Harley Merlin 6: Harley Merlin and the Cult of Eris

by Forrest, Bella

  Finch chuckled. “Don’t worry, I know what’s at stake. In the end, when everyone figures out that she’s only using them for her own gains, they’ll all be ready to jump ship. One way or another. This ship is already sinking, and those rats will be out of here quicker than you can say ‘Eris.’ And I can’t wait.”

  As I continued searching, book titles jumped out at me. The first one my hand rested on was called Into the Otherworld by a man named Sebastien Delacroix. Opening it up, I scanned the index for any interesting chapters. One leapt out of the page, and I flicked to the corresponding page and tore it out, stuffing it in my pocket for later. I didn’t have time to read it now, but I’d take any useful information I could get.

  I hurried to the next statue of Eris, looking behind it, and around it, for any sign of Hester’s spirit, but all I found were more books and cases filled with artifacts. None of them gave any indication that they held my mom’s spirit inside them.

  “Got it!” Finch yelped a few minutes later. I sprinted from the bookcase I was searching, to find him at the far end of the room, his hands grasping a small charmed jar that had been placed on a special altar. It was tucked behind a towering statue of a marble goddess. Eris, again, I presume? I looked at the statue, noting the golden apple held aloft. It was identical to the rest of the statues in the room. Man, Katherine really liked to show off. The statue even looked like her.

  My eyes drifted toward the jar, which was very similar to the soul jars Papa Legba had used, only slightly bigger. A faint white mist swirled inside the glass, the charms lighting up as it held back the spirit within. I couldn’t tear my gaze away. I found myself getting lost in the swirling mist, trying to pick out something more human. Something that let me know, beyond all doubt, that my mother was in there.

  The hazy fog grew more agitated, the white mist thickening as it threw itself against the glass, dispersing instantly before coming back together again. Can you see me, Mom? Did she know I was here? Did she recognize me, even after so many years? Tears filled my eyes, and my heart gripped in my chest. I touched the glass, smoothing my fingertips across the surface as the charms that were carved into the glass started to glow. The mist slammed harder into the glass and paused where my fingertips rested, fine tendrils slithering up the inside, like they were trying to touch me.

  “I’m here,” I said softly, my voice choked with emotion. “Mom, I’m here. Just hold on, we’re going to get you out of this place.”

  Finch stared at me strangely. “Big moment for you, huh?”

  I nodded, unable to speak. The charms grew even brighter. She knew I was here, and she knew who I was, even after all this time. I guessed it was that unbreakable bond between mother and child, the one I’d never experienced, until now. I wanted to grab the jar from Finch’s hands and smash it here and now, letting my mother out, but he tugged it away, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.

  “What the hell do you think you’re playing at?” A familiar voice cut through the tense silence of the room, making us both turn in fright. Tess stood at the far end of the aisle, a few steps in front of the main door, her eyes narrowed in anger. “This is the second time I’ve caught you somewhere you’re not supposed to be. Don’t tell me, you were waiting for Katherine?” Sarcasm dripped from her words as she moved toward us.

  Finch and I exchanged a worried look. How were we going to wriggle our way out of this one?

  Thirty-Two

  Finch

  “One of you had better start talking,” she warned. “What are you doing here?”

  I smiled. “Don’t suppose you’d believe us if we said we were just browsing?”

  “No, I wouldn’t.”

  Ah, Tess, don’t you see? We’re all on the same side here.

  “How about—we just stumbled in by accident?” There was a pleasant irony to knowing what we knew, while Tess had no idea. But just how far was she willing to go with the ruse? I was eager to find out.

  “Again, no,” she spat. “What are you after, huh? Who sent you here? Are you working for the National Council? I knew there was something off about you, the moment I set eyes on you.”

  I should’ve been concerned, but I was just amused. This was a hilarious situation. Here we all were, working for the same team and trying to pretend otherwise. It was the best kind of car crash. And she was playing her part so very, very well.

