“Dark tourists. They’re people, in this case magicals, who track down items and places and landmarks that relate to great tragedies or dark moments in our heritage. If you’ve ever been to Salem, you’ll understand what I mean,” he explained. I kept my head down, not wanting my face to give away that we had been to Salem. “Anyway, the Grimoire had this dulling shield put on it, not to mention a bunch of wards, to try and divert people away from it. Although, it seems like it didn’t work on you. I get the feeling that the Grimoire wants you to read it and perform the spells. If that’s the case, then I’m worried that there might be some nasty side effects to it, too.”
“Like what?” Garrett chimed in.
“I don’t know. But if it wants to be read, then it might have some unexpected hold over you, Harley. You’ve already said that you felt like you lost control when you read it.”
My stomach gripped with old guilt. “The very first time, I almost summoned Erebus and got my friend killed.”
“That’s the type of thing I’m talking about.” Remington released a nervous sigh.
Eager to change the subject, I shook off my residual feelings about that day. They still haunted me, when I thought of what might have happened to Santana if she hadn’t saved my ass with her Orishas. “So, with all the security measures and the secret stuff my mom and dad wove into the Grimoire, you’re telling me that nobody knows what’s really in that book, aside from my parents? And, partially, me?”
“Precisely.”
I couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling that there was something important in there that might change the rules of the game against Katherine. Our ace, so to speak. There was no other reason, as far as I could tell, for them to go to the trouble of hiding pages.
A gut-wrenching realization hit me. I’d always thought that they’d expected to finish the Grimoire, but now I wasn’t so sure. What if they’d put all of those measures in place as a contingency in case they couldn’t? Had they known Katherine might kill them?
“What if they put it in there and made it so Katherine wouldn’t be able to read it? That way, she’d have no idea what sort of weapon could be used against her,” I said.
Remington smiled. “You’ve got good instincts, Harley.”
“Yeah, because putting two and two together to make four is super hard.” Finch rolled his eyes. “All of this is really interesting and everything, but there’s no point in making assumptions. I think you’re right, just for the record, but we need to start planning our approach instead of worrying about why Katherine wants it. We get the book, we find out why. And that’s the way the cookie’s going to crumble. But Katherine can’t find out about this. The Grimoire freaks her out. Any hint that we’re after it, and she’ll skewer us.”
Garrett nodded. “I agree. If you’re going after that thing, then discretion is key.”
“Yeah, what he said.” Finch flashed a shy smile at his friend, but Garrett didn’t return it. “We need to be smart and subtle. No alarms. No alerts. No suspicion.”
“There’s a spell that Odette told me about once,” Remington said, his voice thick. “I don’t even remember why she told me about it. We’d been out for dinner, I think, and we’d come back home, and she was flipping through some book. She did that a lot. I’d gone to the kitchen to get a drink, and I came back in, and she had this huge smile on her face. She made me sit on the floor next to her, and she showed me this page from a dusty tome.”
His brow furrowed at the memory, like it was both bitter and sweet to remember. I could feel frustration coming off him, too, like he was struggling to get the details right. She hadn’t been gone long, but that was the heartbreaking truth of loss—memories and faces began to fade, becoming blurry and unclear over time. The more you fought to hold onto them, the more they slipped away.
“What was the spell?” I prompted, noticing that he’d retreated into himself.
He looked at me as if he’d just remembered we were in the room. “The spell? Yes, the spell. It’s a perversion of Aperi Portam, called Aperi Si Ostium. It allows you to open any door, anywhere, at any time, no matter how warded it might be.”
“Cool,” I murmured. “I’m guessing not too many people know about it?”
“No, exactly. You can see why it’s not a very well-known spell. In the wrong hands, it’d be a disaster. Anyway, she was so excited when she found it. At the time, we were still hiding our relationship, since she wasn’t really meant to be getting into any kind of relationship while she was making her case to become the next Librarian. The rules were stricter, back then, about having visitors in the Mage Council headquarters.”
