Harley Merlin 8: Harley Merlin and the Challenge of Chaos Read online

  “Also, there’s a risk that Hiram and Hester will come back as dysfunctional zombies, with no speech or motor skills. Naturally, that presents the same problem—there’ll be no way to find these memories, if that happens. Euphoria requires a conscious, focused state of mind. Zombies don’t tend to have that.”

  My confidence was dwindling by the second. For some stupid reason, him not immediately telling me it was impossible had given me a surge of hope, but I should have known that it would come with a million provisos and risks. He wasn’t painting a particularly optimistic image.

  “And nobody has ever done this kind of thing before?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Nobody, aside from a few unproven rumors.”

  “So, it’s majorly illegal, huh?”

  “All of the resurrections I’ve done so far have been legal, as I mentioned before, but absolutely nobody in the magical community is comfortable with this ability. Ever. If it needs to be done, then it gets done. But everyone turns a blind eye. In this case, we’re talking about an abominable, potentially catastrophic act, not only because of the possible collision of realms, but because your mom and dad have been dead for so long. Using borrowed corpses is unethical, for obvious reasons, and risky as hell. Illegal doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

  I tried to grip tight to my hope. “And we need a second Necromancer who’s cool with that?”

  “Exactly. That may be the truly impossible part.”

  “You can’t resurrect them both?” I figured it was best to ask, on the off-chance.

  “I’m not even sure I can resurrect one of them, or what trying will do to me. I already go into a Purge when I resurrect someone legally. Imagine what may happen if I try this—something I’ve never done before that’s beyond the known limits of my ability.”

  I sank back in the chair and gave myself a moment to think it all through. After everything he’d told me, I could see just how massive this task was, and the enormity of what I was asking. The grave-robbing would have been bad enough, but risking a collision of worlds, too?

  WWKD? What would Katherine have done, in this position? I knew the answer to that, without hesitation. She’d have held two Necromancers at Chaos-point until they did what she asked, not giving two hoots for the potentially catastrophic aftermath. I had to be that ruthless if I wanted to stop her. I needed those hidden pages. They were the only thing standing between our current world and the utter calamity that would emerge under Katherine’s rule. This was legitimately our last chance to stop her before she ascended.

  I gave my answer to the Chains of Truth. I have to give that same answer now. I’d told them that I would be willing to sacrifice everything and everyone, in the pursuit of killing Katherine. My heart already knew the truth—I just had to force the words out of my mouth and take action.

  “I need you to do it,” I said, at last. “Desperate times call for insane measures, and we have to be willing to break every rule, for the sake of this world. I don’t like it any more than you do, but Katherine hasn’t given us a choice. Too many lives are at stake.”

  Maybe it would change me forever and skew my moral compass beyond repair, but it had to be done. I just hoped we could avoid the catastrophic aspect. I remembered the fear I’d felt on Eris Island when those spirits had come floating through the walls. I didn’t want to see that happen again, all across the globe. But I trusted Alton. He’d be careful—he, more than anyone else, knew what might happen if he wasn’t.

  Alton stared at me, as though he was trying to read my expression. I was tempted to use my reverse Empathy on him, but I was already pushing the unethical envelope a little too far. Instead, I poured every scrap of hope and rage and determination and bitterness into my eyes and prayed he understood just what we stood to lose if we weren’t bold enough to take this terrible step. Meanwhile, the minutes ticked on, pounding from the old clock on the dusty mantle.

  “Then I suppose I’ll have to do this.” He looked like he wanted to run for the hills.

  “But you can’t tell anyone what we’re planning,” I urged. Our tight inner circle had loosened, after the events with Katherine in Krieger’s office. I couldn’t risk anyone leaking this to Katherine, but that wasn’t the only reason I wanted it to be kept on the down low. There was another, more personal reason, which nagged away in the back of my head, put there by the Chains.

