.” The voice came out of nowhere, soft and gentle, slipping into my mind as if someone had whispered it into my ear. I knew that voice. I’d heard it before, back on Eris Island.

  Mom?

  I waited for her to speak again, willing her to, but that was all I was getting. Maybe she hadn’t spoken at all, and it was just my mind urging me in the right direction. Still, it was enough to jog my memory. My mom had given me some sage advice when I’d let her out of that sickening jar. She’d told me that, sometimes, I needed to feed the Darkness inside of me.

  Okay, then. I guess it’s dinnertime.

  Holding on to that thought, I closed my eyes and reached for the Darkness, seeking out the shadowy side of myself that I kept suppressed. Weirdly, it wasn’t too hard to find. It was like the place where two oceans met, the two sides distinct. All I had to do was dip my toe into the Dark side, and the rest would come flooding out. At least, that was my theory. Finding the heavier pull of the Dark Chaos, I gripped it tight in my mind and let it flow through me, giving it free rein over my body.

  Without warning, I exploded backward, my hands wrenched apart as I was flung from Leviathan’s back, hitting the back of the box with a thud. This time, there was no dizziness, only a violent buzz in my veins that excited and terrified me in equal measure. I jumped up, and immediately crumpled to my knees, the Darkness throbbing inside me. It was too strong, and I was pretty sure it was about to implode all of my cells, and me with them. My body didn’t even feel like it belonged to me anymore, everything crackling and sparking, my veins turning black underneath my skin. This thing was going to tear me apart, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

  And then, as suddenly as that rush of destruction had coursed through me, it ebbed, forming a thread of control that spread up and down the length of me, reaching right to the edges of my fingertips and down to my toes. I stood up, feeling as if I could flip a mountain or something. Ahead of me, Leviathan had turned, his eyes narrowed in confusion.

  This was going to be fun.

  Lifting my palms, I let the Darkness twist around my fingers, sparking and glinting. Trying Fire first, I sent out a blast, almost careening back into the glass as it pummeled out of my hands in a single, violent torrent that hit Leviathan square in the chest. He went flying, disappearing into the mist. Cool. I took a step forward, feeling that thread strengthen, the violence settling into a more bearable sensation as I shot another torrent into the haze. Judging by the wheezing groan I heard, I’d hit my mark.

  Buoyed by the new energy within me, I walked into the mist. I’d taken a few steps, when Leviathan swept out of his hiding spot, striking at me with his clawed hands. The sharp edge scraped against my arm as I sidestepped the attack. The pain spurred me on to launch a retaliation of powerful Fire. This time, he was too quick, twisting away from danger. Crap… The Darkness had been fed, and it was proving useful, but it wasn’t all-powerful. I still needed to do the work.

  The fight raged on in an aggressive back-and-forth. He slashed at my face and my body, while I retaliated with Fire and Telekinesis, using them to push him farther back into the box. Soon enough, I’d begun to learn his moves without even realizing. It was almost as though there was a time lag on him, my mind knowing what he was going to do before he did it. The thread of Darkness had given me a peculiar clarity, letting my mind process his actions rapidly. Using this new sense, I hurled Fire at him, time and time again, each blast striking him precisely where I wanted it to. With every blow I landed, he started to look more and more frustrated, his eyes narrowing as he tried to twist and turn away from my attacks.

  This is insane! If I could do this with Leviathan, then I already had a head start with Naima. I’d seen her fight before, and I could use that to my advantage, avoiding all of the preamble I’d had to go through with Leviathan. I mean, providing I actually survived this encounter. Tobe had assured me that he wouldn’t let Leviathan kill me, but even Tobe seemed alarmed by how quick this bastard was. I’d seen him go for the door a couple of times, only to step back, a worried expression on his furry face. Even I was starting to worry, even though I knew Leviathan had a deal to keep with his mother, which should have kept me safe. But he was so into the fight that I started to worry that he’d forgotten he was supposed to keep me alive, to fulfill that promise.

  Now, I just needed to find a way to make Leviathan stay still. No matter how many blows I landed on his armor plating, it wasn’t doing much to slow him down, and until that happened, my reverse Empathy was fairly useless. He could take the beatings I was sending his way, and I was pretty sure his stamina would outlast mine, if it came to that.

  After singeing him with yet another beam of Fire, I took a quick moment to look over his body, picking out the transparent pockets that were only half covered by the armor plating. Most of them were cloudy, as if the gelatinous layer was quite thick, but there was one tiny pocket that was entirely see-through. It rested just beneath his chest, wedged in the gap between two of the lobster-like plates. That was my target—a possible weakness that I could exploit.

  Lifting my palms, I sent out an intense blast of Telekinesis, focusing it on that one sweet spot. He went thundering backward, smacking into the glass with a slam so loud that I could’ve sworn the box actually cracked. At the very least, he’d made it rock on its plinth. Wade and Finch jumped back in shock.

  This is it—now or never. Grappling for a fresh ball of churning emotion, I felt it swirl within me, crackling and powerful. I let it surge out of me, hitting the weakened Leviathan almost as hard as he’d hit the glass.

