I frowned. “You think it has something to do with me being their kid?”
“I think it has something to do with your bloodline—there’s something about it that let you read that spell without it being finished. That’s my theory, anyway. Maybe it’s like a safeguard, a way of continuing the Grimoire, even if the creator dies. Or creators, in this case. I’ll ask my mom about it at the Gathering. She’s an expert on these things. If anyone knows why you can do what you just did, it’ll be her.”
“That’d be great.” The more I could learn about that Grimoire, and my link to it, the better. My mind had been racing ever since we left the Special Collections room and my memories had started to drift back, piece by piece. Touching my parents’ Grimoire for the first time had been an otherworldly experience. Even now, I struggled to put it into words, or think about it clearly. It was like the full force of my powers had called out to the book and tried to push past the Dempsey Suppressor in order to reach the content within, recognizing something in it.
I didn’t dare mention it aloud, for fear of worrying Santana, but I was starting to wonder if using one of my parents’ Grimoire spells might be the key to breaking the Dempsey Suppressor. If I could perform one of them, maybe it would be powerful enough to push me to my absolute limits, shattering the Suppressor in the process. I wasn’t an idiot; I knew that performing a spell like that would be incredibly dangerous, but if it could set my powers free, then maybe it was worth the huge risk.
“Don’t you go sneaking around again, okay?” Santana chided. “If you want to do something loco like that again, you come to one of us and you tell us. Nine times out of ten, we’ll come along for the ride, and we’ll make sure you don’t cause yourself a whole bunch of trouble. Wade might not be game for the rule-breaking stuff, but you’ve always got me or Tatyana to provide some hefty backup. Astrid, too, if she’s in the right mood. There’s a rebellious streak in that girl that is a glorious thing when it comes out.”
“Okay, no more sneaking,” I promised. “I’ve done things on my own for so long that I’m not used to having people I can call on for help.”
She smiled. “I know, mi cuate. That’s why I’m here to keep telling you.”
I chuckled, glancing at Santana. She continued to surprise me. Out of everyone in the SDC, she was the most interesting person I’d come across. With the Catemaco legacy at her disposal, she could’ve easily breezed through magical life, and yet she’d chosen a harder path. She’d come here to carve her own way in this world. I admired that—I admired defiance in people. Plus, she was much more powerful than she’d previously let on. I couldn’t remember much of what had happened when the spell got out of hand, but I knew she’d done something immense. I could feel the after-effects of it still pulsing through me.
I’m lucky to have someone like you by my side, Santana. The voice of reason for when I go over the line. Glad you came with me.
“Well then, now I owe you a favor,” I said. “It’s the least I can do after all the crap I’ve put you through.”
“Honestly, I’m just glad we’re both in one piece. No favors needed.”
“Come on, there’s got to be some way I can make up for the almost-cracked vertebrae. Name it!” I flashed her a grin.
“Seriously, we’re cool. I’m not in the habit of taking favors. It’s not the way we do things where I come from. We just help where we need to, and don’t ask for anything in return.”
I pulled a sad face. “Please let me make it up to you, Santana. I feel like a prize twonk for dragging you into this.”
“Twonk?” She chuckled.
“Yeah, a twonk. Now let me do something for you. There’s got to be something you want. Laundry? Chocolates? Cleaning?”
She paused for a moment. “Now that you mention it… no, never mind. It’s not important.”
“No! Go on, tell me what you were going to say. There’s no favor too big.”
She eyed me cautiously. “I do have a tiny idea in mind.”
“Do tell.”
“I’m a pretty patient girl, but this impasse with Raffe is driving me nutty,” she replied shyly. “I wouldn’t mind knowing how he really feels about me, if you’d be happy working your Empath wizardry on him. An experiment of sorts.”
I burst out laughing. “I’m in! It would be my pleasure.”
“Do you mean it?”
“One-hundred percent,” I replied. “To be honest, I thought you were going to ask me to do your laundry. This is so much better. What did you have in mind? A slinky red dress—see if his eyes pop out? Or an accidental smooch with GI Joe, see if steam starts coming out of Raffe’s ears?”
