Harley Merlin 2: Harley Merlin and the Mystery Twins

by Bella Forrest

  Thirty-Six

  Tatyana

  I was in the front passenger seat, with a full view of a grumpy Wade.

  If not for the dreadful situation at hand, I would’ve found this situation amusing. We all knew he had a soft spot for Harley, and that her choice to withhold knowledge of Jacob from the coven had hit him hard. However, I also agreed with Garrett—which was quite astonishing, considering that, up until a few days ago, I would’ve rather chewed glass than work with him.

  Wade turned his Bluetooth earpiece off, prompting us to do the same. We were just a couple of blocks away from the Smiths’ place now, and the tension was high, keeping my pulse racing.

  “You know Harley had good intentions, right?” I asked him.

  He exhaled sharply. “It doesn’t excuse her actions.”

  Astrid reached out from the backseat and smacked him on the shoulder.

  “Wade Crowley!” she said, sounding like a very angry mom. “After everything we’ve all been through, and especially Harley, you choose to be a jerk! Enough with the drama, already! Either tone it down or ask the girl out on a date. This is getting ridiculous.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Wade asked, visibly annoyed.

  “Puh-lease! You know damn well what I’m talking about,” Astrid replied, leaning back into her seat.

  “You’re wrong,” Wade insisted. “This isn’t about me lashing out due to some… unresolved feelings or whatever. This is about trust. Which she broke. I trusted her. She made a mistake, and she needs to stew in it, at least for a little while.”

  “Oh. So, it’s not enough that she’s got this horrible family history to deal with, along with these missing kids. You want to pile on this crap and make it worse. Got it,” Astrid said. “I thought you were more mature than this.”

  “She needs to understand that there are consequences to her actions,” Wade replied, gritting his teeth.

  “Harley is already going through hell right now, not knowing what happened to Jacob and her foster parents—if they’re even okay!” Astrid said, holding her ground. “Wade, I get why this whole thing about Jacob upset you, but you have to move past it, and quickly. We don’t have time for grudges. Not now. Not with everything that’s on the line here.”

  Dylan cleared his throat. “You should also try to understand Harley’s point of view. I totally get why she’d be reluctant to bring Jacob in. The entire magical world would pounce on the poor boy.”

  “As for your feelings regarding Harley, pardon me, but the jury is still out on that one,” I chimed in, stifling a smirk.

  Wade sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. “Why are you all ganging up on me?”

  Astrid giggled. “You deserve it. Now, let the attitude go, and be a good friend to the Merlin girl if you want her to stay.”

  Our fleeting moment was already over as we pulled up outside the Smiths’ house. Something was definitely off, starting with the exterior aspect of the property. Runes had been spray-painted across the brick walls, and the front door was open.

  As we tumbled out of the car, the silence pouring out of the house was downright deafening. I dry-swallowed, hoping to get rid of the lump in my throat. Wade motioned for us to turn our Bluetooth pieces back on.

  “This isn’t good,” Astrid whispered.

  “Stay in the car,” Wade replied. “You’re banged up enough as it is. Call for any available magical security units, too. See who’s closest to our location.”

  Astrid nodded, then unlocked the screen on her tablet and got back inside the Jeep, while Wade, Dylan, and I moved closer to each other, unable to take our eyes off the Smiths’ house. Harley’s Mustang reached us, and she pulled up behind Wade’s Jeep.

  Something was awfully wrong with this picture, and, judging by the look on Harley’s face, she knew it, too.

  Thirty-Seven

  Harley

  Fear curled up in the pit of my stomach, scratching at my insides.

  We regrouped just outside the Smiths’ house, all of us confused by the symbols painted on its exterior walls. The open door wasn’t a good sign, either.

  “What are those runes?” Tatyana asked. “I don’t recognize any of them.”

  “Me neither,” Wade said, frowning.

  Garrett breathed out. “They can’t be good.” Then he looked at me. “Unless your Auntie Isadora painted them? I’m guessing she’s much more versed in magic than we are, given her years of experience.”

  I shook my head. “I doubt it. She had small runes painted in the corners. These… These give me a bad vibe.”

  I checked my phone. No messages. No missed calls. I tried calling Jacob again. Still no answer.

