Harley Merlin 18: Persie Merlin and Leviathan’s Gift Read online

  “Huh. That actually makes a lot of sense.”

  She tapped the side of her head. “Not just a hat rack, my friend. Now, shush, I need to concentrate.”

  Neon-green Chaos sparked out of her body as she gripped me tight. It flowed from her chest to her arms, and into me, without so much as a twitch of her fingers, since she was a Sentient. The telltale sign of an Atlantean. I had no idea what sort of spell she was using, but her grandfather had been an infamous thief who’d never been caught. That called for a trick or two, and she’d certainly picked up a few family secrets.

  Suddenly, the pain hit. A fierce heat that began at the point of contact and pulsed through the rest of me at lightning speed, as though someone had doused me in fire ants. Judging by the strained expression on her face, she felt it too.

  “Is it supposed to… feel like this?” I gasped, my throat burning.

  “I… think so,” she gasped back. “A few minutes… of pain, to get… answers. That’s got to be… worth it, right?”

  It hurt too much to reply.

  “I think we’re good… to go. Stay… close,” she instructed, after a few more agonizing seconds.

  Remind me never to get on your bad side. Genie never failed to amaze me with her brilliance, but it could also be a little frightening at times. She literally had no fear whatsoever, and a whole box of tricks at her disposal, courtesy of her grandpa. A trait I envied and admired.

  Pulling me with both hands, she headed for the library door. Mrs. Tibbs would be our alibi, if anyone asked where we were. She’d seen us come in, but she wouldn’t see us go out. At least, that was the plan, providing nothing… glitched.

  At the door, my entire body tensed up against the pain and the fear of discovery. I glanced back at Mrs. Tibbs, but her head stayed down, as she was evidently transfixed by something on her desk. If rumor was to be believed, she frequently enjoyed a bodice-ripper while wiling away the hours in the library. And the smirk on her face suggested she’d delved into the kind of book that would’ve had my beloved Austen turning in her grave.

  Still holding on to each other, we bolted out the door after someone else entered. If we’d opened it ourselves, it would’ve sounded alarm bells. Not literally, of course, but Mrs. Tibbs had a renowned eagle eye. Our window of opportunity had opened. Sucking in a deep breath, I hurtled alongside my friend, grateful that the shield around us stopped anyone from seeing. My version of running wasn’t graceful. Give me a set of pencils and a fresh page in a sketchbook, and I could toil away for hours without breaking a sweat. Give me a novel and I would demolish it, front to back, without pausing. But give me a sprint… and I looked like a frazzled crab trying to figure out how all its legs worked at once.

  Fortunately, our destination lay a short distance down the hallway, but that didn’t stop the nerves pounding in my chest, like a marching band had taken up residence between my ribs. I realized, with some disappointment, that I’d have made a terrible spy. I didn’t have the calm for it. Even familiar faces proved unsettling. I spotted two men wandering up the corridor toward us and grabbed Genie, pulling her back into a recess, the two of us pressing as flat as possible, even though we were hopefully still invisible. Dylan and Garrett! Two guys who might as well have been uncles! The sight of them had almost given me a coronary.

  “Don’t… worry. They can’t… see us,” Genie wheezed through the pain. Both of us poked our heads out like meerkats, still connected. “If we wait a few… more seconds, they’ll… be gone.”

  “I’m starting to think this… was a bad idea,” I admitted. Genie tended to be the guts of our operations, while I provided the anxious hair-pulling. In fact, she’d been the one to suggest we do this. I’d spoken about a certain creature so many times, I’d finally broken the camel’s back. She’d all but insisted we take matters into our own hands and actually act on my curiosities instead of just speculating.

  “We’re so close, Persie. Leviathan… is within shouting… distance.”

  At the sound of his name, a fresh wave of anxiety washed over me. “I think I’m going to… be sick. But that might… be the pain.” It simply wouldn’t let up. “Anyway, I thought… we weren’t using… his name?”

  “Argh… sorry, I forgot. This pain… is messing with my head.” Genie chuckled and gave me a nudge in the ribs. “It’s okay, I… promise. I know a thing or two about… sea beasts from my mom’s old journals. There’s nothing in there… that you can’t handle. And Leviathan… is frozen in a box. He can’t hurt… you. This is your shot at getting answers, Persie. Or do you want to carry on, never… knowing what the deal with him is? If that’s the case, we can turn around.”

