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

It looked like we’d arrived a few minutes too late to the party, but it wasn’t hard to figure out what they’d been talking about. Clearly, Katherine’s minions had been entrusted with some mission in the magical world, and they were about to set off to do her bidding. After a rumble of assent had made its way around the group, the cultists got up to leave, brushing past Finch, Tess, and me on the way out.

“Sorry you weren’t invited, Tess.” Kenneth stalked toward her, spying his prey. He really couldn’t resist an opportunity to stick it in Tess’s face. “Looks like you’re benched until those delicate little hands of yours heal. You must be so embarrassed. You almost blow your hands right off, and for what? To fail your mission and have to come back with your tail between your legs? Shameful, really.” He tutted like the smug idiot that he was. I glanced at Finch to make sure he wasn’t having any sudden urges to swipe the smirk off Kenneth’s face. He seemed to be fine. Either that, or he was covering his anger well.

“So, does that make you the substitute?” Tess shot back. “The best player is off the field, so they have to put an inferior player on?”

“You wish. Even if your hands were healed, you wouldn’t get a look in on this mission. You failed Eris—you can’t be trusted with the big stuff anymore.”

“I can speak for myself, Kenneth, if it’s all the same to you.” Katherine walked up behind Kenneth, the guy’s face morphing into a mask of horror. “Nice of you to really go in on the hypocrisy, though. I can admire that. I mean, let’s not forget who spent three days cleaning the men’s toilets because he came back empty-handed. That’d be a real shame.”

Kenneth’s cheeks had turned beet red. It was the ultimate they’re-behind-me-aren’t-they? moment, and Tess was relishing every second. He turned around very slowly, looking up into Katherine’s unimpressed eyes.

“Now, run along and complete your task, before I decide to put one of the Mazinovs on the mission instead and send you back to the men’s latrines.” She smirked. “It can definitely be arranged, if you need to relearn the value of humility. Plus, I’m sure I can just get someone else to take your place in the rituals, if you can’t behave like a team player. It shouldn’t be too hard.”

Kenneth shook his head desperately. “No, Eris, I’ll do as you’ve asked. I’ll leave right away.” He bowed so low I thought he might snap himself in half, before scuttling off out of the door, clearly terrified that Katherine might actually change her mind.

With the war room now empty, Katherine turned her attention to us. “Yes? I presume you’re here to tell me something. Otherwise, this is a colossal waste of all of our time. And you know how much I love that.”

Tess dipped her head in a bow. “I discovered the Mazinovs in your office, Eris.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa there! Hold up a minute, Crux.” I put my hands up in defense. “You’re making it sound like we didn’t intend to be discovered. Geez, do you always give the newbies such a hard time?” I looked Katherine dead in the eye. “Look, we were bored out of our skulls back at the hut, so we went on a little adventure to try and get a good look at the human experimentation stuff. Pieter was curious about the hybrid aspect, while Earth manipulation is a little more my flavor. Anyway, this island is confusing as all hell, and we ended up in some corridor. Pieter spotted you, but then we lost you, since all of these freaking hallways look the same! I asked some dude with a buzzcut where we could find you, and he pointed us to your office. We were waiting for you to come back. No discovery necessary.”

My heart was pounding in my chest. It wasn’t easy to lie to Katherine, not when she was glaring right into my soul. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she could hear how hard my heart was beating. I thought about using my reverse Empathy to soften her up, but I didn’t know if she’d be as pliable as O’Halloran had been. That experiment had proven that Shapeshifters could be affected by my reverse ability, but I didn’t want to risk her sensing me if I tried it out on her.

Katherine smiled. “And what did you want to talk to me about?”

“We wanted to know when we could get started with the field missions. Like I said, we were getting bored out of our minds. We’ve been in hiding for a year, so we’re pretty eager to stretch our legs, you know?”

Tess looked pissed, but I didn’t care. There was no way I was getting handed in to Katherine by any of these punks, not while I still had breath in my lungs to ramble off a big ol’ excuse. I glanced at Finch, who hadn’t said anything. If he didn’t start chatting soon, it was going to look pretty suspicious.

He nodded, catching my glance. “Yeah, we hoped we could convince you to let us do some actual work. We want to be useful to you, Eris.”

That’s better.

“Even when you Purge minions from your own Chaos, it’s impossible to get good help.” Katherine sighed, but she didn’t look like she was going to murder us. “I’m guessing Naima didn’t tell you about this place when she returned you to your hut?”

I shook my head. “Tess showed us the top part of it yesterday, and we saw a bunch of humans all huddled up. So we just thought this was where all the cool stuff happened. That’s why we ended up here—we had nothing else to do, so we fancied a look at what the cult does for fun. We didn’t know it was out of bounds; otherwise, we’d have stayed at the hut and played our millionth game of Go Fish.”

“The Hexagon itself isn’t out of bounds, but my private study and the Drake Shipton Library are off limits to all members, no exceptions.” She still sounded faintly amused, which I took to be a good sign of our survival. “Although, I’m curious to know how you entered my study. You shouldn’t have been able to.”

It pained me not to point out the irony in calling this place the Hexagon. As if an extra side somehow made her military base better than the one belonging to the US forces.

“The door was open when we arrived, so we thought it’d be okay,” I replied. “You know, a drop-in sort of thing if we needed to talk to you. Sorry if we got things confused, but an open door usually means someone’s welcome, right?”

Katherine sighed. “I’ve thought about adding hexes to keep people out, but it’s so inconvenient. I’d rather just disembowel anyone I catch trying to enter without my permission. Keeps things spicy, you know?”

“Uh, right,” Finch muttered. “Not us, though? You ought to disembowel whoever left the door open.”

She chuckled. “You’re quite right. Would make things pretty interesting if it turned out I left the door open, wouldn’t it?”

I was eager to move the subject away from disembowelment. “The Drake Shipton Library? What’s that? I don’t think we saw it on the way in.”

She chuckled. “It’s a library, what do you think?”

“It can’t be just any kind of library if it’s off limits.”

“Don’t test my patience, Volla. You’re funny, but you’re not that funny. These places are off limits to you, and that’s all I have to say about that. Beyond those areas, you’ve got free rein to wander around as you please. Just don’t piss anyone off and try not to get yourselves killed on your first day.” She smiled coldly. “So, now that I’ve lost ten minutes of my very packed day, will you be all right by yourselves? Or do you need me to hold your hands and drop you off at the sandpit?” Sarcasm dripped from her words.

“Sorry about that, I’ve got no filter between my mouth and my head.” I tried my best to give her a Volla-style apology. “And sorry for waiting in your office like that. It won’t happen again. We’re still getting used to being around other people again, so our social cues are a little off.”

“Your lack of filter is very apparent, Volla, but it happens to be one of the things I like about you.” Katherine brushed off my apology and tapped her chin in thought. “Actually, there was something I wanted to talk to the two of you about, too. I had it on my to-do list for one o’clock, but hey, let’s go a little wild with the schedule. It’s already a mess.”