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

If what Finch said was correct, then Katherine had killed the only Necromancer she had in her ranks. Poor guy. That was a lose-lose situation if ever I’d seen one. Anyway, it meant she was likely on the lookout for another. That was why she wanted Micah. It made sense now. Although, she’d agreed to let Micah go, so maybe she wasn’t that desperate after all. She probably figured she could get Micah back when she became a Child of Chaos. Either that, or she already had a different Necromancer in her sights, whom she could persuade into joining the cult.

“How long had Drake been dead when she resurrected him?” I asked, standing up again. I doubted I’d ever forget what I’d just seen, but at least I didn’t want to throw up anymore.

“At least fifteen years. Nobody has ever been brought back after being dead for so long, even with their spirit locked to the earth. His body was kept on ice, per his request, but it was still a little… ripe. It’s one of the stupider things Katherine has done,” Finch replied bitterly. “What did she think was going to happen? Of course it got botched and she ended up with a raisin. It was never going to work. I told her that. Then again, she can get a little irrational when it comes to personal stuff.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “Well, anything related to the Shiptons and the Merlins just sends her over the edge. Big time. Like, the kind of explosion you want to run the hell away from.”

“Are we talking about the same Katherine here? Calm, calculated, cool-as-a-cucumber Katherine?” Up until our last encounter, when Katherine had tried to kill me, she’d always been eerily serene and collected whenever we’d happened across one another, and I was both Shipton and Merlin. “I figured she just viewed me as the human equivalent of a stone in her shoe. Annoying, but nothing to lose your mind over.”

Finch snorted. “She hates you most of all, Sis. All of that cool-as-a-cucumber stuff is just a fa?ade. Whenever anyone mentions your name, even in passing, she bottles it all up until she’s gathered up so much anger that she bursts. You wouldn’t want to be around when that happens. That’s when the death rate in this place spikes.” He smiled. “So, yeah, she’s got an irrational streak when it comes to family. She just doesn’t show it often, least of all to you—the one who pisses her off the most.”

I supposed that made sense. Why would she show me just how much she hated me, when I could use that against her? Katherine didn’t want anyone to know she had a weakness, but it looked as if I’d just discovered hers.





Thirty





Harley





I kept looking for a chance to catch Tess on her own, but she seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth—or at least Eris Island.

Three days had passed with no sign of her, but our last encounter had served as a warning: we needed to be more careful about where we went and how stealthy we were while looking for Hester’s spirit. However, time was running out. Stealth was starting to get pushed to the bottom of the priority list, and my stress levels were rocketing through the roof. I felt useless. And, what was worse, I kept having all-consuming panic attacks about what would happen if we failed. It had happened twice before; it could happen again.

Since we weren’t yet being trusted to go on field missions, not much had happened in the last few days. The major players, so to speak, were out in the real world, working on Katherine’s behalf, giving us the opportunity to explore the island a little more, in the hopes of finding a way into that library. The giant clock loomed over our heads, ticking down to All Hallows’ Eve. But we still hadn’t managed to come up with a way to divert the guards at the library door, and I was starting to wonder if we’d actually be able to do this.

The only good thing was that Finch knew his way around, including which areas to avoid if we didn’t want to get spotted by the cameras that were fixed, seemingly at random, around the metal walkways. So that was one less thing to worry about, as we tried to eavesdrop on the passing guards to find out who might be on duty, and at what times. We figured that, if we could somehow slip in while there was a changing of the guard, we might stand a chance. Unfortunately, that window of opportunity hadn’t arisen yet, and that hefty clock was ticking toward the eleventh hour.

Each morning, we discussed our plan of action and separated for a couple of hours, coming back together at lunchtime. Our sole purpose was to get into the Drake Shipton Library and pray Hester’s spirit was there, and, so far, we’d come up with nothing useful. I’d spent most of my solo time feeding reverse Empathy into some of the cult members who looked important, trying to coax out some information about whether or not they’d been in the Drake Shipton Library and what they might have seen there. Unfortunately, nobody could say, with any real certainty, that my mom’s spirit was actually in there.

I had managed to find out that the “ingredient” that had been mentioned before, by those guards, was actually the raw materials to make a weapon, which stuck in my gut like a blade. But we could only deal with one thing at a time, as much as that pained me.

“You get anything from anyone today?” Finch asked, as I met him on the way back from the cluster of beehives.

I shrugged. “Nothing to do with the spirit. But I did manage to find out from one of the senior members that Kenneth’s team was sent to the Smithsonian to steal some rare artifacts from the Egyptian collection, and Naima’s team was sent to a spell repository in Berlin to steal a bunch of famous Grimoires. Apparently, Katherine is working with a German splinter cell and a Belgian unit to infiltrate the European Council, and has people working for her in most of the major European cities. She’s like a big, fat spider sitting at the center of a web—I mean, this thing stretches even farther than we thought. Plus, I’m guessing that’s how they knew where the Librarian ended up.” The thought made my blood boil. “Anyway, they’re expected back any day. No word on where Tess has gotten to, though, which is annoying.”

“You still want to confront her about being the mole?”

“Yeah, she might be able to help us out. But she seems to have vanished into thin air. I’ve asked around, but none of the seniors have seen her, and nobody’s heard anything about her being sent on a last-minute mission. So, either she’s avoiding us, or something has happened to her.”

“We’d only be wasting time trying to pry anything out of her. Besides, you can’t be entirely sure it’s her. Maybe you got it wrong.” Finch suddenly pointed to a figure walking along one of the walkways above our heads. “See, that’s probably your real mole, right there! I’d stake my pants on it. If nothing else, he might know where Tess is.”

Shinsuke walked alone, his head down, moving quickly along the suspended path. I tried to send my Empathy toward him to get a feel for his emotions, but he was too far away.

“Why your pants?” I pulled a face.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. It was the first thing I thought of. Let’s just stick with the twenty dollars. No pants necessary. If Shinsuke’s our man, you owe me. If Tess is our woman, I owe you. Now, come on, he’s getting away, and I’ve got some questions for our little friend.”

“He’s hardly little, Finch. He’s got arms bigger than your head, which is no easy task.”

“Pfft, let’s not forget who floored whom in the arena.”

I smirked. “He didn’t have an Esprit full of neurotoxin.”

“Hey, a win’s a win. Now, hurry your ass up before we lose him.” He set off up one of the sloping walkways, half running to catch up to Shinsuke. My gut told me I was right about Tess, but I figured talking to Shinsuke wouldn’t be such a bad idea. After all, him not being the mole didn’t mean he wasn’t still eager to get out of this place, and we could use all the allies we could get.