Harley Merlin 16: Finch Merlin and the Blood Tie

by Forrest, Bella

  “How come you haven’t done anything about Lux?” I had to ask. “Are we cool with her now, or something?”

  Kaya’s face hardened. “She is not my primary concern, since I do not believe she will prove to be a threat now that we are married. There is little use in expending resources and energy on her removal.” She sighed, and her expression relaxed. “Besides, your friend is hosting her, at present. I know you are fond of these friends, and I would never seek to hurt them, even by proxy, when they are so important to you. That is, I would not do so unless they made themselves enemies of our city.”

  I snorted. “They wouldn’t do that. They’re probably just peeved about being stuck in prison and missing out on a great party. I’ll make everything right with them, don’t worry.”

  I smiled reassuringly at Kaya, but truthfully, I wasn’t sure I’d even know how to speak to them. I cared about them, of course I did, but there was an odd sort of distance between us now that I couldn’t quite explain. Again, it was as if they belonged to a different life. Someone else’s life.

  “I hoped you would say that.” She gripped my hand tighter for a moment, making my heart flutter, before releasing it and turning to address the gathering. “Please, everyone, if you would take your seats so breakfast may be served.”

  With a rustle and scrape of chairs, everyone obeyed their shiny new queen. I sat on her right side at the head of the table, with my friends in a position of honor to either side of us. Meanwhile, Huntress flopped down on the edge of the plinth, close to Nash. There, she went back to work, trying to chew her bow off. If I’d had one of those things around my neck, I’d probably have done the same.

  The servers placed an array of exotic dishes along the length of the table as the crowd resumed chattering among themselves. But a tense silence had fallen over the head of the table. And yes, it smelled. So much that my stomach sounded a warning siren: impending puke.

  “How were the celebrations after they made us leave?” Melody broke the silence. I couldn’t remember when they’d left last night. I definitely didn’t remember anyone making them leave, but hey, I wasn’t going to argue.

  I ignored the stench and tried to focus on the little chipmunk. I grinned. “Incredible. That’s the only word I’ve got to describe it. Absolutely incredible.” I put my arm around the back of Kaya’s chair. “If I’d known a wedding could be like that, I’d have done it sooner!”

  “You would not, or you would have had me to answer to.” Kaya flashed me a conspiratorial smile.

  “So, you enjoyed yourself?” Melody squinted at me as though I’d just told her I saw a unicorn stab a man through the chest. “You were… uh… happy? And you’re still feeling good about it?”

  I reached for a slice of laver bread and tore off a small piece. Baby steps. “I had a whale of a time. Dancing, chatting, celebrating—what’s not to like? And I’d be even happier today if my head didn’t feel like someone was using it as a pinball machine.”

  “Yes, Miss Winchester. Why would he not feel good about it?” Kaya cut in sharply. I grimaced. My friends just didn’t understand yet, but they would.

  “I… um… I just wanted to know how he was doing, since we haven’t seen him in a few days, being imprisoned and all. And he was having cold feet when I last spoke to him. I figured I would check that everything worked out okay.” Melody’s concerned stare didn’t leave my face, even though she was talking to Kaya. A bit rude, but I didn’t point that out.

  “These toes are toasty warm now, let me tell you.” I leaned over and kissed Kaya’s forehead. In my periphery, I saw Ryann flinch. I felt a pang of sympathy for her. I couldn’t quite remember the specifics, but it seemed like things might not have ended well between us. Even if they had, who wanted to have breakfast with their ex and his new wife? That was uncomfortable in anyone’s book.

  Luke propped his elbows up on the table and peered intensely at me. “How do you feel about seeing us again? Do you have anything to say to any of us?” He subtly tilted his head toward Ryann. It seemed to be deliberate, but I wasn’t sure what he was getting at. Did he want me to apologize because she’d been dragged along to this breakfast?

  “Actually, I do.” The concern glinting in their eyes dimmed a touch. “I wanted to tell you all how sorry I am that you’ve spent the last few days in prison, with only a brief reprieve for the wedding. But it was in everyone’s best interests.”

