Harley Merlin 2: Harley Merlin and the Mystery Twins

by Bella Forrest

“What’s that?” I asked, moving slowly to the side as I looked for attack angles. I wanted to have a shot of my own at taking Tatyana down, immobilizing her without hurting her.

  A split second later, Wade released another fireball at Tatyana-Oberon. She dodged it, but it exploded just above her—a nifty trick I’d seen him use before. It forced her down on her belly, coughing and wheezing from the sudden burst of heat she’d inhaled. It hurt me to see her like this, but we had to stall her as much as possible until we figured out what to do.

  “I had to double check the coven’s blueprints to make sure,” Astrid said. “The Krinkman-Sadler exorcism is a difficult thing to do since it requires a ton of Dark energy. There are parts of the coven where the walls are imbued with Light energy, and parts where it’s Dark. This garden is Dark, and Wade will need some of that to perform the exorcism.”

  “I’m confused. Are we talking about Darkness and Light? As in the Children of Chaos? The kind of energy that’s supposed to run through us, naturally?” I asked.

  “Well, you’re behind on your theory, it seems,” Tatyana-Oberon sneered at me, then got up and stepped forward, assuming an attack stance. The spirit was taunting me, banking on anticipation to make me nervous and cripple my concentration. How the hell am I the weak spot?

  “Yes. I’m not Dark by nature, I’m Light,” Wade explained. “So, I need extra Darkness energy to perform the Krinkman-Sadler exorcism.”

  He threw out a trio of exploding fireballs this time, forcing Tatyana-Oberon to drop and roll in order to avoid another throat-burn.

  “Which is a Dark ritual,” Astrid added. “Raffe’s Dark, but his is not the kind of energy you want to let out for this, trust me.”

  “Why not?” I replied.

  “I’ll explain another time! Just stand your ground and keep your eyes on Tatyana!” Wade said. “We need to find a way to restrain her. My fire won’t stall her forever.”

  Tatyana-Oberon laughed. “Good luck with that.” She raised her hands and pushed out a Telekinetic barrier so powerful it felt like a tidal wave, throwing us all backward. I wound up rolling over the garden path stones, then lying on my back, the air knocked out of my lungs.

  Wade grunted as he tried to get himself back up, but Tatyana-Oberon wasn’t done. Her Telekinesis was amplified by that of the spirit, making it twice as powerful and potentially deadly. She sent out another pulse that pushed us all back down. It felt as though she had her boot pressed against the back of my head, stuffing my face against a patch of hard ground and grass.

  I cursed under my breath, struggling to release myself.

  “Lordy, you kids are stupidly easy to overpower,” Tatyana-Oberon said in a double voice.

  “Tatyana…” Dylan’s voice emerged from the other side of the garden.

  I managed to look ahead, spotting Dylan as he staggered toward us. He was wearing his infirmary garb—the open-back gown. Had I not been under the pressure of a ghost’s Telekinesis, I probably would’ve thrown out a backdraft joke at Dylan’s expense.

  He saw us, then frowned, setting his sights on Tatyana-Oberon, since she was the only one standing.

  Surprisingly, she stilled at the sight of him.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice barely audible.

  Tatyana’s emotions flared through me. She was trying to reach out to him from the depths of her consciousness, where Oberon had stashed her.

  “Astrid left me one of her tablets, to patch into CCTV and check out the place if I’m bored with streaming movies,” Dylan said, frowning. “What’s going on with you?”

  “She’s possessed,” Santana groaned.

  Dylan’s shoulders dropped. His concern and fear rammed into me. But it was quickly drowned out by determination. Dylan wasn’t one to wallow in the dark stuff.

  “Why would you let that happen?” Dylan asked Tatyana, his voice husky.

  “I was trying to help. I needed Oberon’s strength and power,” Tatyana said, having somehow caught the mic for a second. “But he’s not letting me back in—” She paused, then returned to her creepy double voice. “Now, now! Where were we? Ah, yes. Kill you all, then go be with my beloved Katherine.”

  “Tatyana?” Dylan breathed, visibly confused.

  “Wait, Katherine?!” I yelled in alarm.

  “I need her. I have to be with her,” Tatyana-Oberon replied. She grinned and raised a hand toward Dylan, while she kept the other focused on us.

