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

  Lux shook her head. “Your deal with Finch is limited. He may not know that, but our father does, and he wants us to cease all our less-favorable machinations with mortals. He said so explicitly and mentioned Finch by name. He and his sister represent a natural balance in the force that drives part of the universe—the masculine and the feminine. If one exists without the other, mayhem will ensue. That is why he cannot die, and why you must liberate him. They are special, not only in their chance creation, but in our father’s eyes.”

  Erebus grumbled something rude under his breath before adding, “Then why did he allow them to exist in the first place, if their nonexistence could cause catastrophe?”

  “That is for our father to know. We do not question his actions, and we must obey him.” Lux stepped toward her husband.

  Hang on a second! I said to Lux. If Finch is this insanely important magical creation, then why have you both been threatening to kill him at literally any opportunity? Before your father stepped in.

  Lux barked a cutting laugh. “Oh, dear, simple human… because it worked. That is why.”

  You’re going to have to elaborate for me, I replied. I didn’t appreciate being laughed at.

  “Finch responds well to negative reinforcement. When his life is threatened, or the life of someone he cares for, he does as he is told.” Lux felt smug, deep down to our shared bones. I wanted to slap her silly, but she had control of my hands, and it might’ve turned a bit slapstick if she’d started smacking herself.

  Not for much longer, I warned. It didn’t have the effect I’d been hoping for. I just got another bitter laugh.

  “Do you think me stupid, Ryann? Of course I know that you will reveal all, as soon as you are able. That is no longer a concern of mine. He should know. When my father called me to him, I received something of a cosmic awakening.” She sighed and felt suddenly sincere. “Now my only desire is to redeem myself, and that involves helping Finch. No more secrets or deceits. That is not the way we were forged, especially not a Child of Light.”

  But what is it about your treatment of Finch specifically that’s irked your father so much? I needed the details if I really was going to spill the beans to Finch once he was out of the love spell’s grip.

  “Did you not hear us speak of a rare and natural balance?” Lux sounded as though I’d just asked her the answer to two plus two.

  I did, but I feel like I’m missing some important pieces of the puzzle.

  She rolled her eyes, and I could actually see the maneuver from my interior view. “He must remain whole, or the balance will be threatened. It is ironic you should mention pieces, for you are a piece that is integral to his very being. I did not realize that until my father informed me. I thought his attraction to you to be a fleeting fancy. But now that he has lost you, he has lost hold of his memories of friends and family. Over time, that will disintegrate his soul, and as we all know, souls are raw Chaos energy.” She paused, a shiver of anxiety running through our body. “By letting Kaya wed Finch and allowing her to utilize the love spell, we have disturbed that rare balance within him. And if one Merlin sibling disintegrates, the entire equilibrium will be thrown askew. The universe would suffer on a scale we cannot even comprehend, and every tear shed, every drop of blood spilled by every victim, would be felt by Chaos itself.”

  So… you’re saying you colossally screwed up? Cosmic, universal devastation didn’t sound like a slap on the wrist. Those were enormous consequences, and they’d set them into motion because of a petty marital disagreement. One thing was for sure: they genuinely couldn’t have known what would happen. Otherwise, they were crazier and deadlier than I’d given them credit for.

  “Yes,” Lux said simply.

  “Yes what?” Erebus chimed in. “It is rude to have a private conversation with someone else present.”

  Lux groaned. “I was informing her of what Father told me, about how the consequences of our actions toward Finch will have cosmic effects. I said that part aloud, darling husband. Were you using your selective hearing again?”

  “I thought we were trying to be pleasant to each other,” he retorted.

  “Then why must you make it so difficult?”

  Wait, so does this mean that Finch and Kaya weren’t actually fated to meet? I didn’t care about their sniping; I had other things to think about, namely the legend of the Luminary that had set this ball rolling in the first place. Kaya had been so certain it was Finch. But what if it wasn’t? I hadn’t believed it, Finch hadn’t believed it, no one with any common sense had believed it… so it wasn’t too much of a stretch.

