Harley Merlin 6: Harley Merlin and the Cult of Eris

by Forrest, Bella

  Shinsuke shook his head. “No, it was a surprise to both of us when it became apparent that I possessed it. Even in the early days, when it wasn’t very powerful, we were both shocked.”

  “What about your mom? She a Mediocre too?” It was an act, considering that I already knew about Shinsuke’s mom, but I had a feeling this would open him up even more.

  “No, she was a powerful magical. And she was a strong person,” he replied sadly, his voice thick with emotion.

  “Was?” I prompted.

  “She died a long time ago. She was an explorer and a collector of rare artifacts. She died of exposure on a mission to find an ancient cache of magical objects in Antarctica.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. Sounds like you were close.”

  Shinsuke nodded. “Very.”

  “I take it she belonged in the cult, too, at one point. Seems to be a family type of place,” I continued. Finch watched me closely. He seemed impressed.

  “No, she didn’t care much for Katherine—for Eris—although she didn’t know her very well. They’d encountered each other a few times, trying to get their hands on the same artifacts, which annoyed her.” Bitterness enveloped Shinsuke’s words.

  “How come you ended up here, then?”

  He shrugged. “For me, Mediocrity wasn’t an option, and I knew my father would be disappointed if I gave up my studies. But I was struggling—until Eris appeared and offered to train me. I went behind my father’s back to come here, even though he disapproved…” He unleashed a ragged sigh, then frowned, seeming to realize he was saying too much, despite my reverse Empathy at work.

  I nodded sympathetically. “It must sting even more, now that your dad is in prison.”

  Shinsuke whirled around and stared at me. “What did you say?”

  “Your dad’s in prison. Didn’t Eris tell you?”

  “No… no, she didn’t.”

  “Yeah, he got locked up after trying to help her. We heard it through one of our sources before we came here. They brokered some sort of deal where, if he managed to catch and send Harley Merlin to her, she’d release you in exchange. He got caught and ended up in prison. He’s awaiting trial, last I heard, but it doesn’t look good. He’ll probably be in Purgatory for the rest of his life.”

  Shinsuke let out a choked sound. “No… no, that can’t be right. My father would never make such a sacrifice.”

  “Well, he did. I guess Eris is even more persuasive than you thought.”

  Finch snorted. “Foolish, really. Eris would never have held up her end of the bargain. Once you’re in the cult, you’re in the cult, right? Nobody gets to leave, not unless they get carried out of here in a coffin.”

  His words served as a stark, unwelcome reminder to me. Finch had been a massive part of this organization. If he wasn’t dead, then it stood to reason that he’d always be a member of this thing. I just had to keep hoping that he was an exception, that he wouldn’t suddenly turn on me and change his mind. There was still a huge risk that all of this was an elaborate ploy. But he’d had plenty of opportunity to reveal me to Katherine since we’d arrived, and I was still standing.

  Shinsuke hung his head. “So my father was going to make an exchange?”

  I nodded. “That’s what I heard down the grapevine.”

  “I see.” Frustration and pain were etched on his face. He knew Katherine had played him, in the worst way possible. And now, his father was in prison, his reputation in tatters. I could feel the shock and misery bristling off him in spiky jolts, though he was struggling to stop it from showing in his body language.

  Don’t worry, this isn’t over for you. I didn’t say it out loud, but I felt it. With a little bit of luck, I’d get him out of here, too… eventually. Once we had Hester’s spirit, and had stopped Katherine from completing the next ritual, we’d stand a chance of getting anyone out who didn’t want to be here anymore. And, judging from the vibe around the island, there’d be plenty of takers.

  “Do you know much about these rituals that everyone keeps talking about?” I prompted. “Pieter and I don’t know too much about them, but they seem pretty important to this whole Child of Chaos thing she’s trying to do.”

  Shinsuke grimaced. “Eris is eager to complete the next one, though she has already fulfilled two of the necessary rituals. It has made her far more powerful than anyone anticipated. In a few more days, she will have achieved the third, and her power will grow again.” He sounded nervous, and he had every right to be.

