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

“What did you want to talk to us about?” Finch chimed in. He’d been relatively quiet throughout this whole exchange, no doubt swallowing his desire to punch his mother in the head or smash her face into one of the high-tech touchscreen panels.

Katherine grinned. “Ah, he speaks! I thought you’d gone mute for a minute there.” She turned back to me, evidently preferring to talk with a woman. “Now, you mentioned that there was a mole in the cult. I know I said you could keep your secret, given the stakes involved, but I’ve changed my mind in light of this misdemeanor. I want to know who it is. Preferably now. Or I might get a little disembowelly after all.”

I pulled an apologetic grimace, hoping she was bluffing. “Thing is, we don’t actually know who they are. We just know they’re here, and they’ve been cooperating with the National Council. If we did know who they were, I’d have ratted them out before we went through those trials, on the off chance you’d go easier on us.”

“Well, well, aren’t you the sneaky snake, Volla Mazinov? You got yourselves in here with that intel, but you don’t actually have anything. If it weren’t so annoying, I’d applaud you for your ingenuity. Reminds me of something I’d do, not that it makes it any better.” She shot me a frosty look. “So, you’re really saying you don’t know who this mole is?”

“We don’t, Eris. But we know there is one.”

“Well whoop-de-fricking-do. What am I supposed to do with that, huh? If I never hear the word ‘mole’ again, I’ll be a happy woman,” she bit out, clearly peeved. “Oh well, I’ll find a way to smoke out the traitor soon enough.”

I was about to give a fake laugh when a cold wave of dread hit me from behind, punching me right in the gut. The kind of dread that only came from someone who felt their life was in danger. The kind of dread that might come from a mole who was in over their head, and who’d just figured out they were on borrowed time. The sensation was so intense and unexpected that I couldn’t keep it out. I resisted the urge to glance over my shoulder as realization dawned. There was only one person in this room who could be sending out a flood of emotion. It wasn’t coming from me, and it wasn’t coming from Finch, and it definitely wasn’t coming from Katherine.

Tess was the mole. Her emotional guard had dropped, and I was feeling everything. The panic must have set her off.

Son of a—! I forced a smile onto my face. “So, when can we get out in the field?”

“When I decide you’re ready,” Katherine replied.

“Ballpark?”

She laughed. “Maybe when I get tired of that motormouth of yours. Although, if you annoy me too much, I might just find another use for you. See if any of my members have a silencing spell they want to try out.”

“Got it. Shut up, Volla. No problem.” I lifted my hands in surrender. “We’ll get out of your hair and leave you to the rest of your very busy day.” I was desperate to talk to Tess about what I’d just felt, but I needed to catch her on her own, when she didn’t have her guard up. If we’d just discovered the mole in the cult, then we’d just found our ally, too.

“If you would,” Katherine murmured. “You’re currently eating into my personal time, and I’ve got somewhere I need to be. Tess, a word before I go, though I’ll need you to walk and talk if I’m going to get anything done today.”

We shuffled out of the war room like overenthusiastic worshipers, and Katherine breezed past us. She beckoned for Tess to follow her. The two of them disappeared down one of the nearby corridors, leaving Finch and me alone again. My chance to speak with Tess would have to wait a while, until I could corner her somewhere safe.

“Why the weird face?” Finch whispered.

My throat felt tight. “The mole, Finch.”

Finch arched an eyebrow. “You know something I don’t?”

“I’m suspicious about something, yeah.”

“Like what?”

“Tess. I think Tess might be the mole.”

He snorted. “Tess? No way. She’s about as brainwashed as it gets. Have you seen how gooey-eyed she gets over Katherine?” He paused, a flicker of doubt moving over his face. “What makes you think she might be the mole?”

“Call it an informed guess.”

“Nah, you must be getting your little Empath wires crossed. Tess is the last person it’d be. Honestly, I’d wager twenty dollars on it.” Which is precisely why she’s the perfect mole, dumbass. If I was right, then she had Katherine fooled—hook, line, and sinker.

In all honesty, I’d known he’d react like this. He thought he knew these people better than I did, which was true on the surface, but emotions rarely lied. I’d felt the cold flood of pure dread and terror coming out of Tess, and I knew what it meant. It wasn’t a coincidence.





Twenty-Nine





Harley





“So, what’s the deal with this Drake Shipton Library?” Finch and I were pretending to look at a couple of the stone titans, and I kept my voice low in case anyone was listening in.

I was trying to fight off the disappointment of not finding Hester’s spirit in Katherine’s study, reminding myself that we still had five days until All Hallows’ Eve. There were only so many places she could be, and we would find her, one way or another.

“It’s where she keeps all the scrolls and manuscripts that the Librarian had collected. The Librarian destroyed a bunch of them when Katherine came to snatch her, but the cult got away with some of the greatest hits. The juicy stuff, you know? Like, the rituals, a couple of seriously nasty spells, a bit of Voodoo, and some pretty dangerous magic, too. Among other things. Sacred artifacts, famed Esprits from dead magicals, that sort of jam.”

“Do you know where it is, inside the Hexagon?”

Finch shot me a withering look. “Seriously?”

“What?”

“What do you take me for? Of course I know where it is. I used to know how to get inside, too. She’s probably changed the proverbial locks on me, but you never know. We could get lucky. In fact, that’s the place I was going to suggest when Tess came in.”

I frowned. “So we need to find a way in there without getting ourselves killed.”

“Yep, there are guards stationed there all the time. Should be fun.” He grinned, but I could tell he was still trying to shake off our last encounter with his mother. It didn’t get any easier for me, so I could only imagine what it was like for him.

“What did Katherine mean about her ‘personal time,’ anyway? You’d think she’d be run off her feet, trying to bring about her new world order. What would she even do with personal time?” I envisaged scented baths and a half hour of restorative yoga, but that didn’t seem like her style. “Is she skinning puppies or something?” That seemed more likely.

Finch chuckled. “I know exactly where she’s gone.”

“You do?”

“Seriously, Sis, you’re starting to give me a complex. I’m not some class dunce you know. I used to run this joint, right at Katherine’s side, back in the day,” he replied. “Everything she knows, I know. And everything she does, I know about.”

I raised my hands in mock surrender. “No offense intended. So where is she?”

“You really want to know?”

“I really want to know. Is she a hardcore chess player or something?” I smirked. “Oh, please say it’s knitting or pottery.”

He grinned. “It’s something a bit more… Katherine. We might need to go there, actually. There’s a key that she used to have, which might help us get into the library without having to deal with the guards.”

“Well, then, what are we waiting for?”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” With a mysterious smirk on his face, he led me away from the titans and headed toward the beach in the distance. There was no clear path to wherever we were going, forcing us to push through dense undergrowth and slithering creepers to reach our destination. I shuddered as glowing eyes peered at us through the canopy, making me wonder if Naima kept some of her beasties a little more free range.

“Isn’t there an easier way to get there?” I muttered, as a branch swiped me in the face.

Finch laughed. “You want to get spotted by the cameras?”

“No, obviously.”