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

“Is it breathing?” I returned my focus to the gargoyle, narrowly avoiding its sharp claws as it slashed at my head.

Finch gave the monster a sharp kick. It groaned in response. “Yep, looks like it. I took the fight right out of it.”

“Good for you. You want to give me a hand here?” I whirled away from a second set of claws in my face. The gargoyle was pissed now. As it divebombed me from the very top of the bubble, I staggered back. Not seeing the hunk of rock that protruded from the ground, I sprawled backward, grimacing as a jolt of pain shot through my nerves.

“Give me a minute. I need to make sure this thing is properly down.” Finch turned his back on me, leaning in to open the eye of the golem. It didn’t move, but my opponent was a different story.

The gargoyle seized its opportunity, landing nearby and scuttling toward me like a grounded bat. Before I had the chance to get back up, it crawled on top of me, its sharp teeth dripping as it sniffed at my face. I stared up at it, paralyzed with fear, my gaze fixed on the black pools of its eyes. It wanted to swallow me whole. It wanted to taste my flesh and savor every morsel. It reeled back and opened its mouth wide, preparing to devour me.

Panic flooded my senses. “Don’t! Don’t hurt me!” I screamed. Only, the voice that came out didn’t sound anything like my own. It wasn’t Volla’s Russian accent, it wasn’t my San Diego lilt—it belonged to someone else entirely.

The gargoyle reared back, baring its fangs at me. But it made no move to attack.

I stared at it, wondering what I’d done. I kept expecting it to lean forward again, but it didn’t. Why wasn’t it moving? What did I do? I propped myself up cautiously on my elbows, holding the beast’s gaze. It looked confused but still made no move to attack me. Instead, it closed its mouth and sat there on my legs, as if it were waiting for something.

“Did you do that?” Finch asked, surprised.

I nodded in complete confusion. “I think so.”

“How? Did you use your reverse Empathy thing?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Glad I didn’t have to compete with you in school. Here I am, using neurotoxin to subdue my monster, and you go and get yours to behave by shouting at it.” He folded his arms across his chest, sulking a little.

To be honest, I had no idea what I’d just done. I didn’t think I’d used any reverse Empathy, but then, it was hard to tell when I was panicked. My emotions and energies got all jumbled up, doing their own thing. Still, I had to test the theory, before this gargoyle snapped out of it and smelled the coffee. Gathering the same sensation of panic inside me, I pushed the emotions into my voice and stared at the monster.

“Sit, over there!” I pointed to an empty patch of grass beside me. My voice sounded different again—there was a deep, echoey resonance to it that seemed to erupt from way down inside my lungs. It was such a strange sound, and it kind of hurt to speak like that, my ribs burning with the strain.

To my shock, the gargoyle scuttled off my legs and sat down in the place I’d pointed to. Curious, I got to my feet and walked to the meat box, reaching in and taking out a chunk. The gargoyle licked its lips as it stared at the meat, but it didn’t move a muscle to snatch it from me.

“Roll over,” I instructed, in that same tone of voice. It did as I asked, rolling over on the grass and sitting back up. I threw it the chunk of meat, watching in disgust as it gulped the flesh down in one go. “Now, play dead.” It collapsed on the floor with its wings spread out, unmoving. I threw it another chunk of meat, which it furtively swiped into its mouth with a long, slithering tongue. “And, sit.” It did so, receiving a third chunk of meat. The gargoyle was catching on—if it did something I wanted, it got food. A fair exchange.

“You going to name it and take it on walks?” Finch asked, distracting me. “It’s like watching Katherine play with her gargoyles…”

I glowered at him. “Don’t say that.”

“I can’t help it. I feel like I’m having déjà vu.”

“I mean it, don’t say that.”

“I don’t mean any offense by it. It’s just… well, I’ve seen Katherine do the same thing. And she wasn’t the only one.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe there’s more Shipton blood in you than you think.”

“Yeah, my mother’s.”

He shook his head. “It’s all the same stuff, Sis. You can’t pick and choose. See, Drake Shipton could do the same thing. He could control gargoyles. He had a fleet of them that watched his trade ships, making sure nobody tried to steal his goods. A little-known fact. If a pirate ship or a competitor’s ship went down, he blamed it on bad weather. And, well, there were no survivors left to tell the truth.”

“Could Hester do this, too?” I wanted the answer to be yes. Somehow, I felt that, if my mom had this ability, I wasn’t riddled with all the bad blood from her side of the family.

“Not that I know of, but Katherine didn’t talk about her much.”

I didn’t know whether to be worried or thrilled by this development in my ability armory. In the end, it didn’t really matter right now. We’d both completed our tasks and tamed these monsters.

“That gargoyle on a leash?” Finch eyed it hesitantly.

“I think so.” I chucked another hunk of meat at it for good measure.

“Naima and Tess don’t need to know the gory details. If they ask, we tell them I used Fire and you used Water and Earth, and a bit of Purge beast know-how. That’s all there is to it, okay?”

I nodded. “Got it.”

“When this time-lapse expires, they’re going to expect to find a whole mess of Mazinov all over the place.” He smirked. “Man, are they going to be in for a big surprise.”





Twenty-One





Finch





The time-lapse was set to expire at any moment. Harley and I were perched on the meat box, waiting. The gargoyle sat at her side like a freaking lapdog. A second later, the bubble evaporated around us. A nice, dramatic reveal for Naima and Tess. They stood on the other side with wry smiles on their faces. Those smiles faded as soon as they saw us. Ha, things didn’t go your way, huh?

“You are… alive?” Naima sounded stunned. She looked at the gargoyle and the semi-conscious golem. She was no doubt boiling that she hadn’t been able to get them under control herself.

“You didn’t think we would be?” I replied.

Naima floundered. “Not many Mediocre magicals make it past this stage.”

“Well, here we are.” I gestured to the wiped-out golem. Harley seemed dazed, but I knew she had to be thrilled about this. Deep down. Really deep down, past all the Shipton worries. Controlling a Chaos monster was a rare ability, one more to add to her collection. Seemed like the adrenaline rush was the best part. I remembered Katherine telling me it was unlike anything else, the biggest high a person could get. Maybe that was all this dazed look was—Harley, high as a kite from controlling the gargoyle.

“I must congratulate you,” Naima said. “How did you achieve it?” A hint of annoyance lurked in her voice.

Harley snapped out of it. “What can I say? That meat is really good.”

“You only used the meat?” Naima wasn’t buying it, and neither was Tess. She kept eyeing the creatures and looking back at us. “Confused” didn’t even begin to cover it. Bet you wish you’d let down that time-lapse bubble to get a closer look.

“Does it matter?” I cut in. I didn’t want them reading too much into it. “We completed your trial, so what’s next?”

Naima sneered. “You will have to wait until morning. In the meantime, if you have anyone you wish to say goodbye to back in the real world, now would be the time to make those calls. There are phones that may be used, just outside the room where you came in through the Strainer.”

“Thanks.” I cast her a saccharine smile. As if I’d go anywhere near those phones. They were tapped for security, and I wasn’t about to have anyone listening in to what we had to say. Besides, there was no need for goodbyes. We weren’t staying here long.