  “Chances are there may be hostiles inside,” Wade said. “We should learn from what we’ve seen so far. It could be a trap.”

  “Okay, so, how do we do this? We have to get Jacob and the Smiths to safety,” I answered.

  He looked at me, and I was instantly filled with his fear and determination—equal quantities, rippling through me like a bad fever. We were all scared, but we had to keep moving. If dark forces were at work here, we had to stop them. There was no other choice.

  “You and I go through the back,” Wade said. “The rest of the team takes the front. If anyone’s waiting in there and they’re not friendly, it’ll be up to you and me to take them down. Can I count on you, Harley?”

  I smirked. “You know damn well that’s a yes.”

  “Good,” he replied, the corner of his mouth twitching. I figured that was our way of making peace. It gave me a sense of direction. “Earpieces on.”

  We split up. Garrett led Santana, Raffe, Tatyana, and Dylan in through the front door, while Wade and I snuck through the back. The large spray-painted symbols weren’t the only new additions to the Smiths’ house. The backyard was riddled with animal bones, positioned in the shape of a symbol—a circle surrounding a triangle, with a small green fire burning in the middle.

  “That’s weird. What’s that?” I asked, keeping my voice down.

  “It’s a Gaelic Battery,” he replied, then walked toward it. “Astrid, whoever you’ve got coming from security, tell them to be on high alert. Hostiles have been draining energy from nearby residents using a Gaelic Battery.”

  “Roger that,” Astrid replied, her voice audible in our open channel.

  “What does it do?” I whispered.

  Wade kicked some of the bones away with his shoes. The green fire in the middle began to shrink, releasing white sparks. “It hijacks the energy produced by humans within a three-mile radius,” he whispered. “Whoever is around it gets tapped into. Magicals can use their energy to increase the power of their spells,” he added, then stomped the fire out completely.

  Suddenly, I felt like I could breathe a little easier. “Did the battery tap into us, too?”

  “For a couple of minutes, yes,” he replied. “Garrett? What’s it looking like in there?”

  There was no answer from Garrett. Wade took a deep breath, his Esprit rings glowing white.

  He mumbled a spell under his breath, closing his eyes in the process. A bright blue pulse shot out of him, flitting through the air. The sound reminded me of a swarm of birds flying at once. I instantly recognized the magic at work here—a time lapse. It spread outward and settled in the shape of a giant globe that swallowed the entire property. But it didn’t last. It crackled and flashed white before it vanished into thin air.

  “What the…” I said.

  “It’s not working,” Wade concluded. “I can’t put out a time lapse. I think it may have something to do with those symbols,” he said, nodding at the house. “Garrett? Santana? Anyone?”

  Still, no one replied. That made me feel uneasy. But I couldn’t stay out here for another second. If something was going down inside, I had to be there. Wade seemed to read my mind. He joined me as we slipped through the kitchen’s back door. Thankfully, the sliding mechanism was quiet. I was careful to close the door behind me.
If any hostile thought of escaping, I certainly wasn’t going to make it easy on them.

  Everything looked fine in the kitchen. Nothing out of place. No sign of struggle. But the air felt thick and heavy. Fear rumbled through me… It wasn’t mine, though.

  I looked at Wade, and he brought his index finger up to his lips. We were going to do this quietly. We made our way through the narrow hallway leading into the living room on the right and the den on the left, which the Smiths had recently converted into a game and reading room.

  I saw Garrett and the others slowly advancing through the front corridor. We were all going to meet in the middle, where the two double archways awaited, on both sides. As parts of the living room came into view, my heart skipped a beat. I moved to get there faster, but Wade put his arm out and held me back. I gave him a questioning glance, to which he responded with a sullen glare. His nerves were stretched to their limits, but I could feel his anticipation. He’d noticed something that drove him to keep me from going farther.

  We both heard the muffled gasps. Just as Garrett and the others stopped in front of the living room, I craned my neck and froze, identifying the sources of the noise. Mr. and Mrs. Smith were tied up in a couple of armchairs, facing the archway entrance. They didn’t look injured, externally. But they were terrified. Their feelings suddenly exploded through me, dread crystallizing in my veins.

