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

She’d locked my mom in a jar and kept her spirit bound to this earth. Nobody got away with that. Nobody. I could think about the bigger picture all I wanted, but there was something to be said for personal vendettas—and mine was ready to crush Katherine, for the sake of the big picture and the smaller snapshots of my life that she’d destroyed.

Powering through the Chaos monsters, we neared Katherine and her altar. A mass of bluish white light undulated on the altar’s surface. My gaze flitted to a jar on the altar with a swirling mist inside. Tess… I’m so sorry. Even though she was a spirit, I could feel her terror and her grief. It flowed through the glass jar in painful waves that gripped my heart with ice-cold claws. Still, it meant Katherine hadn’t completed the ritual yet.

Meanwhile, the Chaos monsters weren’t letting up, flowing like a liquid tide toward us. The more we kicked them away and tried to batter them with the weapons Astrid had loaded us up with, the more they fought back. Right now, I had two knives on the ends of Telekinesis tendrils, slashing them aimlessly in front of me. Sometimes the blades made contact; sometimes they didn’t. I just hoped I didn’t accidentally injure one of the Rag Team in my blind fury to get at Katherine.

We were so close now. Barely ten yards stood between us and her, but there was still a swarm of monsters. It was becoming painfully obvious that we couldn’t use our usual methods of attack to defeat Katherine. Not this time. Even if we got close, we’d have monsters at our back and Naima and Kenneth to deal with up front.

Katherine looked up, just as a tornado of fierce white light shot up into the sky.

“Well, well, well, here comes the Scooby Gang to fail to save the day, once again.” She smirked. “You know, I was wondering if you would show up. Part of me was hoping you were all sitting around a table, toasting your success. Watching you die will be just as satisfying.”

She raised her hands as if she were simply checking her nails and sent up a protective bubble of bronzed light. It stretched to encompass all of them—Katherine, Naima, and Kenneth, as well as Tess’s spirit.

Don’t you freaking dare!

I lashed out toward an oncoming creature, feeling something ooze over my hand as the blade of my knife bit into its face. It evaporated a moment later, and the beast dissipated into the atmosphere. Gritting my teeth in determination, I ploughed through the Chaos monsters, swiping my hands like a windmill as I fought to reach Katherine.

In the glow that dispersed from the eerie altar, I saw the rest of the Rag Team battling for their lives. Sparks of Chaos flew, and I could hear the swish of Shinsuke’s swords as he took down a bunch of creatures. All around me, it looked like everyone was using a mixture of magic and brute force to get through. Jacob kept bursting in and out of scarily crackling portals, trying to find a way through the forcefield. So far, it didn’t seem to be working. That thing was keeping him out, which I was almost grateful for. If he got inside, he’d have to be quick to break it down before Katherine retaliated. But I was getting closer, ready to help him if he managed to get through.

I kicked out my leg and knocked a salivating beast back into the shadows, giving me a direct path to Katherine and her bubble. Seizing the opportunity, I sprinted toward it, gathering a powerful ball of Fire in my palms as I ran. I hurled it at the bubble with every ounce of strength I had. It bounced back, exploding in a shower of sparking fragments.

I used Telekinesis next, pummeling a wave of it directly into the bubble, but the forcefield wouldn’t budge. I tried to step through it, but that ended with my face being smushed against the shimmering shield, my nose stinging as I staggered back.

I expected some witty retort from Katherine, but she was entirely focused on the ritual. She reached for Tess’s jar, and there was nothing I could do to stop her. That tornado of pure energy continued to surge upward, making the darkness spike and fork with Chaos-induced lightning. Trying to break through the bubble and simultaneously fight off the monsters was turning into a Sisyphean task. The monsters were drawn to the light of this central point, but they seemed wary about entering. Even so, there wasn’t much space left to fight in the light, and we could barely see our own hands in front of our faces if we stayed in the darkness.

I hammered on the forcefield with every ability I had, trying to make a crack in Katherine’s defenses. But it was no good. I couldn’t break through. I couldn’t even make a dent, and she freaking knew it. That made it even worse, knowing just how smug she was feeling right now.

With the sound of the ongoing battle clamoring behind me, I gaped in horror as Katherine unscrewed the lid of Tess’s jar and let her spirit loose. Her figure became clear, the fine mist stretching out into limbs, and a body, and a face. She hovered in the air for a moment before the bluish light that writhed on the altar snaked upward, the tendrils wrapping around the spirit and dragging it down to the altar.

Come on, come on, COME ON! I slammed wave after wave of Telekinesis and Fire and Water and Earth and Air into the bubble, but nothing was working. Behind me, the monsters were starting to edge into the circle of light. Glaring over my shoulder, I peered at the rabid creatures.

“Leave me alone!” I snapped, my body overflowing with frustrated energy. My voice echoed across the beasts, carrying that weird, distant tone that didn’t sound like it had come from me at all.

The beasts immediately backed off, looking confused by their own impulsive reactions. It was the same thing that had happened with the gargoyle in Katherine’s second trial—only, on a much larger scale, my emotions amplified by my desperation.

Thinking fast, I turned to the sea of beasts that were in the middle of attacking my friends. “Leave them alone! Back off, now!” The words bellowed out of my lungs, my ribs searing with breathless pain.

The creatures looked at one another and backed away, melting into the darkness. It had worked. It had freaking worked! The Rag Team looked completely baffled, aside from Finch. As he stepped into the circle of light, he flashed me a grin.

“Way to go, Sis. Beast wrangler extraordinaire.”

“Let’s just hope it holds them,” I muttered, turning back to the bubble. I’d seen flashes of crackling light exploding close to the bubble, letting me know that Jacob was trying to break through, but it didn’t seem to be having any effect this time. Katherine had clearly added some extra juice to her forcefield, having learned from her previous mistakes.

Jacob stumbled out of a portal beside me, breathing heavily. All of this portal making was definitely taking its toll on him.

“Are you okay?” I rested my hand on his shoulder.

He nodded, panting. “I can’t get through. She’s got some sort of block on her portal.”

Katherine laughed from inside the bubble. “What did you expect? I’m not too old to learn a lesson or two. And that portal ability was getting to be something of a thorn in my side.” A sickening dread sank in the pit of my stomach as she took out a knife and turned to Kenneth, who was hopping like an excited puppy at her side. “Now it’s your turn to prove yourself, Kenneth. Are you ready to participate in the ritual?”

“Of course, Eris.” He grinned like a maniac.

“Come closer,” she urged.

He did as he was told, practically licking his lips at the sight of Tess’s spirit trapped by the strange, undulating light. “What do you need me to do?”

“Just stay where you are,” she replied with a smirk. “This will be the easiest thing you’ve ever done.”

“I’m ready, Eris.”

She chuckled. “I’m so glad to hear that.”

Katherine plunged the knife into his chest. A bloom of scarlet spread out across his shirt. He stared up at her with the confused eyes of someone who didn’t realize he was about to die.