  “We’ll need help—”

  I shook my head. “It has to be just you, me, and whoever we get in as the second Necromancer. I don’t want Wade or Finch, or anyone else, getting involved. I won’t lose them, too. If what we’re going to do is as dangerous as you say it is, then I don’t want them being put in harm’s way. I’m not having anyone else die on my watch. I wouldn’t survive it, and if I don’t have the will to go on, then all of this is for nothing.”

  “But—”

  “No buts, Alton. Please. We can do this on our own.” My voice gathered in strength. “And when we have the memories and we find out what purpose they serve, I’ll push forward until Katherine is gone.”

  Alton frowned. “While that’s very noble, there’s no harm in having more people help us, should anything go wrong. I know how much pain you’re in and what grief like that can do to a person, but you can’t push everyone away. They want to help you, Harley. And besides, you can’t stop them from getting hurt in the battle to come. You can’t stop them from fighting.”

  “I can, and I will. She’s not destroying them, Alton. She’s not!” My hands balled into fists, all of my grief and agony rising up at once, in one sudden burst of wild emotion. I tried to hold it all back, but it was like it didn’t even belong to me anymore. Before I could stop it, a blast of Telekinesis exploded out of me, my body lighting up a blinding white. All around me, books were thrown from their shelves, and every hint of glass in the room shattered with a deafening crack, the shards raining to the ground in a glinting torrent.

  Alton looked horrified. “Okay, okay, it was only a suggestion. We’ll do it your way. Just you and me and this second Necromancer. Nobody else has to know.” He was panicked. My anger had thrown him off guard. Good.

  “I mean it—nobody is allowed to know,” I said.

  He raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, nobody will know. We’ll focus all of our efforts on getting the Hidden Things spell completed, and then we’ll talk about bringing the others back in. Does that sound fair?”

  “For now.”

  “Well then, I suppose I should try to find a second Necromancer.” He ran an anxious hand through his hair, which had grayed a little more in the past few months. “I’ll call you when I have a lead. In the meantime, you should try and vent some of your emotions. Working on the Naima angle with the rest of the Rag Team might be the best bet. Using your abilities to control Purge beasts would be a better way to channel your feelings.”

  I sighed. “Let’s hope so.” Otherwise, they might end up tearing this whole place down.

  Seven

  Harley

  Heeding Alton’s suggestion, I headed for the Bestiary, after sending a quick message to Finch and Wade to meet me there. They were waiting for me, alongside Tobe, all of them standing awkwardly in front of the main atrium. I paused for a moment to look at them, tucking myself away behind one of the glass boxes.

  I hadn’t really allowed myself to show much emotion since I’d broken down in the infirmary, but now the tears came, and my heart swelled in an unexpected way. I loved those two guys so much it hurt. Tobe, too. He’d been the one to stop me from crumbling when my world had threatened to fall apart, and I’d never forget that. But Finch and Wade were more than friends—they were family, one by shared blood, one by shared souls. My boyfriend and my brother, standing side by side, waiting for me as if they’d always wait, as long as I asked them to.

  But I can’t keep asking. My love for these two, and for Tobe, and Alton, and the rest of the Rag Team, only cemented the truth of our intertwined futures: I had to push through t
he battles to come on my own so that they’d live. So that their hearts would keep beating, even if mine stopped. I wasn’t trying to be a martyr; I was just trying to do the best thing, for their sakes.

  Wiping my eyes, I emerged from behind the glass box. They smiled as I came closer, giving me the courage I needed. Even if I died in order to kill Katherine, they’d learn to smile again, like this. And that was worth fighting solo for.

  “Sleeping on the job, Sis?” Finch grinned.

  “Huh?”

  He chuckled. “Wade told me you’d snuck off for a snooze. Wish I could get hold of some of Krieger’s famous sleeping pills. I can’t remember the last time I had a good night’s sleep.”

  “Oh… yeah, I couldn’t sleep. I figured I should make myself useful instead.” I remembered the lie I’d told Wade. I hated to admit it, but it was probably going to be the first in a big line of lies to come.

