Harley Merlin 16: Finch Merlin and the Blood Tie Read online

  “It’s the submersion of Atlantis.” Luke murmured, reading the card beside the frame. “I’m guessing those guys on the rocky shore are the folks who persecuted the Atlanteans.”

  I smiled at him. “See, you’re getting into this art lark.”

  “I like this one.” He folded his arms. “And I never said I didn’t like art. I’ve been to almost every art gallery in any city you could think of, when I traveled with my mom on her ballet tours. I’m just aware that we don’t have a lot of time, with your ticking Lux bomb likely to go off any moment.”

  “Ballet tours? Your mom was a ballet dancer?” I gaped at him.

  He frowned. “Prima ballerina, if we’re being specific, but I thought I told you all about that.”

  Melody shook her head. “I haven’t shared your family history with anyone. That is your story to tell.”

  “Ah, right.” He looked pleased that she had kept his confidence. “Anyway, we should keep moving. I doubt we’ll find Erebus in the neo-classical section. He strikes me as more of an abstract man.”

  I laughed. “Let’s just hope we don’t have an awkward encounter surrounded by some elegant nudes.”

  “It couldn’t be more embarrassing than having to stand around looking at nudes in repose with my mom, having her tell me ‘it’s perfectly natural.’ My twelve-year-old self still hasn’t gotten over it.” He flashed a smile, but he hadn’t lost the worry in his eyes.

  We pressed on through gallery after gallery until we came to a room filled with sculptures and statues. Erebus sat on a bench in the middle of the room, staring at one in particular. I instantly understood why Erebus had chosen this room. He was looking at a marble version of Kaya. At least, it looked remarkably like her, with the same alarmingly human eyes I’d seen on Verity’s statue.

  If he’s got Kaya on the brain, that should work in our favor. I approached first, with Melody and Luke behind me.

  He turned slowly but recoiled when he saw me. “You!”

  “Relax.” I put up my hands in a gesture of peace. “Your wife isn’t here. She checked out for a while. I don’t know when she’s coming back, so we don’t have a lot of time. With that in mind, let me get straight to the point. We need you to help us break the love spell. You get what you want—gaining the upper hand over your wife and getting Kaya back. And I get what I want—Finch. Everyone wins.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Lux wouldn’t simply ‘check out,’ as you put it. What game are you attempting to play?” He shuffled away from us. “Whatever it is, I want no part in it. I told you already, I have no desire to continue fighting a futile battle for Kaya’s heart. She has made her feelings about me blatantly clear, so I do not see how I could win.”

  “You have to—” My words jammed in my throat, as though someone were squeezing my voice-box with their bare hands. My eyes widened and began to burn, while a sickeningly familiar shiver coursed through my veins. The bitch was back. And Lux hadn’t given me a chance to launch a preemptive strike. One moment, she’d been a distant buzz in my head. The next, she was pulling my strings and making me dance like a good little puppet.

  “Erebus, you and I need to have a serious discussion.” Lux’s voice came out of my mouth as she pushed me all the way back into my head, benching me in my own body.

  Erebus sneered. “We already had one of those, or have you forgotten already?”

  “This is not a jest, Erebus, nor is it about anything as trivial as our former quarrels.” She sounded weirdly scared, all her usual sass gone. “Our father has spoken with me, and he has raised some worrying issues regarding Finch, which we cannot delay in addressing.”

  Erebus looked as though he had been struck with an immobilizing hex. He sat there, open-mouthed. If he could’ve paled, I imagined he would’ve. If I’d had control over my body, I would have, too. Chaos itself had spoken with Lux about Finch? Now I knew why Lux had vanished so abruptly. Her father had called, and she’d gone running.

  So what the heck did this mean for the man I loved? I supposed I’d find out soon enough, since I had a front-row seat to whatever bombshell Lux was about to drop.

  Fourteen

  Finch

  If it looked like a dog, barked like a dog, and smelled like a dog, then it had to be a dog, right? Probably the wrong analogy to use for my marriage, but my brain had always done whatever it wanted. And that included using weird similes and metaphors. I digressed. If it looked like love, felt like love, and seemed like love, then it had to be love… didn’t it?

