Harley Merlin 8: Harley Merlin and the Challenge of Chaos

by Forrest, Bella

“Seriously.” All of the Grimoire’s secrets were open, every last one. Now, I just had to find the one that would destroy Katherine.

  If Davin hadn’t been here, I’d have devoured the unreadable spell—the last one my dad had put in here. That had to be the one, it just had to be. It was too dark and powerful not to be, not to mention the fact that it had been written in a language I couldn’t understand. That had Chaos written all over it. But I had to wait. I hated to, but Davin was still an outsider. Sure, he’d helped us, but this was a secret I couldn’t risk getting out, no matter how helpful he’d been.

  A little more patience. Just a little bit more.

  I’d waited this long. I didn’t want to ruin it now.

  Thirty-Four

  Harley

  I was so excited about finally cracking this big old nut open that I’d almost forgotten that Finch really wasn’t supposed to be here. My dad might have said all those heroic things about us staying together, but, at the end of the day, I wasn’t willing to lose another family member. He was the last one I had, since I’d have ripped out my own tongue before I called Katherine family.

  The conundrum dulled the edge of my excitement. There was no way Finch would let me out of his sight now.

  I felt something move in the pocket of my leather jacket. When I glanced down, a mouse poked its head out. I yelped as it ran right down my front, its little claws gripping at my jeans while it scuttled away, hurrying toward the floor at Finch’s feet. He stooped to pick the creature up, stroking its furry little head as he brought it to eye level.

  “Thanks for the stellar espionage, Kenzie. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

  I glared at him. “Yeah, real sneaky.”

  He grinned. “You can hang back for now, and… uh… do whatever it is you do when you’re not spying for me.”

  The mouse gave a sharp squeak before scurrying all the way across his arm and down his front, defying gravity as it ran the length of his leg and hurtled across the floor of the church. It disappeared out of the door that Finch had kicked open, racing away into the night. I guessed Kenzie just had to sever the tie between herself and the little creature in order to get back into her own mind. No lengthy travels necessary.

  “Where did you get the charmed chalk?” I looked up at Finch. “I didn’t ask before.”

  “I have my ways.”

  “Did Remington give it to you?”

  He shook his head. “He wouldn’t trust me as far as he could throw me. But, you know, I always think it’s better to do things and ask for forgiveness later.”

  “You stole it from him?”

  “I’ve got some pretty light fingers.” He winked. “He came to talk to Garrett, and I took my shot. I knew that stuff was sentimental for him, so I figured he’d be carrying some sticks of it on him.”

  I shook my head. “You really won’t give up, will you?”

  “What do you think?”

  Then how am I supposed to keep you safe? I clasped the lens in my hand and tried to come up with a plan. Right now, Finch being around was the least of my worries. Alton was still a complete mess, propping his back against the altar to stop himself from collapsing under his own weight, and Davin was eyeing me closely.

  “I take it you found what you were looking for?” Davin asked, clearly realizing he’d been caught staring. “I must ask, what could be so utterly mysterious and important that it needed to be concealed with such complex and dangerous magic?”

  Instinctively, I closed the Grimoire and slipped it back into its bag, pulling the strap tight across me. “Equally complex magic.”

  “Might I have a gander?” He smiled, his eyes fixed on the bag.

  “No.”

  “Yeah, it’s FHEO,” Finch replied. I could tell he didn’t like this dude, right from the get-go. I didn’t mind Davin all that much, but he didn’t need to know what was in the Grimoire. That was for me to know, and me alone.

  Davin frowned. “FHEO? Is this some hipster word I don’t know?”

  “It means For Harley’s Eyes Only. You couldn’t figure that out?” Finch smirked.

  “Ah, the Shipton snark is strong in this one. It is a fabled thing, known amongst all who have heard the tales of your mother. I see you haven’t evaded that particularly droll quality.”

  “Do you always speak like that? You got a thesaurus stuck in your throat or something?” Finch shot back.

  “It’s called education, dear boy. You should try it sometime.”

  “They teach you to fight at Cambridge, or whichever snob school you wound up at?” Finch narrowed his eyes.

