Harley Merlin 7: Harley Merlin and the Detector Fix
Bella Forrest
Contents
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1. Harley
2. Harley
3. Jacob
4. Harley
5. Harley
6. Harley
7. Harley
8. Jacob
9. Jacob
10. Harley
11. Harley
12. Harley
13. Jacob
14. Jacob
15. Jacob
16. Harley
17. Harley
18. Jacob
19. Jacob
20. Jacob
21. Harley
22. Harley
23. Jacob
24. Jacob
25. Jacob
26. Harley
27. Jacob
28. Jacob
29. Harley
30. Harley
31. Jacob
32. Jacob
33. Harley
34. Harley
35. Harley
36. Jacob
37. Jacob
38. Jacob
39. Harley
40. Jacob
41. Harley
42. Harley
43. Jacob
44. Jacob
45. Harley
46. Jacob
47. Jacob
48. Harley
49. Harley
The next Harley Merlin book
Read more by Bella Forrest
Copyright © 2019
Nightlight Press
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One
Harley
I couldn’t stop laughing. I held my stomach and roared with hysterics, tears streaming down my face. Finch, Jacob, and Ryann were staring at me like I’d lost my mind. And, to be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure I hadn’t. Everything seemed so hilariously absurd.
We were in the Smiths’ house, having dropped right into their Día de los Muertos celebrations through a portal. No amount of tequila could get that to make sense to a human.
“Harley?” Ryann said, her voice filled with concern. “Do you need some water? Should you be lying down?”
I brushed the tears from my eyes. “I’m sorry, Ryann. I’m so sorry. I know this looks bad.”
“What are you sorry for? For appearing out of nowhere?”
“I guess you could say that.” I struggled to regain my composure, the impulse to collapse into laughter still jolting through my veins. It was a weird sensation, but then, it had been a weird week. The Smiths’ front room felt so ridiculously normal after being stuck on Eris Island, and arriving in the middle of a barbecue felt even more bizarre.
“So you’re saying I didn’t imagine that?” Ryann eyed me curiously, and I couldn’t look away. She wasn’t stupid. There was no way I could explain away the fact that we’d literally exploded out of thin air and landed in the backyard. Mrs. Smith hadn’t been fooled either, though she’d made a show of ignoring what had just happened. Honestly, I had no idea where to start with all of this.
I took a deep breath, steadying myself. “No, you didn’t imagine that.”
“You really just appeared out of nowhere?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” I eyed Jacob, who was trying to look anywhere else but at me. He’d put us in this situation, but I understood why. He associated the Smiths’ house with safety, and it had been the first place he’d thought of when we’d found ourselves under threat in the Bestiary. Echidna was gone, already stolen by Katherine, and his panic had led us here. It was sweet, in a way, though that didn’t make it any less tricky.
“You want to explain how? Because unless Mom laced those cookies with something, I can’t understand how the heck you could’ve done that,” Ryann replied. “This isn’t some FBI stuff, is it? I know you’ve been working on security, but we didn’t just see something top secret, did we?” She sounded genuinely worried, and I couldn’t blame her. This was beyond human comprehension. A few months ago, I’d have been just as baffled as she was. I mean, I had been.
“If you really want to know what’s going on here, I need to warn you—once I start telling you, there’ll be no going back.” I gave Ryann a serious look. “It’s going to change everything you ever thought you knew, and that’s not an understatement.”
Ryann’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“It involves things you couldn’t even imagine.”
She paused, before nodding slowly. “I want to know. If it involves you, I need to. This is all too crazy to figure out by myself, and a little enlightenment never hurt anyone, right?”
“Oh, boy,” Finch muttered.
“I mean, curiosity did kill the cat, but it’s up to you.” I cast her a small smile, wishing we were somewhere else right now. Telling Ryann the truth would only put her in danger, but I couldn’t see a way out of this without coming clean. The Smiths cared about me. Surely they would find some way to understand what had happened to me, without it making their minds implode? Ryann was definitely the easier party to tell the truth to, while the jury was still out on Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Although, since they were still out in the backyard, I didn’t have to think about that right now.
“I want to know,” Ryann replied.
“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s not going to make much sense, but if you keep an open mind, you might not feel like you’ve walked into the twilight zone.” I sighed with reluctance. “You remember that day I told Mrs. Smith I’d joined the security services?”
Ryann nodded. “Yeah.”
“That wasn’t entirely true. You see, I met this guy named Wade, who I told you about on the phone,” I continued. “He turned out to be something called a ‘magical,’ and he happened to figure out that I was one of them, too. It’s basically being human, but with a few added… uh, abilities. I can bend elements to my will, and I can feel emotions in people, plus a few others.” I didn’t exactly have time to run through the whole list.
