“Okay, but that’s Katherine Shipton. I’m not her. Why are the gargoyles being so sketchy about me, then?”
“I’m guessing they can smell the bloodline.” Tobe sighed. “They probably recognize something that’s somewhat familiar to them, something belonging to someone they’re attached to, despite all their natural instincts. It’s interesting.”
“More like creepy,” I said.
“That, too.” He smiled. “But it’s a skill you could use to your advantage in the future. Think about it this way: if you ever come across wild gargoyles out there, if you manage to distract them like this, even for a few seconds, it’ll give you a window of opportunity. A chance to capture them, to protect others, or to flee.”
“Oh, damn, you’re right!” I replied, realizing the brilliance behind this grim coincidence. There was nothing of Katherine Shipton in me, but the blood relation could totally work to my advantage going forward. “Duly noted. Thank you, Tobe!”
He gave me a soft smile, which quickly faded at the sound of footsteps. I turned around to see Alton coming in, accompanied by O’Halloran and Preceptor Nomura, along with four more security magicals right behind them.
They all looked grim, downright sad, but determined, judging by the muscles twitching in their jaws. Sadness and anger poured out of them in hot waves, tying my stomach up in painful knots. Something was horribly wrong, and I was suddenly overwhelmed by a feeling of… helplessness.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
“Step aside, Harley,” Alton replied bluntly. Only then did I notice the computer tablet in his hand. He brought it up and opened a video file, showing it to Tobe. “Can you explain this, Tobe?”
I craned my neck to get a better look and found myself breaking into a cold sweat. Whether that was me or Tobe, I wasn’t sure. What was certain, beyond any doubt, was the video’s content. It showed Tobe, in full view, captured from multiple camera angles, holding spell disruptors up and mumbling something before he shoved them under several glass boxes.
Oh, no.
“How… How is this possible?” Tobe gasped, his eyes wide with shock. His heart broke, and I could feel each painful reverberation.
“This is you, Tobe. On the coven’s CCTV system. We’ve managed to recover some files we’d first thought were damaged. What are you doing in this video? Because, from where we’re standing now, it looks like you’re activating highly complex spell disruptors and sabotaging your own Bestiary,” Alton said. Anguish clutched at my throat.
“That can’t be… That’s not me, Alton! I would never do such a thing. Why? Why would I let monsters go?” Tobe replied, shaking his head. He was genuinely stunned.
“Maybe you’re tired of seeing your brethren in cages,” Nomura said with a shrug. “Maybe you’ve been harboring feelings against the covens for a long time. We don’t know, Tobe. But you do. And you can tell us why you’ve been doing this in the interrogation room.”
“No. This isn’t me. I swear,” Tobe insisted.
I believed him. I could feel him, and it hurt me deeply. “Alton, he’s telling the truth,” I said.
“Stay out of this, Harley. Your Empathy is still raw compared to other Empaths your age. And Tobe is over a thousand years old. He could easily have learned to mimic different emotions, just to play his part,” Alton replied.
“That hurts,” Tobe murmured.
“It does,” I added.
“It hurts us the most,” Alton said. “Until this matter is fully investigated, I’ve agreed with Preceptor Nomura that the best solution is for you to occupy one of the prison cells in the basement and submit yourself to a full review.”
“This isn’t right. I’m innocent!” Tobe said.
“Then you will have no problem cooperating with our investigation, right?” Nomura said, his dark brow furrowed, his lips pressed into a thin line.
“You don’t need to lock me up for this. I will happily cooperate!”
“I’m sorry, Tobe, but the video evidence is compelling, and it clearly points to you as the main suspect. I can’t let you walk freely around the coven,” Alton said. “Preceptor Nomura will take you to your cell and proceed with the interrogation, and O’Halloran here will do another sweep of the Bestiary with his officers. Clearly, there is more than one spell disruptor on these premises, and they’ve all been nearly impossible to detect so far. If O’Halloran can’t find them this time either, Preceptor Nomura will take whatever action is needed to compel you to tell the truth.”