  “Katherine Shipton?!” I gasped.

  She glowered at me, then smiled. “Ever since I heard she was back, I’ve been looking for a way to find her.”

  As I absorbed the shock, I realized that it sort of made sense. Everything bad that happened in the coven was always somehow related to friggin’ Katherine Shipton.

  “You met her,” I said, stalling. Now I needed to focus on giving Dylan a window to take her down.

  “Met her?” Tatyana-Oberon laughed. “I was with her. I loved her! I still love her. Hell, my love for her is what killed me.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “That’s none of your concern,” Tatyana-Oberon replied, the grief oozing out of the hijacking spirit. The bitterness and guilt, the pain and the longing… It felt like poison, tainting my blood.”

  That was Dylan’s shot, and he took it. “You’re not taking her away from me!” Dylan shouted, sprinting forward and tackling her like the pro footballer that he was. They both landed with a thud and viciously wrestled, rolling and tumbling through the grass.

  Punches were thrown. Some missed, some nailed the ribs and the sides.

  Tatyana-Oberon swerved around and caught Dylan in a chokehold. Now free of her insanely powerful Telekinesis, I was able to use my own. I launched a targeted pulse, hitting her right in the forehead. It threw her head back, and she loosened her hold on Dylan, who then took control of the situation.

  Wade reached them just as Dylan straddled Tatyana, forcing her hands behind her back. Even with Oberon’s spirit strengthening her, she couldn’t do much from that position.

  “Let me go, you son of a—”

  “Tatyana!” Dylan shouted, cutting her off. “Throw him out! Come back to me, please! Throw the bastard out!”

  “I’m sorry, Tatyana’s not available at the moment.” Tatyana-Oberon chortled. “Please try again la—” She stilled, her yellowish eyes wide with shock. “No… No, no, no!”

  She went into a seizure, shaking uncontrollably. Dylan held her down, and Wade checked her vitals. We all gathered around, watching helplessly as Tatyana fought Oberon for control of her body.

  “Come on, Tatyana, you can do it,” I whispered.

  “Kick his ass, chica!” Santana snapped.

  “Please, Tatyana. Please, fight him. Come back to us… To me,” Dylan breathed, tearing up as he kept a tight grip on her.

  Tatyana roared from what felt like incredibly intense emotional pain. I clutched my chest, shocked by how horrible it felt for her. Wade gave me a concerned glance. I nodded reassuringly in return. I didn’t want anyone to get distracted by my Empathy. Tatyana’s wellbeing mattered the most. Even as I dropped to one knee, subdued by the pain, I held on to that conviction.

  “Come on, Tatyana! Do it!” I cried out, tears streaming down my cheeks, as every muscle in my body seemed to tear from my bones.

  Tatyana screamed, the veins in her temples throbbing as she delivered a final push and sucked in a breath. A wisp of white smoke puffed out of her body and dissipated. I could almost hear Oberon’s wails as he vanished into the invisible veil of the spirit world.

  I pointed my Esprit hand at her, the pearl lighting up white again. I could feel her—ashamed, exhausted, and angry. “She’s back,” I said, sitting down with a heavy breath.

  Dylan got off Tatyana and helped her up into a sitting position. She was covered in a sheet of sweat, panting and sobbing at the same time. Dylan put his arms around her and pressed his lips against her temple.

  “It’s okay,�
� he whispered. “You did it. It’s okay… It’s over.”

  “No, not yet,” Tatyana choked out. She reached into her boot and retrieved a small pocket knife. She flipped it open and hissed from the pain as she carved a small rune symbol into her left forearm. I was the only one shocked by what I was watching, it seemed.

  “What the hell?!” I blurted.

  “It’s a banishing sigil. It keeps the last spirit to have entered the body from ever coming back,” Wade explained, then took out a handkerchief—because that’s the kind of guy he was, all suited up and always carrying a monogramed handkerchief around—and handed it to Tatyana, who tied it around her bleeding forearm.

  “Thanks, Wade,” she sighed, then gave us all an apologetic smile. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  “Hey, it’s okay. What matters is that you’re safe now,” Santana replied. “It could’ve been a lot worse.”

