I shook my head slowly. “He begged me not to. Isadora asked me to keep him hidden—”
“Isadora freaking Merlin?! You’re taking orders from her now?” Wade exploded. “What the hell were you thinking, Harley?!”
“I didn’t see a Ryders card in the house! Isadora has been keeping an eye on him. She rigged the house with charms and stuff! The Ryders were targeting the people on our list!” I replied, raising my voice. “Isadora said there were spies in the coven. That I couldn’t bring Jacob in because it was too dangerous for him!”
“Why? All the kids would’ve been safer in the coven! Whatever charms Isadora rigged your house with are worthless; we’ve seen that already!” Wade shouted. “Had we brought them all in, none of them would be missing! Their parents would still be alive! And we’ll all have that cross to bear, forever. What makes Jacob so special that you couldn’t tell the coven about him? That you couldn’t even tell me about him?”
A second went by as I chose my words carefully. “He can feel other magicals,” I finally said. “He’s a living, breathing magical detector.”
Everyone was stunned, their jaws dropping and their eyes growing wider. Shock crashed into me as they all wrapped their heads around this revelation. It didn’t take long for Tatyana to figure out why I’d kept Jacob hidden.
“He’d be an invaluable asset,” she said. “The covens would be fighting each other to get their hands on him. The rogues, too. Oh, not to mention Katherine Shipton and… the Ryders.”
“I didn’t know they had their sights set on Jacob,” I replied, nodding at the photo. “If I’d known, I would’ve dragged his ass into the coven myself, whether he liked it or not. That would’ve been the lesser evil, all things considered. I thought no one knew about him, and that he could go on like that, at least for a little while. At least until we caught the Ryders and Katherine Shipton. I… I was wrong.”
Wade scoffed. He was fuming. “You were more than wrong. You put his life in danger. The Smiths’, too!”
“I know!” I cried out, tearing up. “Now, I know.”
With trembling hands, I took my phone number and speed-dialed Jacob.
“What are you doing?” Wade asked.
“Trying to call him,” I whispered. “No answer…”
Despair was taking over, cutting off my breath and making my entire body shake. Tatyana put a hand on my back in an attempt to make me feel better. It didn’t do much, but it did keep me focused long enough for me to try calling the Smiths next. Still, no one was picking up.
“It’s just voicemail,” I said, looking at Wade. “They’re not answering my calls. They always answer my calls.”
“I don’t get something,” Garrett said. “If the Ryders knew about Jacob, why didn’t they leave a card? They must’ve known about your connection to the Smiths. They wouldn’t have passed on the opportunity to taunt you… and us.”
“I don’t think they knew where to find him,” I said.
“But they did,” Wade replied, pulling the photo from its pin and showing it to me. “Look at the background.”
He was right. That photo had been taken outside the Smiths’ house. I recognized the brickwork, the porch lighting. Oh God.
“Now I’m confused,” I breathed.
“If they knew and kept it from us, they probably meant business,” Garrett suggested. “At least, that’s how I’m seeing it. Maybe they wanted to make sure they got to him without your interference.”
Yet another horrible thought crossed my mind as I took a step back and looked at the entire board again. “Or, maybe they somehow knew we were coming. Maybe they knew I was only going to see this here, too late for me to do anything. If we’re here, they’ll have sent their underlings over there.”
I heard a swoosh. My head snapped to the right, and I saw the flash of enormous fireballs.
“Watch out!” I yelled, dropping to the ground.
The whole crew ducked the attack.
Four young magicals stood in the wide doorway, their Esprits lit up and vicious grins slitting their faces. I recognized them all from the photos on the corkboard—Kenneth Willow, Anna Phelps, Evie Ramirez, and David Brooks. All magicals, all ticked as willing participants.
Behind them, Astrid was on the ground. For their sake, I hoped she was just knocked out. My heart shrank painfully in my chest as I shot back to my feet.
“Fancy running into all of you here.” Kenneth sneered. “I’m kidding. We knew you were going to pay us a visit. This place is rigged to the ground.”