“Whoa, Alton. Come on, that’s… This is Tobe!” I said frantically. “And don’t undervalue my Empathy. I can tell he’s being genuine, just like I can tell that you’re all brokenhearted and moping like little girls on the inside, because you’re all finding this hard to believe!”
Tobe sighed, then gently squeezed my shoulder. “It’s okay, Harley. I will cooperate in full and go with Preceptor Nomura. You have everything you need to do your job. I trust you will come through for justice and truth.”
A lightbulb went on in my head. Hell, he’s absolutely right. I had Quetzi’s poison in my hand. Wade and the others were already waiting for me in his office. And almost all of the coven was gathered in the banquet hall for breakfast. If there was ever a good time to unmask a traitor, this was it.
I gave him a brief nod, then scowled at Alton and left the Bestiary in a rush, my boots barely touching the ground. I heard the shackles clinking behind me, cursing under my breath as I ran faster through the hallways.
My pulse was racing. Deep down, I knew Tobe was innocent. Everything he felt pointed me to that truth. And Alton was wrong. If there was one thing I was absolutely, unequivocally sure of, it was the fact that Tobe was being framed. And with the Beast Master gone, the Bestiary was at even greater risk.
Chapter Thirty
I stormed into Wade’s hilariously small office, startling the entire team. Dylan even let out an unnaturally high-pitched yelp, then immediately cleared his throat. Wade was the first to notice the sheet of sweat on my face.
“Whoa. What happened?” he asked.
“There’s video footage of Tobe sabotaging the glass boxes in the Bestiary. Alton and Preceptor Nomura basically just arrested him. The images are genuine, and clear, apparently, but Tobe is innocent. He says he’s innocent, and I believe him. I could feel him, raw and honest. He was as shocked as the rest of us. He didn’t do this. He’s taking the fall for something he didn’t do,” I said in a single breath.
“Hold on. What?” Santana was baffled. The entire Rag Team displayed a variety of gaping mouths before me.
“When did this happen?” Wade asked.
“Just now! In the Bestiary!” I replied.
“How do you know the footage is genuine?” he said, frowning. He couldn’t believe it, either.
“I doubt Alton would’ve showed up with Preceptor Nomura, O’Halloran, and security magicals to arrest the freaking Beast Master without verifying the videos first. And that’s the thing! I know he didn’t do it. I can feel it in my bones—”
“I trust you, Harley.” Wade cut me off, and I stilled, surprised by his candor and, most importantly, his trust. “If you felt Tobe that way, then surely he wasn’t deliberately involved. He could have been manipulated into—what, exactly? What does the footage show him doing?”
“Placing spell disruptors under the boxes,” I said.
“And he has no recollection of doing that, at all?”
“None whatsoever. He’s adamant about this. It’s not him,” I replied.
He thought about it for a couple of seconds, his gaze wandering from Tatyana to Santana, Raffe, Dylan, and Astrid, before settling back on me. “Maybe he was hexed. Some charms can be incredibly powerful. He needs to be screened, tested for every possible spell. I presume they’ve taken him to the basement, into one of the cells.”
I nodded, then put the jar of poison on the table. “You know what we have to do next.”
“Hah! You got it!” Sant
ana cackled, a brilliant grin stretching her lips as she picked it up and admired the shimmering liquid within.
“Which is good, because we got the rest,” Wade said, and pointed at the other ingredients for the tracking spell, carefully laid out on his desk: a handful of diamonds, yellow jasper stones, wolfsbane roots, fresh cypress leaves, and a small vial of mercury.
I took a deep breath, then checked the spell scroll. “Okay. Not exactly, but we’re almost there. The diamonds and the yellow jasper stones need to be in powder form. Actually, according to Tobe, we have to be really specific in preparation, because one mistake could blow this whole place up. He says some of these spells are extremely finnicky about quantities and stuff, so let’s do this right. Also, the cypress leaves need to be dried, and, last but not least, this is your office?” I ended with a smirk.
Wade put on an adorable pout. “What’s your beef with my office? At least I have one,” he grumbled.
“It’s a shoebox, Wade. I’m getting claustrophobic in here,” I replied, prompting the rest of our team to chuckle.