  “Something about a ghost, right?” Finch said, keeping it vague.

  “A spirit, not a ghost,” Shinsuke replied.

  Finch shrugged. “What’s the difference?”

  “A ghost is the echo of a tragedy—a hologram, almost, left over from a traumatic death. A spirit is the very essence of who we are, without our earthly bodies. It is the part that crosses over when we die. It is not supposed to linger on earth, though there are ways of ensuring it does. Eris seems to have bound the spirit of her worst enemy to earth, and she plans to destroy it, in order to complete the third ritual.”

  Nice one, Finch. He was asking the right questions in the right way, making it seem as if we were more or less clueless. Thanks to my reverse Empathy, Shinsuke was getting trusting vibes from us. Plus, we were official members of the cult now, and it seemed like this was common knowledge around here.

  “I imagine she’s got a bunch of worst enemies,” Finch said. “Do you know whose spirit she’s bound?”

  Shinsuke shook his head. “I don’t know who, but the spirit is being kept under lock and key in the Drake Shipton Library beside a statue of Eris until midnight on All Hallows’ Eve, when the ritual must be performed. Katherine will take the spirit to the Land of Erebus and do whatever needs to be done.”

  Finch whistled. “These rituals seem like a lot of hassle.”

  “It is why she’s so eager to stay organized. I believe she’s already taking steps to complete the fourth, as soon as she has finished the third. From what I have heard, she’s already looking for a way into the Bestiary.”

  I put on a frown. “Where’s that again? I can never remember where they moved it to.”

  “The San Diego Coven.”

  Finch smirked. “Now it makes sense. I’m guessing that’s how Tess got her hands fried, huh?”

  Shinsuke grinned, confirming what we already knew. “That’s true, but it was only a test run, to uncover the defenses there. They’re preparing for another hit, very soon.”

  My heart sank. The first attack on the Bestiary had been a ploy to test our defenses and see how we’d react. Yeah, we’d stopped it, but it had only left us more exposed. Now that they knew what we’d do, it’d be easier for them to infiltrate it the second time around. But how soon was very soon? At least, if we prevented Katherine from performing the third ritual, we might not have to face another blow to the Bestiary. I just hoped we could do it in time.

  And we knew precisely where Katherine was hiding Hester’s spirit now, and that we wouldn’t be wasting our time breaking in there. That was one solitary consolation in all of this.

  Thirty-One

  Harley

  “Now do you believe me about Tess?” I asked, as we made our way through the island, toward the Hexagon.

  We’d trained with Shinsuke for a couple of hours, to keep up the ruse, and we were both exhausted. Finch’s Ephemera had visibly dimmed, which was pretty worrying. If this came to a head, I knew he might have to use his non-Pieter abilities to fight. Then again, if we were fighting people, the disguises probably wouldn’t matter anymore.

  He shrugged. “Just because Tess felt uncomfortable doesn’t mean she’s 100 percent the mole. Most people feel uncomfortable around Katherine. It’s how she likes it.” He paused. “I really thought Shinsuke was our guy.”

  “What do you think now?”

  He pulled a sour face. “Well, Shinsuke didn’t know anything about his father. Like, he genuinely didn’t. The mole would
already have known about it.”

  “Hold up a sec. Does this mean the great Finch is admitting he was wrong, and I was right?”

  “I seem to be doing that a lot lately,” he replied, with a wry smile. “Unfortunately for you, all my money is back in that storage room in Purgatory. It’ll have to be an IOU.”

  “You do owe me. If it wasn’t for my Empathy, we wouldn’t have a clue who the mole was.”

  “Yeah, yeah, stop parading your skills around. It’s impressing nobody.”

  “I don’t know, you seemed pretty impressed back there in the training room.”

  “Nah, that was just gas.”

  “Well, now that we know my mom’s spirit is definitely in the library, we should head there. I’ve got an idea for the guards. We can’t slip in while they’re changing shifts, so we might need to be a bit more direct.”

  Finch grinned. “Direct is good. Fireballs?”

