Harley Merlin 11: Finch Merlin and the Lost Map Read online

She’s just sleeping. How many daughters had to plunge syringes into their moms like this? Every time, I tried not to shudder and break down. This shade of gray would never sit well with me. But it helped her, in more ways than one. Every time she woke up from a long, magical nap, she had a slightly better memory. A temporary reboot. It always got worse again, but those moments right after she woke up were some of the best we could hope for. I looked forward to them, in a weird way. It was like having my mom back, the way she used to be, even just for an hour or two.

  I sank down on my haunches and looked at her. She looked peaceful. No fear, no pain, no confusion. If I’d been made of tougher stuff, I might’ve been able to let her go and wish for a higher power, or whatever, to take all her worries away. But I wasn’t that strong. I wanted to keep my mom around as long as possible, even if it took away pieces of me. I could live with her calling me someone else’s name, or not knowing me at all, as long as her heart kept beating. Maybe that was selfish. I didn’t care.

  Tears hit me. They didn’t come often, and never around Inez. I kept them for the shower, usually, where they mixed with the water and nobody would be the wiser. This time, they came unscheduled. Sinking lower, I held my head in my hands and let the tears fall.

  What else can I do? Would I keep stabbing her with needles? Would I watch as she wasted away into nothing? What if she never had a good day again? The bad days hurt Inez more than they hurt me, which messed me up even more. My sister just wanted her mom. I just wanted my mom. And she pulled further away from us with every passing day, every lapse. Big, ugly sobs wracked my chest, and I didn’t fight them.

  Maybe Harley’s right.

  Joining the SDC wouldn’t just mean being under their watchful eye—it could be a safe haven. Years ago, I’d never have considered it, but covens had changed a lot since my mother’s dealings with them. Everything had changed after the Katherine situation. Last time I’d visited the coven, Harley had suggested Mom might be better off in a controlled environment, under Krieger’s constant care. And I was starting to agree.

  I was gearing up to sob a little more when a knock exploded through the air. My head snapped up. Inez couldn’t see me like this.

  I got to my feet and smeared my eyes with the back of my baggy sleeves. Why had she come back? Had she forgotten something? If she kicked up another fuss about going to school, I didn’t know if I’d be able to hack it. I didn’t want to lay into her. That wouldn’t be fair. But I’d reached my lowest freaking point. And I worried I might crack.

  Still wiping my eyes, I went to the door and looked through the peephole. Ordinarily, I could see anyone there and the hallway behind them. Right then, I couldn’t see anything, as if something blocked out the light completely. A sense of dread scurried up my spine like escaped ants.

  “Who’s there?” I demanded.

  A soft chuckle filtered back. “My name is Erebus. I am the one person who can help your mother.”

  Erebus? Yeah, that definitely sent alarm bells ringing.

  Seven

  Kenzie

  “I’m waiting,” Erebus said.

  I rested one hand on the lock, the other reaching for the shotgun I kept by the door.

  “How do I know you are who you say, huh? You could be a security magical!” I shouted back.

  “I chose to knock, to be polite. I can break the door down if you prefer a display of power.”

  I grabbed the shotgun and put it behind my back. “Don’t break it down. You think I’ve got money to burn repairing hinges?”

  “Then let me in.”

  “Or what, you’ll huff, and you’ll puff, and you’ll blow this house down?” I demanded.

  “That is entirely up to you, Mackenzie,” he replied.

  How does he know who I am? I hadn’t hung around in Elysium long enough to know this guy, or for him to know me, but I’d heard enough from Harley, Finch, and the others. This wasn’t the type of guy to mess with. I’d have preferred police.

  “All right, hang on a sec.” I slid back the cluster of bolts. Keeping the top one on the chain, knowing it likely wouldn’t make a difference, I peered into the hallway.

  I expected a misty swarm of shadow. Instead, the most handsome dude I’d ever seen stood in front of me. I did a double take. This couldn’t be Erebus. He had a body, for starters. An odd one, sure, but definitely solid. He wore a sharp, expensive suit of dark gray that hugged every carved muscle. His skin and eyes were unnaturally dark, but even so, I didn’t believe Erebus stood in my doorway.