  “And you don’t need any more pills,” Wade teased.

  “Oof, harsh.” Finch nudged him in the arm, though he seemed genuinely amused. “My nutjob pills have a list of side effects as long as my arm. One of them is insomnia. Seriously, I’ve watched endless repeats of Duck Dynasty, and even that’s not enough to knock me out.”

  Wade laughed, and the sound made me want to throw my arms around him. “What are the other side effects? Rudeness? Foot-in-mouth syndrome? Bad jokes? A love of trash reality TV?”

  “Ah, so you’re familiar with them?” Finch smirked, but his expression suddenly changed. “You know I’m only joking about the sleeping, right? You deserve to get some rest.”

  I nodded. “I’ve learned to take most of what you say with a hefty pinch of salt.”

  “Good… just wanted to check.” He ran an awkward hand through his hair. He’d gone back to blond with a little temporary Shapeshifting, but not the platinum shade from before. Now, it was more of a golden tone, verging on strawberry. A shade all his own, not tied to his past or his mother. I knew things had to be bad, if he was starting to check himself when it came to his jokes. He had no idea that his humor was one of the things I loved the most about him, because I knew it would bring a smile to my face when almost nothing else could. His humor, Wade’s kisses, and Tobe’s stoic presence—they were my pillars.

  “All of the preparations have been made for your training, Harley.” Tobe smiled at me. “I thought we might begin with the gargoyles, as they will provide excellent practice for you.”

  “They act like puppies around her, seriously.” Finch snapped out of his uncertainty. “Big, ugly, leathery puppies.”

  I mustered a small chuckle. “Let’s hope they still listen to me. Murray’s not in there, is he?” I remembered that particular gargoyle from our encounter months ago.

  Tobe shook his head. “He is in a box all of his own. He does not play well with others.”

  No, he freaking doesn’t.

  We made our way through the Bestiary, passing the feathered serpent from Santana’s Purge. I guessed that cute little snake was too small to practice on, given the time constraints—we needed bigger fish. Continuing on, we headed toward the gargoyle enclosure at the back of one of the branching halls. It was a vast glass box that reminded me of a weird aviary, only there were no birds flapping inside. Instead, black smoke twisted and twirled, bashing into the glass every so often, before dispersing back into the misty expanse within.

  Tobe approached the glass box and retrieved his enormous set of keys from inside the ruffled feathers of his wings. He found the right key almost instantly and slid it into the lock. My heart lurched as it clicked, and he opened the door. A ripple of energy passed across the threshold, faintly revealing the forcefield that kept the gargoyles from escaping. Magicals could pass through it, but Purge Beasts couldn’t, with the sole exception of Tobe.

  “You may begin whenever you feel ready,” Tobe urged.

  I nodded. “No time like the present.”

  “Knock on the door and we’ll get you out,” Wade said, his hand on the small of my back.

  “Yeah, wouldn’t want our last chance of ending Katherine to be turned into gargoyle chow.” That was probably Finch’s form of encouragement.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I replied.

  He smiled. “Any time, Sis.”

  Gathering my nerves, I stepped through the forcefield and tried not to back away as the door closed behind me, the key turning in the lock. They’re just gargoyles… nothing to be worried about. I tried to convince myself that was true, but I’d seen what these suckers could do to people they didn’t like. Memories of them escaping pounded in my skull, but that was in the past now—that had happened before I knew I could control them.

  As I stared into the swirling smoke, shapes began to appear, and I set to work on mustering the right kind of juice. Delving into myself, I tried to remember what I’d done the last time, on Eris Island. As I tried to find the tendrils of my reverse Empathy so I could send them out at the gargoyles, the black mist expanded into limbs and faces and wings as the gargoyles came out in force, curious to find out who’d dared to enter their realm. Black liquid dripped from their pointed fangs, and they beat out a drumbeat with their leathery wings. But they seemed to be keeping their distance, more intrigued by me than wanting to gouge out my eyes.

  Come on, how does this thing work again?