  “Maybe. It depends how many people are watching.”

  Half an hour later, we found ourselves back at the secret entrance to the Hexagon. After scanning the area to make sure nobody had followed us, Finch took us both through the same concrete-and-steel corridors. Only, this time, we didn’t stop outside Katherine’s office, nor did we head toward the war room. Instead, we took a right down one of the labyrinthine hallways and ended up outside a fairly innocuous black blast door with two guards standing in front of it. Finch gave me a pointed stare—it was time for me to do my thing.

  This was clearly the Drake Shipton Library, although there was no sign to give the game away. It was more the presence of the guards than anything else, as no other door had any officers standing in front of it.

  Now, the moment had come to snatch my mother’s spirit and get the heck out of here. We had to strike now or lose the opportunity for good.

  “Telekinesis,” I whispered. “And we can’t be seen.”

  Finch smiled. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  “And don’t kill anyone.”

  “I won’t if you won’t.”

  Ducking back behind the corner of the hallway, I raised my palms and let the Telekinesis come. Fortunately, there was nobody else in this part of the Hexagon right now. It had two doors and a dead-end to the right of us. Clearly, people only came here if they really needed to, and right now, nobody did.

  With Finch beside me, urging Telekinesis into his palms, we sent out four lassoes of bristling energy. They lashed around the throats of the guards before they even knew what was happening, the two of us pulling tight until their faces started to turn red. They scrabbled at their throats to try and get rid of the lassoes, but we’d been too quick, and they weren’t prepared. I sent out a wave of Empathy at the same time to gauge what state they were in. I felt panic and terror surging out of them, starting in a violent wave before it began to fade. Finch and I kept hold of the lassoes until that sensation of panic had faded away to almost nothing, and then I released my grip and motioned for Finch to do the same. The guards slumped to the ground immediately, their eyes closed, but their chests were still rising and falling.

  Glancing around once more, I sprinted for the figures and checked their pulses. They were fine, just unconscious, which meant we only had a short time to get in and get out.

  “What do we do with them?” Finch asked.

  “Drag them inside. We can’t leave them out here. Can you get the door open?”

  He chuckled. “We’ve talked about this, Sis.”

  “Just do it, will you!” I hissed.

  “It’s not that simple. There’ll be a ton of hexes to work through first. This is why we needed that key from Katherine’s residence—that’s the only direct way in. But it wasn’t there. She must be keeping it on her.”

  Keeping an eye on the guards to make sure they didn’t wake up, I stepped up to the door and watched as he drew his hand across the doorframe. Hexes lit up all over the place. This was going to be tougher than we’d thought. Then again, it was Katherine’s library, with her most prized possessions inside.

  “How do I break them?” I asked.

  “Cover it with your palms and unpick it with your Chaos. Just give me a sec to make a time-lapse bubble and we’ll be good to go.” As promised, he forged one of the familiar bubbles around us and the door, giving us more time to get this done. Even so, I kept glancing at the guards, just to make sure they wouldn’t suddenly sit up and fight back.

  I covered the first hex with my palms and powered my Chaos energy into it. Like Finch had said, it was sort of like picking a really complicated lock or tugging at the right strings of a knot to get it to untie. The bronze tendrils of my Chaos slithered into the charm, seeking out the parts that needed breaking. Those spots pulsed, as if trying to push away my Chaos. I sent a thin stream of Fire through my hands and singed away the pressure points, making the entire hex collapse.

  Finch gave a low whistle. “Not bad.”

  “Thanks.” I moved on to the next one, the two of us rapidly making our way through the hexes, hoping to finish before the guards woke up or someone came past and spotted the bubble. A few of the charms were feistier than the others, some billowing out black smoke and one sending out a horde of silver spiders that tried to scuttle up my arms. I shuddered at that one, incinerating them all in a wash of Fire. There was one that sent up a hologram of Katherine, her face whooshing toward me like a ghoul. I closed my eyes and sent a mixture of Telekinesis and Fire toward it, picking it apart in the same way I’d done the rest of the charms, and watching with some satisfaction as Katherine dissipated. If only it were that easy in real life.

