Harley Merlin 7: Harley Merlin and the Detector Fix

by Forrest, Bella

  I had to sit on my hands. The tension in the room was unbearable. Even Isadora looked stunned. Imogene was just sitting there, looking at Krieger. Her expression was as calm and composed as ever, but that felt even scarier than if she’d flown off the handle at him.

  At last, she spoke. “I can’t argue with you, Dr. Krieger. I’m also weary of the secrecy and inaction, though I have only recently discovered how far the proverbial rabbit hole goes with Levi. It’s frustrating beyond belief, to be out of the loop like this.”

  “I have had enough. Everyone has,” Krieger replied. “Our community here is worthy of suitable leadership. We need a leader, not an incompetent oaf. And we need one soon.”

  Krieger’s outburst was pretty awesome to see. He was usually the calm and clinical one.

  Imogene sank back in her chair and sighed, taking her time to say anything. That was one of her unique traits—she always thoroughly pieced together what she was going to say, before she said it. I’d seen the same thing in Levi’s hallway. She could’ve shot words at him in the doorway or the office, but she’d waited. She’d probably learned that acting rashly didn’t get anyone anywhere.

  After a brief, awkward silence, she nodded slowly. “You make an excellent point, Dr. Krieger. But, in all honesty, I don’t have a solution for you. The Mage Council promised to oversee Levi’s behavior from now on, until another director could be found, but I can see that’s not going to be enough. Levi is not likely to wake up anytime soon, and I agree with you that he’s no longer up to the task. The trouble is, it’s not as though I have a book of potential prospects with indicators beside their names, telling me who is trustworthy and who has been compromised.”

  “Then do it yourself,” Krieger shot back. “Put your money where your mouth is and take the directorship on your own shoulders.”

  She stared at him, and I did, too. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Imogene said. “As it is, I am drowning in the work of the Mage Council and the bureaucracy surrounding everything. My days are already packed to the brim. I don’t know that I could abandon all that in order to replace Levi. And I already have the LA Coven to contend with.”

  “Yeah, but you have a deputy there, right?” Isadora cut in. “You wouldn’t have to worry about LA. You could just check in from time to time. It might even be beneficial to have the two covens more united. As for the Mage Council, they won’t fall apart without you. Remington, or one of the others, can cover your work. I’m sure they’d understand, given the circumstances.”

  Imogene was starting to look uncomfortable. “I lack the objectivity that a coven director should have. I have some very close, personal relationships with individuals here, and I would hate to be accused of favoritism, or of striving to seize the directorship for myself. People will gossip. They’ll think me an opportunist.”

  “Why does it matter what other people say?” Krieger replied. “The SDC is suffering right now. We need leadership. True leadership. And if you agree with that, then you should feel a duty toward us. A duty that leaves only one option: you stepping up to take over from Levi. Anything less is tantamount to willful neglect.”

  “That is hardly fair, Dr. Krieger.” Imogene looked somewhere between outraged and resigned.

  “I am tired of sugarcoating everything to make it palatable,” he retorted. “You can’t say that you agree we’re in dire straits, and then leave us to deal with it ourselves. A coven without a director is like a ship without its captain. Who else is there to take over? You said it yourself, you don’t have a book of trustworthy individuals. So, it has to be you.”

  “Perhaps Alton could be reinstated, instead?” Imogene said. I could almost see the stress pressing down on her shoulders, but I was on Krieger’s side with this. If Imogene really wanted to help us, then she had to step into those shoes herself. I couldn’t see another option now that Krieger had put this one in front of us. Glancing at Isadora, I could tell she felt the same.

  “Well, that’s against the rules, isn’t it?” Isadora replied. “Because he resigned, he can’t take up this directorship again, not without a tribunal. You know it would take months to get that underway, with everything else that’s going on.” She smiled reassuringly. “The people here really do deserve viable leadership, Imogene. They don’t deserve to be tarred with the brush that Levi wanted to spread all over them. You could fix that. People would pay attention if you took over. And since when have you been afraid of hard work?”

  Imogene dipped her head. “I am loathe to admit it, but I’ve been pushed almost to my limit of late. I didn’t think I even had one of those.” She gave a tight laugh. “And, if I’m being entirely honest, I wouldn’t want to be a disappointment, if I can’t make the time to put forth my best effort as interim director.”

  “That’s okay,” I replied. “Whatever you give is fine. A toad would do a better job than Levi.”

  “Are you saying I’m a toad, Jacob?” Imogene chuckled.

  My cheeks burned. “No, not at all! I just mean, even if you put in only a shred of effort, you’d already be doing a better job than Levi has.”

  “You’ll be thanked for this, Imogene,” Krieger added. “I, for one, would be grateful. Although, I think I’ve already said everything I have to say about that.”

  “Yes, I feel like I’m back at school, being scolded by the principal.” Imogene sighed nervously.

  “Then, I hate to add to the tough love, but we’re sort of director-less here,” Isadora said. “We need an answer. If you say no, we’ll have to come up with something else, and I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m pretty much stumped for options.”

  Imogene squirmed in her seat. “I suppose…”

  “Yes?” Isadora and Krieger chorused, leaning forward.