  This time, Lux responded internally. I do not think it likely, no. Erebus was the one who brought Finch here—Erebus, the supposedly impartial Child of Chaos who never involves himself in the affairs of mortals, unless he can get a deal out of it. Erebus wanted Kaya for himself, nothing more. Finch was merely in his servitude at the wrong time. And look how that has blown up in his face! He does not have Kaya, and he has caused a disturbance deep within Chaos.

  “Now we must fix what we have done before we pass the point of no return and Finch’s wholeness cannot be salvaged. I say we seek out his chambers and hope that he is there, alone.” Lux spoke aloud again, since she’d done her bitching in private. But worry lingered in her words and in our shared veins. I got why. Chaos didn’t step in for just anything. Lux had been vague about cosmic consequences, but if their arguments could implode suns, then what could disrupting the physical embodiment of Chaos’s natural balance do?

  If Harley and Finch couldn’t exist without each other, then what would happen if Finch lost too much of himself? Looking at Erebus’s face, and sensing Lux’s subtle terror, I had a feeling I didn’t want to find out.

  Eighteen

  Ryann

  Leaving the gallery, to the obvious relief of the stewards, Lux and Erebus made their way back to the palace. Their mission: to find Finch. With it being night—the fake constellations twinkling across the arching dome of Atlantis’s interdimensional bubble—they’d come to the relatively safe conclusion that he’d be in his room.

  What if Kaya’s there? I didn’t delve too deeply into the implications. Kaya and Finch shared a room now, and probably a bed for all I knew, but that didn’t mean anything had been… consummated. Finch had been in pretty rough shape, with his chest giving him all manner of problems, and there was nothing less enticing than a mini-coronary. Maybe that was a naïve hope, but I clung to it nonetheless.

  I will come up with a way of coaxing her out, should that be the case. You leave that to me, Lux answered in my head. It wasn’t the comforting, highly detailed plan that I might’ve hoped for, but it was all I was going to get.

  We reached the familiar spires of the palace and snuck around the side, traipsing through the shadowed gardens. I said “we” because I was a key part of this, whether they liked it or not. I refused to be simply a vessel for Lux, even if she could pick and choose when she wanted to listen to me.

  Maybe you should go in separately? It’ll look strange if Erebus goes in with you, considering you’re in my body, I suggested. There weren’t any guards on duty around the double doors we’d picked as our point of entry—which led directly to my room—but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be patrolling. If guards saw the Child of Darkness with Ryann Smith, alarm bells would ring. Possibly literally. Kaya wouldn’t like it much, either, since she knew what I had going on inside me.

  Lux paused behind a bush. “Erebus, I will go in first. Meet with me in the corridor outside Finch’s bedchamber.”

  “Why? What are you up to?” He immediately turned suspicious.

  “I simply think it would look suspect if you and I were to be seen together, as we are not known to be particularly friendly with one another.” Lux had taken my suggestion and passed it off as her own. I let it slide, though, since she’d actually listened to me.

  Erebus’s face relaxed. “Very well. However, if I reach the corridor and you are no
t there, I will not be pleased.”

  “You never are,” she muttered, before rounding the bush and slipping through the open door. We’d left it ever so slightly ajar when we’d left to find Erebus, and the guards evidently hadn’t noticed.

  Entering my bedroom, my heart jolted. It was so lonely here, without my friends. I tried to glance back at the door, forgetting that I saw only what Lux allowed me to. Frustrated, I sank back inside my mental prison and focused on my friends, as if my thoughts could somehow reach them.

  Please be okay. Please come back safely. And, whatever trouble Nash is in, please get him out of it… I kept the words to myself, a silent prayer. They were out there somewhere in the dark maze of Atlantis, and I couldn’t help them. I reminded myself that I had a different task, letting it steel my resolve. If Erebus and Lux could really do this, then I might get Finch back before the night was over. And if Melody and Luke could help Nash, then we might all be together again come morning. That was a dream that, only a few hours ago, I’d thought impossible.