I felt awkward, knowing what he was getting at. “That must’ve sucked.”
He nodded. “I was still in training, and she said it’d be useful for us so we could see each other whenever we wanted to, without worrying about mirrors and that sort of thing—she said we could use it to meet in secret.”
“So, it’s a portal spell?” Finch said.
“Not quite. It doesn’t go to otherworlds, and the range isn’t as impressive. You couldn’t use it to travel to Berlin, for example. We tried, hoping for a romantic weekend, and ended up in Virginia.” He smiled privately, and my heart went out to him. Katherine had not only murdered the woman he loved, but she’d stolen the happiness from his memories, too.
“I’m guessing it’s illegal, then?” Wade cut in, his expression irritated. What’s up with you all of a sudden?
“Very illegal, so don’t go sharing it with anyone,” Remington warned. “And there are repercussions you should know about, too. Some doors are best kept closed. Only use it when you absolutely have to.”
“How does it work?” I pressed. Time was of the essence, after all.
“All you need is a piece of charmed chalk to draw the door you want.”
Finch snorted. “Charmed chalk? What is this, Nickelodeon?”
“You find some chalk, you charm it with the Aperi Si Ostium spell. Call it something else if it makes you feel better.” Remington evidently had no time for Finch’s sass. “Now that you know the spell, you can get into the New York Coven without being discovered. All you have to do is draw the door, think of where you want to go, say the words, and then you go through it.”
“Are these doors permanent?” I asked.
Remington shook his head. “No, they seal shut the moment you’ve walked through them. Something to do with keeping the fabric of time and space in order. If a door is ever left open, then the fabric of reality starts to crumble around it, and you really don’t want that to happen. If it ever did, the world itself would start to leak through it to who knows where. So it has a failsafe already built in to stop that from happening.”
Panic jolted through me. “Wait, can that happen with portals, too?”
“If one was left open, I imagine so. Although, that ability tends to have the same failsafe built in.”
“Okay, so that gets us in, but what about the security when we actually get there?” Wade scuffed his shoe against the floor as he spoke. The angry streak seemed to be fading, which meant it had to have stemmed from all this chat about Katherine. That was a relief.
“I’ll have to look into a few more details about their heightened security system before you can head there,” Remington replied. “Give me a couple of hours, and I’ll get what I can for you.”
I frowned. “A couple of hours? You realize we’re on a bit of a tight schedule, right?”
“It’s better than the alternative.” He gave me a cool look.
“I guess…” My stress levels were already through the roof, and waiting to hear some intel about New York wasn’t going to do anything to bring them down again.
“There’s another thing you should know that Odette told me.” Remington hesitated, as if he wasn’t sure whether to continue.
“Cat got your tongue?” Finch narrowed his eyes.
“I hate to say it, but stopping Katherine may not be possible, as far as t
he rituals go. Odette always said there was a chance that someone who was determined enough could get through them, as long as they managed to outrun and outsmart the authorities. Katherine is already on her fourth, and we’ve got no idea how far along she is with that one. So we may have to start prepping for what comes after she kills Echidna. After that, there’ll only be one ritual left.”
“You make it sound as though Echidna is already dead.” I leaned forward in my chair. Did he know something we didn’t?
Remington sighed. “She may well be. The truth is, the Mother of Monsters was lost the moment she was taken. We might have stood a chance at stopping her completing the fourth ritual if we’d kept Echidna out of her hands, but that didn’t happen. That’s probably why Levi is keeping quiet about the situation. Arrogant prick. He likely knows it’s already too late to avoid the fourth ritual being completed.”
“Then why isn’t everyone freaking out?” Finch replied.
“I don’t know.” Remington tapped his fingertips against the desk. “I can’t understand why the National Council and the president, of all people, would agree to this secrecy. It doesn’t make sense. But I’m going to see if I can change that. I’ll discuss things with the Mage Council first, sans Levi, then take appropriate action. The others will be as outraged as I am, but we’ll be able to come up with a better solution, working together.”
