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

“Ten,” she began.

Shinsuke shed his robe where he stood, revealing a muscular physique that I hadn’t expected. The man works out! It brought thoughts of Wade and his own muscular arms. Shinsuke wore a black sleeveless shirt that seemed to be made of some type of rubber, revealing the Apple of Discord at the top of his right arm. On his back, he carried the same double Esprit as his father—two Samurai swords, the elegant, ivory handles sticking up above his broad shoulders.

“Hey, wait a minute, they’re allowed weapons?” I hissed at Finch.

He shrugged. “An Esprit’s an Esprit. His just happens to be two massive, killer katanas.”

I missed my own Esprit, which I’d had to leave behind for obvious reasons. Facing Kenneth without one wasn’t exactly my idea of a good time. Still, I had good control over my abilities these days, Esprit or no Esprit. It just felt weird not to have it. It had become such a huge part of my identity as a magical.

Kenneth’s Esprit was mounted on his bow tie, as usual, the red ruby glowing in the shade of the trees. I hated the sight of that thing. I thought of the kids he’d killed back at the abandoned port and let my hatred strengthen my Chaos. I’d been gagging for a chance to wipe the smirk off his face, and now I had one.

This is going to be good.

“Let’s hope you can use your Fire one more time,” I told Finch.

He nodded and slipped his hand into his pocket. His grimace let me know the spikes of the Ephemera were doing their work. I only hoped the ability would last long enough to make an impact. If it didn’t, everyone was going to wonder why the famed Firestarter wasn’t using his most prized skill on the battlefield. Krieger, you better have made this work.

“You deal with Kenneth, I’ll handle Shinsuke,” Finch said, as Naima reached “six” on her doomsday countdown.

I gave him an uncertain side-eye. “Why do you get Shinsuke? Colored puffs of evil smoke, remember?”

He laughed. “Because if I take on Kenneth, I will beat him, and I will kill him, and no one will be able to stop me,” he said.

“Well, when you put it like that…”

“ONE!” Naima roared.

I thought you’d never get there.





Eighteen





Finch





I sprinted toward the center of the arena and skidded to a halt. New energy brimmed in my veins. It was stronger than I’d expected this time. I guessed I had Harley to thank for that. Supercharged Fire power, coming right up. Just keep it going. I didn’t want it to sputter out mid-fight. That’d draw some attention, for sure.

I lifted my hands and let the new ability surge down my arms. It was weird and unnatural. And it left a tingling that I kinda liked. A stream of violent Fire shot out of my palms and hurtled toward Shinsuke. His eyes widened, but he was a pro. He dodged out of the way and pulled out his katanas. Bastard. I had to blink as he ran at me. I didn’t know whether it was just my imagination, but it looked like the blades had gotten longer.

Meanwhile, I let Harley get on with it. She didn’t need my help on this. She’d faced Katherine and survived before, and Kenneth would be nothing compared to that. I kept an eye out for errant puffs of smoke. I loathed those suckers, the lowest of the low. A real magical would never rely on dirty tricks.

I picked up the pace and slid between Shinsuke’s legs. The glass was perfect for that. He looked back in surprise as I stood up and shot a fireball at his face. It singed his cheek on the way past. I needed to work on my accuracy. His blades shortened. Yep, definitely not imagining things. This had to be the Earth-slash-Magneton hybrid Krieger had yapped on about. It was insanely cool, but pants-crappingly scary.

He slashed the blade at my face, but I ducked back. I heard the whisper of it as it sliced the air right in front of my nose. I’d been unlucky enough to get my dad’s schnozz, but I didn’t want it getting chopped off. A fireball surged from my palm in retaliation. Shinsuke swiped at the air with his blades, dispersing the crackling ball into ashes. Close one.

“How do you prefer yourself? Medium or well-done?” I grinned at him as a jet of near-liquid Fire shot out of my hands. He flipped his swords backward and arched over, the razor-sharp tips digging into the glass as he propped himself up. The stream sailed right over his torso. This guy is good. Nomura by name, Nomura by nature. I’d have to get a little crazy to beat him. Fortunately, craziness was in my nature.

I sprinted at him full-pelt as he stood back up, waiting until the last moment before I slid to my knees. I surged another jet of Fire at him. It hit him full in the stomach, knocking him back. He jumped up a second later, seemingly unharmed. The rubber top he was wearing had somehow absorbed the blast. That neat little addition was going to make my job a whole lot harder.

I ran for the edge of the arena and jumped off. A gasp went up from the crowd. Always breaking the rules, Finch. I clung to the side and shimmied my way around the lip. Tucking my body right under the glass, I waited. Through the shiny stone, I saw a shadow approach. Shinsuke had taken the bait. I waited until he came to the very edge before swinging myself up and launching a volley of fireballs at him. He was quick. A few swift slashes of his blades, and the fireballs shifted trajectory. They powered toward the crowd, who dove out of the way.

“Nice try,” he said. A sheen of sweat glistened on his forehead. Things were getting a little hot in the kitchen.

I backed away from the edge. With every step I took, I fired another blast at him. The swish of his swords was all I could hear. Curious, I glanced over my shoulder to see how Harley was doing. She seemed to be holding her own, dodging hex puffs left, right, and center. And Kenneth was already soaking wet from her Water power. Ah, the drowned rat look. Perfect.

I jumped back in surprise as a katana blade narrowly missed my chest. It had grown longer again.

“I need to learn how to do that,” I said, brushing off how close he’d come to snagging me. I could think of a thousand uses, not all of them safe for work. Still, it was going to be hard to take this guy down. I was desperate to mix it up and use my Telekinesis, but I couldn’t. Pieter Mazinov didn’t have Telekinesis—it was Fire or nothing. I just hoped it held out. Krieger had said it would last a fair while, but he’d also said it wasn’t an exact science.

“Even if you could, you wouldn’t have the patience,” he replied.

“Bit sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

He smiled. “I’ve trained to be.”

I looked at him and knew I needed to get more creative. Thinking fast, I lunged at him and jumped into the air, using the flat top edge of his katanas to balance on as I sprang over his head. I somersaulted, landing with his back to me. Using the split second of surprise, I powered two palms’ worth of Fire into his shoulder blades. He staggered forward under the pressure, smoke rising from his rubber suit.

A moment after, he was up again. Stay down, geez! I launched another jet at him, this time hitting him square in the chest. He staggered back once more, but he wouldn’t go down. Instead, he crossed his blades in front of his face, widening the metal to form a shield. The fire bounced back, heading right for me. I dove to the floor, feeling the heat of the flames as they whizzed over me.

Suddenly, he was on me. His knee pushed into my chest as he shortened his blades to tantos. With a smile of triumph, he rested the blade against my neck. If I was going to get out of this alive, I needed to come up with something fast. A thought hit me. Keep him talking.

“Wouldn’t you call that cheating?”

He frowned. “What?”

“Using weapons. Hardly fair, right?” Discreetly, I put my hand in my pocket and felt around for my Esprit. I’d morphed it into a dagger identical to the one Pieter Mazinov used.