  I glanced toward the far left of the room. Another statue stood there, one of my mother’s odes to herself—a statue of Eris, with the same golden apple in her hands. That emblem was getting old, and I hated the sight of it. Behind it, I saw the telltale shimmer of a hidden door. It was so subtle I almost missed it, but it was definitely there. A memory came rushing back. Katherine, telling me about a secret entrance into this place. She’d never given me the exact location, she’d just told me to “look for Lux” if the island was ever in trouble and I needed to come here without using the main entrance. Did that door have something to do with Lux? I racked my brain, but I couldn’t think of how the two might be connected.

  I looked back at Tess and wondered if I should just knock her out and run for the hidden door, with Hester’s spirit in tow. Too risky, even for you. The moment Tess came to, she’d be sprinting to Katherine as if her life depended on it. Which, given the circumstances, it kind of did. If she could pin the mole label on someone else, she would. It was the spy’s rule of thumb: cover your own ass first, worry about the consequences later.

  So, instead, we entered a face-off. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly music should’ve been playing. Du-du-du-duuuu, du, du, duuuuu. I gripped the jar tighter to my chest. No way she was getting her hands on this. I hadn’t come all this way to hand it over. And if she thought otherwise, well… I’d break out the big guns.

  “Tell me what you’re doing here,” she snapped, taking a step forward.

  “That’s close enough, Tess.” I held her gaze, my breath ragged. Having an escape route so close made it all the more frustrating. I supposed I could kill her and hide the evidence. Then again, Goody Two-shoes Merlin wouldn’t like that. But what else could we do? The tension stretched between us, none of us knowing what to do.

  “You can pretend you didn’t see this. We know you’re not what you seem,” Harley said. Oh yeah, helpful. Even if Tess was the mole, she wasn’t going to out-and-out tell us. She might think we’d been sent to pick out the traitor. This girl was going to keep up the pretense until the bitter end, I could feel it.

  “I want to know what I’m seeing,” she shot back. “Who sent you? And what are you doing with that?” She eyed the jar, and I knew the gig was up. She’d piece it together in no time, if she hadn’t already.

  Harley took a step forward. “Nobody sent us. Just forget what you’ve seen, and we’ll go, unless there’s something you want to tell us? You know, about who you are?”

  Are you insane? I shot her a look that I hoped conveyed the sentiment.

  “Hand that over, or I’ll be forced to kill you. I’ve got nothing to say to you, other than you’ll die for this.” Tess took a step forward, mirroring Harley.

  “I said that’s close enough!” I barked.

  “I mean it, both of you. I’ll kill you where you stand if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”

  I smirked. “Oh yeah? You and what army?” I knew Tess was strong, but not that strong. At least, that’s what I was banking on. Electro powers were formidable and rare, but I had Harley. My secret weapon. Still, things were getting a little too hairy for my liking.

  “Fine. You asked for it.” Tess raised her palms.

  I needed to play our wild card. Now. “We know who you are, Tess. We know you’re the mole that’s helping the National Council. Nice job, though, trying to pin it on us. Real nice.”

  She froze.

  “I’ll take your silence as confirmation?” I smirked. We had her.

  She seemed to rally. “What? That’s ridiculous! Who told you that? They’re liars, whoever they ar
e. I’m no mole, though I can’t say the same about you.”

  I laughed. “Nope, not a lie. And you know it as well as we do. As soon as my contact knew we were joining the cult, he warned me about you. I guess he was right. You’ve shown your true colors.” I gave a slow clap. “In fact, you were so convincing. I even had my doubts about his sources.”

  Silence stretched between us. Tess gave nothing away on her face. She was as calm and collected as ever. What if this doesn’t work? I’d taken a page out of Harley’s book in calling her out. But maybe Harley’s book didn’t always work. I started thinking of other ways out of this, in case Tess kept up the ploy. Right now, however, I couldn’t see another route that wouldn’t end with us dead.

  “We could use an ally, and I’m guessing you could, too,” Harley said at last.

  Tess glowered. “An ally? Don’t make me laugh. Why should I trust you?”