  “Nice try, punk. Who are you?” I glared at him. “Erebus is some floaty wisp in an otherworld. He doesn’t walk around on two feet, and definitely not on planet Earth.” Had someone sent this guy? Someone who knew too much about me, trying to trick me? It wouldn’t be the first time. Helping gangs came with risks, even though they did what they could to protect me.

  “I’m still getting used to human form, if that makes you feel better.” He smiled, his black eyes glinting. “But I am Erebus. And I can cure your mother, if you help me in return. A fair exchange.”

  “Fine, so what if you’re Erebus? Back up, I mean it. I’ve got a shotgun, and I know how to use it.”

  He chuckled. “I knew you would be spirited. I’m pleased you aren’t a disappointment, though be careful what you say to me. I like to be amused, but I don’t care to be insulted. I am trying to aid you, and I’d hate for us to start off on the wrong foot.”

  “You shouldn’t even have feet!” I raised my free hand, keeping the shotgun tucked behind me in the other. My Esprit—a plain silver thumb ring—glowed white as I brandished it in his face. The light vanished against his all-black eyes in the strangest way. As if he somehow sucked the light right into them. Weird. Children of Chaos had a certain energy to them—a dangerous energy. And this guy emanated that energy by the bucketload.

  “What are you going to do with that?” he taunted.

  “Whatever I have to. Don’t test me.” I’d learned a few tricks from my mom before her illness. Magic worked better than a shotgun, though the end result was pretty similar: a stain on the back wall that’d be a nightmare to scrub off.

  Erebus sighed. “Don’t say you weren’t warned.” He touched the door with his jet-black hand. A moment later, it burst open, the chain vaporized. An invisible pulse sent me sailing across the living room, where I hit the back of the couch with a thud. The shotgun hurtled out of my hand and slid across the floor. Burner phones and SIM cards skittered off the kitchen table, the half-filled boxes tipped over by the blast.

  My eyes shot up as Erebus stepped in. “Cheers for that, asshole! Now I’ll have to sort them all again. I’m on a deadline, you tool!”

  Tendrils shot out of his hands and grasped me around the waist. They lifted me and put me back on my feet.

  “I did try to give you a choice,” he said.

  “Like I’m going to trust some dude I don’t know? Look at the neighborhood you’re in. I meet everyone at the door with a shotgun and a warning. What, you think ‘cause you rock up in a fancy suit, that gives you the right to bust people’s doors open and do what you like? Unbelievable!”

  He smirked. “I’ll help you put all your pilfered goods back into their correct boxes. But first, how about we discuss my proposition?”

  “Take a hike, dickweed,” I spat.

  His expression darkened. “What did I say about insults?” He tutted loudly. “Either you help me willingly, and I assist in curing your mother, or I make you help me, and you get nothing in return. Be smart, Mackenzie. I may have a human body, but I am still Darkness incarnate. And you do not provoke Darkness. You obey it.”

  “I bet you say that to all the girls.” It took all my courage to give him a bit of backtalk. Honestly, I was crapping myself. I’d dealt with every breed of thug around, and none had struck fear in me like this guy. Mainly because he wasn’t all talk, like thugs were. I believed every word Erebus said. I knew I shouldn’t disrespect him. Just looking into those
eyes told me that danger stood right in front of me.

  “Only the ones who struggle to understand the situation they are in,” he replied casually. Even his calm oozed menace. I felt it, right in the pit of my chest. That same instinct made people walk a different way at night or lock their car doors at an intersection.

  “Why me? Don’t say you’re feeling generous. I know enough about you. That ain’t your style.” I fought against the tendrils that held me, but they gripped tighter. A bit tighter, and he’d choke the air right out of me.

  He grinned. “Why not you?”

  “Because, unless you’re in the market for a stolen cellphone, there’s not much I can do for you. Are you getting the human itch to go digital? Is that it?”

  “You must agree first. Then, I will give you the details of our potential arrangement. I assure you, it has nothing to do with contraband.”

  I frowned. “How’s that fair? Who enters a deal without knowing the details?”

