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

Shinsuke shook his head. “I don’t know who, but the spirit is being kept under lock and key in the Drake Shipton Library beside a statue of Eris until midnight on All Hallows’ Eve, when the ritual must be performed. Katherine will take the spirit to the Land of Erebus and do whatever needs to be done.”

Finch whistled. “These rituals seem like a lot of hassle.”

“It is why she’s so eager to stay organized. I believe she’s already taking steps to complete the fourth, as soon as she has finished the third. From what I have heard, she’s already looking for a way into the Bestiary.”

I put on a frown. “Where’s that again? I can never remember where they moved it to.”

“The San Diego Coven.”

Finch smirked. “Now it makes sense. I’m guessing that’s how Tess got her hands fried, huh?”

Shinsuke grinned, confirming what we already knew. “That’s true, but it was only a test run, to uncover the defenses there. They’re preparing for another hit, very soon.”

My heart sank. The first attack on the Bestiary had been a ploy to test our defenses and see how we’d react. Yeah, we’d stopped it, but it had only left us more exposed. Now that they knew what we’d do, it’d be easier for them to infiltrate it the second time around. But how soon was very soon? At least, if we prevented Katherine from performing the third ritual, we might not have to face another blow to the Bestiary. I just hoped we could do it in time.

And we knew precisely where Katherine was hiding Hester’s spirit now, and that we wouldn’t be wasting our time breaking in there. That was one solitary consolation in all of this.





Thirty-One





Harley





“Now do you believe me about Tess?” I asked, as we made our way through the island, toward the Hexagon.

We’d trained with Shinsuke for a couple of hours, to keep up the ruse, and we were both exhausted. Finch’s Ephemera had visibly dimmed, which was pretty worrying. If this came to a head, I knew he might have to use his non-Pieter abilities to fight. Then again, if we were fighting people, the disguises probably wouldn’t matter anymore.

He shrugged. “Just because Tess felt uncomfortable doesn’t mean she’s 100 percent the mole. Most people feel uncomfortable around Katherine. It’s how she likes it.” He paused. “I really thought Shinsuke was our guy.”

“What do you think now?”

He pulled a sour face. “Well, Shinsuke didn’t know anything about his father. Like, he genuinely didn’t. The mole would already have known about it.”

“Hold up a sec. Does this mean the great Finch is admitting he was wrong, and I was right?”

“I seem to be doing that a lot lately,” he replied, with a wry smile. “Unfortunately for you, all my money is back in that storage room in Purgatory. It’ll have to be an IOU.”

“You do owe me. If it wasn’t for my Empathy, we wouldn’t have a clue who the mole was.”

“Yeah, yeah, stop parading your skills around. It’s impressing nobody.”

“I don’t know, you seemed pretty impressed back there in the training room.”

“Nah, that was just gas.”

“Well, now that we know my mom’s spirit is definitely in the library, we should head there. I’ve got an idea for the guards. We can’t slip in while they’re changing shifts, so we might need to be a bit more direct.”

Finch grinned. “Direct is good. Fireballs?”

“Maybe. It depends how many people are watching.”

Half an hour later, we found ourselves back at the secret entrance to the Hexagon. After scanning the area to make sure nobody had followed us, Finch took us both through the same concrete-and-steel corridors. Only, this time, we didn’t stop outside Katherine’s office, nor did we head toward the war room. Instead, we took a right down one of the labyrinthine hallways and ended up outside a fairly innocuous black blast door with two guards standing in front of it. Finch gave me a pointed stare—it was time for me to do my thing.

This was clearly the Drake Shipton Library, although there was no sign to give the game away. It was more the presence of the guards than anything else, as no other door had any officers standing in front of it.

Now, the moment had come to snatch my mother’s spirit and get the heck out of here. We had to strike now or lose the opportunity for good.

“Telekinesis,” I whispered. “And we can’t be seen.”

Finch smiled. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

“And don’t kill anyone.”

“I won’t if you won’t.”

Ducking back behind the corner of the hallway, I raised my palms and let the Telekinesis come. Fortunately, there was nobody else in this part of the Hexagon right now. It had two doors and a dead-end to the right of us. Clearly, people only came here if they really needed to, and right now, nobody did.

With Finch beside me, urging Telekinesis into his palms, we sent out four lassoes of bristling energy. They lashed around the throats of the guards before they even knew what was happening, the two of us pulling tight until their faces started to turn red. They scrabbled at their throats to try and get rid of the lassoes, but we’d been too quick, and they weren’t prepared. I sent out a wave of Empathy at the same time to gauge what state they were in. I felt panic and terror surging out of them, starting in a violent wave before it began to fade. Finch and I kept hold of the lassoes until that sensation of panic had faded away to almost nothing, and then I released my grip and motioned for Finch to do the same. The guards slumped to the ground immediately, their eyes closed, but their chests were still rising and falling.

Glancing around once more, I sprinted for the figures and checked their pulses. They were fine, just unconscious, which meant we only had a short time to get in and get out.

“What do we do with them?” Finch asked.

“Drag them inside. We can’t leave them out here. Can you get the door open?”

He chuckled. “We’ve talked about this, Sis.”

“Just do it, will you!” I hissed.

“It’s not that simple. There’ll be a ton of hexes to work through first. This is why we needed that key from Katherine’s residence—that’s the only direct way in. But it wasn’t there. She must be keeping it on her.”

Keeping an eye on the guards to make sure they didn’t wake up, I stepped up to the door and watched as he drew his hand across the doorframe. Hexes lit up all over the place. This was going to be tougher than we’d thought. Then again, it was Katherine’s library, with her most prized possessions inside.

“How do I break them?” I asked.

“Cover it with your palms and unpick it with your Chaos. Just give me a sec to make a time-lapse bubble and we’ll be good to go.” As promised, he forged one of the familiar bubbles around us and the door, giving us more time to get this done. Even so, I kept glancing at the guards, just to make sure they wouldn’t suddenly sit up and fight back.

I covered the first hex with my palms and powered my Chaos energy into it. Like Finch had said, it was sort of like picking a really complicated lock or tugging at the right strings of a knot to get it to untie. The bronze tendrils of my Chaos slithered into the charm, seeking out the parts that needed breaking. Those spots pulsed, as if trying to push away my Chaos. I sent a thin stream of Fire through my hands and singed away the pressure points, making the entire hex collapse.

Finch gave a low whistle. “Not bad.”

“Thanks.” I moved on to the next one, the two of us rapidly making our way through the hexes, hoping to finish before the guards woke up or someone came past and spotted the bubble. A few of the charms were feistier than the others, some billowing out black smoke and one sending out a horde of silver spiders that tried to scuttle up my arms. I shuddered at that one, incinerating them all in a wash of Fire. There was one that sent up a hologram of Katherine, her face whooshing toward me like a ghoul. I closed my eyes and sent a mixture of Telekinesis and Fire toward it, picking it apart in the same way I’d done the rest of the charms, and watching with some satisfaction as Katherine dissipated. If only it were that easy in real life.

At last, we had all of the hexes out of the way, but there was still one hurdle to jump over. We needed the password to actually open the door, same as with Katherine’s office.