  “I suppose, after everything you’ve all said, I could take over for Levi, as a temporary solution. I’m not promising that I can remain permanently, given my positions in the LA Coven and the Mage Council, but I can, at the very least, help for a short time. After all, I wouldn’t want to be responsible for neglect.” She offered a reluctant smile to Krieger, prompting him to chuckle sheepishly. “I’m certain that the Mage Council won’t have any objections to it, as long as they know it’s temporary. Although, naturally, I will have to discuss it with them before I can announce anything in an official capacity.”

  “You’re really going to do it? You’re really going to be the new director?” I stared at her in excitement. I knew we’d shanghaied her into this mess, but a reluctant director was better than no director. And Imogene would definitely give the SDC some clout. Krieger had asked for action, and she’d given it to him, albeit unwillingly. But she had my vote. Even now, she could have shifted the responsibility to someone else, but she wasn’t going to do that. Plus, with Imogene in the director role, maybe I’d have a better chance of convincing her to let Suri stay. Levi would have given me a big, fat no, but Imogene wasn’t as cold as him. She’d at least listen to what I had to say, instead of cutting me off without any hope.

  Imogene nodded, looking tired. “If everyone is in agreement, then yes, I will. But I must repeat, this has to be a temporary measure.”

  “We understand.” Isadora grinned. “And we’re grateful.”

  “Well then, I should be instated by the morning, if I speak with the Mage Council now and they decide it is the best course of action.”

  Krieger beamed from ear to ear. “I know you’re not yet officially our director, but I’d like to ask your permission to continue with the magical detector, given its importance in locating Katherine.”

  “Yes, of course,” she replied. A hint of regret still lingered in her voice, as though she wished she hadn’t been cornered like this. It faded a moment later, as a determination seemed to wash over her. “You were right when you said there have been far too many people sitting on the sidelines, hoping that someone else will resolve the matter. Please, continue with your work, and I will grant you all the resources yo
u require. You need only ask. I suppose that’s one good thing I can do in this position.”

  “Thank you,” Krieger said, looking more cheerful than he had in weeks.

  “And, as soon as my position has been officiated, I will see to it that Santana and Alton are released from their cells. If I’m to be accused of favoritism by the gossipmongers, I might as well play up to it.” She smiled. “Plus, I could use Alton’s assistance to keep my schedule from getting so stuffed that I don’t have a second even to use the little girls’ room.”

  Everyone chuckled. The thought of Imogene using the bathroom was a weird one for me. Then again, she was human, after all. She probably went to bed at night worrying over the same things as everyone else. She probably took her first sip of coffee in the morning and gave a satisfied sigh. She probably locked herself in her car, just to get a moment’s peace. To be honest, I kind of felt bad that we’d forced her into this, but I was looking forward to seeing what she could do for the SDC.

  “Do you think you could get Harley reinstated and get Levi’s charges against her dropped?” Isadora asked, her voice catching in her throat.

  Imogene furrowed her brow. “That may be beyond me. There’s a lot of fear surrounding Harley. I don’t share that sentiment, but it’s prevalent in the general populace.”

  “Then, surely it’s better that she’s here, where she’s under coven rules, than out there amongst them?” Krieger added.

  “Perhaps.” Imogene brushed her fingertips along the lapel of her jacket. A thoughtful tic. “I suppose I could try, using that line of logic. After all, she hasn’t actually behaved criminally, and Levi shared very little information with the authorities. Plus, we have already established that the current authorities are not to be trusted.”

  “Does that mean you’ll attempt it?” Isadora pressed. Poor Imogene. We were really piling up the tasks, and it wasn’t even her first day yet.

  She sighed uncertainly. “I will, Isadora, on your behalf. They might answer me with cries of ‘Purgatory’ or ‘Avarice,’ but I will do what I can to try and have her reinstated as a coven member. Beyond that, it may fall to you to bring her back here, if such a thing can be done.” She paused. “But Harley isn’t safe out there, wherever she may be. Katherine would give her left ventricle to harm her. At least here, we can reduce the possibility of that happening.”

  Isadora looked about ready to fall off her stool. “You’ll really do that?”

  “She has been wrongly condemned without a fair trial. Levi judged her without listening, and that cannot be allowed to stand,” Imogene replied. “Although, as I’ve said, you will have to be the ones to find her if I can grant her amnesty. She has likely ceased to trust the word of directors, and your encouragement may have more sway.”

  “Yes, of course, we’ll take responsibility for that,” Isadora replied, borderline giddy.

  “Do you know if she’s safe?” Imogene asked, turning to me.

  I shrugged. “She was when I left her, but I haven’t heard from her since she made me portal myself back here.”

  “I imagine she didn’t want to risk Levi discovering her. She told Jacob that it was safer for him not to know where she was, or what she was doing,” Krieger added.

  We were both lying, for Harley’s sake. Imogene might have been about to take on the director role, but that didn’t mean we could give her the chance to get in Harley’s way. I didn’t know what Harley was doing, exactly, but Harley had given me the impression that it was probably illegal. But it was to stop Katherine, and that was worth covering for. At least for now.