  Their relief seemed short-lived. I forged ahead regardless.

  “You wanted to stop Kaya and me from getting married, and I know you had your reasons, but not marrying her would’ve been the biggest mistake of my life.” I couldn’t quite recall what those reasons were right now. Something about Erebus? Man, my memories had gotten so slippery. It was like wrangling eels.

  “So, you don’t have anything to say to Ryann?” Nash asked bluntly.

  I hesitated. They clearly expected me to give a certain answer. “Um… I don’t know. I’m sorry that things didn’t work out?” I shook my head, feeling idiotic. “Look, this isn’t the kind of conversation I want to have right now. It’ll only make things awkward, and I don’t want to talk about the past in front of my wife.”

  “Finch is quite right,” Kaya agreed tersely. “This is neither the time nor the place.”

  “I don’t think a right time or place exists for this, Your Majesty.” Nash folded his arms across his chest, no doubt missing his plaid. “We just want to find out how our friend is feeling, because from where I’m sitting, he doesn’t look or sound like himself.”

  I tapped my temple. “Hangover, remember? Nobody looks or sounds like themselves when they’ve got one beating out a drum and bass special in their skull. It’s taking everything I have not to spew, so cut me some slack.”

  “I suggest you calm yourself, Mr. Calvert,” Kaya warned, her eyes narrowing dangerously. “Finch will be well enough after some rest, so you may put your mind at ease.”

  “I think we all know that’s not true.” Nash held his ground. I didn’t get why he was being so cranky. I understood why Ryann wasn’t jumping for joy, but why couldn’t my other friends be happy for me? I was happy. Didn’t that matter? Perhaps this was why they felt distant from me: because I knew, deep down, that they’d never feel happy for me.

  Ryann… The voice in my head whispered again. Ryann? Ryann what? What was it trying to say that I didn’t get? Did my brain want me to give some emotional, rom-com speech about how sorry I was that I’d found someone else? I didn’t see how that would help anyone. If Ryann hadn’t gotten over me, then she just needed time. She’d see, soon enough, that there were plenty more fish in the sea. She only had to look through the city’s bubble to see that.

  “I will not warn you again,” Kaya admonished them. “If you continue to speak out of turn, you will find yourselves marched back to the prison.” Okay, that was harsh, but fair.

  Nash stared down my wife for long seconds, and I wasn’t sure who was going to win.

  “Finch, are you sure that—” Melody started, but Luke interjected.

  “Are you sure that you shouldn’t just go back to your room and sleep this off?”

  Melody frowned at her lover-boy in dismay. Luke had covered her ass, but I wasn’t an idiot. Obviously that wasn’t what Melody had intended to say. We all knew it. I could see the same dismay in Ryann’s and Nash’s eyes.

  But I shrugged, going with the path of least resistance. “I’ll head back once I’ve gotten some food in me.” I popped a chunk of laver bread into my mouth to emphasize the point. “At the very least, I want to drink something that isn’t ambrosia. Where’s Erebus, anyway? Has the coward decided to go into hiding after he tried to smooch my missus?” This conversation needed a change of pace, fast. I didn’t want my friends shoved back into prison, even if there was this weird barrier between us. I knew they meant well. They just needed to adjust to these new circumstances.

  “It would appear so.” Kaya’s mood instantly lightened. “No one has s
een him since last night. And I, for one, could not be happier. After all the mayhem and disruption he caused, it is best that he refrain from invading polite company.”

  But I caught a flicker of sadness in Kaya’s eyes, a stark contrast to her cheerful voice.

  Does she still have feelings for Erebus? I stared at her a while longer, as though the answer would appear in neon above her head. But the moment had passed, like it’d never happened in the first place. Maybe I was just seeing things because my friends and their negativity were getting under my skin.

  “I only wish his wife would do the right thing and take her wayward husband far from here, where he cannot cause more trouble,” Kaya continued. She shot a discreet glare at Ryann, who glared right back. “After all, now that Finch and I are wed, neither Child of Chaos has any reason to remain here. Indeed, I would say that they have quite outstayed their welcome.”