  He laughed sharply. “Finch, for one.”

  “But you had him against the ropes. Finch had to say yes or lose the chance to kill Katherine and save the freaking world. As far as I can tell, you’re not giving me any stakes that high.” I paused. “Is this something to do with him?”

  “Your mother’s life isn’t a high enough stake for you?” He landed another killer truth bomb. “That does surprise me. As for what you will help me with—as I said, that will have to wait until I have your agreement… or your disagreement. It makes little difference to me. It is less effort if I don’t have to do anything in return, but I like to give the option.”

  I wriggled against his Telekinetic restraints. He watched me strain, an irritating smirk on his lips. He enjoyed his power. People who had it normally did. It annoyed me that he’d managed to put me in this position. I always had an escape route. Always. Then again, I usually knew when I put myself at risk, and prepared for it. He’d come out of left field and taken me by surprise.

  He squeezed the tendrils a little tighter. My ribcage ached under the pressure. I had no clue whether he’d kill me. If he wanted me for something, maybe not. But Children of Chaos were temperamental suckers. A dead human meant nothing to them. They wouldn’t lose sleep thinking about the families left to cope without those humans. And he is offering me an olive branch… a really tempting one.

  “Can you really cure my mom?” I needed to know. I’d made a song and dance about doing anything and everything to fix my mom’s illness. If I didn’t, when the chance lay in front of me, that’d make me a hypocrite.

  He nodded. “Help me, and I will help her. Resist me, and you’ll help me, while still watching your mother suffer. Surely, the choice is simple? But you mortals are very peculiar, so perhaps not.”

  There is no choice… Save Mom or don’t. That was it, in a nutshell.

  I took a breath, pushing against the tendrils. “Fine. I’ll help you.”

  He let me go, to the relief of my gasping lungs. “I am pleased to hear it. I have learned that one catches more flies with honey, so, in return for your willingness to assist me in these matters, I will look over your mother’s condition and create a course of action to heal her. As promised. Voodoo curses are treacherous beasts, especially the ancient variety, but I have yet to come across a curse I could not untangle.”

  He seemed serious, but my wariness turned up to eleven. As he stepped toward the couch, I blocked his path.

  “Can’t you assess her from a distance, since you’re so powerful and all?” I didn’t trust him around Mom. I didn’t trust him, period, but my mom and my sister made up my entire world. Nobody got near them without my say-so.

  He raised an eyebrow at me. A weird image—Erebus with eyebrows. “Do you want me to help her, or is this you saying you prefer to work for free?”

  “Fair point.” I resisted the urge to call him something rude. He’d warned me about insults, and I didn’t want to test that again. My ribcage couldn’t take another squeezing.

  I held it together as Erebus walked around the couch to my mom. He knelt beside her, and his hands moved up and down inches from her body. Black fumes seeped from his palms, spilling over Mom’s sleeping form. If he woke her up, I’d jab him in the back of the head. But, for now, all I could do was watch and wait. Two of my least favorite activities.

  I focused on him instead. “Perfect” sprang to mind. His face looked so symmetrical it seemed fake. Every feature could’ve been carved out of stone and I wouldn’t have questioned it. A jaw and a set of cheekbones that could slice a whole fruit salad, a strong nose, strong brow, strong everything. So right it looked wrong, close up. And that Dark energy… it added a razor-sharp edge to him that sent shivers down my spine whenever he caught me staring.

  Has he always been able to cross into the real world? If memory served, Children of Chaos couldn’t. I didn’t know how he’d nabbed this human body. Had he gone down the same route as Katherine, or done something new? No idea. But only Erebus could’ve made humanity look so terrifying.

  “Have you let Finch go? Is that why you’re here, harassing me instead?” I broke the silence.

  “No.”

  “Will you ever let him go?” Finch and I hadn’t spoken much this past year, but I still considered him a friend. One of my only friends, in fact. Erebus must be up to some shady business, and I didn’t want Finch getting hurt in the process.

  He chuckled. “Maybe.”

  “Maybe? How can you say that, after what you just said about sticking to your end of the bargain?”