“Where are they?” I asked, gritting my teeth.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to find this place, though. We’ve been waiting for you for what feels like forever now,” he replied, the pin on his bow twinkling red. “Where’s who?”
“You’ve picked the wrong moment to play dumb,” Garrett said, taking a step forward. I had to admit, I appreciated his bravery and rational thinking. Despite his thorns, Garrett was a valuable magical.
“Oh, you’re looking for the kids!” Kenneth chuckled. “Sorry, can’t help you. But they’re being well looked after, don’t worry.”
“Let me guess, Emily and Emmett Ryder have them,” I said.
Kenneth grinned, then gave me a wink. “Bingo!”
“Where’s Jacob?” I asked. It felt like a long shot, but I had to try.
“The wonder kid? Why? You want him? You’re a little too late for that, cupcake, since you’re here, instead of watching over him. He’s being dealt with,” Kenneth answered.
Garrett took another step forward, then gave Wade a brief nod over the shoulder. Wade took a deep breath and shifted his weight onto his left leg. He was about to attack.
“I’ve got a hot date tonight with a gorgeous pair of Puerto Rican twins. I don’t want to be late for that, so why don’t you just cut to the chase? What do you want?” Garrett asked.
“The Diaz sisters?” Santana replied, raising an eyebrow.
This was a deliberate exchange. It slightly confused the four hostiles. Garrett smiled at Santana.
“Yup. You have no idea how hard I worked to get them both to say yes,” he said. “There’s no way in hell I’m letting four psycho brats ruin this for me.”
He didn’t wait for a response, and just darted forward. His Esprit watch glistened a pale shade of blue, as the ocean rumbled by the shore—loud enough for all of us to hear it. Garrett rammed into Kenneth and took him down. At the same time, thick and flexible columns of ocean water shot through the storage unit, extending like endless arms directly from the shore. Each crashed into the other three magicals. It was incredible to watch, given their arched stretch and the amount of water and raw force that each carried with it.
That was all we needed to get on the offensive. Santana released her Orishas and tackled Anna. The little sprites smacked her with high speed and precision, hard enough to daze her and prevent her from casting any spells.
Wade and Raffe ganged up on Evie, who had a serious Fire game going. She was quick in her releases, but both Wade and Raffe were too fast and seasoned to let themselves get torched by fireballs. Wade shot out a Telekinetic barrier that hit Evie right in the solar plexus, knocking the air out of her lungs. She fell backward, and Raffe pinned a special charm into her hand. It threw out a string of pure energy, which then tied itself around her wrists.
The coven called it an Atomic Cuff, not only because of its composition, but also because of its properties. Any attempt to tamper with that string of pure energy would cause an explosion and potentially blow off Evie’s hands. She stilled and cursed under her breath, realizing there wasn’t much she could do at that point. She was done for.
Tatyana and I set our sights on David Brooks, the fourth evil minion recruit. He wasn’t older than seventeen, and he was tall and wiry. His Esprit, a silver bracelet, shone white as he put his hand out to launch a Telekinetic attack.
I used my own Telekinesis to put out a shield, leaving room for Tatyana
to dash to our right, then circle around and come at him. David turned around to stop her—that was my shot to take him down. Using my mental lasso technique, I focused on the back of his neck. My hand moved as I launched the “rope,” caught him, then jerked it back. It pulled him down, and he fell backward.
Just as Tatyana was about to pin the Atomic Cuff on him, he kicked her in the stomach. He whispered a curse and threw out a bright red pulse. It hit both Tatyana and me with its short-range radius, and it felt like hot knives piercing my skin. I gasped from the pain, rolling on the ground in a desperate attempt to stop it from burning me alive—at least, that’s how it felt, since I couldn’t see any flames.
I reached a hand out, the sapphire on my Esprit lighting up blue. The ocean rumbled, not far away, and, a couple of seconds later, I managed to draw enough water out to splash all over me. By the time I got back up, David had vanished.
Tatyana was on the ground, writhing in agony. Whatever curse that was, it could be counteracted with water. I pulled another stream of water from the ocean and used it to hose Tatyana down.