  We sat, nestled together like two doves a-roosting, on the terrace loveseat. See, even the seat was telling me we were in love. Her head lay on my chest, my arm draped oh so casually around her shoulder. I toyed with a strand of her long, silver hair, as soft and smooth as spider’s silk. Again, wrong simile?

  Maybe that’s my problem. Maybe it’s my head getting in the way of my happiness. It wouldn’t have been the first time, if my foggy memory served. I snuggled closer and kissed the top of her head, inhaling the sweet, floral scent that left me intoxicated. That felt real. My heartbeat quickened the way it was supposed to, and I definitely wanted to be near her. No alarm bells clanged, and my legs weren’t urging me to run for the hills. So what was the friggin’ issue?

  “You are quiet tonight, my love.” She turned in my arms and peered up at me like a kitten. “Is something the matter? Did I frighten you in the library, with talk of those spells?”

  It’s a different spell I’m worried about. I couldn’t say that to her, not with her looking at me like that. She wasn’t a queen right now—she was just a woman in love, freaked out because her husband had clammed up.

  I tilted her chin up and kissed her gently. “Not at all. I’m just tired after the last few days. I feel like I could sleep for a month and still need a catnap.”

  “Are you sure?” My kiss clearly hadn’t convinced her.

  I held her worried gaze. “Hey, everything’s okay. I’m okay. I’m just getting used to things, but it’s nothing to be concerned about.”

  “You would tell me if those… gremlins returned, wouldn’t you?” She pressed her palm to my chest, as if it’d reveal any lies I might tell. And I wasn’t entirely sure how perceptive her fingertips could be. What if they sensed my doubt right now? What if I was breaking her heart because I’d let everyone get to me with their talk about mind-altering spells and fake love?

  I kissed her slowly, our lips moving together like they were made to touch. I was so focused on the pressure, and trying to pour my passion into her, that it took a second to realize that my eyes were still open, while hers weren’t. She was fully immersed, her arms looping around my neck. Staring at her closed eyes like a creeper made that tender, sensual rhythm turn mechanical—a mashing of mouths that felt about as sexy as someone sticking a Q-tip in my ear. But I didn’t stop. If I stopped, I’d have to admit that something wasn’t quite right, in a Twilight Zone kind of way. And I didn’t want that. I wanted it to be real. I’d had enough of doubt and accepting that the others might be right was a backward step that I wasn’t willing to take.

  I have to believe in it. If I don’t, of course I’m going to feel confused. I forced my eyes shut and concentrated solely on her. Any thought that popped into my head got sucker-punched away, until I finally started to relax into the kiss. Soft and slow and lingering, shifting gears on the pressure every so often to keep things spicy. My arms wrapped around her, and I pulled her closer, forgetting my stupid brain and everything Melody and Erebus had said. They weren’t here, thank Chaos, and they couldn’t feel what I felt. So how could they possibly cast judgment on what was real and what wasn’t?

  I’d just gotten into the swing of it when a fuzzy memory broke through my brain embargo. Another kiss, from another time, with a different woman in my arms. I smelled strawberry and vanilla, and my heart jolted as if I’d been connected to a car battery. A gasp of pain rasped out of my throat, but Kaya must’ve mistaken it for a sultry groan, because she tugged
my head harder and kissed me hungrily, like she hadn’t eaten in days. I had no choice but to kiss her back, struggling to ignore the pain in my chest. I urged my mind to focus back on her, before my heart ruptured altogether. Fortunately, the memory went away, taking the worst of the stabbing pains with it. But I couldn’t forget that scent…

  Aww, poor Finch. These women are like buses with you, aren’t they? You wait years for one to come along, then two arrive at once. A shame you ended up buying a ticket in the wrong direction. My stomach lurched. That sounded just like a gremlin.

