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

“One of you had better start talking,” she warned. “What are you doing here?”

I smiled. “Don’t suppose you’d believe us if we said we were just browsing?”

“No, I wouldn’t.”

Ah, Tess, don’t you see? We’re all on the same side here.

“How about—we just stumbled in by accident?” There was a pleasant irony to knowing what we knew, while Tess had no idea. But just how far was she willing to go with the ruse? I was eager to find out.

“Again, no,” she spat. “What are you after, huh? Who sent you here? Are you working for the National Council? I knew there was something off about you, the moment I set eyes on you.”

I should’ve been concerned, but I was just amused. This was a hilarious situation. Here we all were, working for the same team and trying to pretend otherwise. It was the best kind of car crash. And she was playing her part so very, very well.

I glanced toward the far left of the room. Another statue stood there, one of my mother’s odes to herself—a statue of Eris, with the same golden apple in her hands. That emblem was getting old, and I hated the sight of it. Behind it, I saw the telltale shimmer of a hidden door. It was so subtle I almost missed it, but it was definitely there. A memory came rushing back. Katherine, telling me about a secret entrance into this place. She’d never given me the exact location, she’d just told me to “look for Lux” if the island was ever in trouble and I needed to come here without using the main entrance. Did that door have something to do with Lux? I racked my brain, but I couldn’t think of how the two might be connected.

I looked back at Tess and wondered if I should just knock her out and run for the hidden door, with Hester’s spirit in tow. Too risky, even for you. The moment Tess came to, she’d be sprinting to Katherine as if her life depended on it. Which, given the circumstances, it kind of did. If she could pin the mole label on someone else, she would. It was the spy’s rule of thumb: cover your own ass first, worry about the consequences later.

So, instead, we entered a face-off. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly music should’ve been playing. Du-du-du-duuuu, du, du, duuuuu. I gripped the jar tighter to my chest. No way she was getting her hands on this. I hadn’t come all this way to hand it over. And if she thought otherwise, well… I’d break out the big guns.

“Tell me what you’re doing here,” she snapped, taking a step forward.

“That’s close enough, Tess.” I held her gaze, my breath ragged. Having an escape route so close made it all the more frustrating. I supposed I could kill her and hide the evidence. Then again, Goody Two-shoes Merlin wouldn’t like that. But what else could we do? The tension stretched between us, none of us knowing what to do.

“You can pretend you didn’t see this. We know you’re not what you seem,” Harley said. Oh yeah, helpful. Even if Tess was the mole, she wasn’t going to out-and-out tell us. She might think we’d been sent to pick out the traitor. This girl was going to keep up the pretense until the bitter end, I could feel it.

“I want to know what I’m seeing,” she shot back. “Who sent you? And what are you doing with that?” She eyed the jar, and I knew the gig was up. She’d piece it together in no time, if she hadn’t already.

Harley took a step forward. “Nobody sent us. Just forget what you’ve seen, and we’ll go, unless there’s something you want to tell us? You know, about who you are?”

Are you insane? I shot her a look that I hoped conveyed the sentiment.

“Hand that over, or I’ll be forced to kill you. I’ve got nothing to say to you, other than you’ll die for this.” Tess took a step forward, mirroring Harley.

“I said that’s close enough!” I barked.

“I mean it, both of you. I’ll kill you where you stand if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”

I smirked. “Oh yeah? You and what army?” I knew Tess was strong, but not that strong. At least, that’s what I was banking on. Electro powers were formidable and rare, but I had Harley. My secret weapon. Still, things were getting a little too hairy for my liking.

“Fine. You asked for it.” Tess raised her palms.

I needed to play our wild card. Now. “We know who you are, Tess. We know you’re the mole that’s helping the National Council. Nice job, though, trying to pin it on us. Real nice.”

She froze.

“I’ll take your silence as confirmation?” I smirked. We had her.

She seemed to rally. “What? That’s ridiculous! Who told you that? They’re liars, whoever they are. I’m no mole, though I can’t say the same about you.”

I laughed. “Nope, not a lie. And you know it as well as we do. As soon as my contact knew we were joining the cult, he warned me about you. I guess he was right. You’ve shown your true colors.” I gave a slow clap. “In fact, you were so convincing. I even had my doubts about his sources.”

Silence stretched between us. Tess gave nothing away on her face. She was as calm and collected as ever. What if this doesn’t work? I’d taken a page out of Harley’s book in calling her out. But maybe Harley’s book didn’t always work. I started thinking of other ways out of this, in case Tess kept up the ploy. Right now, however, I couldn’t see another route that wouldn’t end with us dead.

“We could use an ally, and I’m guessing you could, too,” Harley said at last.

Tess glowered. “An ally? Don’t make me laugh. Why should I trust you?”

I hugged the jar tighter. “Is that an admission of guilt?”

“I sent all that information anonymously,” Tess murmured. “No one should’ve known.”

“Why, though? Why betray Katherine?” Harley asked. I figured she must be using her reverse Empathy, if Tess was crumbling so easily. Sneaky. I like it. The more time I spent around Harley, the more I realized we weren’t too dissimilar. She was just better at hiding her devious streak.

“I joined the cult willingly,” she protested.

“So what happened?” Harley replied.

“I joined with my sister, Rissa. We wanted the fame and the glory that Katherine promised. We didn’t want to live ordinary, oppressed lives anymore, always hiding in the shadows. Especially being Electros, people looked down on us, and people were suspicious of our power, and we were tired of it. Plus, we wanted to see a change in the world. A change where we didn’t have to hide anymore.” The words were pouring out of her, like she had no control. “We knew there’d be some consequences. We knew it would start with death and fear, but then, once Katherine became a Child of Chaos, there’d be happiness and prosperity for the magicals who were true and worthy.”

“And you thought you’d get to decide that?” Harley laughed bitterly. “You really thought Katherine would deliver that kind of utopia for magicals?”

Tess scowled. “We believed it for a while.”

“What changed?” I asked.

“My sister was killed, and Katherine didn’t care. I asked if I could bring her body back, but she denied me. She said that Rissa should rot where she was for disappointing her,” Tess explained. “I knew, right then, that she wasn’t doing this for anyone but herself. I also saw what she tried to do to her own son. She asked me to lead the mission to have him killed, but I didn’t want to. And then Kenneth volunteered, and I said I didn’t mind passing it to him so he could prove himself. She bought it, but it made things even clearer for me. She didn’t give a damn about anyone but herself, not even her own flesh and blood. That hit a nerve with me, I guess.”

“Do you still feel that way?” Harley pressed.