  “What the—” Garrett was the first to react to the sight of the Smiths in their chairs. He and Tatyana rushed to release them, when a familiar voice cut through from the den.

  “Don’t move, Shifty,” a male said.

  Everybody froze, then slowly turned their heads to look behind them. Wade shifted us both to the right wall of the corridor. We had enough of a view from that angle to see… Emily and Emmett, the latter holding a long knife up to Jacob’s throat.

  Horror crippled me almost entirely as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.

  “Let me guess,” Tatyana said, then pointed at the girl first. “You’re Emily.” She shifted her gaze and index finger to the guy next. “And you’re Emmett. Together, you’re the infamous Ryder twins.”

  Emmett grinned. “I love hearing that. I guess our marketing game is on point.”

  “Don’t kid yourself. Those crappy business cards were an absolute waste of paper,” Santana retorted. One by one, a dozen bright green Orishas shot out of her.

  “Ah, ah, ah!” Emily warned her, pressing the blade against Jacob’s throat. “Don’t do something stupid, unless you want me to redecorate this den in fresh red.”

  The fear I’d been sensing earlier was Jacob’s and the Smiths’, but it had already morphed into paralyzing dread—the kind that shut an entire system down. Mrs. Smith was crying, tears streaming down her cheeks. Mr. Smith was trying to say something, but the tape on his mouth turned his words into muffled noises. My heart broke to see them like this, and the horror they were experiencing almost paralyzed me. Despair smashed into me repeatedly, like debilitating waves that cut my breath off.

  I got them in this mess. I’m getting them out.

  Garrett gave us a discreet sideways glance. It was his way of telling us to stay back. Wade’s scenario had come true, and I had to learn to trust his judgment better.

  “What are you two scabs doing here?” Garrett asked the twins.

  “Isn’t it obvious? We were planning a surprise party for you all!” Emily giggled.

  “Yeah, bad idea. Security magicals are on their way as we speak,” Santana replied, her Orishas orbiting nervously around her. I could almost feel their frustration. We would’ve loved nothing more than to tear into the Ryders, right then and there. But they’d prepared their playing field—a little too well, in fact.

  Emmett chuckled. “We know. But you’re still screwed. We rigged this entire place to blow up into tiny little pieces. The moment you went past those lovely runes outside, you triggered the whole spell. If anyone else sets foot through the door, poof!”

  “That’s a bit suicidal,” Santana said.

  Emily shrugged. “You continue to underestimate us.”

  A couple of seconds went by as I thought about possible courses of action. With the Smiths’ and Jacob’s lives hanging in the balance, there wasn’t much we could do. The Ryders had us right where they wanted us.

  “I take it your real goal was to get the kid,” Garrett said, nodding at a perplexed and terrified Jacob.

  “Obviously!” Emily exclaimed. “Jakey here is a gamechanger for what we’ve got planned!”

  “Why? What makes him so special?” Garrett asked.

  Emmett laughed. “Oh, man, you people really suck at your jobs, you know that? Don’t tell me you’re not aware of Jake’s abilities!”

  “Enlighten me,” Garrett said, remarkably calm, despite the twinkle in his Esprit wristwatch.

  “Nah. I’m not wasting my time with a coven drone,” Emmett replied. “Get me Harley. She’s the one I want to talk to.”

  “Emmett, honey, someone broke the battery out back,” Emily said. I assumed she’d finally sensed the dimming in her power levels.

  Emmett narrowed his eyes at Garrett. “You found our little gadget already?”

  “Mm-hm,” Garrett replied with a smirk. He had no idea what Emmett was talking about, but he played along nonetheless.

  “That’s cool. We’ve got enough to turn you all to dust, anyway,” Emmett said. “This day will go down in history, I tell ya!”

  “Oh, yeah. Katie’s going to be so proud of us!” Emily chimed in like the little psychopath that she was. “We really brought our A game to this crappy town!”

  Referring to the queen of evil as “Katie” sounded odd and downright mismatched, and definitely too cute for the monster that Katherine Shipton really was. But, then again, none of her followers seemed anywhere near the “normal” bar, so I pushed the thought aside.