She gaped at me. “Like a witch?”
“Sort of, yeah.” I hesitated, not knowing how much to give away. “Anyway, we’re in a bit of trouble. There’s this woman, who happens to be my real aunt, and she’s pretty much the devil incarnate. We’ve been trying to take her down, to stop her from doing some terrible things, but that ended up getting us in trouble, too. We came here because we were running from that trouble, and from the people who want to see us locked up for the things we’ve done.”
“What have you done?” Ryann asked, holding her breath.
“Nothing too bad. We just took steps to try and stop this woman, and it didn’t quite work out. So the authorities are after us, even though we were only trying to do some good. It’s all gotten kind of complicated, as you can probably tell.” I gave a wry smile, just as Mr. and Mrs. Smith walked into the room. Great, a bigger audience is exactly what I need right now.
“Harley? Is everything okay?” Mrs. Smith jumped in with the first question, while Mr. Smith stood at her side, still wearing his novelty apron showing a skeleton wit
h tassels where its nipples should’ve been. I almost burst out laughing again, but I didn’t want to freak anyone else out.
Ryann turned to them, a half-amused expression on her face. “She was just telling me that she isn’t working for the security services. Instead, she’s actually a witch, and she’s been trying to stop some crazy woman from doing some bad stuff, which is why you saw her tumble out of the sky with these two at her side. She’s running from people who want to see her locked up.”
The Smiths stared at me. I should’ve been used to it by now, but I didn’t like to see that look of fear and confusion in their eyes. They’d taken care of me and let me into their family, and I’d kept these secrets from them. That didn’t make me feel good, no matter how I tried to swing it.
I thought about using a dose of my reverse Empathy to try and stop them from losing it, but it didn’t look like I’d need to—they were surprisingly calm, if a little bewildered by what the heck was going on. Still, I could always use it if I had to. Humans were much easier to manipulate than magicals. Careful, you’re starting to sound like Aunt Katie. I shuddered at the thought.
“A witch?” Mrs. Smith said, frowning deeply.
“Well, we prefer the term ‘magical,’ but that’s about the crux of it,” I replied. “I can do things that humans can’t. So can these two—they’re magicals, as well. They’re friends of mine. Well, Finch is actually my half-brother. He’s the son of this crazy woman and my real dad, but he’s on our side.”
As I said that, Finch gave a half-wave, a tight smile on his face. Our time on the island had confirmed that he was rooting for our team now, my suspicions surrounding him more or less dispelled. He’d been alone with Katherine in her office, and he hadn’t switched sides. That proved to me that he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He cared enough, and had changed enough, to really be one of us. I was proud of him for that—not that I was going to say anything about it to Finch himself. His ego didn’t need it.
“We should probably wipe their memories if we get the chance,” Finch whispered, close to my ear. “We can just pretend we’re guests for the weekend. I’ve got a couple of memory modifiers in the old arsenal of magic. I can get it done; just say the word.”
I shook my head. “They need to be aware of the risks, Finch, before they decide to let us hide out here. We can’t ask that of them and just wipe their memories.” If anything happened to them because I’d withheld this kind of intel, I’d never forgive myself. I didn’t want to lie to them anymore.
“What did you say, Harley?” Mr. Smith furrowed his brow, his eyes fixed on Finch.
“I was just saying you deserve to know what’s really going on here,” I replied. Until we decided it was safe enough to make our next move, we were pretty much stuck here. All three of us were fugitives now, and we had to take kindness and protection wherever we could find it.
“That you are all… magicals, as you call yourselves?” Mr. Smith seemed to be having trouble saying the word. They weren’t freaking out as much as I’d expected them to, but shock could work in strange ways.
Ryann shook her head. “Are you sure you’re not in some other kind of trouble?”
“What do you mean?” I arched an eyebrow at her.
“You know… trouble trouble. Stuff you shouldn’t be mixed up in. FBI stuff, like I said. I know you’re saying that we saw exactly what we saw, but you’re talking about something that just isn’t possible. Magic isn’t real.”
Mrs. Smith nodded slowly. “It does seem quite outlandish, Harley. You know you can tell us anything, and we’ll support you, but this doesn’t seem real.”
“Yeah, I mean, if it were true, why wouldn’t you have said something to us before?” A note of anger lingered in Ryann’s voice, which took me by surprise. She was always the most chilled out of the Smith family, but now she was looking at me with disappointment. I’d broken our sisterly code of telling each other everything.
I dipped my head. “We’re not allowed to make ourselves known to humans, even the ones we care about. It’s forbidden in the magical code of conduct, and my hands were tied. Now we’re in a lot of danger, and we need help. And if that means telling you everything, then so be it. I’m done bowing to the rules of the magicals, especially as they want to see us locked up, when all we’ve done is try to help.”