  “Hold on, you literally carve runes into your skin to stop the likes of Oberon from possessing you again?” I asked, still wrapping my head around that unpleasant little nugget.

  Tatyana nodded, then lifted her shirt to show me five other scars on her left hip—five other runes, for five other spirits that had taken over her body and refused to let go. I’d known she had a history with rogue spirits, but I hadn’t known the details or the repercussions.

  “It’s not my first rodeo,” she said. “I was stupid this time. Given what the Ryders are doing, I thought I could use someone like Oberon…”

  Her voice trailed off as she passed out.

  “I’m taking her to the infirmary,” Dylan said, immediately scooping her up in his arms and racing toward the building.

  Santana, Raffe, and Astrid followed. They all needed some light medical attention. Judging by the scratches and bruises on my arms, I could’ve used a couple of Band-Aids too. I was already partially purple here and there from the beating I’d gotten from the evil twins—a few additional grazes were practically nothing.

  I now understood why Tatyana’s ability was so dangerous. It could easily kill anyone around her, not to mention Tatyana herself. What was Oberon thinking? He’d sounded so obsessed, so desperate to get to Katherine Shipton. He didn’t care who he hurt or what he had to do. He would’ve stopped at nothing to find his way back to her.

  It scared me to think of the kind of power that Katherine Shipton could have on a man, to cause him to frantically search for her, even in death.

  Thirty-Two

  Tatyana

  My head hurt as if it had been split in half like a watermelon. My eyes peeled open, instantly squinting to filter the blast of white light. It took me a couple of seconds to figure out that I was in the infirmary.

  My mouth and throat were dry. I licked my lips, then looked down. I was in bed, still in my clothes. And Dylan was sleeping next to me, half of him in a chair and the other half leaning into my bed, his head resting against my hip.

  I raised my arm slowly and saw the rune I’d carved into my skin. A heaviness weighed down on my shoulders as I realized that I hadn’t dreamed any of it. At some point, Oberon had taken over my body, without me even realizing. He’d probably noticed I could sense his spiritual pressure when he got behind the wheel and figured out a way to trick me.

  I didn’t even realize he’d hijacked me until I saw myself casting Telekinetic attacks against my friends out by the dragon fountain. Shame set my face on fire. I couldn’t be in here for another second. I needed to crawl into a dark space somewhere and wait the embarrassment out.

  Dylan felt me stir and put his arm out, pinning me down.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” he grumbled, then raised his head to look at me.

  Our eyes met, and I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. He gave me a soft smile but didn’t say anything for a while. I felt so bad, so foolish… I would’ve loved it if the earth could’ve just opened up and swallowed me whole to spare me the misery. I’d been duped by a ghost.

  “Don’t feel bad about it,” Dylan said, as if reading my mind. “You did what you thought was best. Besides, this wasn’t my first ghostly adventure. Remember?”

  How could I forget? Dylan had barely marked his first week in the coven when the spirit of a former criminal warlock had hijacked me and nearly killed Preceptor Redmont. Apparently, the scholar of International Magical Cultures had made some enemies down in the basement prison some time ago, after testifying against several murderous rogues—including the one who’d snuck into my body.

  Sometimes, if I wasn’t careful, I couldn’t even see a spirit coming. They’d wait around, quiet and patient, until they felt a temporary weakness in my spiritual defenses. It was going to take a lot more time and practice for me to be able to keep all the spirits at bay, as well as to control them while they were riding my meatsuit.

  Dylan had joined Santana, Raffe, and Wade in taking me down and helping me exorcise the malevolent spirit. He’d actually found it… fascinating. That wasn’t a word I’d heard before, when describing a Kolduny’s ability to let spirits in.

  “I was so stupid,” I said. “I believed Oberon. I thought he really wanted to help. I figured all he was getting out of this was the opportunity to feel everything again inside a body. What an idiot I was.”

  Dylan squeezed my hand gently. The tingling sensation of his touch spread through my whole arm, then traveled all the way to my heart, where it settled and emitted a series of heatwaves. I definitely had feelings for Dylan, and I didn’t know what to do with them. I was a liability to anyone who got too close to me, as evidenced by the Oberon incident. I’d hurt my friends. I would’ve hurt Dylan, too, if I hadn’t found the strength to return to the surface.

