“Katherine made a deal, Harley. She’s negated the one you made. I don’t know who she’s chosen instead to satisfy Erebus. If we stay here, one of us dies!” I yelled. Naima was still breathing, and there were no assurances that Katherine would sacrifice her lieutenant to Erebus. No matter how desperate she was. She’d rather have seen one of us fall first.
Harley stared at me, a stream of Fire sputtering out in her hands. “What?”
“Clever, Finch. Looks like you learned something, after all.” Katherine smiled.
Harley’s face changed. She knew I was telling the truth. Her eyes sought Jacob out in the gloom. “Jacob, NOW!” Harley sprinted toward the Rag Team as a portal tore open directly behind Jacob. Our ticket out of here.
“I accept your offer,” Erebus boomed.
As Erebus’s shadow swept toward us, I, Harley, and the rest of the team barreled toward the portal.
“Who is it, Finch? Who did she pick?” Harley screamed in my ear as we ran for our lives.
“Would you shut up and get through the portal! I’ll explain later!” I shoved her with my full weight into the portal, watching the gaping mouth eat her up. Next, I turned to the Rag Team. “What are you all staring at? Get through the freaking portal!” While they were standing around, catching flies, Erebus was rushing toward us in a seething mass of darkness and Katherine was grinning like the maniac she was. She hadn’t just won, she was making a clean sweep.
Jumping into action at last, the rest of the Rag Team raced toward the portal. Erebus had spiraled up into the air, forging a thunderstorm of deadly tendrils. They shot down like black lightning, jabbing at the others as they sprinted for their lives. One caught Raffe in the shoulder, but he managed to tear himself free. Behind them, in the shadows, the monsters were rallying to the cry of their master. They charged at the fleeing crew, roaring and snapping their jaws with excitement.
“FASTER!” I screamed. I had no idea why I was hanging around to make sure this bunch of fools were safe. They meant nothing to me. Trouble was, they meant something to Harley. If I abandoned them here, she’d never have forgiven me. Yeah, we might want to rethink this whole emotion thing. I was certain I’d been better off when I had no heart.
Shinsuke was the last to run up, fighting off the gathering creatures with his blades. As he lopped off the head of a dog-like beast that was about to leap toward us, something swiped at his leg and dragged him down. I lunged forward to help him, but Jacob grabbed me by the wrist. I tried to pull free of him, but his face was set with a determined look. Where Shinsuke had fallen, the beasts flooded around him. A moment later, I couldn’t see him anymore. Just jaws and claws and spurting blood.
“You can’t help him,” Jacob shouted. With a surprisingly sharp tug, he pulled us both into the portal, the gaping hole snapping shut behind us. As I tumbled back through the darkness, the last things I saw were the glinting eyes of a thousand beasts and the slithering tendrils of Erebus, intent on a taste of blood.
I landed flat on my ass in the infirmary. Jacob lay sprawled beside me. Krieger and Isadora were staring at us, worried. Hauling myself up, I checked to make sure everyone was accounted for. Yep, the Muppet Babies are all here… all but one. His absence stood out, even though he hadn’t been with us very long. You tended to miss the guy with swords on his back, but nobody else had realized it yet. Instead, Harley was glowering at me. Not exactly the thanks I’d expected after saving her.
“Is everyone o—” Isadora moved forward, but Harley interrupted her.
“What did you shove me for?” she barked at me.
“Like I said, Katherine made Erebus an offer. You’d have wasted time making sure everyone was through. I did the job for you.” Mostly. I kept my tone curt. I wasn’t going to be berated for doing the right thing.
“What offer did she make? How did she even do that?”
I gritted my teeth. “She saved herself by offering someone else up in return. It’s an ancient spell. Nearly forgotten. It vetoes Erebus’s killing power. And Katherine just put someone else in the guillotine, instead of her. Trouble is, I didn’t hear who she said. She was talking too fast, and, what can I say, my Ancient Greek is a little rusty.”
Harley and her Muppet Babies gaped at me like a bunch of owls. “She really did that?”
