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

Right, of course it is.

She came to me first, with Tess following close behind. I thought about passing Naima off to Finch first, but watching the process was probably no better. I flinched as her strong paws shot out and gripped my wrist, her claws digging into my skin as she pulled my arm taut and flat. I guessed I didn’t have a say about where my brand was going.

“For the pain,” Tess said, shoving a piece of wood into my mouth for me to bite down on.

“Thanks,” I muttered, my voice muffled by the twig. I wasn’t really sure how they were going to get the gold inside the pot all molten, but Katherine answered my question a moment later.

She stepped forward to the edge of her throne plinth, and a metal walkway slid out to join it to the main disc of the arena. Walking across it, she stopped right in front of where Finch and I were kneeling. With a half-smile on her face, she pushed down the neckline of her dress to reveal her own Apple of Discord, fixed in the exact spot where her heart should have been. Since we all know you don’t have one of those.

The Apple on her heart lit up with intense golden light as she turned her gaze toward the pot of solid gold and raised her hands. Fire coursed out of her palms in a powerful torrent, melting the gold until it started to bubble and spit over the edges. For the first time since coming to this place, I wasn’t sure if I could actually go through with it. This brand was going to be with me forever, even after I escaped the cult.

“It’ll be fine, don’t sweat it,” Finch breathed, giving me a reassuring look.

Easy for you to say. I wondered if he knew this from personal experience, which meant he must already have one of these things on him, somewhere. But where? I’d never seen it.

Before my resolve crumbled altogether, Naima extended a sharp, nasty-looking claw. I bit down hard on the wood as she dug her claw into my skin, dragging it around in the shape of the Apple of Discord, the blood pouring down my arm and dripping onto the glass below. The lines were deep, ready to take on a bunch of molten gold. So that’s how they do it? It was even more grim than I’d anticipated, and I’d seen the Apple before.

I struggled to keep hold of Volla’s form as I closed my eyes. Naima’s claws would be child’s play compared to what was on its way. Her claws clinked against the outside of the pot as she snatched it up, and I grimaced in agony as I felt the first singeing touch of the liquid metal. I bit down so hard on the wooden stick that I thought I might break my teeth. The pain was unbearable, my entire arm on fire as the gold filled the channels that Naima had created with her claw. Sweat trickled down my face as I fought to keep hold of my disguise, while trying not to pass out from the pain.

“It is done,” Naima said.

I blinked open my tear-blurred eyes and stared at the golden mark just below the crook of my elbow. The metal cooled almost immediately, leaving the hard shell of the Apple of Discord, while faint veins of gold spider-webbed outward. My skin had curled and burned around the brand, purple and livid. I spat out the wooden stick and tried not to touch the new mark. It would only hurt more if I did. I already hated the sight of it, feeling sick to my stomach that I had to wear it for the rest of my life. This encompassed everything I despised, and it was lodged in my skin forever. I wanted to scream in anger. The pain, I could handle. The shame of having this thing on my arm? Not so much.

“So, your Apple of Discord is your Esprit? How does that work?” I asked Katherine, fighting for breath, desperate to distract myself. I didn’t really know what to call the mark—it wasn’t a tattoo, per se, and it wasn’t a brand. It was something worse. A permanent melding of flesh and metal. Was there even a word for that? If there was, I didn’t know it.

Katherine smiled. “Not all Esprits are found, Volla. Some, on rare occasions, are personally forged. Like mine.” It was yet another testament to her insane power, that she’d managed to forge her own Esprit from gold and embed it right into her skin. “Madness” didn’t even begin to cover it. I mean, who the heck did that to themselves? Although, it sort of made sense now, why she’d demanded everyone else get the same brand, to intrinsically link themselves to her. A sure sign of their loyalty.

I sank back onto my haunches as Naima turned her attention on Finch. She grasped for his left arm, the same one she’d placed my brand on, and clawed the Apple of Discord into his skin. I watched in horror as she lifted the pot and poured the molten gold into the channels she’d created, the skin blistering and burning as it sank into the lines. The fur of her paws seemed to protect her from the pot’s intense heat, her features showing no pain whatsoever. As Finch bit down on his own wooden stick, I realized I’d been right—watching was no better than experiencing it first-hand.

“Now that you’re members of this organization, you will adhere to my rules,” Katherine said, as the two of us were left reeling. “The work will be hard, and there’s a great deal to do, but if you are loyal and fierce, then you will find yourselves lifted beyond your current states. You will tower above your former Mediocrity and find yourselves charged with glory. When I have ascended to my immortal body, becoming a Child of Chaos in my own right, you will be the soldiers of my divine army. You will be rewarded for your loyalty, not only in this life, but in the next.”

I tried to keep my expression neutral, even as my anger flared. You think you have a say in our afterlives, too?

“The world is long overdue a change. We’ve been in the shadows too long, and I’m tired of seeing the weak prosper and the mighty fall,” she went on, in full cult leader mode. “Once I have achieved true greatness, we’ll never bow and scrape to human fragility again. We’ll show them what true power looks like and give them reason to fear us. They will be the ones bowing and scraping, and I am so looking forward to that. We will finally have a say in whom we deem worthy of this gift called Chaos. Magicals have forgotten how to treasure what they’ve been given, and my new world order will give them cause to remember. And if they defy me, they’ll see the true might of a Child of Chaos.”

Any more from you, Shipton, and your head won’t fit inside this bubble. And yet, the crowd around us was hanging on every word. They were drinking it in, like the sheep they were. I almost felt sorry for them. They didn’t seem to realize that they were following a wolf in sheep’s clothing who’d just as easily have them murdered as anyone else. Katherine cared only for herself and her own mission. All this talk about everyone who followed her receiving due glory was a load of fluff, spoken to keep their spirits up and their hearts loyal to her cause.

However, there were a couple of strange emotions leaking into me. I spied Shinsuke in the stands and felt a subtle wave of terror coming off him, spiraling toward me in shivering tendrils. There was an unexpected flurry of concern coming off Thessaly Crux, too, as she tossed aside the wooden stick that had fallen out of Finch’s limp mouth.

Raw, unfiltered energy buzzed from Naima while she finished off Finch’s tattoo and removed the pot of molten gold. This kind of thing seemed to excite her a lot. She really was a creature of Katherine’s making, getting a high from all the twisted acts that pleased her mistress.