  I pulled away from Kaya as kindly as possible, and pretty much head-locked her into a cuddle, panting all the while. Not from any kind of sexiness. Oh no, I was freaked out. The Medela serum had put those gremlins out to pasture. They weren’t supposed to be able to crawl back into my head, like a bunch of irritating zombies! Not so soon, anyway, and not without more Medela serum on hand.

  “Can I ask you a question?” I needed a distraction, for both of us. I just hoped she thought the heavy breathing was a result of our smooch. If the gremlins had come back, then I needed to find Nash ASAP and get him to blast these suckers back from whence they came.

  Kaya traced little circles on my chest. “Anything, my love.”

  “What do you desire most in the world?” I blurted out, taking a second to calm my ass down. I hadn’t been sleeping properly, and I hadn’t really eaten. Plus, I’d been under a truckload of stress, between my friends not getting along with Kaya and all this Atlantis rising stuff. Naturally, it was taking its toll. Maybe these were just the ordinary brand of gremlin that everyone had from time to time, rather than my pesky, pernicious little ratbags. I waited for them to clap back, but silence echoed supreme. That had to be a good sign.

  Kaya stopped tracing circles and kissed my neck, sending a subtle shiver through me. The nice kind, not the “this isn’t real and it’s all a messed-up illusion” kind.

  “That is a complex question, indeed.” She shuffled closer and drew her fingertips gently across the base of my throat. “There are many things I desire—you among them. Although… I suppose, if I had to select my greatest longing, it would be to see this queendom survive and thrive.”

  “That’s a good one,” I replied, comforted by her touch.

  “Do you truly think so?” She looked up at me again, a smile on her lips.

  I dipped my head to kiss them. “I think it’s exactly what a queen should want.”

  “I know that I may speak plainly with you.” She propped herself up on my chest, and I tried not to wheeze. “My love, I envision a world where all magicals can live freely, without persecution or being forced to hide on the outskirts of society. I see my people leading the surface magicals to greatness, where we will stand proud, adjusting a balance that ought to have shifted in our favor many years ago. Those without magic should not be the dominant, liberated species. It is ludicrous. You would not see a kraken bow meekly to a sea urchin, so why should magicals do so, to placate the sensibilities of ordinary humans?”

  “I know there are a lot of people who’d agree with you up top, but you can’t achieve what you’re envisioning without a war.” I hated to burst her bubble, but she’d said we could speak plainly. It didn’t get any plainer. “The ordinary humans have nuclear weapons and huge armies with firearms you can’t even imagine, and if they had reason to unite against one common enemy—well, those nukes and armies would end up heading right for you. And I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  She laid her head on her hands the way I’d seen Huntress do with her paws. “I do not fear human weaponry. It cannot compare to even an ounce of our magic. Besides, I am certain that we can overcome any and all obstacles, as long as we are together. I have said so before—you shall be my ambassador and diplomat, to smooth over any unrest and minimize conflict during the transition of power.”

  “That’s a pretty huge ask. And I’m not really a big deal in the non-magical world, so I don’t know if I’d be of any use.” I looked away from her, gazing at the glowing lights of Atlantis.

  She kissed my chest. “You will find a way, as you always have. And I shall be by your side to help guide you through the negotiations. It is your face, and your charm, and your manner that shall persuade them—the rest is nothing but logistics.”

  “But… don’t you have any doubts about this?” I blurted out. My heart still ached with a faint but insistent throb that made it impossible to ignore. And that couldn’t mean nothing.

  She lifted her head and forced me to look her in the eyes. “About raising Atlantis or about us?”

  I decided to take a risk. “Both, I guess.” She wasn’t making it easy, staring at me like I’d just shot Big Bird. “What if we can’t overcome all these obstacles?” I deliberately kept it vague, since we had obstacles to deal with for Atlantis and our marriage.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Why would that not be possible? We are married, are we not? We love one another, do we not? There is nothing that love cannot overcome.”

  Ryann… My brain slammed me with a wrecking ball. And it made me think. What if I wasn’t the only one with someone else’s name and memories swimming around my skull?