“You think I’m lying?”
“No… I just… I didn’t think that was possible.” Her hands were shaking.
“Well, it is. Like I said, old, dusty-ass spell. One from the Librarian’s private stock.”
Harley glanced at the others, stunned into silence.
“So it could be any of us?” Tatyana asked.
“Yep, that’s about the crux of it.” I shuddered at the word “Crux.” It was too soon to even think about that. Tess had been gobbled up like misty soup. That memory wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. “I think she might have sacrificed Shinsuke to Erebus.” Shinsuke falling to the beasts would have been enough to satisfy the Child of Chaos. My throat constricted at the memory of Shinsuke getting dragged down by those creatures. It wouldn’t leave me for a long time, even though I hadn’t known him very well. Nobody deserved to go like that, unless it was Katherine.
“Shinsuke?” Harley looked around frantically. Yeah, as if he’s just going to pop up. Humor was the only way I knew how to deal with something like this. It was horrible and awful, but I didn’t know how to do anything other than joke.
“He didn’t make it. He got pulled under by the monsters,” I said, shooting Jacob a cold look. There might not have been time, but I knew we could have tried harder. Yeah, I hadn’t known him too well, but that didn’t mean I’d wanted to see him die. He’d have been a useful addition to the Rag Team. He was a Nomura, after all.
Harley’s face crumpled. “What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly what I’m saying. He didn’t make it back. He was fighting those creatures, and… well, he didn’t make it to the portal in time.” She didn’t need the gory details from me. “Those beasts would’ve come pouring in after us if we hadn’t left when we did. And, as far as I could tell, Shinsuke wasn’t ever going to make it. They got him.” I didn’t want her blaming me, either.
Harley sank to her knees and held her head in her hands. “He’s dead?”
“I think it’s pretty likely, yeah.” I wanted to say something to make her feel better, but what could make this better? Nothing. She’d wanted him to join the Rag Team for a reason, and now she was on the edge of tears because he was gone. I didn’t like seeing her brought low, for any reason. Especially since I was the one who’d broken the news.
Her shoulders shook as the tears came. I wanted to comfort her, but I held back. Instead, Wade sank down beside her and put his arm around her. She leaned into his chest, bitter sobs racking her chest. She clung to him like he was the last life raft on a sinking ship. Everyone stared. It was impossible not to. But nobody could’ve understood what she was feeling. I did, to some extent. She felt responsible for this. She’d listened to Katherine’s diatribe, and, despite herself, she’d bought into it. One ally buried. How many more would she have to see die? I wanted to tell her not to listen. I wanted to tell her that this wasn’t on her. But the words stuck in my throat. Years of learning how to bottle up my feelings kept them there.
“We failed,” she whispered. “We failed, and Katherine won. This was all for nothing. My mom, Shinsuke, Tess… they all died for nothing.”
Come on, Finch. Grow some freaking balls! Don’t just watch her heart break. I dug my nails into my palms. This wasn’t going to be easy. Outpourings weren’t exactly my strong suit.
“Pack it in, Harley.” Okay, not the best start. “Pity isn’t going to get us anywhere. This isn’t a failed mission. It’s a failed battle in a war that hasn’t been won yet. And let me tell you something, we’ve got Katherine on the ropes. We made her crap her pants today. Do you know how often that happens? Never.” I took a breath, realizing everyone was gaping at me. “I know you
feel like hell, but this isn’t over. And, if you want to make sure that Tess, Shinsuke, and your mother haven’t died in vain, as well as every single person Katherine has killed, then you need to dust yourself off. Now. We can mourn when all of this is done. And if you dare listen to a word Katherine said back there, then you aren’t the girl I thought you were. This is all her doing. Not yours. Not any of ours.”
Harley looked up with red-rimmed eyes. “What if she was right? What if she is going to win this? What if we can’t fight her, no matter what we throw at her?”