  I hugged the jar tighter. “Is that an admission of guilt?”

  “I sent all that information anonymously,” Tess murmured. “No one should’ve known.”

  “Why, though? Why betray Katherine?” Harley asked. I figured she must be using her reverse Empathy, if Tess was crumbling so easily. Sneaky. I like it. The more time I spent around Harley, the more I realized we weren’t too dissimilar. She was just better at hiding her devious streak.

  “I joined the cult willingly,” she protested.

  “So what happened?” Harley replied.

  “I joined with my sister, Rissa. We wanted the fame and the glory that Katherine promised. We didn’t want to live ordinary, oppressed lives anymore, always hiding in the shadows. Especially being Electros, people looked down on us, and people were suspicious of our power, and we were tired of it. Plus, we wanted to see a change in the world. A change where we didn’t have to hide anymore.” The words were pouring out of her, like she had no control. “We knew there’d be some consequences. We knew it would start with death and fear, but then, once Katherine became a Child of Chaos, there’d be happiness and prosperity for the magicals who were true and worthy.”

  “And you thought you’d get to decide that?” Harley laughed bitterly. “You really thought Katherine would deliver that kind of utopia for magicals?”

  Tess scowled. “We believed it for a while.”

  “What changed?” I asked.

  “My sister was killed, and Katherine didn’t care. I asked if I could bring her body back, but she denied me. She said that Rissa should rot where she was for disappointing her,” Tess explained. “I knew, right then, that she wasn’t doing this for anyone but herself. I also saw what she tried to do to her own son. She asked me to lead the mission to have him killed, but I didn’t want to. And then Kenneth volunteered, and I said I didn’t mind passing it to him so he could prove himself. She bought it, but it made things even clearer for me. She didn’t give a damn about anyone but herself, not even her own flesh and blood. That hit a nerve with me, I guess.”

  “Do you still feel that way?” Harley pressed.

  Tess held her face in her injured hands. “I do, but now I’m scared. I might be feeding intel to the National Council, hoping they’ll dismantle this whole operation, but I can’t see a way out of this place. Not a way where I get to live, anyway. The farther Katherine gets with this Child of Chaos thing, the more horrible it all seems. She killed children. Children. And she barely flinched.”

  That was my mother. If something wasn’t up to par, it wasn’t necessary. She had no emotional attachment whatsoever, not even to me. While Harley was busy focusing on Tess, I tucked the jar under my arm and put my hands behind my back. I didn’t want them to see what I was doing. Not yet. I had a little trick up my sleeve, but I’d only use it if I had to.

  “Even others in the cult are starting to doubt her. The vibe is bad here, seriously bad. They were promised protection and love, which, for a lot of them, was the first time they’d experienced anything like that. But now, all they’re getting is abuse and threats and terror. They’re just pawns in Katherine’s game, and she’s got no qualms about sacrificing them all if it gets her what she wants.”

  “What did you expect?” I shot back, my tone sour. It sickened me. Yeah, it was hypocritical, but so what? At least I’d entered this after years of indoctrination. I hadn’t come willingly, per se. My mind had been battered into submission first. These saps had heard one proclamation of future fame and glory and given up their morals. They were greedy, and that was all there was to it.

  “Not this! Not death and fear around every corner! Not being forced on missions that are getting more dangerous by the day. She’s sent a team to break into The Hague! That’s where the European Council of Magicals holds its meetings. Do you have any idea how guarded that place is? If even one member makes it back, I’ll be shocked. And she won’t care. She has Naima rounding up new magicals every day. When one falls, another takes their place. It’s endless. And they’re everywhere. She has people all over the globe, in setups like this. Secret pockets in every city. This isn’t bringing about a new world order—this is world domination. Plain and simple.”

  I snorted. “Again, what else did you expect?”

  Tess paused and leveled her gaze at me. “Peace.”

  “Then you’re an idiot.”

  “That’s easy for you to say. You’ve only just arrived. You’ve got no idea what she promised us, and no idea what she’s using us for. We’re not followers, we’re an army. And her ranks are swelling by the day. I couldn’t even begin to count how many people she has working for her.”