  “Obey me!” I bellowed, the sound howling out of my throat with a painful tear, my lungs burning as they struggled to contain the volume. “You will obey me!” It hurt so badly, but I couldn’t give up. Getting slammed into the box, or squeezed to death by tentacles, hurt a lot more.

  Leviathan’s oddly human eyes took on a faraway look. He sank down onto the coils of his tail and bent his head.

  “I will obey,” he said quietly. Is this another game? There was only one way to find out.

  “Kneel for me,” I commanded.

  He did it, even without legs, rising up proudly before flattening himself on the floor at my feet.

  “Show me your weak spot.” He lifted the armored plate to reveal the jelly-like patch where I’d struck him. “Now bow to me.”

  His head dipped to his chest.

  Against all odds, I really had done it. Even if I couldn’t do this to Katherine, with all her ritual-infused power, manipulating Naima would bring us one step closer to ending her. I now had the skill to get Naima to spill her guts, which would hopefully give us the clear location we needed.

  With a smile on my face, despite feeling like I was about to collapse with fatigue, I left Leviathan where he was and walked to the door of the box. Hurriedly, Tobe let me out, and I emerged triumphant but exhausted. My clothes were tattered, and I was covered in bruises and cuts, but my determination had only grown stronger.

  I’d barely caught my breath when Wade sprinted over, enveloping me in his arms. I sank into his warm hug, nuzzling his shoulder.

  “You’re in one piece,” he murmured. “Thank G
od, you’re in one piece.”

  “Well, as far as we know,” I replied, chuckling.

  “Don’t you EVER do that to us again!” Finch put his arms around both me and Wade and squeezed us tight.

  “Isn’t that the point, that I do it at least one more time?” I smiled into Wade’s shoulder.

  “Well… yeah, but don’t get slammed around like that,” Finch said. “You’ve got precious human bones, remember? They’re not made of Adamantium. You aren’t Wolverine. Things won’t just grow back and heal like magic.”

  I pulled away from Wade and looked at Finch with a grin. “Precious human bones?”

  “Yes, very precious,” he replied. “They’re Merlin bones. They’re… family bones. My family bones.”

  “Are we skeletons now?” I chuckled, but he looked deadly serious.

  “I mean it. You’re literally the one piece of family I’ve got left—that I actually want to associate with, anyway. You’re the only person in my family that I can be proud of. And if you’d been killed by that hulking sea worm, I’d have slathered him in melted butter and eaten the bastard.” He smiled awkwardly, a hint of the usual Finch mischief glinting in his eyes. “So thanks for not embarrassing me. Can you imagine the humiliation?”

  I smirked. “You were so close, Finch.”

  “Have to keep you on your toes, Sis.”

  My phone pinged in my pocket. How that thing was still working after being slammed around was beyond me. I retrieved it, to find that there wasn’t even a crack in the screen. The message icon flashed, and I swiped it open to see a message from Alton. I stepped back from Finch and Wade so they couldn’t read the sender’s name, covering the screen discreetly with one hand as I read it. He had news for me. Big news.

  “Sorry to duck out on you, but I think I need to hurl.” The excuse popped into my head. It wasn’t my strongest, but it’d have to do for now.

  “What? But you just—” Wade tried to protest.

  “Seriously, I’m feeling really green right now,” I replied, already speed-walking toward the door. “The stench in there, it’d be enough to make anyone sick.”

  “Should I prepare further training?” Tobe called after me.

  I glanced back. “No, I think I’ve got it, and I’d like to still be in one piece when we face Naima.”

  “But… skeletons!” Finch blurted out, making me smile sadly as I focused on what lay ahead. I didn’t quite know what he was trying to say, but I appreciated the sentiment.

  However, right now, me and my precious human bones had something else to attend to. And while I might have felt like crap for acting like this with them, it was all for their own good, in the end.

  Nineteen

  Harley

  I headed for Alton’s puny study, jogging through the hallways.

  The SDC had been weirdly quiet since the news of Isadora’s death, with lots of the usual inhabitants choosing to keep away, but it looked like they were flocking back, slowly but surely. Groups wandered through the halls, walking infuriatingly slowly, but I tried to keep my head down and not shove my way through. I felt their eyes on me and heard the soft hiss of their whispering as I passed by. They were scared of me, not only because of my power, but because it was my aunt who’d died.

  I wasn’t assuming they blamed me for it, but a nasty pattern was emerging: wherever I went, tragedy hit. First with the president of the United Covens, and now closer to home. I was a walking, talking, breathing jinx. They didn’t even need to whisper; I could feel their suspicion and anxiety bombarding me as I tried to get past them. Some of them even wrenched their arms away, in case I accidentally brushed up against them. What, do you think you’ll be next or something if you get too close? I may as well have had some plague, from the way they were looking at me. Then again, it could’ve had something to do with the fact that I looked like I’d been dragged through a hedge backward, my clothes all torn up and my body covered in who knows what.

  Ignoring it as best I could, my mind turned to Alton and the news he had for me. I was keeping all my extremities crossed that it was going to be the good kind. I was already on a high from controlling Leviathan, and I really didn’t want anyone killing that buzz. It’d been a long while since I’d felt this positive about my mission to end Katherine. If he threw a wrench in the works, I’d deflate like a kid’s balloon.