  Lux continued through the bedroom and snuck into the hallway beyond. She ducked through doorways whenever guards marched past, peering around corners like a pro, until we finally made it to the hallway outside Finch’s room. She sank back into the shadows beside a statue of an unknown goddess. There, she waited patiently for her husband to arrive.

  A few minutes later, Erebus appeared from the servant’s stairwell at the opposite end of the corridor. The idiot hadn’t followed our path, and now he was on the other side of Finch’s door.

  He will be the death of me, Lux muttered inwardly. I sensed our lips moving as she mouthed something at the other half of her comedy duo.

  Erebus gestured to himself, then jabbed a finger back at Lux. You were supposed to come this way! he mouthed.

  “No, you were supposed to come this way, like a normal person!” she hissed back.

  The door to Finch’s bedroom opened, and both Children of Chaos darted back into their hiding places. I held my breath—figuratively, at least—as figures emerged. Part of me wanted to see Finch, but part of me didn’t, because we’d have to switch up our plans. The last thing I wanted to do was follow the Moron Twins on a wild goose chase through the palace.

  The soft glow of the hallway sconces fell upon three individuals as they stepped out of the bedroom. By the looks of it, the royal bedchamber had been transformed into something of an unofficial meeting room. Kaya led the trio, with Apollo and Thebian—the general of the Atlantean armies—flanking her. But before they closed the door, a fourth figure poked his head out and landed a kiss on Kaya’s lips. Finch. My Finch.

  If I could’ve closed my eyes, I would’ve. Just because he was under the influence of a love spell didn’t mean it didn’t hurt to watch him kiss someone else. It did, terribly. The sort of gut-wrenching, just-had-the-rug-pulled-from-underneath-me type of pain that stung my insides like a swarm of savage wasps.

  The door closed with Finch behind it, but the remaining trio didn’t move off immediately. They paused, talking in hushed tones.

  “Where is the list?” Kaya asked.

  “In my private study, Your Majesty, under lock and key and a multitude of powerful hexes,” Apollo answered, glancing around the hallway. Lux pressed even farther back into the shadows. A second later, he looked back to his queen, evidently satisfied that there was nothing amiss.

  Kaya straightened the high collar of her gown. “Are there many names on it?”

  “No, Your Majesty.” Thebian gave a small, unnecessary bow. “Most of Atlantis was more than willing to offer a drop of blood, considering what is at stake. There were a handful of dissenters, though a majority of them were suitably persuaded to do the right thing. Really, the list of those who refused to give their blood is very small indeed.”

  What are they talking about? Whatever it was, I didn’t like the sound of it. Blood from all Atlanteans? Dissenters? Suitable persuasion? What did all that mean? I had a fair grasp of magical culture, and even a decent knowledge of spells, but there were facets of Chaos that I knew nothing about. I wracked my brain. If memory served, ordinary blood tended to be used in darker, seedier kinds of spells, unlike Sanguine blood, which could substitute for any missing ingredient. Even with ordinary blood, the quantity she was talking about was unheard of, as far as I knew. So what sort of spell did Kaya have in mind?

  Lux stayed out of sight until Kaya and her loyal followers were gone. I felt her holding her breath as Kaya passed the darkened passageway where Erebus hid. But Kaya walked right by, not noticing her former lover at all.

  What now? I asked, at the exact moment that Erebus slunk out of the shadows and came over to where Lux stood.

  “How should we do this?” Erebus echoed my question.

  Lux whipped out a scrap of paper and a pen from my pocket. “We have to lure him out. Kaya will have their chambers hexed, so we can’t conduct our efforts in there. He must come out of the room of his own accord.”

  Where are you planning on taking him? It seemed like something we should’ve discussed beforehand, but that was wayward Children of Chaos for you. Act first, think of the rest later.

  “We can take him back to your room. You and your friends have taken to conversing in the bathroom. I think that is a wise place,” Lux replied. “Nobody with any sense of decorum hexes a bathroom.”

  Have you been listening to our conversations? I protested.

  She snickered inside my head, the sound reverberating like a tenacious headache I couldn’t get rid of. Do you think I just sit in here and twiddle my thumbs?