  Ryann… That stupid voice whispered again. I shook my head slightly. Cut it out. Ryann didn’t mean anything to me anymore, not in the romantic sense. I loved Kaya. I’d woken up this morning with the most beautiful woman in the world, and damn it, I was happy! Plus, Kaya had grand plans for the two of us. A mission that needed me. And Nash, too, but he didn’t have to know that yet. Not while he was acting like a sourpuss. She and I had a dream that we were going to build together—to bring peace to all magicals.

  So why did I suddenly feel like something was amiss here? Just that morning, the puzzle pieces had fit together seamlessly. But now it felt like I was trying to mash pieces together that just didn’t quite fit.

  Four

  Nash

  Looks like all’s rosy in paradise. Poor kid doesn’t realize it’s fake.

  It wasn’t my way to keep my trap shut and say nothing when a pal was in trouble. Finch didn’t want this; he only thought he did. The mind could be a tricky devil like that, more easily manipulated than folks might think. I’d learned that as a soldier, and it still rang true.

  “Luke, I’m sorry, but I think it’s important that we—” Melody started.

  “Behave politely. I agree.” Luke hit Melody with a pointed look. I couldn’t blame him. He was only trying to protect her from pressing Kaya’s buttons, and I didn’t doubt that Her Majesty had the capability to go nuclear. The royal pain in our asses might’ve been giving off a calm air, but I knew better. I sensed her irritation spiking off her, like a barbed seed pod in a swamp.

  It was obvious that Melody wanted to find out how deep this love spell had sunk its claws. We hadn’t seen it get poured into Finch’s mouth, or cast on him, or however these Atlanteans had done it. And maybe we’d been lured into a false hope that the spell wouldn’t stick. But something had changed since yesterday. All the fight and fury had drained out of him.

  Ryann sank back in her chair, sitting opposite me. “Lux isn’t her husband’s minder, Your Majesty. If you want Erebus out of your city, then you’ll have to kick him out yourself.”

  Easy, there. I know you’re hurting, but don’t get too snarky with the queen. Sure, I might have taken part in a stare-off with Kaya myself, but I knew just how far to push without making her snap. In her current state, I couldn’t say the same for Ryann. Jealousy and anger made fools of us all, but we couldn’t risk anyone lashing out.

  One thing was for damn sure—we couldn’t raise a fuss about this marriage. Not here, anyway. Kaya was acting the part of loving queen because of Finch and the love spell, but the second we started picking her apart and making ourselves look like the enemy, she’d have us ejected into that ocean alongside her father’s coffin. This needed to be more of a cold war: subterfuge and discretion, until we better understood the extent of this here love spell.

  “Who is to say that I am not already in the process of doing so?” Kaya retorted.

  Ryann’s eyes glinted with bitter tears, but her tone was strong. “If you were, you’d have done it already.”

  “Come now, you of all people know that it is not so simple to rid oneself of a Child of Chaos.” Kaya’s mouth set in a grim line. Tensions were rising, and that wasn’t good for anyone. With Finch under her spell, I got the nasty feeling that, if Kaya made him choose—her or us—we wouldn’t be the ones coming out on top. And we needed access to him in order to fix this mess. Even if it meant playing nice with the playground bully. For now.

  “How’s your brain feeling today, Finch?” I flipped the switch on the subject.

  He tilted his head like Huntress did when she was confused. “Seriously? You want me to tell you again about my monster of a headache?”

  “I’m not talking about the hangover, Finch. Although, I did warn you about what would happen if you enjoyed yourself too much. Back in Tijuana, remember? You should have stuck with the lime and seltzers.” I wanted to jog his memory, to try and crack his mind back open. “I’m asking about your brain, not your head. It’s been a couple of weeks since you last took some of my Medela serum, and that stuff doesn’t last more than a month or so. Any gremlins rearing their ugly heads?”

  Finch turned white as a sheet. “I… hadn’t even thought about that.”

  “Gremlins? What gremlins?” Kaya had taken the bait.

