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

“And then what?” Raffe replied.

I took a breath. “Jacob, Astrid, and Dylan are going to portal to Key West while we’re in Salem, and Astrid is going to take a boat to the islands, where she’ll plant an emergency device in case you have no other way out. It has to be Astrid because she’s human, so she won’t alert any magical sensors. We get ourselves out of Fort Jefferson once we have the spirit by causing a commotion in the Bestiary if we have to. We press these other buttons you’ve given us, if we can, and Isadora will come to get us out.” I tapped the pendants around my neck, which Krieger had altered to create emergency get-out buttons that would signal our location to Isadora. There was no way Jacob was coming to get us from the cult itself. Having to portal to the opposite dock in Key West was close enough.

“And, in the meantime, I’ll be controlling the two duplicates,” Santana added. “With Raffe for support. Keeping two duplicates running, when they’re so far away, is going to be a tough egg to crack, but Louella is going to keep researching to help me get through it.”

Isadora nodded. “Meanwhile, Tatyana, Wade, and I will run interference and make sure nobody knows about any of this. Wade and I will be waiting for your signal to come and get you.” Her eyes hadn’t left me throughout all of this, and I could feel her anxiety coming at me in waves. I was going right into the belly of the beast, with no assurances that I’d make it out alive.

“Perfect,” I said, though I could feel how tenuous it all was. It relied on everything going right, and experience had taught me that not everything worked out quite as well as we planned.

“We should make sure your duplicate has everything she needs, Harley, when I conjure her again.” Santana came over to where I was standing and offered me an encouraging smile. Just the kind I needed.

I picked up my duffel bag and handed it to her. It was stuffed full of my clothes, my ID, and everything else the duplicate might need to be a convincing version of me.

“It’s all here, except my phone. That’s in my room, but the keys are in here to get in there. You’ll have to take it just before my duplicate is set to leave for Anchorage. I didn’t want to bring it in here in case Levi came looking, using the GPS.”

“No problem, mi hermosa. I’ll make sure I have everything before the duplicate takes the mirrors to Anchorage. The usual idiot check.” Santana grinned, then closed her eyes and drew out the chosen Orisha. It flitted in the air before me, giving off a faint bluish hue and a vibrant energy of excitement. Santana mumbled something in a rich and ancient language, and the ball of light sprouted limbs, lengthening out to resemble me. A minute later, I was staring right into my own eyes, face-to-face with my duplicate.

“What are you all staring at?” she said. “Anyone would think you’d never seen me before. Not very convincing, is it, if you go around gawking at me.”

I laughed. “She’s good, Santana. She’s very good.”

“Hey, this is mostly me here,” my duplicate replied. “Isn’t that right, Santana?”

“It sure is, mi hermosa.”

“Hey!” I protested.

Santana chuckled. “I’ve got to keep it believable.”

“Shame I won’t be spending more time here, huh, Wade?” My duplicate flashed him a mischievous grin that made his cheeks turn a deep shade of beet red. “You’ll be begging Santana to keep me on once Harley gets back. A little treat to yourself.”

Finch was howling with laughter, and the rest of the Rag Team members were stifling giggles. My duplicate certainly knew how to hold the attention of a room, even if it was at Wade’s expense.

“Hands off, okay,” I warned, half teasing. Poor Wade looked like he wanted the earth to open up and swallow him whole. Still, it was pretty funny. This version of me was going to give a lot of people a run for their money—the perfect duplicate to go on a retreat for troubled magicals.

“I’m just getting it all out before I end up in the monastery.” My duplicate flashed me a grin.

“So, does this mean we’re ready to go?” I glanced around the room, feeling the collective apprehension.

“Looks like it,” Wade replied, his expression sad. It wasn’t going to be easy for him to watch me leave, not knowing what might happen to me. It wasn’t going to be easy for me, either. In that moment, I wished everyone else could disappear, just for a short time, so we could properly say goodbye to each other. This was all happening too fast, and I felt a desperate need to pump the brakes, if only to kiss him and hold him for what might be the last time. But I couldn’t let myself think like that. If I got all doom and gloom, I’d have a harder time keeping up the confidence act when we met Naima.

“How about you try that Shifter goodness on for size?” Finch broke the tension, his eyebrow arched.

I shook my head. “Not yet. Not until we’re in Salem. There’s something I might need to do first, and I don’t want to waste my one shot at shifting, if I only get the one shot.” I held Wade’s gaze to try and let him know what I meant. A small, sad smile crept onto his lips. He understood why I couldn’t just yet. I wasn’t going to say my goodbyes while in the body of Volla Mazinov, no matter how funny it would be to see him try and kiss me.

“Makes sense,” Santana said, before anyone else could protest.

Tatyana nodded. “You probably should wait until the last moment.”

“Agreed,” Astrid said. “From a purely logical standpoint, of course.”

I love you girls. They all got it, even if the boys were stumped.

“Well then, I guess we should get going.” I let out a shaky breath. “Santana, you take duplicate-Harley up to my room and then on to the mirrors to Alaska. Isadora, Finch, and I will head to Salem, while Alton covers for her for the time we’ll be gone.”

Wade raised his hand. “I’ll be coming too, but just to Salem. There’s a, uh… last-minute briefing we need to have before you go.” I waited for Finch to chime in with some crude remark, but he didn’t. Instead, he wore a sad smile and kept his mouth shut. Though I tried to push away any affectionate thoughts toward Finch, I couldn’t help but feel the tug of the sorrow written on his face. He knew all about the gift of being able to say goodbye. He and Adley hadn’t been given that chance.

“Okay, so while we portal to Salem, the rest of you will be coordinating from the SDC. Everyone know what they’re doing?” I pressed on, feeling a confused flurry of emotions.

Astrid nodded. “The emergency protocol device should be in place within the next few hours. Until we come for you, it’ll be radio silence. You’ll be on your own.”

“Remind me why we can’t have earpieces again?” I said, grazing my teeth across my lower lip.

“They’ll find any earpieces or bugs on us when they do the initial check at the cult,” Finch replied. “These Ephemeras should fly under the radar, even without the cloaking device. Nobody is looking for them. But they do look for earpieces and bugs.”

“Right.” My heart sank. Being cut off from the Rag Team was going to be tough, and that was an understatement. I’d gone on dangerous missions before, but never without the help of my friends. Going forward, I’d have to rely entirely on Finch.

“Your speech devices are ready,” Astrid said, bringing me rapidly out of my funk. She took two minuscule items, which looked like grains of rice, out of her pocket and placed them on the table. “Krieger, could you prepare two syringes?”

“Certainly.” He turned around and plucked up two gigantic syringes, complete with needles that looked needlessly huge. “Ready when you are, Astrid.” My stomach churned as I remembered the huge needle they’d used on me for my Reading. Ugh.

As if I wasn’t already freaking out enough. Why did it have to be needles?





Fourteen





Harley