  I was about to shout out a command, when one fluttered close, forcing me to stand still—my “if I don’t move, it won’t be able to see me” strategy. This gargoyle seemed overly familiar, as if it thought it knew me. I tried to recall whether I’d met this one before, when we’d all fought to get these creatures back into the SDC, but they all looked the same to me. Murray? No, Tobe had said he was in his own box. Still, it seemed almost friendly. It flapped even closer, until I could feel the wind of its flight whipping across my face. Its tongue shot out of its mouth and slathered my cheek with a streak of thick, oily mucus. I struggled not to shudder.

  No sooner had its tongue made contact than it reeled back, an almighty screech tearing out of its throat. As that bloodcurdling sound shivered through the glass box, the mood changed. The gargoyles focused more intently on me. Their mouths opened in an echo of that screech, until the deafening cacophony made me cover my ears.

  “Listen to me!” I shouted frantically, trying to send out a wave of reverse Empathy. Either I’d missed every single one of them or I wasn’t getting it right. None of them stopped. Instead, my voice only seemed to make them angrier.

  The first gargoyle swooped in, its jagged claws scratching for my face. I ducked out of the way, only to sprawl to the ground as another gargoyle divebombed me from above. All hell broke loose, with gargoyles coming at me from all angles in a frantic flurry of fangs, claws, and the stench of something rotten. I tried to defend myself, sending out another wave of reverse Empathy, but I could already feel the first stings of open wounds.

  “Listen to me!” I yelled again, sending out a third pulse, but it wasn’t doing anything.

  Leaping to my feet, I raised my palms and sent a powerful blast of Telekinesis outward, sending them all flying back like leaves in a tornado. It only angered them more. They came flying back with a vengeance, forcing me to get creative with my Elemental magic. Fireballs flashed from my fingertips, and violent gusts of Air rushed at the oncoming creatures, holding them off for a few seconds before they rallied for the next onslaught.

  “You must utilize your control over these creatures, Harley.” Tobe’s voice seeped in, distant and muffled, from beyond the box.

  You don’t say. How was I supposed to concentrate with these things flying at me non-stop? It’d been way easier with just the one, but this was a horde of gargoyles. I was starting to think I should’ve started smaller, but I was in this now, and I refused to knock on that door to be let out.

  “Let your fear fade away,” Tobe encouraged. “They have no power over you. You are the one with the power.”

  “Obey me!” I shouted, trying to
get that echoey rasp going in my throat. It had worked before, but I didn’t know the actual details of how it worked. “Obey me!”

  I faced the gargoyles head-on and reached deep inside for the overflowing emotions that boiled in my core. I grasped for grief and heartache. I hoped they would help me get the echo I needed, as they were the strongest emotions I had right now. Pulling them out of me, I felt the physical tug as I let them flow toward the oncoming horde. To my horror and disappointment, it didn’t do a damn thing. They flinched for a millisecond, before continuing their incessant attack, prompting me to send out another wave of Telekinesis, just to keep them back.

  “Stop!” I shouted, but my voice came out ordinary.

  Don’t give up. Don’t give up. If I couldn’t do this, how could I hope to face Katherine one-on-one? I had to prove that I was powerful on my own. This was as much a test of my ability as a test of my determination, and I wouldn’t fall at the first hurdle.

  I reached for hope and a sliver of happiness, gained from the sight of my brother and my boyfriend together. Half-closing my eyes, I dug deep and let it all pour out of me, the way I’d done back in the infirmary, when I’d brought everyone to tears.

  “Obey me!” Again, my voice sounded ordinary, but there was an edge of something to it.

  My body pulsated, and my veins lit up with a subtle glow, my skull throbbing with the pressure of so much emotion. The well of emotions threatened to overwhelm me completely. A sharp pain shot between my eyes and stabbed at the backs of my retinas. It didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t stop now. I could deal with a little physical pain if it meant I got these beasts under control.

  “Come on, OBEY ME!” A slight echo reverberated through my words.