Garrett nodded. “Taking extra security measures against Katherine isn’t going to be enough for the covens, if we’re saying what I think we’re saying about Katherine. The higher-ups in every coven around the world should know how close Katherine is to becoming a Child of Chaos. It isn’t right that they’re being kept in the dark.”
“Has LA been told the same thing about the so-called ‘glitch’?” I peered at him curiously.
“Yeah, as far as I know,” Garrett said.
Remington sucked air through his teeth. “I’ll get to the bottom of this, don’t worry. Levi won’t get away with it.”
“So, what do we do until then?” The idea of staying here for a couple of hours didn’t sit too well with me. Finch seemed agitated, too.
“Not hang around here, for starters. I’d still like to have my job at the end of the day,” Remington replied dryly. “You’re still fugitives, remember? There’s nothing I can do about that, not at the moment, anyway. Imogene and I are pretty much the only ones on the California Mage Council who don’t want you to be in this situation.”
“What, so you’ve taken a vote or something?” I asked.
“Not exactly. We’ve been trying to sway the rest of the Council to stop chasing after you both, but it’s proving tricky. Imogene has almost managed to convince them that you should be left alone, Harley, but the same can’t be said for you, Finch. Still, we’ll keep trying. And even if we get them to stop chasing one of you, that’s better than nothing, right?”
Nice to know someone has my back. I would’ve given anything to be able to have a chat with Imogene right now. She’d know what to do and how to get us out of this mess. I mean, she’d probably be pissed that I’d lied about going to Anchorage, but she was one of the few people who’d be willing to understand my reasons. It sounded like she already did, to a certain extent.
It was a huge relief to know there were still a few magicals in this world who didn’t want me stuck in Purgatory with Finch. I had to cling to that. One day, I might be able to salvage my reputation from the ashes that Levi and Katherine had created.
Eighteen
Jacob
With my dad at my side, I crossed the glinting pools. As far as the eye could see, there were more and more. But it was hard to know if we’d already passed some of them. If this place shifted constantly, like my dad said, then maybe it was turning around us. That would definitely make reaching our destination harder. My dad seemed to know where he was going, though. And I figured he’d been stuck here long enough to have his bearings.
We were getting closer to those weird noises. The sounds didn’t fit the peaceful vibe of this place. Pained shrieks and scary howls. Somewhere between a wolf and a whale sound. I guessed the piercing screams were coming from Echidna. I’d never been near a woman giving birth, but these sounds lined up with what I imagined that’d sound like.
The more we walked, the louder the sounds grew. And the closer we got, the more dread I felt. I was sweating, even though there was no visible sun to make it hot. My palms were clammy. Clammier than when I’d first set eyes on Suri.
“We’re almost there,” my dad said. Another scream filled the air. It sounded like a wounded animal who’d been skewered with a knife. I shuddered, but I had to be brave now, the way Harley and the rest of the Rag Team would’ve been. I’d been alone for a lot of my life, but since meeting them, I’d pretty much forgotten how to be a lone wolf. I’d started to rely on the pack, and now I didn’t have them to help me. It felt wrong.
We paused at a valley with a long, shimmering river running through the center. Smaller streams branched off, filling the pools. A narrow island lay in the middle of the river. On it, I spotted Naima. She was dangling Suri over the river, holding her under the arms with a nasty smirk.
“Help me! Somebody help me!” Suri screamed. The sound was like a block of ice in my chest. “Please, somebody! Please, stop this! I’ll give you anything you want, just let me go. You can have all my money, whatever you want, just let me go!” Tears ran down her cheeks. She thrashed wildly, but Naima wouldn’t release her.
Naima chuckled. “As soon as I drop you in the water, you will forget everything. It will drag you down and give you eternal peace. What is there to cry about?”
“Let me go! I don’t know what I’ve done, just let me go!” Suri sobbed, her cheeks red.