  “Can you honestly tell me that you don’t have any feelings for Erebus anymore? You loved him once, and you were kissing him just a few days before our wedding. That doesn’t sound like an old flame that’s gone out, to me.” I didn’t say it like an accusation—I just wanted to know the truth.

  “No!” she snapped, only to soften her voice a split second later. “No, I do not harbor any feelings toward Erebus, unless you are referring to disdain and revulsion. Those I have in great quantities.” This time, she was the one who couldn’t look me in the eyes. I hadn’t gone to interrogation school, but everyone knew that when someone couldn’t look you in the eyes, nine times out of ten they were being a big Pinocchio.

  “You’re lying.” I didn’t sugarcoat it. “I don’t mind, but I’d rather you were upfront with me. If you still love him, tell me.”

  She recoiled. “How can you even suggest such a thing? I do not love Erebus, nor do I believe that I ever did. It was all a façade, created by him to achieve his own ends. Any foolish emotion that I once had for him has long dissipated. I love you, and only you, and I hope that you feel the same way. Our marriage is my desire!” Her hand flew to her chest, her fingers digging into her skin. She’d turned deathly pale, even paler than her usual bone white, and a sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead.

  Her heart’s hurting, same as mine! Realization struck like a freight train. Kaya had lied, not just about Erebus but about the love spell. That cosmic thorn in my side had been right all along, and so had Melody. The love spell didn’t amplify what was already there. It created new thoughts and emotions and implanted them into my mind. And Kaya’s mind. But it hadn’t taken one thing into consideration: how effective the outcome would be, when both recipients were already in love with other people. And now we were both in a whole world of pain.

  “I love you, Finch.” She blinked up at me through her eyelashes. “I do not want Erebus. I want you. I married you.” I saw her fighting through the pain and reached out, enveloping her in my arms again. Even if my emotions were false, my humanity wasn’t. It just wasn’t in me to let someone struggle without trying to help. Besides, the more we argued, the more we’d feel the sharp stab of reality. Literally.

  “Tell me you love me, too. Tell me you want this marriage to endure.” She buried her face in my shoulder.

  I kissed her hair, knowing the scent was all wrong. “I love you. And I want to be here for you.” Did I mean it? Only Chaos knew. My mind no longer had any concept of the truth.

  “We must persevere, Finch. We must believe in what we have. My people rely upon it, and they will always be my priority. I want them to be yours, too.” She clung to me, and I clung to her, two lost souls drifting through an ocean of confusion. Despite my major league doubts about this love spell, I couldn’t leave Kaya to flo
under. She could be sweet and kind, and her wounded heart was in the right place. That deserved sympathy, even if I didn’t know whether I could give her everything she wanted.

  Turns out, you can’t draw blood from a stone, and you can’t give a heart that’s already taken. The problem was, my mind had been blitzed to a pulp in a blender of turmoil and uncertainty, to the point that I didn’t even trust that persistent whisper, either. Ryann… Ryann what? If I couldn’t remember the love I’d had before, then how was it any different from this? Until I could get a grip on some clarity, I was stuck in this strange state of loving yet not loving, believing yet not believing. There was nothing I could do about it. The more I fought, the more I hurt. And I wouldn’t be able to love anything if my heart burst.

  Fifteen

  Nash

  I never felt right, being separated from Huntress. Any distance, any time apart, dragged at my innards. It was an insistent pull, like a part of me had gone missing and the rest of me wanted to head out and find it.

  An hour ago, she’d slipped through a broken plank in one of the windows while Hector’s back was turned. He’d noticed she was gone, of course, but I knew how to weave a cover story. And since I’d already laid the groundwork of a black-market Purge beast, all I’d had to do was tell him she’d evaporated into mist. The poor guy bought it. At least, it looked like he had. He hadn’t mentioned her disappearance since.

  “What made you want to buy a Purge beast from the Trench, anyway? I realize I’m in no position to judge, but that seems like a risky move.” Hector broke the silence. He’d been sifting through some old drawers, creating a small pile of food that’d likely expired long ago.