  Genie stared at me expectantly, the green-tinged forcefield swimming around us.

  She was right. I needed answers. But… What if he says something I don’t want to hear? I didn’t say it out loud.

  See, when I was a kid, I’d wandered away from my parents while they were speaking to Tobe in the Bestiary. I remembered feeling a weird pull, magnetic and intense, toward a certain door, and I’d beelined to it. I managed to push the door open and take a few steps into a strange, huge hall with a large box at one end. If I closed my eyes, I could still see every detail, down to the elaborate patterns of frost on the panes of the box, like breath in winter. Anyway, my mom and dad had caught up to me before I could get any farther, and that was when they’d laid down the ban. From that day forward, I was forbidden from entering that hall, and Tobe had made sure to keep watch and see that the embargo prevailed.

  What don’t they want to tell me? I’d tried to pry answers out of them, but they refused to discuss it. Actually, no, that’s not specifically true. They’d given me a tantalizing nugget that I couldn't forget. They’d said, “Leviathan is dangerous and presents an unknown threat to you.” And that was all they’d say. So, here I was, edging closer to potential answers. Despite the potential for danger.

  “Keep going or… give up. Your choice.” Genie delivered an ultimatum. One I needed to hear. If I left now, I’d lose my nerve and have to stay silent on the subject forevermore. But if I steeled myself, then I wouldn’t have to wonder anymore. I could know, one way or another, if Leviathan had answers for me. That was worth being brave for.

  I flexed my hands a few times to dispel the nerves that had gotten bunched up in my fingers. “Let's keep… going.”

  She gave my shoulders a squeeze. “You’re doing… the right thing.” She peered around to make sure Garrett and Dylan were gone. “So, we should probably… hurry up before I… can’t hold this anymore.”

  I’ve come too far to turn back now. I repeated the mantra, trying to stave off any more doubts that might send me back the way I’d come. After all, I didn’t carry those books and endure this forcefield for nothing.

  Genie pushed me forward on the home stretch. She stayed beside me with her hands on my arms, acting as my cheerleader, until we reached the Bestiary doors just up the corridor: two enormous black monstrosities with golden lion heads roaring out in place of handles. This time, we had no choice but to open the door ourselves. I only hoped Tobe’s security system wouldn’t pick up on the anomaly.

  Opening it just enough, the two of us crept into the vast expanse of glass boxes and Purge beasts beyond. My eyes darted toward the formidable atrium at the center of the space, fueling the magical world one Purge beast at a time. It never failed to amaze me. All these beings, swirling inside their boxes, had come from magicals, hurled into existence when the time was right.

  Another thing I’ll never get to experience. I didn’t mind that one so much. The creatures might have been wild and wonderful, morphing out of black mist into beasts that littered mythologies and legends the world over, but it sounded like a painful feat for all involved. And I doubted I could ever have lived up to my mom’s benchmark of birthing a freaking Child of Chaos. Yeah, my mom was cooler than most. A gift and a curse.

  “This is… it,” Genie whispered excitedly. With my friend tucke
d behind me, we stalked toward the far door, where Leviathan’s secrets awaited me. And, since Tobe hadn’t come screeching between the boxes to catch us in the act, I guessed her trick was working, and we hadn’t been spotted coming in.

  Just keep going. Just keep going. Just keep going. My nerves were alight. I looked around for signs of Tobe, knowing he could appear at any moment and blast this attempt out of the water. But the avenues between the glass boxes stayed empty, and we continued walking. It was almost more than my nervous heart could bear.

  A sharp clatter sounded to my left, and I clamped my hand over my mouth before a proper scream could unleash itself, echoing out into the Bestiary and ruining everything. A gargoyle slobbered on the glass pane beside me, bumping its ugly head against the box as though it wanted to make dinner out of me.

  “Easy there, jitterbug. They can’t hurt you. Those boxes are designed to keep them in,” Genie reassured me, her voice more even. I guessed she’d gotten used to the burning sensation. “Anyway, it can’t see you with the shield up.”