  “It’s not my place to tell you that, Your Majesty.” I smiled stiffly. That was the trouble with folks rushing into marriage. As far as I was concerned, no one should get married without knowing every little one of the other person’s quirks. Do they leave their socks lying around? Do they clean up after themselves? Do they hear voices in their head? Simple, really. And Kaya had clearly had no idea about Finch’s dormant delusional disorder.

  Ryann looked at me with a “thank you” in her eyes and no small amount of sadness.

  I tried to convey my thoughts to her. There’s no spell on this earth that’s truly unbreakable. We’d spent most of last night discussing the love spell—Melody, Luke, Ryann, Huntress, and me. It hadn’t been an easy conversation. There’d been a lot of tears spilled already. And I had no doubt there’d be more to come before we could do something for Finch.

  “Finch? What is Mr. Calvert talking about?” Kaya looked anxiously in her husband’s direction, setting down the piece of black bread she’d been holding. I’d made her nervous.

  Finch shook his head. “It’s nothing. Just an old… injury that used to bother me. But it’s okay now. Nothing to worry about.”

  “He mentioned Medela serum, Finch. That medicine is for afflictions of the mind. If it is an injury to the body, why would you have taken such a serum?” Kaya’s calm expression had entirely fallen away. I had to wonder whether she’d reached the same conclusion we had the night before—that Finch’s atypical brain chemistry might prevent the love spell from completely taking hold.

  Finch shrugged uncomfortably. “It was a… um… brain injury.”

  “And you did not think to mention this to me?” Kaya gaped at him.

  “I didn’t think it was important. It’s not a problem anymore, and if it does come back, we can just get the ingredients that Nash needs to make more of the serum. Right?” Finch glanced at me desperately.

  Ah, kid, what a pickle you’ve gotten yourself into. I couldn’t make that promise to him. If his gremlins were the key to getting that love spell off him, I’d let the damn things run wild and deal with it later. But I had to keep up appearances.

  “Sure,” I replied simply. Still, Kaya didn’t look comforted.

  She gripped her teacup like she intended to crush it. “You really should have told me about this, Finch.”

  Why, so you could’ve upped his dose? Made a zombie out of him? To be fair, I’d expected to come here and find exactly that. It’d been a bit of a surprise to find that he still had some speck of himself left. Cracking jokes and such. That showed promise. If he was still in there, then we could get him out.

  “I’m sorry. It’s not something I like to talk about, now that it’s been fixed.” Finch hunched his shoulders, looking like he was trying to sink out of the conversation entirely. Maybe t
hings weren’t so rosy in paradise after all.

  “But that is precisely my point, Finch. It is not fixed. The Medela serum is not a panacea; it is a medicine that must be taken regularly.” Her eyes flitted toward the end of the table, where her noble cronies sat making small talk. I didn’t recognize all of them, but maybe she was looking for a physician in their midst.

  You’re not messing with any more of his head on my watch, lady. I didn’t trust a single one of the Atlantean elite. Apollo was the best of a bad bunch, but he was loyal to a fault. If Kaya told him to jump, he’d pole vault.

  “My father would have been able to instruct me on matters such as this.” Her face fell, the mask slipping. She recovered quickly, but not before I’d seen the grief underneath.

  “You miss him?” Melody asked. A tentative olive branch if ever I’d seen one.

  Kaya sat up straighter. “Naturally, I do. Even this table seems curiously empty without his presence. He was my father, and now he is gone.”

  He was a selfish ass, if you’ll pardon my French. He hadn’t wanted to die any more than Finch had wanted to get married. But the old king’s absence did speak volumes. Soon, Ovid would be jettisoned into the ocean. I’d seen the casket myself, on display in the palace gardens like a sick museum exhibit, and Atlanteans had queued up for miles to pay their respects.

  “I wasn’t suggesting anything, Your Majesty.” Melody looked away. “I just wanted to know how you were feeling. It must be difficult, trying to enjoy your new marriage when your father’s death is so fresh in your heart and mind. It might help to talk about it.”

  I resisted the smile that wanted to form. Clever girl. Melody already knew what Kaya was feeling. The gifts of a skilled Empath. Perhaps she’d read something in Kaya’s emotional output that the rest of us couldn’t sense.