My own bitterness was edging into my voice, but I wanted the Smiths to see how angry I was, and just how close to the edge of peril we were. They needed to see our predicament in order to make the decision to either help us or kick us out. I wouldn’t have held it against them if they’d chosen the latter.
Mr. Smith scratched his stubble in contemplation. “Are you sure this isn’t FBI related? This is too much for me to wrap my head around.”
“But you saw us appear in your backyard,” Jacob chimed in, finding his voice. I knew how hard it must have been for him, to speak to the people who had cared about him so much, and yet remembered nothing of him. The cleanup crew had made sure they had no recollection of Jacob after the awful incident with the Ryder twins and their torment of the Smiths.
“Yes, and we’re asking if it was some scientific experiment,” Mrs. Smith said, glancing awkwardly at her husband. This was proving harder to get them to understand than I’d first thought.
Finch rolled his eyes. “Nope, no science. This is all magic.” A moment later, his body bristled with bronze light, his form shifting into that of Ryann. He had on her exact clothes, his changed eyes holding her gaze. She gave a startled squeak and ducked behind her dad. Mr. and Mrs. Smith stared in abject horror, their mouths dropping open.
“What the—how are you doing that?” Ryann gripped her dad’s arm as she watched Finch parade around in her body. He had her motions down to a fine art, his soft giggle coming out as the identical imitation of Ryann’s. It was creeping me out, too.
“Enough, Finch.” I shot him a warning look. The last thing we needed was for the Smiths to run out of here in terror. If we didn’t have their protection, then we would be vulnerable, looking for somewhere to hide away from Levi, the SDC, and every authority he’d told about us by now.
He morphed back into his own body. “Killjoy.”
“We don’t need anyone losing their dinner over your little tricks.”
He shrugged. “I just figured the easiest way to get these folks to see what we’re about is by showing them.” He pointed at the trembling figure of Mrs. Smith, smirking as he did so. “See, it’s already working.”
You’re a freaking liability, Bro.
“It’s not all as creepy as that, I promise,” I said, trying to get the Smiths back on our side. “For example, I can do this.” I lifted my palms and forged a ball of fire between them, passing it from hand to hand like a slinky and then sputtering it out. I lifted my palms again and let Chaos run through my veins, building a lasso of Telekinesis. Aiming it at the TV remote, I snatched it up off the sofa and waggled it in the air for a moment, before setting it back down.
Finch gave me a slow clap. “Wow, real awe-inspiring stuff.”
Ryann and the Smiths, on the other hand, were staring at me in shock. Mr. Smith looked like he was about to keel over, while Mrs. Smith’s jaw was pretty much on the floor. Showing my abilities had done nothing to stop her from shaking. Only Ryann seemed to be dealing with it in a less freaked-out way, but then, she’d always been good at acting cool in high-pressure situations. She called it “training for her future as a lawyer.” And, right now, I was glad I wasn’t about to send all three of them to the hospital with cardiac arrests.
I ignored Finch and pressed on, wanting to prove it was more normal than they thought. “I know this is probably hard to take in, but I just want to show you that magic is very real, though we all have different abilities. It’s luck of the draw with this magical stuff.”
“And some of us get luckier than others,” Finch muttered. I’d never experienced sibling rivalry before, as Ryann and I had always had a supportive relat
ionship. But Finch was still sour about the list of abilities at my disposal, while he only had Shapeshifting, Telekinesis, and a very weak Air power.
“Did you say this guy was your half-brother?” Ryann glowered at Finch.
I nodded. “His dad is my dad, and his mom… well, she’s the nutcase we’re trying to stop. But he’s okay, for the most part.”
“Aww, shucks.” Sarcasm dripped from Finch’s words, making me smile despite the awkward situation.
“He was tortured by his mother and sent to prison for being her cult drone.” I smiled at him, knowing how much he’d hate that. “His mother tried to have him killed, which led to a recent change of heart, and he’s been helping us out ever since.”
Mr. Smith nodded, understanding starting to dawn on his face. “And this woman is a danger to the magicals?”
“Magicals and humans,” I replied. “She wants to change the world so that the magicals are on top, and the humans will be forced to do their bidding. She’s pure evil, and that’s putting it lightly.”
“Is Jacob related to you, as well?” Mrs. Smith kept her eyes on him, looking confused. It pained me to see her struggling, her mind whirring to try and remember him. Emotions flooded away from her—confusion, curiosity, and a flicker of sadness that no doubt stemmed from some unconscious memory.
Harley Merlin 7: Harley Merlin and the Detector Fix Page 1