  “I feel like it… can! What if it cracks the glass?” I hissed, my eyes glued to the monstrous face only inches from my own.

  She laughed softly. “It won’t be a gargoyle that cracks one open, that’s for sure.”

  “That’s… not comforting.” I curled my hands into fists and tried to pull myself together, as Genie continued her advance toward Leviathan’s hall.

  I tried to focus on the glass boxes instead of my imminent breakdown. Whorls of black smoke twirled inside, like ink dropped in a glass of water. When I painted, there was nothing more satisfying than that first dip of a paintbrush into the water… I loved it. Plumes of pastel, twirling in the liquid, creating beautiful shapes that invited the eye to interpret. I saw whole worlds in one cup of water. Worlds I could never emulate on paper. They belonged to the transient medium of that solitary glass—a temporary glimpse of beauty that wasn’t made to last.

  “Here we go!” Genie said excitedly, breaking me out of my reverie. At least I felt calmer. Or I had, until she’d spoken.

  She pushed through the door into Leviathan’s hall, keeping the shield up to avoid any watchful security. “I can’t keep this going for very long,” she explained. “You’ve got about five minutes until I have to admit defeat. This is killing me, and I don’t imagine it’s a walk in the park for you, either, but it was the only thing I could think of to fox Tobe’s security system.”

  Five minutes… will that be long enough? At the far end of the cavernous hall, which echoed emptily, there stood a huge glass enclosure. It was just as I’d remembered it, down to the frost patterns that dusted the surface. Behind the frost, however, I saw something that hadn’t been there before. Subtle movement, shadowed and furtive, making it seem as though the box were full of beings that drifted in and out of view. Or perhaps that was just my eyes playing tricks on me.

  “I can’t do this.” I stopped abruptly, my heart beating out an entire carnival in my chest. The idea had been easier to deal with than the reality. Now, faced with what I wanted, I didn’t know if I wanted it anymore. There was something… off about this room. The space thrummed with menace, cold and biting, sending up the hairs on the back of my neck. And that glass enclosure stood at the center of it all, the core of the danger.

  Genie whirled around. “You’re kidding, right? But he’s right there!”

  “I know, but…” I trailed off, my mind sparking in a thousand directions. I wanted to find out more about him, direct from the source. I wanted to understand this strange connection between us—the one that had driven me to this very door, twelve years ago. I wanted to understand why I wasn’t allowed in here and what my parents weren’t telling me. Leviathan had the answers. I just needed to keep going and get them.

  Genie pressed on. “Look, I know you’re freaking out. It’s only natural. You’re about to speak to an ancient monster about some weird bond between the two of you. I’d be having a bit of a freak-out as well, if I were in your shoes.”

  I sighed. “No, you wouldn’t. You’d stride up to that box and… demand answers. You wouldn’t hesitate.”

  “It’s all about faking it until you make it, Persie. I act brave when I don’t feel brave. I act confident when I’m not. I trick my mind into believing it.” She smiled at me. “Your mom and dad don’t have the answers you’re after. Only he does. And the truth can set you free. But if you really don’t want to do this, we can go back. I mean it. I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t feel ready for. Just know that I’m going to support you through this if you do decide to go for it. It’s totally up to you.”

  Why does this feel all wrong? I wondered if the dutiful daughter side of me was getting in the way. I rarely set a foot out of line, and when I did, I was always quick with an apology, ready to face the consequences. But this had something to do with who I was. Leviathan held the key to a door that had been locked all my life. A door I would never have known existed, had I not stumbled on this place when I was little. And that magnetic pull would only continue to grate on me if I turned back now. Besides, wasn’t it better to ask forgiveness than permission?

  “You’re right.” I made my choice.

  Genie offered me an encouraging look. “I’m here, no matter what. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I know this is what you need to do. But I’ve got you, okay?”

  “Thank you.” It didn’t seem like enough, but it was all I had. I only wished I didn’t have to rely on her to stop anything from happening to me. If I’d had magic of my own, I’d have been able to protect myself. Truthfully, I’d never felt the absence of Chaos more keenly than I did at that moment. Nobody really wanted to be the damsel of their own story. Still, if I had to have a white knight, I was glad it was her.

