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

“It was okay.” She kept her gaze forward, giving nothing away. Her emotions were still guarded.

“Any brothers or sisters?”

She cleared her throat. “One. A twin, but she’s gone now.”

“Gone where?” I figured dumbing myself down might get her to open up more.

“She died.” Her voice sounded somewhat strained, as if she was struggling with the words.

“Sorry to hear that. Were you close?”

She sneered at me. “She was my twin. Of course we were close.”

“Oh, yeah. I suppose so.” I paused. “I’ve heard that when one twin is in pain, the other twin can feel it.”

“Yeah, I never used to believe that, but I do now.”

Finch cast me a concerned look, but I continued anyway. “Why’s that?”

“Because I felt it when she died. Right here.” Tess covered her heart with her bandaged hand. “I’ve never known pain like it.” She shook her head, as if she knew she’d said too much.

“Was she part of the cult, too?”

Tess whirled around. “What’s with all the questions, huh?”

I shrugged. “Just interested. I like getting to know people.”

“Well, stop. Until you’ve passed these trials, I don’t want to hear another question out of you, do you understand?” I’d clearly touched a nerve, one which made me see Tess in a slightly more human light. Already, she was staring at me with a glint of tears in her caramel eyes, pain etched on her face. She must have loved her sister a lot, and I doubted a scar like that went away quickly.

“I didn’t mean to cause any offense.” I put up my hands.

She sighed. “It’s fine. I just… I don’t like to talk about it, that’s all. Now, come on, I’ve still got a lot to show you.”

Half an hour later, we broke through the tree-line and found ourselves on a lookout. I didn’t recall walking up this high, but interdimensional bubbles could be manipulated to do just about anything the architect wanted. Looking at the ancient walls that stretched out below us, I realized where we were. We were standing on the wall of Fort Jefferson, looking down into the empty center.

In the vast, hexagonal expanse below, I saw people. Some were chained to posts, left to bake in the hot sun. Others were slumped on the ground, battered and bleeding. A group in the corner were missing limbs, while one man was covered in runes that had been carved into his skin. He was crouched in the very center of the hexagon, his face turned to the sky, his arms raised.

Another cluster were covered in blisters, boils, and burns. One had plants growing out of him, the vines wrapping around his arms. Opposite sat a furtive group of people in various states of becoming animals, complete with tails, patches of fur, feline ears, and limbs shortened to become bestial legs.

“What is this place?” I could barely get the words out, praying Astrid had avoided capture.

“It’s our play arena,” Tess replied. “We bring in humans from the outside world—foolish tourists who want to visit Dry Tortugas. We bring them from elsewhere, too, so as not to arouse suspicion. Big cities, mostly, so they won’t be missed. So many humans go missing every day. What’s one more?”

“What do you do to them?” I tried to get Finch to look at me, but he’d dropped his gaze. Had he known about this?

Tess shrugged. “Whatever we want.”

I shuddered as discreetly as possible. There it was, the hidden meaning behind those words. Katherine had incorporated a mass arena of torture into her world, where the cult members could come and torment these humans in whatever way they pleased.

“Like spells and stuff?” Finch said, though he still couldn’t look at me.

“Yes, like spells and stuff, if that catches your fancy. Cult members come here to do all kinds of things: try out new hexes, learn more about the effects of magic on the human body. We toy with them as we see fit, and then we kill them, using spells we’d never normally dare to use. Weapons, too, to hone our physical skills. Sometimes, we get them to fight back, to make it more of a challenge. There’s nothing more invigorating than watching a human fight for their life, knowing they’ll never win. No harm, no foul. Everyone goes home happy.”

Except the freaking humans, you mad cow! It was taking every ounce of strength I had not to shove Tess over the edge of the lookout and watch her tumble into the hexagon. The humans would have ripped her apart, and I wouldn’t have stopped them.

“Fascinating. Right, Volla?” Finch leveled his gaze at me, his tone carrying a note of reassurance to keep me grounded. He needed me to stay focused, and my resolve was slipping. I kept my eyes on him. If I looked back at those poor humans, I’d lose it. By coming here, we’d truly stepped through the gates of hell, and I had no clue which circle we were currently in.

One thing was for sure: we couldn’t do anything to wage war against the cult right now, not with just the two of us. I had to pull myself together or risk blowing this entire operation. We had a job to do, to stop Katherine in her tracks. It was bigger than this, even though my heart was breaking for those humans. If we tried to do anything now, we’d end up in this hexagonal pit with the very people we wanted to save.

Get it together, Merlin. Add every one of these cult bastards to your list if you have to, but get it together.





My head hung over the edge of the toilet seat at our temporary hut. Tess had brought us back not too long ago, and after what I’d just witnessed, I was in very real danger of hurling my stomach into the bowl. Finch had devoured his box of food as soon as we got in—how he’d managed to eat anything was beyond me. Right now, food was the farthest thing from my mind. All I could think about were those poor humans—and what would happen if we were found out.

Finch knocked on the bathroom door. “How you doing in there?”

“Bad.”

“Mind if I open the door?”

“Go ahead.”

He peered inside. “Just wanted to let you know I found some spying hexes, but I burned them. They always use them on the newbies. There aren’t any in here, though.”

I looked up at him, feeling green around the gills. “Spying hexes?”

“Yeah, they tuck them around these huts when they bring new recruits in.”

“Are they watching us?”

“Fortunately, no. Spying hexes work like tape recorders. They can’t listen in live. Not that they’d want to, with you retching like a dog.” He chuckled. “They’ll be pretty miffed when they can’t find a recording to listen to. Guess they’ll just have to live with it.”

“How are you doing this?” I groaned, wiping sweat from my forehead. I couldn’t believe how easily he was dealing with everything.

He frowned. “Finding the spying hexes? It’s simple when you know what you’re looking for.”

I shook my head and sat back against the bathroom wall. “Not that. All of this—the humans, the trials, everything.”

He perched on the edge of the bathtub opposite. “It’s nothing personal. I’m just mission-oriented. Always have been. I guess it’s the one good thing that Katherine taught me. I can separate myself from anything that might be a distraction. And I mean anything.” He paused, kicking his feet against the tub. “Right now, my mission is to get into the cult, find Hester’s spirit, and screw Katherine over as much as possible before I get the heck out again. Nothing else matters. You should follow suit.”

“I’m not wired like that.”

“Then rewire yourself,” he said simply. “The way I see it, the only way we can save those humans, and the ones who’ll keep coming after they’re dead, is to destroy the cult. You need to compartmentalize.”

“How do I do that?” I swept a hand through my spiky blonde hair.