Santana grinned. “Always glad to see you’re on my wavelength, Harley Merlin, though I was thinking swimsuits.”
I frowned. “Now I’m confused.”
“Did Wade not show you the pool when he gave you the guided tour of this place?” A smirk tugged at her lips.
“No… Wade Crowley did not tell me there was a pool. Sly bastard!”
“Come on, I’ve got a spare suit you can borrow. We can see if Tatyana and Astrid want to come with us,” she said, smiling. “Although, it might be a bit counterproductive if Tatyana comes along. I love her with all my heart, but you can practically hear the jaws hitting the floor whenever she goes to the pool.”
As luck would have it, when we knocked on Tatyana’s door, both Astrid and Tatyana answered with face masks and fluffy bathrobes on. “Not tonight, I’m afraid. I’m cleansing away the free radicals and plumping my skin with a cocktail of peptides,” Tatyana explained, half-sarcastically. “My mom is worried about me getting wrinkles in the American heat, so she sent an entire crate of sheet masks from Korea. Useful, yet slightly insulting. I think that encapsulates my mother perfectly.”
Astrid nodded eagerly. “If you thought magic was confusing, you should check out the ingredients in one of these things. There’s stuff in this that I’ve never even heard of! Did you know you could put bee venom on your face?”
I chuckled. “You know what, I didn’t.”
“Well, you can!”
“And that’s why we’re going to have to decline.” Tatyana sighed apologetically. “If any of these products touch pool water, I fear I may spontaneously combust. Did you want to borrow a suit, Harley? I’ve got a whole rack you can choose from.”
“Mind if I borrow one, too?” Santana asked. “Yours are way better than mine.”
“Of course.”
Twenty minutes later, I walked out of Tatyana’s room in a sultry black two-piece. It hugged me in all the right places, but it had so many ties and cut-outs in it that it’d taken me fifteen of those twenty minutes to get in the damn thing. She’d given me a bathrobe, too, for the road. I wrapped it around me as we walked down the hall.
Santana had borrowed a stunning, deep red bikini that looked insanely good against the olive tone of her skin, like she’d just walked out of the cover of Sports Illustrated. To be honest, all of this borrowing and lending of clothes was a little new and strange to me, considering I’d never really had any close female friends before. I had no idea how to react. Might as well get used to it. Tatyana’s closet is all Devil Wears Prada. She offered, and I love it.
With towels under our arms, we set off to find Raffe’s room. Santana was wearing a robe over her bikini, too, just for the sake of wandering around the coven. In the living quarters, it was pretty much anything goes, and nobody would’ve batted an eyelid if we’d been strutting our stuff, but there was a cunning plan afoot. A plan that required mystique and subtlety.
A few minutes later, we arrived outside his room. Santana shot me a conspiratorial look before loosening the belt of her robe and knocking on the door. Raffe answered shortly afterward, rubbing his eyes and flattening his hair down. Clearly, he’d been napping, and boy was he about to get the surprise of his life. I stifled a laugh as he gaped at Santana, his eyes bulging out of his head as he noticed the red bikini, visible beneath the
open lapels of the robe. I didn’t need my Empath abilities for this one.
“Sorry, did we wake you?” Santana asked innocently.
“It is… kind of late,” he stammered.
“We were just heading down to the pool for an evening swim and wondered if you wanted to come with?”
He gulped audibly. “It’s a bit cold, isn’t it?”
“The pool is inside, Raffe. It doesn’t matter if it’s cold.” She chuckled, making a subtle show of closing her robe again. “Come on, why don’t you join us? Harley’s never been to the pool before. I figured it’d be nice if a group of us went.”
His eyes flashed red for a moment. “I’m supposed to be meeting Alton in half an hour.”
Santana sighed. “Oh well… maybe next time, then?”