“She’s all talk, Harley,” I replied. “So what if she’s even more powerful? You’ve got more Chaos in your pinky finger than the rest of us combined. You broke through her Telekinesis and her forcefields. Do you know how many people I’ve seen do that? Zero. Well, one now. She’s going to get cocky from all this energy she’s sucked up. And that means she’ll start making mistakes.” I paused, steeling myself for the next truth bomb I was about to drop. A tough one for me. “Plus, this wasn’t a completely failed mission.”
“What do you mean? Of course it was.”
I shook my head. “Not to me. I got you back. That matters to me… I guess.”
Harley gave me a watery smile.
Wade smiled, too. “He’s right, Harley. We’ve still got each other. We’re still fighting. We’re not going to give up, not when there are two rituals still to go. Why would we give that evil witch the satisfaction?”
Man, that’s what I should’ve said.
“But where do we even go from here?” Harley murmured. I could see her rallying. That fighting spirit wasn’t dead yet. She was a Merlin, after all, same as me. Finch Merlin sounded a hell of a lot cooler than Finch Shipton. Plus, it didn’t come with all the added subtext of murderers and psychopaths.
“She’ll be coming for Echidna next,” Isadora said.
I shook my head. “Not if we can find Katherine first. Take the fight to her, so to speak.”
“How?” Harley replied. Her voice was already getting stronger.
Picking up a cloth from one of the nearby tables, I walked over to Harley and sank down in front of her. With a gentle hand, I wiped the blood from her face. “Don’t want you looking like an extra in a slasher movie,” I said. “Wait… we can use this blood to trace Katherine. Right, Krieger?” I glanced at the anxious doctor, who’d been quiet this whole time.
He nodded and took a jar down from one of the shelves. “Yes, we can likely pick up Katherine’s Chaos signature based on that sample and utilize the magical detector to find her, if the device becomes operational.” He held the jar out, and I dropped the bloody piece of cloth inside.
“See, Harley, this isn’t over. Not by a long shot.”
She smiled. “You’re right. It isn’t. This won’t be over until the psycho lady sings.”
“My thoughts exactly.” I held her gaze, grateful to have my sister back.
Forty-Five
Harley
The following morning, after a restless night’s sleep, we gathered again in the Luis Paoletti Room, using Alton’s secret hallways to reach it undetected. Finch had spent the night in the storage cupboard of the infirmary, with Krieger keeping guard in case anyone came in unexpectedly. I remembered falling asleep in Wade’s arms after trying to watch a movie to take our minds off things, but he’d been gone by the time I woke up. I’d been a little disappointed, wondering if I’d done something wrong, but he’d come to get me at seven on the dot, a smile on his face. I sat beside him now as we grouped around the main table.
Although Shinsuke hadn’t been part of our group for very long, I still felt his absence. He’d died helping us, and the knowledge that he’d never get to see his father again stuck like a fishbone in my throat. We’d held a sort of vigil for him before heading to bed the previous night, lighting a candle in the infirmary chapel for him. It wouldn’t bring him back, but it served as an honorable reminder of what he might have been.
Alton had joined us, his face a picture of anxiety as I relayed everything that had gone on in Erebus’s otherworld, and in the last week during our time at the cult. I told him everything, even the stuff he’d already heard, just to make sure we were all on the same page. There was a whole lot of doom and gloom to get through, and none of us had even had breakfast yet.
“So, in a nutshell, Katherine completed the third ritual,” I said. “We need to make sure she can’t steal Echidna from the Bestiary. We have to let the National Council know what’s going on, too.”
We were in over our heads, at this point, and I wasn’t too proud to admit that. We would’ve informed the National Council ourselves, but Garrett was AWOL and not answering his phone, and Alton had been otherwise engaged with Levi when we got back last night, his phone also going straight to voicemail.
“We thought we’d stopped Katherine when Harley released Hester’s spirit, which would’ve meant Echidna was safe, but now… well, that didn’t exactly go as planned,” Wade added.
“But we did manage to gather some intel from the cult, and we freed… never mind.” Finch sat back in his chair. The news of Shinsuke was still pretty raw for all of us. I hadn’t been there in his last moments, but I knew Finch must have seen more than he was letting on. And if even he wasn’t willing to go into details, I reasoned I didn’t want to know what had actually happened to him.