  “You don’t know the terms of our agreement,” Erebus replied.

  “What are you using him for?” I pressed.

  “That is for me to know. You need only concern yourself with your deal, not his.”

  I sighed, frustrated. “Is this human get-up part of your plan? You’re not taking over the world, are you? We’ve already been there, done that, got the T-shirt.”

  He paused and glanced at me. He didn’t look amused. “My human form is part of a personal endeavor, and I have no interest in enslaving mortals.”

  “What’s the ‘personal endeavor’ then?”

  “Personal.” His voice bristled with warning. Time to shut up. “I have set pieces in motion, and they do not threaten your world, so I suggest you stop asking.”

  “Am I one of those pieces?”

  A creepy smile curved his lips. “You, my dear Mackenzie, are an extremely important piece.”

  “No one calls me Mackenzie,” I shot back.

  “As you prefer. I find nicknames crass, that’s all.” He looked back down at my mom. “By the way, I know how to cure your dear mother.”

  “You do?” My eyes flew wide, my heart ready to burst. “How?”

  “We need to find the one who cast this spell on her.”

  My jaw hit the floor. An answer… a real freaking answer. It didn’t sound like it would be easy, but to hell with easy. I’d walk through Hell itself to save her. Now that Erebus had given me a sliver of hope, I planned to cling to that sucker until we lifted this damn curse altogether.

  Do you hear that, Mom? We’re getting you out of this. We’re getting you out of this!

  Eight

  Kenzie

  “Where do we go, what do we do, and who do we talk to so we can get this thing out of her?” I jumped right in. If Mom could be cured, why wait around?

  Erebus stood up. “Patience, Kenzie.”

  “Screw patience. You obviously know how long I’ve waited for this chance to come along, or you wouldn’t have used it to lure me into your deal,” I countered.

  He folded his arms across his chest, his suit sleeves straining over bulging muscles. “This is no quick task. You obviously know that, given how long you have waited for answers. The curse upon her is an ancient, and very well disguised, blood magic curse. You would be hard pressed to find any book, in any library, that contained word of it.”

  My shock and excitement faded. “Wait, none of this makes
any sense.”

  “How so?”

  “Marie Laveau figured it predated her, so the ancient part makes sense. But why didn’t she suggest finding the person who cursed my mom? If it’s that straightforward, it doesn’t make sense that she never considered it.”

  Erebus smirked. “There is a great deal about Voodoo that not even Marie Laveau knows. With this particular curse being so well-concealed and ancient in its craftsmanship, she likely suspected a spirit had placed it upon your mother. There would be no use trailing after such an entity, as it would require complicated Necromancy and other difficult magic. A nigh-impossible task.”

  “You don’t think a spirit did this?”

  He shook his head. “I know they didn’t. I can feel the pulse of life incorporated within the curse. Marie Laveau’s Voodoo skills are exemplary, but the ‘signature,’ if you will, is buried deep, and you must know what you seek. Fortunately, I do.”

  “I thought you did djinn magic, not Voodoo.” I cocked my head at him, beginning to believe him.

  “As Voodoo tends to err on the side of Darkness, in terms of magical balance, it is my duty to know it. As such, I have gained all the secrets of this dark craft, from its very inception to the present day.”

  “Is blood magic the same as Voodoo magic?”

  “It is a branch of the same tree. This curse settled on your mother many years ago, likely when you were eight or nine.” He gave me a black stare. “Do you remember anyone coming to the house during that time?”

  “That can’t be right. You must have your calculations muddled, bud.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

  “That can’t be right. My dad was still alive then, and she only went downhill after he died.”

  My dad had died in Iraq. A United Magicals peacekeeper, he’d stood in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bullets don’t care what color you’re wearing.

  “I assure you, I am not mistaken.” Erebus tapped his sharp jaw in thought. “Perhaps you should think of the curse as a slow-working poison, or a cancerous disease. The first symptoms are not immediately obvious, and it can be years before the victim realizes something is wrong. By then, it is usually too late to avoid it. The curse grows stronger with time, sapping more and more strength. The longer it remains, the harder it is to remove.”