  What about when your father called you away? Were you listening then? Melody, Luke, Nash, and I had spoken in the bathroom countless times, but I wanted specifics. Which conversations had she heard?

  She paused. No. That is an unfortunate exception, though I imagine you were discussing something of which I would not have approved; otherwise, you would not be asking.

  Touché. I left it at that, since it wouldn’t matter after tonight. She was on parole. Any further meddling in human affairs, and she’d have to kiss her cosmic backside goodbye. Besides, apart from the conversation we’d had when Lux had been called away, we hadn’t discussed anything that she shouldn’t have heard. All that had been done between the others, where I wouldn’t be a liability. No harm, no foul.

  Lux scribbled a quick note and shoved it into Erebus’s hand. “Here. Put that outside Finch’s door, far enough away that he will have to step out to read it, and knock. When he comes out, we grab him. I trust that is not too complex for your small mind to comprehend?”

  Erebus launched a sour scowl at his wife. “In our heyday, I was the one with all the ideas. Somehow you always choose to forget that.”

  “You are wasting time, husband dearest.” Her tone dripped sarcasm.

  With a grunt of irritation, Erebus strode up to Finch’s door, note in hand.

  What did you write? She’d shielded the message from me with her hand, averting her eyes enough to stop me from seeing.

  Something so tempting he will not be able to ignore it. Men are woefully simple creatures. If they receive word of a damsel in distress, they will inevitably don their shining armor, leap onto their white steeds, and race toward imminent heroism. She chuckled bitterly, shedding no light whatsoever on what she’d written.

  Lux! What did you write? I asked urgently.

  She sighed, as though I were a drain on her. I said that you were struggling and needed to see him immediately because you were at your breaking point. Short but sweet, and oh so tantalizing. He will not be able to resist. You are buried deep in his heart, like an errant thorn. Even now, you draw him like a magnet. He cannot help himself.

  Ordinarily, I would’ve been appalled to hear that she’d used me to trap Finch. Yet an overwhelming part of me felt secretly pleased. Lux believed that I held a powerful place in his heart, and if even she was willing to admit it, then it had to be true. My love for him and his love for me, though unspo
ken, had prompted Chaos itself to get involved. Who wouldn’t hear that and not be privately thrilled?

  Up ahead, Erebus laid the note down far enough from the door that Finch would have to come out, but not so far as to alert his suspicions. I waited with bated breath as the Child of Chaos knocked twice, then darted over to a tall side table with a vase of blooming flowers. I did a doubletake as Erebus vanished into the shadow of the table, blending right into the darkness. One minute he was there, and the next he was gone—a true master of camouflage.

  Come on, Finch. Answer the door. Let us save you. The door opened slowly, and Finch’s sweet, silly, wonderful face peered out. He scanned the corridor up and down before his gaze finally settled on the note. Gingerly, he stepped into the hallway and bent to pick it up. His eyes flitted left to right as he read.

  Erebus exploded out of the shadows and charged down the corridor like a raging bull, tackling Finch around the waist. I saw Finch’s eyes fly wide as Erebus scooped my poor magical man into a very strange bridal-style hold and clamped a hand over Finch’s mouth. There hadn’t been time for him to squeak, let alone call for help.

  “Come on!” Erebus hissed as he sailed past us.

  Lux didn’t hesitate. She took off after him, the two Children of Chaos sprinting through the palace until they reached my bedroom. There, they hurried into the bathroom and locked the door behind them. Only then did they pause for breath, though neither seemed particularly affected by the race they’d just run.

  “Keep watch while I draw the symbols.” Erebus dumped Finch into the bathtub, swapping places with Lux. Fortunately, Lux angled herself in a way that allowed me to see Erebus’s activities. I grimaced as he made a small cut in his forearm and started to daub his black blood onto the bathroom floor, his fingertips moving rapidly as he painted the dark tiles with strange patterns. They should’ve been hard to see against the black marble, but faint sparks inside the slick liquid highlighted the weird shapes.