She instantly relaxed, smiling as the water cooled her down.
“That’s the Ardenti Pellis curse,” she breathed. I helped her up. “How’d you know to stop it? I’m screwed without a Water ability like yours.”
“I didn’t know. My skin was on fire, and I thought water would stop it,” I replied.
She chuckled. “Smart girl.”
We both heard Garrett cry out in pain. Kenneth had just taken him down with what looked like Telekinesis. Garrett was on his back, and Kenneth was chanting something that filled Tatyana with dread—it nearly froze the blood in my veins.
“Oh, no,” Tatyana murmured. “The beastly curse again. Son of a—”
I sent out a Telekinetic pulse of my own, enough to knock him to the side and interrupt his chanting. Garrett scrambled backward, desperate to get away from him. Tatyana ran toward Kenneth, taking out another Atomic Cuff to immobilize him before he could do any more damage.
Kenneth sprang to his feet, then laughed as he moved back. His grin faded when he saw Evie get immobilized by Wade and Raffe. Two down, and only Kenneth left in the storage unit. I stepped toward him, my fingers wiggling as I produced two fireballs with both hands.
He saw me, then snorted. “Good luck finding your Indian boy.”
I threw both fireballs at once, with such rage and energy that they continued to swell as they hurled toward him. “He’s Native American, you tool!” I grunted.
Kenneth put a Telekinetic shield out, blocking my hits—however, the blow was powerful enough to push him back by a couple of feet. I kept firing, pummeling him and his shield. Kenneth bared his teeth at me like a furious animal.
“Hera, dóse mou tin anása sou,” he barked, then bit into his palm and pressed it against the invisible shield he’d been holding up against my fire attacks.
The moment his blood touched the shield, a powerful energy pulse was released—much stronger than the flash of red that had made my skin feel like it was burning. It knocked everybody back like the shockwave of a controlled explosion.
I wound up tumbling across the ground, thrown backward like a test dummy.
Once I came to a scratchy halt, I looked up. Kenneth had vanished.
“Ugh, he used Hera’s Breath, a Greek attack spell. I hate Greek magic!” Tatyana groaned.
Evie and Anna were down, bound with the Atomic Cuffs. Wade and Raffe were the first to get up and run out, searching for Kenneth and David, but, judging by the frustration oozing out of them as they came back, both were long gone.
Tatyana helped me up, while Santana and Garrett shook the scuffle bruises off and proceeded to pull Evie and Anna up. Dylan was already by Astrid’s side—she was starting to come to. My relief was short-lived, though.
“They might have Jacob already,” I said.
“Then we’ll have to find them and get him back,” Wade replied, his brow furrowed.
Therein lay the challenge, the source of my increasing despair. Where was Jacob? Were the Smiths okay? Where did we even begin to look for the kids?
Thirty-Five
Harley
With our Bluetooth earpieces on and connected to our internal comms network, we jumped back in our cars, leaving the newly arrived team of security magicals to take care of Anna and Evie and to collect all the evidence we’d gathered from inside the storage facility.
I drove behind Wade’s Jeep as he took sharp turns, left and right through the city, making our way toward the Smiths’ house. Something was wrong over there. I could feel it in my bones. I didn’t say anything for a while, instead listening to Garrett, Santana, and Raffe as they talked to Wade, Tatyana, Dylan, and Astrid about these new developments.
“We’re going to the Smiths’ place first,” Wade replied through the earpiece. “If there’s nothing there, we’ll have to lean on Evie and Anna.”
“Thinking of employing unorthodox interrogation methods?” Garrett chuckled.
“Whatever it takes,” Wade replied.
I blinked several times to stop my tears from flowing. I felt horrible, on top of the physical pain. A few more tumbles like the one in the storage unit, and I was going to finally break some ribs.
“Harley, we’ll find him,” Santana said, noticing my angst. “Don’t worry. We’ll get Jacob back.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Wade retorted.