  With the shield still up, we approached Leviathan’s enclosure. Our footsteps ricocheted faintly between the vast walls, sounding small and insignificant. I fixed my eyes forward, not wanting to look away from the glass box. Fear, anticipation, dread, hope, and a million other emotions swarmed inside me like the mist I thought I’d seen inside this box, behind the frost and the ice.

  “He’s… coming.” I gulped. A core of black throbbed in the center of his frozen block, and a sudden vibration cut right through the heart of me. It shot out from the middle of the box and didn’t stop, a steady thud, like war drums approaching. And I didn’t know if it was just my imagination, but I swore I heard the sound of ice cracking. I might not have been able to see the monster yet, but I could feel him. His presence shivered up my spine, prickling the hairs and making my hands shake violently.

  Suddenly, a voice boomed through the yawning hall, and the forcefield vanished. The sound had startled Genie so hard that she’d let it go.

  “Iphigenia Vertis and Persephone Merlin-Crowley!”

  I whipped around, lightning fast, to find myself face-to-furry-chest with a very grumpy, very disapproving Tobe. I tilted my head up to look him in his feline eyes—a beautiful shade of layered gold and chartreuse and bronze, with flecks of brown and green and silver that made the color impossible to replicate. Believe me, I’d tried.

  “We… uh… I just wanted to… uh…” I gave up. It was obvious what we’d been doing.

  “You both know that this place is prohibited.” Tobe strode ahead of us and waved a chunky paw across the front of the enclosure. A sheen of bronzed light shot up, concealing the box from view. He’d raised a barrier to prohibit sight and sound, and now I couldn’t see or hear anything. I couldn’t even feel the unnerving coldness that whispered of menace. In a split second, that barrier had blocked it all.

  And we’ve just been caught breaking a major rule… for nothing. Genie and I exchanged a glance of dread. Tobe was levelheaded, and though he might have been disappointed, he hadn’t yelled or gotten angry with us. But it wasn’t the Beast Master I was afraid of.

  Two

  Harley

  I stood out on my office balcony, mug of coffee in h
and, and let the perfect San Diegan afternoon wash over me. Gulls wheeled overhead and the trees whispered their secrets, egged on by the balmy breeze that swept over the national park. I took a sip and nestled farther into my light sweatshirt. I didn’t get peaceful moments to myself like this very often. Still, life as a whole was quieter than it used to be. Nearly twenty years had gone by since Atlantis rose, and no shiny new tyrants had reared their ugly heads since. Apparently, they’d gotten the message.

  The world, magical and non-magical, is for no one’s taking. I took a longer sip and winced as it scalded my tongue.

  These days, I viewed the past and present as pre-Persie and post-Persie. I saw the passage of time in her growth and in the mirror every morning. Pesky new lines around my eyes, my skin a little less elastic, regardless of what pricey creams I piled on. But Wade still loved me, no matter how time changed me. And I loved him. Differently, I guessed, from those heady days when we were young, but oddly the same. We were just a bit softer, maybe.

  “Eighteen…” I said the number aloud against the bronzed landscape. “How can she be turning eighteen already?” It seemed like the more years went by, the faster they came.

  I vowed not to cry into my coffee. My emotions were all over the place, and seeing my baby grow up wasn’t the only thing I had to worry about.

  I closed my eyes and recalled the fateful day that Persie had come into the world. I had barely been able to enjoy my pregnancy due to fear, and I’d even had Melody delve into her Librarian back catalogue to surround me with as many protective hexes as possible, in the hopes it’d keep Leviathan away. But there had been no escaping him.

  Exhausted from the birth, and sore in places no woman deserved to be, I’d drifted off to try and claw back some energy. I don’t know how long I was out, but something woke me sharply. Like bursting out of a nightmare, sweaty and breathless. I blinked awake to find a swirling mass of water leering over the cot beside me. My nameless newborn’s cot, with her inside it, pink and new and beautiful. Leviathan had come to seal the deal that I’d made with Echidna, Mother of Monsters. And, somehow, he’d managed to send out his mind and manipulate the water in the Infirmary from the safety of his Bestiary box to make it happen.