“It’s a process. I’ll get a bigger space next year. Provided we ace this investigation and find the culprit before Tobe gets wrongfully convicted,” he said, then looked at Santana. “Any chance one of your Orishas can deal with the diamonds? We need this done fast. Like now. Every second that Tobe is out of that Bestiary, the real saboteur is getting closer to doing a lot more damage than a bunch of gargoyles.”
“Sure thing. Hold on,” she replied, then gathered the diamonds and jasper in two separate groups on the desk.
She covered each group with one hand and whispered something in Spanish. Despite the closed door and window, a powerful wind blew through the room, prompting Wade to cover the other ingredients with his hands, so they wouldn’t scatter away.
Santana opened her eyes, which glowed an ethereal light blue. She smiled, her voice sounding like multiple people talking in unison. “The Orishas are here,” she said, then went into a deep hum as her hands started to shimmer blue, as well.
I could hear the diamonds and jasper crumbling as the azure light beneath her palms intensified, and the wind died down. “Gracias, Orishas. I am once again in your debt,” she added, in different voices.
She exhaled sharply, returning to her normal state, and lifted her hands. The diamonds were turned into white, glimmering powder, and the jasper was crushed into particles the size of ground sea salt. “Perfect,” Wade replied, and took a small wooden bowl and a kitchen scale from a bottom drawer.
Placing it on the desk between us, he scooped up the diamond powder and glanced at me. “How much diamond powder, exactly?”
“Twenty grams,” I said, checking the scroll. “And thirteen grams of jasper.”
He nodded, then weighed the diamond and the jasper, respectively, and transferred them into the wooden bowl with the help of a silver spoon. “Fun fact, Harley. Only use silver spoons when mixing ingredients for a spell. They’re like binding agents. Otherwise you’ll get potentially catastrophic glitches. They’ll teach you that in magical classes soon,” he said. “Now, you said the cypress leaves need to be dried. How many leaves do we need?”
I nodded and read through the scroll. “Three.”
He put one hand over the leaves, his rings glowing red as heat emanated over them. Within minutes, they were neatly dried up, his fire not too weak or too strong, but rather perfect for creating a natural, localized drought. He then slipped the leaves into the bowl and removed the cap from the mercury vial, waiting for me to give him the precise quantity.
“Five drops,” I said, and watched as he produced a small pipette from another drawer and added five drops of mercury into the mix. The silvery droplets rushed around through the bowl, slipping over and through the powdered gemstones and dried leaves. “And nine drops of venom.”
“And after that?”
“Okay, let’s see,” I replied, then handed the scroll over to Santana. “I think you’re better at explaining the rest, plus the incantation. It’s above my level at this point.”
And I hated that. I couldn’t wait to learn more, and eventually find my Esprit so I could be a full-blown magical. It thrilled me to be able to do such weird things, like Santana’s Santeria deities lending a hand, or Tatyana’s spirit possession, or Wade’s fire power. I had some great skills of my own, and I could put them to better use. It hit me right then and there that Alton had been spot-on.
I didn’t belong in a casino, spotting cheaters. Something inside me burned to hand out justice and to protect people who couldn’t protect themselves. The urgency of a master-less Bestiary made my heart pump blood twice as fast through my body.
Others would’ve split by now, running as fast as they could in the opposite direction. I, on the other hand, was drawn to the flame like a warrior moth. I’d found my real name in this place. The least I could do, in return, was to keep it safe from a monstrous rampage.
“Okay, so! Once you add the venom, you stir it counter-clockwise three times with the silver spoon, and then five times clockwise,” Santana said, reading from the scroll. “Then, you place the spell disruptor on top, cover it with three spoonfuls of the mixture, specifically from the left, and chant the Latin spell… Here.”
She placed the scroll before him, so he could perform it all in one go. Following the instructions, Wade added the venom with a pipette, mixed accordingly, then placed the spell disruptor on top and covered it with the concoction. “O, filia luna, cum venenum sanguinem, da mihi oculos, sic ego can reperio dominus hoc obiectum,” he chanted in Latin, his rings lighting up red.