Reaching toward the edges of his emotions, I struggled to make any sense of them. Raffe was always a bit of a puzzle to me, his emotions all jumbled and confusing. There were threads of disappointment and a burst of something that made me blush suddenly—that had appeared when his eyes had flashed red. He was totally smitten with Santana, I could feel that, but a dark undercurrent of anger and bitterness rippled beneath, combining with peaks of admiration and complete shock.
Raffe looked to me with a hint of pleading in his eyes. “I’m sorry, both of you. Tonight’s just not a good night for me.” He knew I was reading him, and he knew that I knew. A desperation flowed toward me, hinting at his desire to put an end to the conversation as quickly as possible—out of sheer embarrassment for the mix of emotions that swirled within him. Some were totally unmentionable, but they didn’t seem to fit Raffe’s character. He’d never have let his feelings stray so intensely to the saucy side of things, not when he clearly admired her for more than her physique. You dark horse, Raffe.
“Like I said, maybe another time?” Santana replied coyly.
“Yeah, sure, of course. Another time.”
“Good luck with Alton. Shout if you need us for anything,” she said.
He nodded so hard I thought his head might fall off. “Absolutely. Sorry again. I’ve got to go—I’ve got some… uh… things to get in order before I go to Alton’s office.”
“Goodnight, Raffe.”
“Goodnight, Santana… and Harley. Goodnight, Harley.”
“’Night, Raffe,” I replied, feeling a little sorry for him. His emotions were all over the place. It’s like there’s two of you—a good you and a bad you. A split personality kind of gig. Not for the first time, I wondered what was going on inside him. Nobody seemed to want to tell me, and I was all out of guesses.
Laughing, we turned around and headed for the pool.
“I’ll let you know what I felt when we get there,” I told her. “That might be more private than the hallway.”
“Okay, okay.” Santana’s cheeks were pink, and her smile was wide. I had a feeling she already knew the outcome.
Heading through the courtyard of magnolia trees, we ambled north, through the usual network of halls and corridors. I was expecting a long walk, but five minutes later, we arrived outside a large set of golden double doors. A pair of mermaid tails took the place of ordinary handles while two large statues of Poseidon flanked the entrance. Santana heaved one of the doors open, and we both ducked through.
I gasped at the sight beyond. The pool was set within a huge room of white marble pillars and archways that reminded me of ancient Roman baths. Above, a twinkling star-scape glittered, though I didn’t recognize the constellations as ours. Soft lighting cast a flattering glow on everything and everyone, making the swimmers look like bronzed gods as they cut through the water. Cloistered walkways bordered the deep blue pool. A few magicals sat on the edges, dangling their feet in the water.
A doorway led out onto a balcony that overlooked Balboa Park, the shimmer of the interdimensional bubble glowing overhead. On the deck, four hot tubs bubbled away. A group of young women, about the same age as Santana and me, were giggling away in one of them, their raucous laughter drifting in.
Why didn’t Wade show me this place? As he popped into my thoughts, I found myself looking forward to telling him about my visit to the New York Coven. He wouldn’t approve of me sneaking through the mirror, but he didn’t have to know all the details. I’d definitely have to keep the whole almost-cast-a-dark-spell-and-summoned-a-god thing out of my story. Santana and I had decided to keep it to ourselves for now, until she’d spoken to her mom about why it might have happened. I’d tell Wade as soon as I found out more about it, so I’d have some good news to take the edge off the potentially chaotic thing I’d almost done.
Either way, I just hoped he’d be happy for me, and for what we’d found there. My dad hadn’t killed those people—he’d been forced into it. It wouldn’t bring the families of those he killed any comfort, but it brought me a whole lot.
“So?” Santana asked, as we took off our robes and slipped into the shallow end of the pool. The tepid water enveloped my body like silk, loosening up the tight muscles and easing a few recently acquired aches and pains.
“He likes you,” I replied. “There were a couple of weird things going on, but he likes you. He’s definitely interested in you in every possible way, but you didn’t need my Empathy to tell you that. Raffe couldn’t have been more obvious if he’d tried. I thought he was going to lose an eyeball.”