  I stifled a snort. “While I’d love to stay and listen to you snipe at each other, someone needs to get Alton back to the SDC before he blacks out. He’s already dead on his feet.”

  “We’re both going back.” Finch turned to me. “You, me, Alton—we’re all going back to the coven. Captain Fancy Pants can do what he likes.”

  “Envy is an ugly emotion.” Davin chuckled. “And, if you must know, my undergarments cost more than you could earn in your lifetime.”

  Finch shot me a look. “Undergarments? Is this guy for real? Did you spirit him out of Pride and friggin’ Prejudice or something?”

  “Nope, he really speaks like that. And no, I’m not coming back with you.” I lowered my gaze, keeping one hand on the Grimoire satchel. “I’ve got Katherine’s location now, and I’ve unlocked the Grimoire. I can’t go back to the SDC, not until this is done.”

  “Well, you can’t stay here,” Finch muttered.

  “I’m not planning to. I just need to go somewhere safe for a couple of hours so I can read through this thing without any distractions or worries. Somewhere out of the way.”

  “Did you leave half of your brain behind when you did that Hidden Things spell?” Finch reached down and tapped me on the head. “Hello? Ground Control to Major Harley? Anyone home?”

  I gently pushed his hand away. “We’re really running out of time here, and I need to make sure that the rest of the Rag Team don’t get involved, for their own sakes. So, you need to take Alton back, and I need to do this. Like Dad said, we need to work together, which means you covering for me while I get this done. They’ll believe you, no matter what you say. I mean, don’t say I’ve been abducted by aliens or anything—keep it simple.”

  Davin raised his hand, like the polite gentleman he was. “Forgive me for interrupting your familial squabble, but there’s an important point that I need to get off my chest.”

  “What is it?” I glanced at him warily.

  “I do not know much of Finch’s mother, only what I have heard others say, but even from that fleeting acquaintance with her character, I’m certain you may need more than a few hours to decipher a means of using the Grimoire against someone like her. I have heard many alarming things. Things that would make weaker men quake in their brogues. She is a dangerous woman. Ordinarily, I would find that ever so enticing, but she is the kind of lady I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot barge pole.”

  “Do you have a point?” Finch snarked. “You think we’d be in some crusty old church in France if we didn’t know she was a total loon? Use that educated noggin of yours, since you’re so proud of it.”

  “Actually, I do have a point, if you would permit me to finish,” he replied curtly.

  “You weren’t done? Sorry, I lost track of what you were saying about three words in.”

  “Yes, ‘I do not’ can be particularly taxing for less well-rounded minds.” Davin smirked. “Harley, please allow me to offer you the use of my cabin in Chamonix. It’s isolated, far from civilization, so nobody will disturb you. I have a man there year-round. I can make the call at a moment’s notice, and he will ensure you’re kept safe, with all the privacy you require.”

  Finch snorted. “Of course he has a cabin in friggin’ Chamonix. I bet you’ve got houses all over the world, huh? People like you always do.”

  “Is that a rather large chip on your shoulder, Finch?” h
e replied, cool as a cucumber.

  “There’s no way in hell that Harley is going to some cabin. Who the heck are you, anyway?”

  “Davin Doncaster, pleased to make your acquaintance.” He didn’t miss a beat. It was funny to hear their slinging match, but I needed to get a move on.

  “Finch—” I started to speak, but he cut me off.

  “No, you’re not going with him. You don’t even know him, Harley. Didn’t anyone ever teach you about stranger danger?” He grasped my wrist and dragged me toward the side of the church. Davin immediately moved forward, a worried look on his face.

  “I would never cause Ms. Merlin any harm. I merely wish to offer her safe refuge so she can continue in her endeavors,” he urged.

  Finch whipped out a stick of chalk and began to draw, glancing back over his shoulder. “Yeah, and I wish the Chargers would win the Super Bowl, so I guess we’re both going to be disappointed.”

  Davin rolled his eyes. “Must everything always come down to your little games of hand-egg?”

  “What?” Finch snapped.