  “Does the Kool-Aid not taste so good anymore?” I smirked at her.

  “What would you know?” she hissed. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand. And if you’re planning to turn me in to Katherine, then it’s important that you know what you’re up against. She’s not what you think she is. She’s a murdering psychopath who doesn’t give a damn about any of us.”

  Oh, I understand perfectly. I was about to retort, when two figures sprinted down the aisle. The guards were awake. They eyed Tess before looking at Harley and me. I was really starting to wish I hadn’t picked the jar up. I was standing in front of them, red-handed.

  “You!” the first guard snapped, looking right at us. “Did you lock us in those cabinets? Did you strangle us?”

  “None of you should be in here! You know the rules! Now, who did this to us? Which one of you was it? Start talking before we have to force it out of you!” The second guard looked at Tess, his eyes narrowing.

  Tess’s face morphed into a mask of innocence. “What happened to you? I just heard a commotion inside and came to investigate,” she said. “I found Volla and Pieter in here, snooping around. They were the ones breaking the rules, not me. I was just trying to figure out what was going on.”

  I grinned at her. So this is how you want to play it, huh? “Oh, she’s good.”

  Harley grimaced. “I guess she’s playing hardball.”

  “Probably thinks she’s got seniority over us,” I whispered. “Nobody’s going to believe the newbies over her, are they?”

  “What are we going to do about this?” I heard the nerves in Harley’s voice.

  “I’m thinking.”

  “You haven’t answered our question. Who did that to us? Which one of you broke in here and tried to kill us in the process? I’ve already triggered the alarm, so don’t think you can get out of here without us getting to the bottom of this. One of you did this, maybe more of you, and I want to know who!” The first guard looked to us, while the door to the library flew open to reveal the arrival of more magicals, drawn by the noise and, presumably, the alarm. Vultures. I spied Shinsuke in the crowd. He was watching us intently.

  “We didn’t know this place was off limits. There was nobody guarding it, and there’s no sign or anything,” Harley replied to the guard. “We found Tess in here, so we figured it was okay. We just wanted to know what she was doing, that’s all.”

  Two more figures joined the cr
owd—Katherine and Naima had shown up to the party. Great, perfect, superb, let’s make this a public execution. Harley stiffened beside me. I wanted to tell her it was going to be okay, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know that it would be, and I wasn’t prepared to see her burst into a fountain of blood and guts. Nor me, for that matter.

  I thought about just smashing the jar right then and there, after all, since we’d been caught red-handed. But Harley shot me a sudden, desperate look as I shifted it in my hands. She clearly knew what I was thinking. And the timing was all wrong. If I broke the jar now, she wouldn’t have the chance to say goodbye to her mother. Both of us knew how much was at stake. This was more than a farewell. But, I got it. I understood that desire in her, that longing to at least speak with the mother she’d never known. If I smashed this here, I was taking that away from her. And, frankly, I didn’t have the heart. You’ve lost your edge, Finch.

  Instead, I lifted my hand to the St. Christopher medallion, but Harley shook her head violently. Not here, she mouthed. I guessed it wasn’t the brightest idea to call for the cavalry in a situation like this. If Isadora suddenly appeared in this room, she’d be surrounded before we could even get through her portal and back to the SDC. There were too many people to make it work. Katherine was right here. We’d all get ourselves captured. Plus, it’d be all the evidence Katherine needed to figure out who we really were. Ugh… It seemed like we were forever stuck between a rock and a really freaking hard place.

  “What’s going on here?” Katherine strode toward us. “Someone had better start talking, or this library is going to get redecorated. I don’t like red for walls, but I’ll stomach it if I have to.” Her eyes fixed on Tess before moving to Harley and me. Yeah, I really could’ve done without holding this jar.

  “I heard a sound coming from the library, Eris, and I was investigating.” Tess jumped on the offensive. “I found these two snooping around. I tried to stop them.”