She giggled, resting her arms on the ledge of the pool as she kicked out her legs. “I thought so, but suspecting something isn’t the same as knowing for sure. I needed you for that extra bit of confirmation.”
“So, you’re happy?” I could already feel the joy brimming from her, but it felt polite to ask.
She grinned from ear to ear. “Ecstatic.”
“Although… you know how I mentioned those weird things?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it felt like he was trying to suppress his feelings for you. Like he was trying to fight to keep them hidden,” I replied. “Obviously, that was pretty hard for him to do, considering… well, you, standing in front of him in a bikini. He was battling it like a trooper, though.”
She frowned. “That’s just him, I guess. He doesn’t like to give too much away, and he must’ve known I’d asked you to Empath for me.”
“Maybe you’re right, but what’s the dual personality about? I don’t get it. Every time I feel his emotions, it’s all mixed up and jumbled, like there’s more than one mind vying for the top spot.”
Santana gave an exasperated sigh. “I wish I could tell you, but Raffe will have to do it in his own words. It’s not my secret to share, and I can’t break his trust. I promised I wouldn’t.” She offered me an apologetic glance. “The thing is, Raffe has trouble opening up sometimes. He worries about how people might react to him.”
“I can understand that,” I murmured, dipping my head below the water.
All my life, that had been my constant worry—how will this family react to me, how will these classmates react to me, how will these strangers react to me? Even now, it lingered, like a gnawing ache in the pit of my stomach. Maybe that was why I was so interested in clearing my dad’s name. If people realized that he wasn’t a monster, they might see that I wasn’t one, either.
“Speaking of hidden feelings,” Santana said as I resurfaced, “there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you about Wade.”
My heart jolted into my mouth. “Oh?”
“You know the pledge, when Wade led you into the hall?”
I nodded.
“It’s tradition for a family member, or a loved one, to do the honors—to lead the pledger into their new life, so to speak,” she explained, with a knowing smile. “Because the Smiths couldn’t attend, and given your family history, Wade stepped in to do that for you. I’m guessing he didn’t tell you the significance of the act?”
I stared at her. “Um, no… he didn’t.”
“So shines a good deed in a weary world,” she replied.
I frowned. “Did you just quo
te Willy Wonka at me?”
“If the quote fits, you must… I don’t know, accept it?” She chuckled to herself.
I paused, her words still sinking in. “So… he really did that?”
“Oh yes, he really did that.”
“It’s not like Wade to do something without getting credit for it.”
Santana grinned. “Must mean he really likes you. It was a cool thing for him to do.”
I stared at the pool’s surface for a long time, contemplating what had happened. All that time, and he hadn’t mentioned it to me. I’d nagged at him that day, when he was just trying to do a nice thing for me. My heart pounded in my chest at the notion of his good deed. He hadn’t wanted me to go up there alone, looking like the sad foster kid who had nobody to cheer her on. Wade Crowley, you’re just full of surprises.
Twenty-Three
Harley
Feeling loose and relaxed after an hour in the pool, I got out and left Santana to do a few more laps. With my robe on, I headed back out into the hallways of the coven and walked toward the living quarters. The pool was nice, but I needed a hot shower. Plus, I was going to need an hour to get out of this damn swimsuit. If I don’t strangle myself with it, I’ll chalk it up as a win.
I hurried along the cold marble, wishing I’d worn flip-flops or something, almost sprinting around the magnolia trees in my rush to get back to my room. I didn’t see the figure striding in the opposite direction until we collided. As I stumbled back, strong hands stopped me from falling to the floor, my robe flying open in the process. Don’t let it be Alton, don’t let it be Alton, please don’t let it be Alton. Frantically grasping at the belt, I pulled the robe closed and looked up into the disgruntled face of Wade Crowley. Despite his gruff expression, a wave of shock and desire hit me in a torrent of emotion, mingling with an undercurrent of annoyance. His eyes were fixed on my robe, his Adam’s apple moving in a subtle swallow.
Harley Merlin 3: Harley Merlin and the Stolen Magicals Page 23