  “Well, it isn’t a football, is it? There is no ball, and there are no feet involved. American football should be called hand-egg, and I refuse to believe otherwise.”

  “Call it what you want, Harley isn’t going to Chamonix.”

  I sighed. “Finch, I can fight my own battles.”

  “Not with this smarmy punk you can’t. He’ll hypnotize you with his baby blues, and I’m not about to see Wade sobbing in a big ugly pile on the floor because Mr. Cambridge Education has smarmed all over you, wooing you with fancy cabins and hot chocolate on tap.” Finch whispered the Aperi Si Ostium spell, the edges of the doorway sparking as it turned into a three-dimensional opening.

  Before I could argue, Finch yanked me through the doorway, with the Grimoire and the lens in tow, and slammed the door shut behind us.

  Davin made no attempt to follow us, though he looked disappointed. Through the narrowing gap, I saw Alton staring helplessly at the bodies on the floor. If we jumped ship now, we were leaving him to deal with all of that. Guilt twisted in my stomach.

  This wasn’t supposed to be the way things went down. Finch wasn’t meant to be in control.

  “I’m sorry!” I yelled, seconds before the door closed and disappeared.

  “Don’t worry about it!” Alton shouted back. “Just do what you have to do!”

  Staring at Finch, I realized I was stuck with him now. If I wanted to make this work, I had no choice but to carry on with him at my side. But, try as I might, I couldn’t forget what the Chains of Truth had said.

  Don’t make me say goodbye to you, Finch, or I swear I’ll drag you back from the spirit world and kill you myself.

  Thirty-Five

  Harley

  It took me a moment to realize where Finch had brought me, my mind racing with a million other things: Alton, the corpses, Davin, my mom, our dad, the Rag Team, and that stupid promise that Finch had made.

  My stomach dropped like a stone.

  I was standing in my bedroom in the SDC, surrounded by the clothes I’d thrown around in my hurry to get ready for the Hidden Things spell. My bed was still ruffled from where Wade and I had shared that sweet moment, right before Raffe had interrupted with his call about Zalaam. Only, it didn’t quite feel like my room anymore. It felt like it belonged to some other girl, and I’d stepped into her domestic world, intruding on her ordinary life.

  “You’re the one who’s lost your freaking mind!” I snapped, irritated beyond belief that he’d brought me here, of all places. “What part of ‘safe and out of the way’ didn’t you understand? The SDC? Seriously? Weren’t you listening to a word I said?”

  “Just take a damn moment before you start pegging me to the wall, Sis!” he shot back. “You don’t need to be out of the way. Hiding in plain sight is just as good. Wade isn’t back yet—he’s still stuck in Montana, and he’s not going to be back for ages, thanks to you fixing him up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Oh yeah, Kenzie gave me all the goods on that, so there’s no point looking sheepish. Anyway, The Rag Team is busy preparing their mission to go after Katherine. They’re pushed to their limits. They’re not going to come looking here.”

  I frowned, trying to calm my rapid breathing. “Once Wade gets out of the ropes, he can call for help. I left him his phone—I just put it out of his reach. The cat will be out of the bag as soon as he makes that call. So, yeah, this was still a crappy place to pick.”

  “Sis, you are stone cold.”

  I ignored him and walked over to the desk, sitting down. Taking out the Grimoire and spreading it on the table, I flipped the page back to my dad’s last spell—the one he’d written just before he’d gone to kill my mother.

  The moment had come. There was no Davin to worry about, and Finch had given me enough assurance that I wouldn’t have to worry about the Rag Team bursting in either. I could sense anguish coming out of the pages, shivering through me as I trailed my fingertips across the weird writing. I still couldn’t read it, and no words wanted to come pouring out of me.

  Grabbing the black lens, I moved it over the strange scrawl, but nothing happened. More secrets? Are you kidding me? How many more flaming hoops did Chaos want me to jump through? Hadn’t I proven I was worthy by doing the Hidden Things spell? I remembered what my dad had said about pitfalls and wondered if this was one of them.