  Garrett groaned, rolling his eyes. “Ugh. Don’t tell me you’re shilling for Katherine Shipton. That’s just pathetic.”

  “Why? She’s only the most powerful Dark witch of the century. Soon, she’ll become a Child of Chaos,” Emmett spat. “She’ll command Chaos itself. She’ll decide who deserves the power, and she’ll reward those loyal to her. We’d be idiots not to join her, given what she’s got planned for you and your stupid, bureaucratic nightmares posing as covens!”

  “What has she got planned, exactly?” Tatyana replied. “Get two more suckers to kill innocent people, since Finch got caught?”

  Emmett laughed again. His guffaw gave me actual goosebumps. “Again with the idiotic assumptions. Shut your trap, Tatyana, and get me Harley. I’ve got a message for her,” he spat. “Harley! I know you’re here, honey! You’re too weak to stay away from an obvious trap! Come on! Join us!”

  Wade gripped my wrist, shaking his head at me.

  “Okay, let’s up the stakes a little bit,” Emily said. She raised her voice, calling out to me. “Harley, if you don’t get your ass in here in the next ten seconds, I’m going to fillet Mrs. Smith like a fish! Your choice, sweetheart.”

  I pulled my hand away from Wade and motioned for him to stay back, then advanced through the hallway slowly enough for the Ryders to see me coming. They both grinned, eyeing me like I was their Sunday dinner.

  “There you are!” Emmett exclaimed. “Harley Merlin. The rising star of the San Diego Coven. The lost child of America’s most powerful magical bloodlines. The kid with the grit!”

  He and Emily suddenly shifted before my very eyes, their bones cracking and skin rippling as they turned into Mr. and Mrs. Smith—the real ones were still gagged and terrified in their chairs. It was a punch in the gut, but I didn’t want to show them that, so I forced myself to keep a straight face. Laughing, Emmett and Emily reverted to their original forms. This was miles beyond creepy.

  “I’m sorry, is this supposed to be psychological torture, or are you trying to kiss my ass?” I asked, putting my hands up. I briefly glanced at the Smiths, who were stunn
ed to see me here, unable to understand anything that was going on. I mouthed an “I’m sorry,” at them, then shifted my focus back to the Ryders and Jacob. “Hey, Jake. Sorry I’m a little late.”

  “Uh, it’s okay,” Jacob said, his voice trembling.

  “Yeah, we’ve been waiting for you!” Emily cut in.

  “I take it the whole storage unit scene was set up to keep us busy while you slathered your filthy magic all over the Smiths’ house and took them hostage?” I asked, my tone clipped. “You must’ve somehow had us followed to time this so well.”

  “You’re not as dumb as I thought you were,” Emily replied dryly. I didn’t need to feel her to know that she and her brother absolutely hated my guts. It was written on their fake faces. “But you’re almost half-right. We didn’t have to follow you anywhere. We knew it would only be a matter of time before you found the warehouse, so we had our loyal apprentices rig the daylights out of it. Once we knew you were there, we could come here and set up this fabulous ensemble.”

  “How about you tell us what’s with this whole Child of Chaos crap, instead of droning on and on like two wannabe megalomaniacs? What’s the deal with the kids? Is Katherine building an army?” I asked, then smirked. “Or a kindergarten?”

  Emmett sighed. “You’d love to know more, wouldn’t you? Sorry, toots, you don’t tell us what to do. You don’t make the rules. We do!”

  “Okay. Cool. So, what now? I’m here,” I replied. “At least let the Smiths go. They’ve got nothing to do with this.”

  Emily laughed. She was making it very hard for me not to hurl a heavy object at her. “Harley! The Smiths have everything to do with this!” she said. “Who do you think made sure that they took Jakey here in?!”

  Oh, no…

  “You knew Jake was here from the very beginning,” I murmured, the whole picture looking a lot clearer. I broke into a cold sweat. Jacob had no idea. He was so confused, the poor thing.

  “Yes!” Emily said. “We made sure Jakey came here after we found him in the foster system, because we needed him out here for you to find him next. Katie thought of it. Personally, I loved the idea. Emmett wasn’t entirely on board at first, but when he saw you fawning over this new little brother, even he had to agree that Katie is a damn genius.”