Harley Merlin and the Cult of Eris (Harley Merlin, #6)

I smirked. “To break my Suppressor. I went through a lot to do that. Marie Laveau was just the tip of the iceberg.”

Finch blew out and shrugged. “Well, I guess that Electro you met could’ve been Tess. She was the only Electro in the cult when I was there, so it’s pretty likely. Then again, she might have recruited more of them since I’ve been gone. It’s a rare ability, but Katherine’s been very busy hunting.” He paused. “Tess had a twin with the same power, Larissa, but she wasn’t as bright as Tess. She got killed in a mission to abduct more kids from LA. The kids were more powerful than Rissa had anticipated. Let’s just say it didn’t end well. Blood everywhere. Bits, too. You don’t want to know about the bits.”

I shuddered at the thought. “So, Naima is our way in, since she’s the Recruiter. But how do we get in? Are we just going to waltz up to Fort Jefferson in disguise, knock on the door, and hope for the best?”

Finch shot me a withering look. “Oh yeah, because that’d work. We need to be recruited by her. See, it’s in the name already. Recruiter. She’s intelligent, yeah, but she’s not as good with people as she is with Purge beasts. She’ll be the one most easily fooled. I wouldn’t know where to find her, though.”

“You could always speak to Garrett,” Dr. Krieger suggested, closing his file and replacing it. “He’s working with the LA Coven these days, isn’t he? They’re likely to have more knowledge of Naima’s whereabouts than we are.”

I nodded. “Yeah, we got some intel that the National Council knows about one of Naima’s playgrounds.”

“Yes!” Jacob suddenly stepped back and forged a rapid tear in the fabric of the universe, disappearing through his portal. He returned a few minutes later, while the rest of us stared at the empty space in shock. Only, this time, he wasn’t alone. Garrett stood beside him, looking very confused. His eyes drifted across the room and stopped short at Finch.

His mouth fell open. “What the—?”

This was going to be good.





Seven





Finch





“Jacob!” Harley looked like Jacob had just smacked her in the face with an octopus.

Wow, awkward much?

He shrugged. “Everyone keeps saying we’re running out of time. I figured we need as much help as we can get.”

I kind of liked this kid. He had guts. I just wished he hadn’t dragged Garrett into this. Man, it felt like I was going on a date or something. My stomach was twisting up with nerves. I hadn’t seen Garrett in weeks, and even when he’d visited, things had been tense. Not that I was going to spill my guts out now. Not in front of these people.

“Even so, you could’ve warned us first,” Harley complained. She clearly didn’t like surprises. Killjoy. “Someone in the LA Coven could’ve seen you! Not cool, Jacob.”

To my surprise, Mr. Rule-Follower Wade Crowley was the one to defend the kid. “Hey, he’s the captain of calculated recklessness. And he’s right, we’re running out of time.”

“Yeah, and I wasn’t seen. I made sure.” Jacob smiled proudly. Anyone would have thought he’d just solved world peace.

She shot him a look that could melt steel. “Still, you could’ve said something first, Jake.” Ah, so it was “Jake,” was it? I didn’t know too much about him, other than his rare ability. I knew he’d been on Katherine’s list, and I was pleased she hadn’t managed to get her paws on him. You can’t have everything, Mother dearest.

“Does someone want to tell me what he is doing here?” Garrett pointed a shaky finger at me. The elephant in the room. “Tell me you weren’t actually stupid enough to break him out of Purgatory.”

“Surprise!” I gave him my best jazz hands, but he wasn’t amused. The SDC really had lobotomized this bunch.

“It was a… calculated risk,” Harley replied.

Garrett shook his head. “If anyone gets wind of this, and I mean anyone, you’re screwed. If you get caught, that’s a life sentence, no parole.”

Well, hello to you, too.

“That won’t happen, Garrett,” Harley replied. Ever the optimist. “We covered ourselves. Astrid helped, and so did the rest of the Rag Team. Everything’s in place, and nobody is any the wiser. Do you hear any alarm bells ringing?”

Garrett pinched the bridge of his nose in a way that made him look like a weary old man. “Not yet.” He let out an equally ancient sigh. “So, what do you want from me? I’ve just left a briefing with the National Council, so I’m pretty beat. Don’t give me the long version, because I don’t think I want to hear it.”

I stayed silent after that nice rebuffing. I might as well not have been in the room. It’d probably have made Garrett a whole lot happier. Whenever I looked at him, I was reminded of what I’d done. I’d put this distance between us, and I’d have done anything not to have dragged him into Katherine’s plan. He’d said it was okay last time I saw him, but I didn’t believe that. Out of everyone, I regretted betraying him the most. I was pretty much ambivalent to the rest of them.

All of this was surreal. I’d always been at Katherine’s side, pretending to be part of the SDC. Now, I was truly at their mercy. Which was probably no less than I deserved. Part of me still wondered if I should be left to rot in Purgatory, yet I couldn’t see myself ever going back there. I’d made my promises, but I didn’t intend to keep them. My mind was already on the brink of insanity, reminding me that I needed to take one of the pills in my pocket to smooth out the edges. But these pills wouldn’t work for much longer if they threw me back inside. Another stretch in Purgatory and they may as well have kept me in an asylum instead.

“We need you to tell us where Naima is, Garrett,” Harley said. Yes, Sis, right to the point.

Garrett plopped himself down on a stool. “We’ve got our sights on her and one of her favorite haunts for recruiting. The National Council is in the middle of debating what to do about it. That’s all they seem to do—talk about things and never actually do anything, but what do I know? I just sit and listen.” Someone was feeling disenchanted with his new position.

“How do you know all of this?” Astrid asked. Her eyes had brightened the minute he’d come into the room. Aw, bless her heart. Even so, there was something weird about the human. Half the time, I wondered if the SDC was experimenting with androids. She definitely hadn’t been like this before. Had something happened to her? I was so out of the loop. And I didn’t think Garrett would stoop that low. A non-magical? No way.

He eyed her with an affection that made me curious and a bit nauseous. “There’s someone inside the cult who’s feeding us information: locations, identities, that sort of thing,” Garrett said. “It’s going to take us a while to verify everything we’ve received, to make sure it’s not coming from some kind of double agent. And the National Council really loves spending a lot of time farting around.”

Harley grinned. “If they’d been smarter, they would’ve come to us for help. Astrid would’ve verified everything in five minutes flat.”

“I know she would’ve,” he replied softly, “but they want to keep the SDC out of everything. Seriously, it’s almost comical how they keep saying, ‘But we have to make sure Levi doesn’t know about any of this.’ It’s like a running joke.”