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

“Then why did he leave me?” All of my insecurities were bubbling to the surface.

“To save you, sweetheart. You know that. He had to, so that you could live. If Katherine had ever found out about you while you were a child, she would’ve murdered you. He had no choice. He loved you so much. He used to press his ear to my belly while you were growing and sing to you, and tell you all the things he was going to buy you, and all the things you were going to do together as you grew up.”

I held my head in my hands. “He could’ve found a way to break Katherine’s spell.”

“I know this is hard for you, but you can’t blame him,” she urged, her phantom hands drifting through me again. This time, I felt the cold echo of her touch on my cheek. “He loved you. We both loved you with all our hearts. I remember looking down at you when you were first born. Even then, you were a determined little thing. You had this scowl on your face, and it made me laugh so hard. I didn’t get a long time with you, but I savored every moment. I kissed you all over your pudgy little face and munched your little hands and held you so tight. I remember you falling asleep on my chest, listening to my heartbeat. That’s the memory I’ve kept the closest, all these years.”

“I wish we’d had longer,” I murmured.

“Me, too. More than anything.”

“Did you know I’d be like this?” I looked up at her, my muscles relaxing slightly, at least enough to drag in a decent lungful of air.

“What do you mean?”

“Did you know I’d be powerful like this?”

She smiled. “We weren’t sure. Given our heritage, I presumed you’d be special, but there was always the chance that my side and Hiram’s would counteract each other and you’d end up either Mediocre or magicless.”

“I’d still have come here, to find you.”

“I know you would’ve, honey. That’s the woman you’ve become.” She paused for a moment. “There’s just one thing that troubles me.”

“What’s that?”

She sighed. “I can sense the conflict in you, between Light and Dark. You’ve been having some problems with it, I’m guessing?”

“That’s putting it mildly.” I managed a wry chuckle.

“The thing is, when it comes to your Darkness, you’ll always have trouble taming it. Even without the Light competing for power, you’d have had problems controlling it. That’s always been the way with the Shipton family,” she explained. “The secret to getting it to do what you want, when you want, is to feed it when it demands feeding.”

“That explains all of the wild things I’ve been doing lately.” Controlling Purge beasts, for one.

She nodded. “If you don’t feed it, it’ll fight to gain control. And if you’re not careful, it can end up controlling you. My sister is the perfect example. Although, with her, it’s more a case of overfeeding.”

I was about to ask for more information when a portal tore open in front of me, blasting me with a rush of cold air. Isadora staggered through the hole a moment later, looking pale and exhausted. She barely acknowledged Hester’s spirit as she stooped to catch her breath.

“Isadora, what’s wrong?” I jumped up, hurrying toward her.

She looked up at me with worried eyes. “We’ve got a problem.”

Too right we did. Finch was alone in an office with his mother, and there was every chance that he’d snap and reveal himself. Or worse, that Katherine would be able to get him back on the cultist train. She’d done it before, and despite the progress Finch had made, there was still that lost little boy in him who was just desperate to have a mother.





Thirty-Seven





Finch





“So, you see the colossal mess Tess has left me in?” Katherine said.

She’d been yakking on about Tess’s responsibilities for the last half hour. Tess had had her hands full, that was for sure. The list of responsibilities was as long as my arm, and to be honest, I’d already forgotten half of them. I just had to make sure it looked like I was listening. Playing the role of Pieter Mazinov to Oscar-worthy perfection.

“Quite the stink, yeah.”

Katherine nodded. “Now, let’s get down to the important stuff. All these duties are secondary to the third ritual, which I need to get off the ground ASAP. Tartarus is going to be a bitch, I won’t sugarcoat it. It’s Erebus’s domain, so it was never going to be a picnic. It’s just irritating, because I was relying on Tess to get everything ready for our Bestiary snatch so we could get going with the fourth ritual as soon as this one’s over. I need Echidna, and the Bestiary has Echidna, but now I’ve lost my way in, so to speak. Ergo, I’m in a bit of a fix, which is where you come in. I knew Electros were tricky, but this takes the cake.”

The great and mighty Oz has no other solutions? You disappoint me, Mother.

“Don’t you have a backup plan?”

She smiled. “Of course I’ve got other solutions. Not that I’m against advice, if you’ve got any pearls of wisdom to hurl my way?”

My blood was boiling. This was the longest I’d been alone in a room with Katherine since before I got shuffled off to Purgatory, so focus was proving difficult. All I could think about were a million ways to kill her and remove the evidence, before anyone even knew she was dead.

“I’m as stumped as you. I’d need to know more details,” I replied.

“If you needed to break into a Bestiary, how would you do it?”

I shrugged. “I might use a Gemini device, if I had one. They can work pretty well, and you don’t necessarily need to put them somewhere yourself. You can have someone else do it and trigger the other end from the outside.” I figured it was a relatively innocent answer to give. Katherine would just assume someone in the cult had told me about it.

Her eyes widened suddenly. “A Gemini device?”

“Yeah, they’re not too hard to get ahold of.”

“You’ve used one before?”

“We were taught about them by the secret services. Same way I learned how to use that replay spell.”

She paused. “But, you know, those replay spells aren’t always accurate. They can be manipulated, if the user is skilled enough, right?”

What was she getting at?

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve always thought they were dead on. Not much you can do to doctor them.”

She smiled. “No, I suppose not. You must’ve been around a lot of great magicals in St. Petersburg?”

“A few.”

“Name some for me,” she said.

“Konstantin Rasputin, for one. Marina Skoptsy. Zlatan Selivanov. They all moved in our circles.” I had to think fast on my feet.

“Noble company indeed. I’ve been trying to get Konstantin for years.”

I chuckled. “He’s evasive. Comes with the territory, I guess.”

“So, humor me again for a moment—how would you do it?” she asked.

“Huh? You mean break into the Bestiary?”

She shook her head slowly. “No, I mean how would you kill me, if you had the chance?”

I froze. “What do you mean? I don’t want to kill you.” There it is, boys and girls, the biggest lie I’ve ever told.

She laughed wildly. “Oh, come on, how long are you going to keep up this charade, Finch? Don’t get me wrong, you’re doing an excellent job, but it’s getting a little tiresome. You should have gone a bit more ‘method’ if you really wanted to convince me. You know, really embody Pieter Mazinov instead of making simple, Finch-like mistakes.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I am Pieter Mazinov.”

“And I’m the Queen of England.” She smirked at me, and I knew it was hopeless. She knew, beyond all doubt. “You know, I’ve been wondering if I should get myself a proper crown. What do you think? Too much?”

“It wouldn’t fit on your fat head,” I sniped back. It was childish, but I needed to say something while I fought to come up with the quickest exit plan ever. Trying to talk my way out wasn’t an option. Sweat was already pouring down my face. My heart was racing wildly. Come on, Finch—think! My eyes glanced toward the door. There were guards lining the hallway outside, but I figured I had worse odds if I stayed in here, with her.