Alton frowned. “You mentioned summoning Erebus… Since when have you been able to use summoning spells?”
“That’s what you’re focusing on?” Finch snorted. “Bigger fish, Alton. Bigger fish.”
“It happened around the same time I learned I could read from unfinished Grimoires,” I replied, as if it were no biggie.
Finch nearly fell off his chair. “You can do what now?”
“You heard me, Finch.”
“Katherine would need a bib if she heard that; she’d be drooling all over herself.” Finch chuckled, but I wasn’t in the mood to laugh. Katherine had stolen any humor I had left.
“But how could you summon Erebus without a Grimoire, finished or unfinished?” Alton eyed me warily, like I was a curious animal in a zoo.
“It’s from my parents’ Grimoire. Somehow, I can read their spells, even without being near the book,” I explained. Finch’s eyes were practically bugging out of his head.
“You continue to surprise me, Harley.” Alton smiled kindly. “Between that, this Purge beast control you have, and the rest of your abilities, it’s no wonder that Katherine has decided she wants to use you. Not that she’s going to have the opportunity, of course.”
“We could really use your help on this,” I said. “The National Council will listen to you, if you let them know what’s happened. And, if they have any ideas, we’d like to know about them.”
“We’ll definitely have to notify the authorities, as you suggest,” he replied. “The National Council, the local council, and the security services. And we’ll have to let Tobe know that Katherine is coming for Echidna. We don’t have to mention your involvement at all; we can just say that news of the third ritual’s completion came from an internal source. As Shinsuke is no longer with us, we may be able to use him in that capacity. I don’t want to make him the scapegoat, but if I can get the National Council to see that he was on our side, it might give him the honor he deserves, even after his passing.”
I nodded. “I don’t like the idea of it any more than you do, but that might be our best option. Say you intercepted a call that he was making to his father, and he revealed everything to you.”
“That may work,” Alton replied. “However, there is the problem of Finch to deal with, as well as informing the authorities. You need to get him back to Purgatory as soon as you can to reduce the risk of his duplicate failing.”
Santana made a small, strained sound. “Yeah, about that—I’ve got no idea how much longer I can hold both at the same time. My concentration slipped a lot in Tartarus. I can still feel them, and they’re doing their own thing, but it
’s only a matter of time before my Orishas can’t keep it up anymore.”
“I agree, it’s getting way too risky,” I said.
Finch cleared his throat. “No way. I’m not going back there.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What?”
“I’m not going back to that place. I’ve gotten a taste for freedom, and I’m not giving that up for a glass box and a cold shower.” He smirked. “Besides, I figure I’ve proved myself enough. I’m not jumping through a bazillion hoops to get out the ‘official’ way.” He made bunny ears around the word, and the tension spiked in the room. This hadn’t been part of the agreement. Now, everyone was staring at him.
“Finch, you have to go back,” I said. “We agreed.”
“Things change.” He shrugged. “You can keep my copy there. If you really want to, you could sneak the Orisha out and make it look like I broke out. That’d give me some legend status. They’d have to add me to the handful of people who’ve escaped that hellhole. Not that I care what you do about it. I’m just telling you I’m not going back.”
“Finch!”
“Finch,” he mimicked, with a smile. “Listen, Katherine is still on the loose. I refuse to be in a cell while she’s free and driving a bulldozer through everything.”
I stared at him. “If Santana’s Orisha fails, and you aren’t where you’re supposed to be, then we’re all royally screwed. You’ll put everything we’ve worked toward at risk. Come on, Finch, you know you have to do this.”
He shrugged. “It’s easy for you to just dictate what I should do—you haven’t been there. You haven’t lived in those glass cells. If you had, you’d be backing me right now.”
“Yeah, well, I’m going to find out what it’s like sooner than you think, if you don’t do as you’re told!” I snapped.
“Not my problem. Unless they drag me back themselves, I’m not going.”
Harley Merlin 6: Harley Merlin and the Cult of Eris Page 35