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

“Because he’s on our side.” Wade looked between us as if we were naughty schoolkids. “Harley trusts him, so we should, too. She’s good at figuring people out.”

“Harley has been wrong in the past. Even with her Empathy, she didn’t see Nomura’s betrayal until he’d locked her up in astral projection!” Santana was nearly shouting now.

I snorted. “Nomura did what?”

“None of us saw that coming,” Wade replied.

“That’s gutsy of Nomura, man. I bet she didn’t like that.” I chuckled at the idea of her trying to get back into her body. I’d have paid good money to see that play out.

“Yeah, but Harley broke out of it, despite the odds. She’s getting a handle on her abilities, and she’s getting more powerful by the day. She isn’t going to let Katherine win this one.” Wade sounded so confident I almost believed him. Almost. I knew I was taking a liability into the Cult of Eris, but her powers would come in handy.

“And what if she can’t beat Katherine? What if it’s a repeat of ritual two?” Santana sounded sad. It piqued my interest. I’d been given the gist of everything that had gone on with the president, but it looked like not everyone had been bluntly honest with Harley. She’d been sure of herself, but she’d floundered. And they’d been too nice to give it to her straight.

“She will take Katherine down this time. She’s been working on her abilities. She’s not going to let that happen again,” Wade said. Oh, you’re good. His face was a perfectly blank picture that revealed nothing of his true feelings. Beyond his fa?ade, I wondered if he had his doubts about my sis, too.

I flashed them all a grin. “Hey, she’s got me this time. I’ve got the knowledge; she’s got the skills. We’re going to end Katherine.”

“You’re what worries me,” Santana shot back.

“And around and around we go, in an endless circle.” I sighed and spun around in my chair. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter if the others trusted me. Harley did. We were going to do this, and that was all there was to it. Still, it was curious to see the other side for once. A team who didn’t threaten each other with violence and seemed to genuinely care about each other. There was no one-upmanship here, only concern and support. It was a shock to the system after the cult and the team of SDC personnel I’d been on. I was on a journey of rediscovery. Oh God, remind me to put a bullet in my head if I ever think like that again. I’d be drinking kale smoothies and doing yoga by the time I was done with these people.

“You don’t take anything seriously, Finch. How are we supposed to take you seriously?” Santana demanded. “One moment, you’re Queen Katherine’s jester, the next, you’re on our side? Give me a break. It reeks of trouble.”

“That might just be you,” I retorted.

“Shut your mouth!” Raffe growled, his eyes flashing.

I glowered at him. “Keep your guard dog down, Santeria girl, or I’ll have to put him down.”

“Touch him, and you’ll have a horde of Orishas trying to pluck out your eyes,” she hissed.

“Ooh, is that a promise? Is this how you guys flirt? See who can lash out with the emptiest threats?” I knew I was taunting them, but I didn’t care. This storage room was driving me mad. I wanted to be out in the open. I wanted to see a freaking tree! I didn’t want to go from one box to another.

“Everyone needs to calm down. It’s hot and stuffy in here, and it’s getting to your heads,” Wade cut in. “Harley is pretty much the only family he has left. He’s not going to betray her, not the way Katherine betrayed him. Yeah, he’s still an ass, but right now, this ass is part of the Rag Team.”

For the first time in a long while, I was speechless. He was right. He was freaking right. Harley was the only family I had left, unless you counted Isadora. I didn’t know her, and she didn’t seem to want to know me. At least Harley was making some kind of effort. My mother had made it very clear how she felt about me, and she was going to find out just what I felt about her. Nothing but hatred. By process of elimination, all I had left was Harley. Dammit, was I the one desperate for family? I supposed we both were, in our own tragic little ways. Pathetic.

What would Harley even be like, as a sister? If things had been different, would we have been close? Even with our parents scrapping with one another, would we have found a way to be real siblings? I’d never really thought about it like that before. Would I have made a good brother? Was there still time for me to be one? What did good brothers even do? Well, for starters, they probably didn’t try to kill their sisters…

At that moment, Harley burst through the door with a grin on her face. Speak of the devil.

“I know what to do!” she yelped excitedly. “I know how to get away from Levi without making him suspicious.”

Wade beamed at her. Lovesick idiot. It was definitely too late for me to get all brotherly about their “relationship,” if that’s what was going on. Not that I had a problem with it. Normally, I’d have just said something to annoy them and amuse myself. Surprisingly, I held my tongue.

“What have you figured out?” he asked.

“I was talking with Imogene, and she mentioned something about a retreat in Alaska for troubled magicals. One of your duplicates would be perfect there, Santana.” She looked like she might explode with excitement. “They don’t have to do magic, and they don’t even have to speak for portions of the day. The duplicate can also keep hold of my phone, with Levi’s annoying little GPS tracker, and I can grab a burner from Astrid. Levi won’t be able to follow me there or check up on me, and the retreat folks will be so happy to see me compliant, they won’t worry about me being a duplicate.”

Wade grinned. “That’s amazing news.”

Harley nodded. “I’ll need you to vouch for me, for this retreat thingy. Make Levi concerned enough to let me go.”

“That won’t be a problem, believe me.” He chuckled, the two of them gravitating toward each other.

I was pretty impressed by Harley’s deviant thinking. This girl will go a long way… and God help us all if she ever decides to turn evil.





Ten





Harley





I sat in the Persian palace of Leonidas Levi, shifting uncomfortably on his rattan furniture while watching him flip through the retreat brochure that Astrid had pulled from the depths of the magical web. He hadn’t spoken in what felt like forever, which I took to be a bad sign. Wade sat beside me, casting me the occasional encouraging glance.

You finally get to send me to Alaska, Levi. And, heck, I’m going willingly. I tried to gauge his emotions, but there wasn’t much coming off him. I sensed the usual waves of suspicion and contempt, but nothing notable, nothing that could tell me what he was thinking.

Returning my attention to Levi, I thought about the duel Imogene had told me about. Along with his reaction to the president’s murder, Levi had been weirdly humanized for me. He’d gone back to being his usual, dictatorial self in the aftermath, but the memory of his reaction had remained. Now, I could better understand his perspective on powerful magicals, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with it. Given what he’d almost lost, and how that had hit him, his fears were a little more rational.

At last, he closed the brochure and narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you up to, Merlin?”

I’d added a little purple eyeshadow beneath my eyes, to make me look even more haggard than usual, and I was sitting limply in the chair—visual cues to make him think I was exhausted and worn to the bone. “It’s for the benefit of myself and the coven. I’ve been trying so hard to get a handle on my abilities, but it’s getting harder to achieve on my own, and I really think this could help.” I’d thought about using my reverse Empathy on him to make him a little more flexible, but I didn’t want to risk making him more suspicious. This was going to have to be the best performance of my life, with no added juice.