This was all my fault. I should never have gone into the Fleet Science Center. I should’ve known that Naima and Katherine were watching the SDC. For a collector of rare abilities, I was a double threat—Portal Opener and Sensate. And why this girl? Why Suri? Was it because they needed a human sacrifice, and she’d happened to be closest to me at the time? Or because they’d watched me take an interest in her and knew I’d try to save her?
They’d probably seen the perfect opportunity. Me trying to flirt. Me openly crushing on Suri. Me laughing with her. This way, they’d have known I wouldn’t leave without her. They’d have known I wouldn’t try and portal away, abandoning her here. After all, they’d seen me with the Smiths. They knew I’d never leave a human behind, especially if I was the one who’d gotten them into trouble in the first place.
Farther up the island stood a tent made of red silk. It looked like one of those old kinds they used in sword-and-sandals movies. It even had a golden spire at the top, with a flag waving in the breeze, a golden apple on it.
Katherine…
Was she here? I could only see Naima, Suri, and a white plinth with a crumpled-up figure on top of it. It reminded me of the other sacrificial altars we’d seen in the other otherworlds.
The creature on top of it suddenly unfurled. Limbs shot out, the creature arching its back and unleashing another ungodly scream. A coiling, snaky tail spilled out over the edge of the altar, but her top half was human. Echidna.
Glowing green stones surrounded the altar. I’d seen stones like that before. They were entrapment stones, the kind used to catch Purge beasts. Or, in this case, keep them restrained. Echidna had cuffs on her wrists, too, though they seemed to give her more movement than normal Atomic Cuffs. Her hands weren’t bound together, but a gleaming blue line wavered between the cuffs, like an electrical current.
I ducked, lying flat on the white grass as a bright flash of light erupted from the tent. A few seconds later, a figure stepped out and walked toward a chair beside the altar. Well, “chair” was sort of an understatement. It was more of a throne. She plopped herself down and hoisted her legs over the gilded arm. The long, emerald-green dress she was wearing draped over it.
“Do you have to make that racket?” Katherine
rolled her eyes. “You’re not the first creature to give birth, you know. I did it myself once. Never again. I’ve never been the same, if you catch my drift. But I don’t remember making such a fuss over it. You’d think you’d be used to it by now, after pushing out hundreds of ghastly brats.”
“You’ll burn for this, Katherine,” Echidna hissed.
“No, I don’t think I will.” She smirked. “I’m more likely to rule over any kind of hell. When will you catch on? I’m going to be a Child of Chaos.”
“They’ll stop you!”
Katherine laughed. “Who? I don’t see anyone coming to your rescue, do you?”
“You might kill me, but you won’t make it to the end of this.”
“Ugh, change the freaking record. If I had a dime for every time someone has said that to me… well, I wouldn’t have as much money as I do now, but it’d be a nice little nest egg.”
“Release me, while you still have the chance.” Echidna bucked against her restraints, but they held her fast.
“You know, it’s a good thing those entrapment stones are keeping her small. Otherwise she’d be popping out monster ankle-biters every minute.” Katherine kicked her feet happily. “Every hour is bad enough. I’m running out of jars.”
Naima flashed Katherine a fanged grin. “Another of your excellent ideas, Eris.”
“One of my finer moments, for sure.”
I noticed a pile of Mason jars on the floor beside the altar. About twenty of them. They were filled with black smoke. Empty ones lay on the other side, ready to be used. Why hadn’t Katherine killed Echidna yet? What was she waiting for? I glanced up to ask my dad about it, but he’d vanished. My chest almost exploded. He’d abandoned me. He’d just… gone. Now, I was on my own here. With Katherine and Naima and a hyper-fertile Purge beast in the valley below. Well, this can’t be good.
“Would you put that thing down, Naima?” Katherine tapped her fingertips on the golden armrest. “All this screaming is giving me a migraine, and that little portal imp clearly isn’t in any rush to play the dashing prince. I don’t see any white knights on the horizon, do you?”
Harley Merlin 7: Harley Merlin and the Detector Fix Page 15