  Reaching the turn-off that led toward Alton’s office, I paused and shot a look over my shoulder. Someone was watching me. I scoured the passersby, trying to sense them out with Empathy, but I couldn’t feel anything weird, aside from the blatant terror they felt for me. And yet, the hairs were prickling on the back of my neck, my skin tingling as though there were eyes on me. My instincts were sky-high, everything on alert. I didn’t know if that was because of my Darkness’s little feast in the Bestiary, or if it was just because I needed to be on my guard these days. Either way, my senses were sharp as a knife, my cells jangling in warning.

  Is Katherine here? I peered back into the throngs of people, but I wouldn’t have been able to spot her even if she was. There were a number of Shapeshifters in the coven, and just because I sensed a lack of emotion, that didn’t mean it would be her. She’d duped us all with the Rita Bonnello disguise, and none of us had seen it coming. All her actions were carefully planned, to the tiniest detail. I’d learned that the hard way.

  Puzzled, I pressed on through the corridor toward Alton’s office, keeping those instincts on their highest level. I kept on walking, reaching the next turn through the endless hallways. As I turned the corner, a familiar figure pushed through the hall to catch up to me.

  Finch… for Pete’s sake. I’d have to be clever if I planned to lose him.

  Darting into the corridor before he could reach it, I sprinted toward a smaller corridor to the left and headed down it. This was an annoying detour to have to take, but I couldn’t have Finch eavesdropping on anything Alton had to say to me. I kept running and lunged into the next hallway, pressing myself up against the wall and peeking around the edge. Finch crossed the entrance to the smaller corridor, heading in the wrong direction, walking quickly. I smiled to myself. This is all for your sake, Finch. You’ll understand soon enough.

  Satisfied that I’d lost him, I continued with my detour, racking my brain to find a way to circle back. There were a few connecting corridors that led to Alton’s office, and though it would take me a bit longer than expected, I was pretty sure I could get there without being spotted.

  A few minutes later, heading down yet another corridor, with only one more to get through before I reached Alton, I skidded to a halt. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up again. I glanced back, to see if I could see anyone in the hallway behind me, but it was empty. The corridor in front, on the other hand, was swarming with people.

  I peered out from my hiding spot, keeping to the shadows, determined to pick Finch out of the crowd. Only, I couldn’t see him at all. Being a Shapeshifter, he could have been literally any one of these people—a sly fish in the sea of magicals who were currently passing through this part of the coven.

  It was close to lunchtime, and I wasn’t too far from the Banquet Hall, so I figured they were on a mass exodus to get the plumpest of the chef’s specialty burritos. My mouth watered at the thought of food. Kicking Leviathan’s ass had taken it out of me, and my stomach was growling. But lunch would have to wait for now.

  Using the crowd to shield me, I reached the opposite side of the hallway and ducked behind a dragon statue. They never ceased to amaze me, towering over the coven like gigantic bronze sentinels. If they were supposed to be the guardians of this place, they’d been slacking lately.

  Slinking back into the shadow of the dragon, I took out the piece of charmed chalk that Remington had given me and scraped it against the wall, hurriedly drawing a doorway. It was wobbly and alarmingly narrow, but it would have to do for now. I really hated all this sneaking around, but I couldn’t let Finch in on what I was planning. I wa
sn’t trying to be a hero; I was just trying to save their lives.

  “Aperi Si Ostium,” I whispered, focusing on where I wanted to go. A bright light shot through the chalk markings, sparking like a lit fuse, and turning my awkward 2-D drawing into a real-life door.

  Slipping the chalk back into my pocket, I turned the handle and opened the door out onto Alton’s office. When I slammed it behind me, Alton jumped out of his seat.

  “What the—!” Alton almost knocked his chair over as he stumbled back against the wall. “How did you get in here?”

  I smiled. “You’re not the only one with secret ways around the coven.”

  “No, seriously. How did you get in here?” His breathing slowly returned to normal.

  “A spell,” I replied.

  “Well, I guessed you hadn’t learned how to walk through walls.” He offered a nervous grin. “But the fact remains—you shouldn’t know how to do that spell, Harley.”

  I shrugged. “I’ve been picking things up along the way. Turns out, I can be a pretty good student when I want to be.”

  “You’re here now, and I suppose that’s all that matters.” He paused. “I imagine you used that spell to get here without detection?”

  I nodded. “That’s about the crux of it, yeah.”

  “Were you followed?”

  “No.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I wouldn’t have used that spell otherwise,” I replied. “Nobody knows I’m here talking to you. I’d like to keep it that way, and I’m guessing you would, too.”

  His brow furrowed. “Yes… Yes, I would.”

  “Are you sure?” He didn’t sound like it.

  “I understand your reasoning behind keeping things quiet, and I’ve agreed to do so,” he said, after a moment. “Now, if you’ll take a seat, we can discuss how things are progressing.”

  I crossed the room and took the chair opposite, leaning eagerly up on the desk. “So, does that mean things are progressing, then? I was terrified you were going to tell me you’d changed your mind, or you couldn’t find anyone to help you out.”