That felt like a punch in the gut. “You know what, Wade? I’m sorry, okay?” I snapped. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you or anyone else about Jacob. I am! But I’m not going to apologize for what made me keep quiet! I believed Isadora when she said there are spies in the coven. Finch was a prime example, and we all know he couldn’t be the only one. After all, how did the Ryders know to chase down our magical kids, from our list? They got that information from inside the coven, for sure. So, yeah, I was wrong to not tell you about it, but, come on. Look at the state of our so-called society! We’re busy gathering points and following the rules, while Katherine Shipton gets Tweedledee and Tweedledum to do her dirty work for her, kidnapping magicals they can’t recruit and killing their parents!”
“You didn’t trust me, Harley!” Wade shot back. “You should’ve at least trusted me!”
“I made a mistake, okay? I trusted Isadora. She’s family. That means something to me,” I replied. “And you know what? I’m starting to think she was right. If I’d brought Jacob in, he would’ve been fair game for a lot of people. Given his abilities, Alton would never let him go. Jacob would never get a chance at a normal life, if he wants one, not even as a Neutral. They’d keep him on lockdown simply because of how many rogues like Katherine & co. would kill to get their claws on him!”
I took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly as I gathered my thoughts.
“This entire mission has been difficult, from the very beginning. We chose to leave the kids with their families, thinking the alarm charms would help. The Ryders were one step ahead of us on that—they probably had inside help for that, too. Our collective choices have led to the deaths of innocent people. But in hindsight, now that we have clear evidence of spies in our coven, do you really think any of the new magicals would be 100 percent safe with us?” I added.
A minute passed in awkward silence.
“You know, she has a point, Wade,” Santana said. “Someone’s been helping the Ryders from inside. They supplied them with the list and details for each of those kids. They gave them forbidden spells and curses. Some of the stuff in the storage unit is some pretty hardcore magic, from our archives. If we brought Jacob in, he would’ve been a sitting duck for whoever’s working with the Ryders. It wouldn’t take much to make someone disappear. I mean, come on, let’s face it, even with additional security and whatever, nothing’s really impenetrable in our world. Magicals always find a way in. Or out.”
“We would’ve at least kept the boy in a secure location,” Wade replied. “I would’ve had him sta
y with Tobe, for example. Who in their right mind would so much as try to do something to the Beast Master, huh?”
“Finch pretended to be Tobe and got him arrested for a couple of hours,” I pointed out. “Enough for him to set all the gargoyles loose at once.”
“That’s a completely different thing, and you know it! I’m not—”
“Enough!” Garrett shouted, cutting Wade off. “Enough with the bickering, okay? Jeez! First of all, you’re both right. Harley should’ve told you, Wade, but, at the same time, she was wise to keep her trap shut, since I don’t think you would’ve kept it to yourself. I know you better than you think. You would’ve told Alton eventually. Having a natural magical detector in our possession is like having the power of a dang god. I’m well aware of how important Jacob is. Now, let that go, already. This isn’t the first time any of us made poor choices, nor the last!” He paused and threw me a sideways grin. “Harley, don’t take Wade’s words to heart. If he’s this angry and hung up on the issue, it’s because he likes you and you hurt his feelings.”
“Wait, what? Garrett, shut the—”
Garrett chuckled as he interrupted Wade again. “Give it a rest, Crowley. You’re mad because you care.”
“I agree with Garrett on this one,” Santana chimed in from the backseat. “He gets intense when he’s emotionally invested.”
Even so, it still hurt me deeply. I couldn’t stand the thought of Wade being angry with me, though I knew I’d brought it on myself. I was already going through sheer emotional torture as I prayed to find Jacob at the Smiths’ place, alive and in one piece. Feeling Wade’s wrath and disappointment on top of that was too much.
I decided, then and there, to put all those thoughts aside, choosing to focus exclusively on Jacob and the Ryders. I was ready to haul those twins to hell if they so much as touched a hair on the kid’s or the Smiths’ heads.
Good people didn’t deserve to get dragged into this mess.
Harley Merlin 2: Harley Merlin and the Mystery Twins Page 31