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

“Well, we need to think about how we’re going to get Hester’s spirit. Sure, I know where it is, but we can’t get close to the cult’s operational compound until we pass these trials. So, that’s step one—pass the trials. Simple. Step two, retrieve Hester’s spirit. Step three, get out of here. Step four, stop Katherine and bring about the demise of the cult. Think about it like that, in bite-size chunks.”

I knew it would take more than words to change my way of thinking, but I saw his point. I needed to focus on the bigger picture. Yes, what was happening to those humans was terrible and gut-wrenching and nauseating, but if we didn’t stop Katherine, that could be the fate of the rest of the human world.

“We’re in this together. If you fail, I fail. If you die, I die.” He smiled. “Not to be dramatic.”

“I’ll do better,” I said, surprisingly energized by his unexpected pep talk. “I know what we need to do. I’ll stay focused. It was just a shock, seeing that back there.”

He nodded. “Unfortunately, it’s not new. I’ve seen it before.”

“Only seen it?” I had to know just how far down the rabbit hole Finch had gone when he was Katherine’s lackey.

“Yeah, only seen it. I had limits to what I’d do for Katherine, even back then.” He sounded hurt that I’d suggest otherwise.

“What were your limits?”

He shrugged. “I never got involved with any of the human stuff. I did what Katherine asked, and she didn’t force me to do anything to them. I organized missions for her and tried to reduce collateral damage where I could. I ran missions of my own. I suppose you wouldn’t believe me if I said I never wanted to get anyone hurt, huh?”

“Gargoyles, Finch. Gargoyles.”

He nodded solemnly. “Fair point. But that was the first time I knew people were going to get hurt. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go through with it, but I knew I couldn’t let Katherine down. I was so deep under her spell that disappointing her was the worst thing that could’ve happened to me. It would’ve felt like my world had crumbled.”

“So, what was your guilty pleasure then, if it wasn’t torturing humans?” I wanted to break the sad tension in the room.

He dropped his gaze. “It’s stupid.”

“Go on.”

“You’ll laugh.”

I grinned at him. “So?”

“Ugh… I used to ask for the newest comic books from the outside world. That was my vice.” He glanced at me with shy eyes. “What can I say, I’m a sucker for a superhero.”

“Well, you were following a supervillain around for long enough. It was bound to have an effect.” I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t stupid at all, that it was actually sort of sweet, but I didn’t want to offer that big of an olive branch just yet. He’d probably watched other cultists torture humans without much trouble. He wasn’t that innocent. Even so, it made me look at him in a different way, seeing the lost boy instead of the broken man. He’d had his childhood stolen from him, so it was almost natural that he’d have wanted the things he’d never had as a kid.

He chuckled sadly. “I guess I never thought of it like that.”

“So what you’re saying is, Katherine keeps her subjects happy by giving them everything they want, within the limits of the island. In return, they do whatever she wants. That right?”

“Hit the nail on the head.”

“I guess that’s one way to get a job done.” I laid my head against the bathroom wall and tried to ignore just how creepy all of this was. But Finch was right. If I kept myself focused on the endgame, I’d be able to get past everything else, at least for long enough to do what I needed to. I’d never forget that there were innocent people being tormented on the other side of the island, but that was a good thing. I wasn’t supposed to forget. I was just supposed to get the bigger obstacle out of the way first—if I could cut off the snake’s head, the rest would collapse. And they’d be free.

I didn’t remember falling asleep, but I blinked open my eyes to find Finch shaking me roughly by the shoulders. I was still in the bathroom, a blanket covering my body. Frantically, I jumped up and pushed past him, hurrying to the mirror. I hadn’t meant to drift off, and I feared the worst might have happened. But even though I’d fallen asleep, Volla had stayed with me. There were her cobalt-blue eyes, staring right back.

“Oh, thank God.” I heaved out a sigh of relief, just as Finch lifted a finger to his lips and shook his head. “What? What is it?”

“Naima’s here,” he said. “It’s time for the second trial.”





Twenty





Harley





Still yawning from my unexpected sleep, I followed Naima and Finch out of the hut. Tess was waiting for us in the glade beyond the hut, that same strange smile on her lips. It was pitch black outside, aside from the glow of the treetop orbs and the silvery light of a crescent moon glancing in through the interdimensional pocket. Everything looked creepier in the darkness, the stone statues looming out of the canopy like hulking titans. This place had seemed like paradise in the daylight, but night had transformed it into a Lord of the Flies nightmare.

My boots thudded on the metal walkways, leaving an echoing clang as we made our way to our next destination. If Naima was taking us back to that horrific hexagon, I didn’t know if I’d have the stomach to make it through the second stage of our induction. Bigger picture, Merlin. Focus.

“What’s with the stone giants?” I needed to break the silence between the four of us.

“They’re the guardians of Eris Island,” Tess replied. “They’re depictions of the Children of Chaos, the very beings that allow us to be here, and where Eris will soon take her place as a goddess among mortals.”

“She’s planning on turning to stone?” I flashed a forced smile, but nobody laughed.

“Nice one, Volla.” Finch’s tone held a warning. This wasn’t the time for jokes.

Tess pointed to a nearby titan as we crossed a walkway that came close to its towering height. I looked up toward its sculpted face, and it set my nerves on edge. It had the horns and face of a goat, the torso of a man, and two enormous stone wings folded behind its back, with cloven hooves instead of feet. Ah, so Satan is watching over this place.

“Baphomet, right?” Finch said.

Tess smiled. “It was designed with his image in mind, yes. In our case, it’s supposed to represent the might of Erebus. Katherine deemed it the most fitting example, as it stands for the tradition of a perfect social order. The kind she hopes to bring to our world.”

It sent a chill through me. “Is that really what Erebus looks like?”

“As I said, it’s a representation, meant to encompass more than just Erebus himself.” Tess shot me a withering look that silenced me. Somehow, I’d managed to become the class idiot without meaning to.

“I must pause here for a moment,” Naima said, leading us down a sloping walkway toward the eerie titan. We lingered on the damp grass, watched by Tess. In the darkness ahead, I heard rustling and the screech of an unseen bird.

Naima went right up to the stone giant, pressing her hand to a carved star embedded between Erebus’s hooves. She mumbled something in Latin, and the stone slid away, revealing a secret doorway in the statue itself. She disappeared inside, then returned a few minutes later with two charmed jars in her hands. I recognized the glass and the symbols etched along it; these were jars that held Purge beasts. Taking a closer look at the stone titan, I realized this must be where Naima hid her own version of the Bestiary—the powerhouse that made this entire operation work.

“The second trial is as follows,” Naima said, brandishing the two large jars. “You must tame a Purge monster each. I have specifically selected these rather charming creatures, as I have had some trouble taming them myself. Not all Purge beasts are created equal—I am a testament to that—and, despite my skill in this field, some creatures simply cannot, and will not, be controlled. These are two such monsters.”

So how do you expect us to tame them, if you can’t? I didn’t say it out loud, but I wanted to. It was almost as if these trials had been designed with failure in mind.

“What are they?” I asked instead.