  At last, we had all of the hexes out of the way, but there was still one hurdle to jump over. We needed the password to actually open the door, same as with Katherine’s office.

  “Tell me you know it?”

  Finch smirked and put his hand on the handle of the library. “Of course I know it.” He whispered something in Latin, and the handle lit up red. It sounded similar to the password he’d used on Katherine’s office, with a slight change of words. It was likely something equally nauseating and self-indulgent. A wave of relief washed over me as the blast door slid to the side. Grabbing the female guard by the back of her shirt, I dragged her into the room beyond, with Finch dragging the guy in after me. He closed the door behind us, whispering the same spell that had unlocked it in the first place.

  Once I had bundled the female guard into a nearby cupboard and Finch had stowed the guy away in a cabinet, I stood up and took in my surroundings for the first time. My eyes flew wide in awe. It had been styled in the same fashion as Katherine’s office, with a cosmos swirling overhead, aquariums slotted into the wood-and-gold walls, and rows upon rows of bookcases lining every available space. There were glass display cases, too, holding rare and remarkable treasures. Everywhere I looked, I found something else to gawk at.

  In the center stood a glass case with a gold gauntlet inside, and a small card stating that it had once belonged to Queen Nefertiti, the greatest witch in all of Ancient Egypt. Beside it, there were Esprits from a bunch of famous, and infamous, magicals: a blade belonging to Genghis Khan, a coin pendant from Mother Shipton, a staff from Aleister Crowley, a rough-cut chunk of onyx from Nostradamus, and even an ancient bracelet which had, apparently, belonged to Cassandra herself—the great Grecian prophetess.

  I wondered if Wade knew his ancestor’s Esprit had wound up in Katherine’s private collection, the thought of him making my heart beat faster. The sooner we could get this done, the sooner I’d be back at the SDC with him.

  “This place is insane,” I whispered. Libraries had that effect on me.

  Finch laughed. “It’s pretty cool. It’s just a shame nobody ever gets to see inside it.”

  “Well, we better hope my mother’s spirit is in here somewhere. Shinsuke said to look for the statue of Eris… not that that helps much.” There were statues of Eris everywhere. My heart lurched at the prospect of finding her in this place, especially with our one marke
r rendered useless. I’d been pushing my emotions surrounding her to the side, trying to keep my focus on the task at hand, but it was impossible not to feel a million and one things, now that we were getting closer. I’d never actually met my mother. Katherine had taken that from me. And the idea of seeing her spirit was almost more than I could bear. Sadness and confusion and hope swirled in a vortex deep inside me, refusing to be ignored.

  As we started our search, I called out to Finch. Talking to him was the only way I could keep my head in the game, without getting too sucked in by what I would say to my mother when we found her. Would she even be able to hear me? I wasn’t sure which was more unnerving—the idea of being able to talk to her and have her reply, or her not being able to talk back.

  “Why do you think Tess decided to become a mole for the National Council?” I asked, drawing my fingertip along a row of ancient-looking tomes.

  Finch peered around a nearby bookcase and shrugged. “It might have something to do with her sister, Larissa. She died on a mission, and Katherine didn’t care. Katherine said she’d gotten what was coming to her and refused to let Tess retrieve what was left of her sister in order to bury her. I doubt she’d have forgiven that in a hurry.”

  “I hadn’t considered it might be a super personal grudge,” I said softly.

  “Don’t forget, Katherine uses people. She used me. She used Shinsuke. She used Hiro. She uses whomever she can, for as long as they’re useful to her. I guess she thought it proved Tess’s loyalty, when she didn’t try to argue. I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she finds out.”

  “She can’t find out, Finch. Not yet. We need Tess as much as she needs us.” I didn’t want Finch getting carried away with his vendetta. Tess could be useful to us here, even after we escaped with the spirit. Ratting her out served no immediate purpose… even if seeing the look on Katherine’s face would be a brilliant thing. Plus, she was sort of on our side, if she was working against Katherine. That gave her the right to our silence, for now.