  I got away easy this time, but what about the next? I could never forgive myself if something happened to Dylan. He’d come quite late into the magical world. I didn’t want to ruin the experience for him, or worse, kill him. I just… I couldn’t.

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Astrid said as she came in, accompanied by Harley, Wade, Santana, and Raffe. They were all pretty roughed up, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with some ice or concealer. Again, guilt gnawed at my stomach. “Oberon played you like a fiddle, but I figured out why and what happened to him,” she added, taking out her Smartie tablet as she came around to my right side of the bed.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, confused. “I heard him talking about Katherine Shipton, but I don’t know anything about that. He locked me out completely when he took over. I couldn’t even sense his intentions anymore.”

  “I’ve done some research. Put two and two together. Plus, the ‘homework’ that Harley gave me the other day came in super handy,” she replied.

  “Wait,” I said, frowning. “How long have I been out?”

  “Oh, about ten hours,” Harley answered, grinning. “They’re serving breakfast downstairs. How are you feeling?”

  “Like crap,” I breathed.

  She chuckled. “Figures. You’ll be okay, though. Krieger checked your vitals and everything. Your body is fine. I guess it’s just your ego that’s bruised.”

  “And my ribs,” Santana muttered.

  “I’m so sorry—”

  “Chica, enough! Don’t worry about it!” Santana stopped me, then nodded at Astrid. “Go on, genius. Tell her what you found out!”

  Astrid smirked and handed me the tablet so I could see the files she’d pulled up. A mixture of documents and images were scattered across the screen—crime scene photos, autopsy snapshots, and investigative reports. I recognized Oberon in some of the images. Specifically, his dead body.

  “So, here’s what I got so far, and I didn’t realize I had it until I read Oberon Marx’s autopsy report,” Astrid said. “The Icelandic spell that Harley wanted me to research, Sál Vinna… it’s very old, extremely dark and evil. Obviously forbidden. We don’t even have any references about it in the coven. I had to go into the nationwide database and dig really, really deep. It’s a powerful, perverted mental control
spell. It feels so natural, but so strong that the victim won’t know he’s under it until it’s too late, and he’s lost control.”

  “Is that what happened to Oberon?” I asked, trying to make a connection.

  “Sál Vinna implants the thought of someone so deep in your mind that it feels like you’ve always thought about that person,” Astrid replied. “It is stronger than any form of hypnosis or mind control, and it’s very dangerous because it’s known to be unbreakable and incurable. Once you get it, that’s it. You’re done. So, that’s the curse. Now, as you can see, I pulled up everything we had on Oberon. He died here in the coven. Fatal head trauma, but the circumstances of his death weren’t clear. I only know that it was ruled an accident. He bled out.”

  “He said that his love for Katherine Shipton killed him,” I said, even as I remembered his bloody shirt.

  Astrid nodded, before pointing at another file on the tablet, complete with grainy footage of a woman with red hair. Harley crossed her arms, visibly angered and concerned.

  “I gave Smartie all of Katherine Shipton’s details, including a last official photo of her. I had the system search through the CCTV archives and pulled this little gem up,” Astrid continued. “She wasn’t affiliated with the coven or registered here, but she matches Katherine Shipton’s facial features—otherwise Smartie wouldn’t have pointed her out. Thing is, this footage is from a period of three months preceding Oberon’s death. So, naturally I figured that, based on what Oberon told us, Katherine Shipton was definitely here at some point, and had something to do with his death. It seemed pretty obvious.”

  She tapped on the tablet screen again and zoomed in on an autopsy photo of Oberon Marx. I was looking at a blackish purple puncture wound behind his ear, surrounded by a small rune symbol of Celtic origin, burned into his skin.

  “Then this came up and I had a connect-the-dots moment!” Astrid went on. “The Sál Vinna works as a liquid spell. A mixture is concocted, then injected into the victim—hypodermic needles are the bomb. But it needs to be sealed into the victim’s body, so the rune is added to keep it tight and evil. From there on, it’s good riddance for the poor fella. And this is proof that Oberon Marx was under the Sál Vinna. The mortician at the time didn’t spot it because he already had cause of death. His skull had been crushed on the other side. Whether Oberon fell or Katherine bashed his head in, though, we don’t know. Results were inconclusive.”