“What does that mean? All I got was ‘moon,’” I murmured.
“He asked the ‘daughter of the moon with venom for blood’ to find the owner of that object,” Santana whispered.
Nothing happened, though. We all stared at the bowl for a while, until I finally gathered the courage to ask the uncomfortable question. “Why isn’t it working?”
“Shush,” Wade snapped, narrowing his eyes at the mixture.
I followed his gaze and stifled a squeal when I noticed the shimmer of diamond powder and Quetzi’s venom increasing its intensity, until it enveloped the spell disruptor, taking on a green hue. Gradually, all the ingredients dissolved into the glimmering green mass, leaving the disruptor itself untouched.
“You guys have never done this particular spell before, have you?” I asked.
“Nope,” Santana replied, shaking her head, curiously watching the green mass burn up into an emerald fire, until a single constant spark jumped up. “Oh, crap, I’ve seen something like this before. Get ready to run.”
Wade frowned, slightly confused as he stared at the hovering green spark. “Why?”
“It’s about to go fast,” Santana replied.
As soon as she said that, the spark shot right through the door, and we scrambled out into the hallway, running after it.
“Keep your eyes on it! Don’t let it out of your sight!” Wade shouted.
We stayed hot on its tail, running as fast as our legs could take us. The green spark had us dashing across multiple hallways and down the stairs to the ground level, before it turned a tight corner and whizzed into the banquet hall.
This is it…
“Let’s hope this works, because if it fizzles out—oh look, the whole coven’s here,” Tatyana breathed as we all came to a sudden halt in the massive doorway.
The green spark flickered aimlessly for a couple of seconds, while a sea of emotions crashed into me. Tatyana was right. Most of the coven was gathered for breakfast, including Alton, O’Halloran, and Preceptor Nomura. They probably dropped Tobe off in a cell and came back up for a freakin’ latte and a scone.
Many didn’t immediately notice the spark until they saw us stumble in, then followed our collective gaze upward. It flickered restlessly, then shot down and smacked Finch right in the forehead, exploding into a myriad of tiny fireworks.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Finc
h was stunned, covering his face to avoid any burns, and fell backward with his chair. Gasps erupted from the table. The air got knocked out of my lungs as the realization kicked in. Garrett had been sitting next to him and was still holding his coffee mug as he looked down and saw Finch hit the ground.
It was Finch all along.
Chapter Thirty-One
“What is going on here?” O’Halloran barked, shooting up from his chair. The stern frown on his face promised a lot of electric shocks unless someone came up with an explanation, fast.
The spark was gone, but the sight of Finch—his face covered in soot and mild burns as Poe helped him back up—was enough for us. I’d trained with Finch. I’d been conflicted about him, but, in the end, I hadn’t thought he’d do something like this. Sure, he’d come across as one of the biggest jerks I’d ever met, but, still, I’d had foster dads who were way worse than him.
Then again, how bad do you have to be in order to release gargoyles and potentially kill dozens, if not hundreds, of innocent people?
Downright despicable. But did Finch fit the bill? I didn’t really think so.
“It’s him,” Wade said, pointing a finger at Finch.
Alton stood up slowly, and I could tell from the shadows drawing up on his face that he knew exactly what Wade meant.
“What are you talking about?” Finch growled, wiping some of the soot from his face with a white napkin, while Garrett still gawked at him, slowly putting his coffee mug down.
“Finch!” Santana chimed in. “It was Finch. He’s the one who made the spell disruptor we found in the Bestiary.”
“Disruptors, actually,” O’Halloran said. “We found three more just now. Sneaky little things, too, since they didn’t show up in previous sweeps.”
“You people are crazy! Have you lost your minds?” Finch replied, seemingly shocked and extremely offended. I couldn’t feel him as an Empath, and it pissed me off. That would’ve been the smoking gun.
“That was a trace spell we just used, with ground yellow jasper and feathered serpent venom. Ancient Latin, to be precise,” Wade said, advancing through the banquet hall.
Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven Page 32