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

“Why, where are we?” Finch muttered. “Mexico?”

“Not quite,” I replied. This could only spell trouble. Not just for us, but for the people who’d taken me in and cared for me when I had nobody else. Memories of the Ryder twins bombarded my brain, but I couldn’t think about that now. I needed to get my crap together.

Focus, Merlin.

“Harley… is that you?” Mrs. Smith started to move toward us.

“Mrs. Smith, hey.” I forced a smile onto my face.

“Harley!” Ryann cried, running over. Did they see the portal or didn’t they? It was hard to gauge.

I nodded. “Sorry I haven’t kept in touch lately. There’s been a lot going on.”

“But you’re here now, and that’s what matters,” Ryann said, eyeing me suspiciously. I could see she wanted to say something about what she may, or may not, have seen, but she didn’t. Was she saving it? Was she trying to figure out what had just happened, trying to make logical sense of it in her non-magical brain? “And who are your friends?” she asked, instead.

“This is Jacob, and this is Finch.” I gestured to them, Finch hiding his Cuffed hands beneath his shirt.

Jacob smiled sadly. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Smith.”

“Have we met before…?” she replied, looking even more confused.

“Yo, are those burgers I smell?” Finch glanced at Mr. Smith, who was absently turning patties on the grill.

“You hungry? There’s plenty to go around.” Ryann was doing her best not to mention the portal. Perhaps they didn’t believe their eyes enough to mention it. I just had to hope it stayed that way.

“Yes, help yourself to food and drinks.” Mrs. Smith nodded, her eyes fixed on the spot in the air that we’d fallen through. I could see the cogs whirring, like she was still trying to make some sense of it. “Did you just come from—”

“Can I just head to the bathroom real quick?” I cut in. “I’m desperate.”

“Of course, Harley. You know where it is,” Mrs. Smith replied, her tone distant.

“I could use a trip to the little boys’ room, too.” Finch smiled tightly. He needed to get those Cuffs off before someone noticed.

“Yeah, me too,” Jacob added, his eyes fixed on Mrs. Smith. Poor guy.

As a trio, we headed into the empty house. Halfway to the bathroom, I dragged them into the living room, my palms sweating. All around us were the memories of the two years I’d spent here. The comfortable, gray velour couch and the striped blue cushions with the yellow buttons. The TV on the wall, where I’d spent Sunday afternoons watching football with Mr. Smith and Ryann. And the photographs that filled every available space. Me in my high-school graduation gown, a scroll in my hands. Me with Ryann in the backyard, about a week after I first arrived here. Me with all the Smiths, lounging on the beach in the Bahamas. They were happy snapshots of simpler times.

“No offense, Harley, but this doesn’t look like the bathroom to me,” Finch said.

“Come here.” I snatched at Finch’s wrists and put my palms across them. I pushed crackling Chaos energy out of my hands and into the Cuffs, fighting against the surge of their power. I pushed more and more into the metal, overwhelming the connectors until they broke with a satisfying clink. I opened my eyes to find Finch and Jacob staring at me. That seemed to be all anyone could do lately. I was like a circus performer.

“You can seriously break these things,” Jacob gasped.

“We’d have been pretty screwed if I couldn’t,” I replied. “Now, Finch, take those off and hide them somewhere.”

He did as he was told, sliding the broken Cuffs off and tucking them into his jacket. With a moment to breathe, I fought to gather my senses. “So, boys and girls, here’s the pickle we’re in. Katherine just completed the third ritual, and now she’s dangerously close to completing the fourth, since she just waltzed in and stole friggin’ Echidna. Shinsuke Nomura is dead. Thessaly Crux, the mole who was actually helping the National Council, is dead. Levi wants us all locked in a box. Tobe nearly died. The Bestiary is collapsing in on itself and taking everything with it. I watched a man get crushed to death like a pancake, and we have no idea where Katherine is. Oh, and my adoptive family is watching us right now, probably thinking I’ve lost my mind. Did I miss anything?”

Finch smiled. “You missed the part about setting your mom free.”

“This is just another day at the office for you, huh?” I didn’t know whether to smack him or hug him. He was taking everything so lightly that I couldn’t help but feel irritated. Why wasn’t he more upset? The covens were crumbling! The magical world was being razed to the ground, fragment by fragment. Unless this was his way of coping with high-pressure situations. Make a joke out of them, and they wouldn’t seem so bad, that sort of thing.

Jacob peered nervously at us both as the silence stretched. “Hey, at least the three of us know we’re definitely not going to Purgatory. That’s got to be a silver lining, right?”

“A very, very thin one,” I muttered.

Finch chuckled. “See, Sis? Your determination to get me back into Purgatory got you a one-way ticket there, too. Either that, or you just couldn’t bear to be without me. Is that what this is about?”

“One more word out of you, and I’ll have Jacob portal you there myself.” I narrowed my eyes at him, and he knew I wasn’t kidding. I could see the flicker of concern in his eyes.

“At least we make a good team,” he said, daring to say one more thing.

I sighed. “Let’s hope so.”

I wanted to scream so loud that it would bring the men in white coats. I wanted to pound my fists into the wall until I didn’t hurt anymore. I wanted to portal right back to the crumbling SDC and bury myself in Wade’s chest. But I couldn’t do any of that, not now. I had to focus on the task at hand and take it step by step. As Finch kept saying, we had much bigger fish to deal with. Levi would get Wade and the others out, if only to save his own skin. It was just what happened to them after that, that worried me. Plus, Tobe was up and alert, which hopefully meant he could do something about the Bestiary. We wouldn’t know for a while whether it had been totally secured, but I vowed to check all the news channels for any talk about something happening in Balboa Park.

If we went back now, we’d be captured. The three of us were wanted criminals now. That mark would be on our backs wherever we went, but that wasn’t going to stop me. Katherine had threatened everything the magical world had built, and she’d tried to crush everything I held dear in one fell swoop. Just the way she promised.

But I’d made a promise, too. A promise to all those kids, and magicals, and innocents that Katherine had murdered. A promise to my mom and my dad. A promise to Tess, and Shinsuke. And a promise to the friends I had, whose lives were on the line.

I am coming for you, Katherine. And when I find you, my face will be the last thing you see before I kill you. She hadn’t beaten me yet. I was going to keep fighting until I had nothing left to give.

I snapped out of my private thoughts as Ryann ran into the living room, looking worried. “I knew you weren’t going to the bathroom.”

“It’s not what you think,” I replied.

“So you didn’t just fall out of the sky, then? Did I imagine that?” Ryann looked frantic, like she’d just learned that the laws of physics were a lie. Which was kind of true.

I burst into a fit of sudden hysterics, the laughter bubbling out of me in an unstoppable torrent. Oh, where on earth do I begin?





Ready for the next part of Harley’s journey?





Dear Reader,

Thank you for reading Harley Merlin and the Cult of Eris. I hope you enjoyed it!

I’m excited to announce that Book 7 - Harley Merlin and the Detector Fix - releases April 10th, 2019.

I’m looking forward to getting into the head of one of my very favorite characters. Other than that, all I’ll say for this book is… expect the unexpected. ;)