  However, as I moved the lens around the page, desperate to find something, I paused. There, in the very center of the weird writing, hidden unless I looked through the lens, was the same Veve of Erzulie that I’d seen on other pages. Curious, I pressed my fingertips to the symbol and focused on my dad’s emotions that were brimming out of the page. Show me… show me what I’m supposed to see, I begged inwardly.

  A moment later, the Grimoire’s strange voice began to echo inside my head, repeating the heartbreaking words that my dad had spoken when he’d written this thing. Show your forgiveness, it boomed inside my skull.

  “What?” Finch said.

  I glanced at him. “I didn’t say anything.”

  “You didn’t just say, ‘Show your forgiveness’ to me?”

  I shook my head. “That was the Grimoire.”

  “Weird.”

  Closing my eyes, I focused on my dad again. With my fingertips on the Veve of Erzulie, I delved deep into my emotions and found the tendrils I was looking for. The love and forgiveness and heartache I’d felt when I’d been forced to say goodbye. I reached for the memory of finding his mortuary photo in the New York Coven as well, remembering the relief I’d felt when I’d seen those marks on his neck that had proven, once and for all, that he’d been under the Sal Vínna curse when he’d done all those terrible things.

  Gathering that into a ball in my chest, I sent the emotions out as a tight stream, forcing it directly into the Veve of Erzulie—the voodoo symbol of love, the perfect “X” to mark the spot of what I needed.

  “Uh, Harley.” Finch tapped me on the shoulder.

  “What is it now?”

  He gulped and pointed at the page of the Grimoire. “The words are moving.”

  I looked down and saw that he was right. The strange words that I couldn’t understand were twisting and turning, each one morphing into a letter I recognized. It wasn’t English, and it wasn’t Latin, but it was written in the Roman alphabet.

  “Do you know what language this is?” I asked. Finch knew more about dark and dangerous spells than I did.

  He nodded. “It’s Ancient Greek. Well, the words are, but not the alphabet. It’s Romanized it for you.” He paused. “But I can’t focus on it. Every time I hold onto a word, the next one disappears. It’s like it doesn’t want me to read it. Can you read it?”

  “Yeah… I think I can.” My eyes devoured the words on the page, though I didn’t start saying anything, the way I’d done when I’d almost summoned Erebus. Instead, the Grimoire’s voice echoed in my head again, translating the words as my eyes passed over t
hem. It was bizarre and thrilling, all at once:

  Though Darkness may come in many forms, not all who seek shadows bathe in evil.

  A balance beyond time and space, required to keep the world’s order.

  Look to the Darkness and find what you need, and offer what you must in return.

  Call it to you and feel the power of the obedient, brought low to your heeding cry.

  Ask what you will and find yourself answered, though be prepared to give of yourself.

  Let it come to you and seek not to covet its power, for in envy lies failure.

  Bring the Chaos into being, in the form destined by Origin itself.

  All Mothers seek to protect their own, as all Children must break free of past bonds.

  Call the Darkness to you and feel the wealth of knowledge, granted you by its tentative hand.

  Ask what you will and bring questions of value, though all questions come with a price.

  Let it come to you and do not ask too much, for in greed lies destruction.

  Bring the Chaos into being, in the form destined by the Mother herself.

  All beings must bend, otherwise…

  Otherwise what? The spell seemed to cut off just as it was getting to the good part, leaving me on one heck of a question mark.

  The Grimoire’s voice fell silent, giving me nothing else to go on, as my head continued to swim with the words. Somehow, they felt familiar, as if I’d heard them before. Not quite the same, perhaps, but with the same sentiment I’d experienced on a different occasion. My mind instantly went back to the spell I’d read out in the New York Special Collections—the spell that had summoned Erebus, which I’d been thinking about a moment ago. There was something about that spell and this one that set an alarm bell ringing in the back of my brain. It was like that first spell had been the starter pack to this one.

  But why had it cut off like that? Was I missing something? Or was this the whole spell and I was reading too much into it, expecting more somehow? I mean, it was short for a big, scary spell. Other powerful spells I’d performed had been way larger than this one. You’re just being paranoid.