  Once Harley was reinstated, we could tell Imogene everything. After all, it was better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.

  Thirty-Three

  Harley

  Things didn’t improve much as we got deeper into the network of the New York Coven. We jogged through an endless labyrinth of dark and decaying hallways, which reeked of years of abandonment, and we slipped through secret wall hatches every time the blueprints dictated we had to. If we missed one, we doubled back, edging through the impenetrable gloom with only Wade’s glowing Fire to cast some light on our surroundings.

  As maps went, this one was hard to follow. We’d come out of the library itself a while back, not that anyone would have noticed. The endless corridors and passageways looked the same, drenched in an oily glaze that pulsated as if it were a living thing. I guessed this was the slow rotting of the interdimensional bubble that encompassed this forgotten part of the coven’s makeup. After all, places like this needed care and upkeep—there were magicals whose sole duty it was to make repairs in any parts of the bubble that were ebbing away. Undoubtedly, New York wanted this part of the coven to disappear, but since they couldn’t physically detach it, they had to wait for it to decay over time instead, like the secret tunnels that Finch had showed us. I just hoped we weren’t nearing the time when it would all finally collapse.

  I stopped in the middle of a narrow walkway, the oily walls so close they were almost brushing my shoulders. This whole place was shady and unnerving, but now my heart was thundering like a prize racehorse. I didn’t know if it was some residual effect of the Truth Trio, or if it was something else entirely. I was still struggling to get rid of the dull ache that the chains had inflicted, but this didn’t feel the same. This was pure, unadulterated fear.

  “What’s wrong?” Garrett put a tentative hand on my shoulder.

  I gulped down breaths, trying my best to swallow the terror. “Can’t you hear that?”

  “What?”

  Is it just my heart? Was that what I could hear? A series of thuds boomed through the corridor, confirming that it wasn’t just my heartbeat. I almost lost my nerve as the sound hammered right past us, on the right-hand side.

  “Man, I’m beat. You want to get some coffee?” An unfamiliar voice hissed through the oily walls, sounding both distant and close.

  Other magicals were all around us. Those booming thuds were the sound of their boots on the ground. They were right beside us, and yet, here we were, hidden in the ancient underbelly of the coven. Just as Remington had hoped, the interdimensional bubble wasn’t reacting to our intrusion, even though we were right in the midst of the coven itself.

  “Why aren’t alarms going off?” I whispered.

  “The entrance we came through must work differently,” Garrett replied. “The current directorship can’t do anything about these hallways, so they’ve forgotten them. It’s the perfect loophole, when it comes to protecting our asses.”

  I glanced at Wade, but he’d been silent the whole way through the labyrinth. He kept putting his shades on, then taking them off again. Right now, he didn’t have them on, and his gaze was fixed on the hallway ahead. I could sense his urgency to move on, though he didn’t say anything. All the while, that undercurrent of anger and frustration seeped out of him, way more frightening to me than the writhing walls that surrounded us. Was I losing him, without even realizing it?

  Don’t rely on him. Finch’s words echoed in my head, switching my focus back to the mission at hand.

  “Come on, before the coven does pick up on something.” I pressed on down the narrow passage for a few more minutes, until that grip of terror seized my chest again, my heart beating harder than ever. What the heck? It was starting to hurt. Every hyperactive beat felt like a stab. I had to stop for a moment to catch my breath and wipe the cold sweat from my forehead.

  “Why do you keep stopping?” Wade hissed, grabbing my hand. “Are you sick or something?”

  “I just need a minute.” I looked up at him with desperate eyes, but his expression didn’t change. His hand felt cold and clammy in mine, to the point where I didn’t want him touching me anymore.

  “This isn’t the time to have a rest, Harley. We need to keep moving.”

  I wrenched my hand away, my mind bubbling with frustration and confusion. “I’m taking a freaking breather, Wade. Just give. Me. A. Minute.”

 
“You think you’re the only one who’s tired? We’ve been walking for ages. We’re all tired. But you don’t see us stopping every couple of minutes to rest. We don’t have time for this.” His eyes glinted with anger.

  “My heart feels like it’s about to explode, Wade. If I suddenly keel over in these hallways, you’ll have more trouble on your hands than me having a tiny friggin’ break.” I didn’t want to retaliate, but I couldn’t help it. His sullen silence and snarky comments had brought me to the breaking point. I wasn’t going to let him berate me when I felt like something was wrong inside me, even if I felt like crap, snapping at him like that.

  Garrett stepped between us and turned to Wade. “Why does it matter if she takes a break?”

  “We don’t have time, that’s why,” he shot back. “If she wasn’t up to the task, then she shouldn’t have suggested we come here.”

  Wow… That one hit me like a knife to the gut.

  Garrett frowned. “What the hell is wrong with you, man? Why are you acting like a colossal asshole? She clearly doesn’t feel right. And yeah, we might be on a tight deadline, but a minute so she can catch her breath isn’t going to kill us.”

  “You don’t know that. And there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m just aware that we’ve got a massive clock clanging over our heads, which Harley doesn’t seem to get.”