Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven Read online

  Stay safe. Stay smart.

  Chapter Ten

  After we left the preceptors in the study hall, Alton took me to another part of the coven, at the opposite end of the hallway. I followed him through a series of narrow corridors. The deeper we went, the tighter the walls got around me, and the smaller I felt.

  “You said earlier that there were a lot of eyes on the coven these days,” I said. “What did you mean by that?”

  “I’m just about to show you, actually,” Alton replied softly, as we stopped in front of another door. The corridor seemed to warp around it, as the door itself was significantly taller. It was as if whatever lay beyond it had been added last, and the coven’s structure had had to adjust like play dough, stretching beyond its predefined limits.

  The walls were covered in dark-purple-and-black wallpaper, loyal to the neo-Gothic aesthetic, and the door was glazed in shiny black paint. A metal plaque was mounted at eye level: The Bestiary. Alton turned the doorknob, and we both went in. I stopped as soon as the door closed behind me, stunned by the colossal weirdness unfolding before my very eyes.

  The Bestiary was an enormous egg-shaped hall with what seemed like a series of walls and stairs cutting through it on multiple levels, creating a complicated yet fascinating 3D maze made entirely from dark gray marble with brass railings and wall-mounted sconces. The light refracted through a series of randomly placed glass and mirror lenses—until I realized their positions weren’t random at all. I could see every corner, every nook and cranny of that place in all the reflective surfaces.

  “Whoa,” I gasped, trying to wrap my head around the optics of it all. This was either an incredible feat of physics and geometry, or really cool magic. Given where I was, both were equally possible.

  “This is the Bestiary,” Alton said. He stopped several feet ahead, then turned to face me. “Remember we talked about Purges earlier?”

  I nodded, my mouth wide open as I stared at the immense structure. From what I could see in various mirrors, this was almost like a shrine, with a multitude of thick glass boxes in a variety of sizes. I caught glimpses of movement here and there, but nothing clear, nothing I could identify.

  There were also sounds—hissing, crinkling, and purring—bringing the term “bestiary” to a more literal description. They were keeping some kinds of creatures in here, but to what end?

  “And I told you that all that toxic energy materializes into a monster as soon as it makes contact with the air, with the world outside the magical’s body,” Alton continued, and I nodded again. “Well, over the past thousand years or so, we’ve found a way to harness that dark energy and put it to good use. By that time, we were already conducting controlled Purges, so we could immediately capture the monsters that emerged. One of our previous preceptors, from a different coven in France, discovered a way to draw energy from these creatures and fuel large-scale spells, such as these interdimensional pockets where we’ve built our covens. The power that these beasts hold is endless, and, if drawn moderately, it allows the creatures to naturally replenish and keep fueling our spells. Everything you see in this place, every atom, every particle of electrical current, every solid surface, and every leaf… it’s all materialized with the help of these monsters’ energy. We’ve been collecting them inside the Bestiary for a long time.”

  I understood then that the sounds I’d been hearing didn’t belong to animals, but to monsters. The memory of the gargoyle I’d dealt with outside the casino flooded back, turning my blood to ice, as the Mason jar that Wade had stuffed it into finally made a lot more sense.

  “How… How does this work?” I asked, staring at Alton.

  “Think of the Bestiary as a giant battery that fuels all the covens around the world,” he said. “Some magicals are more powerful than others, and the monsters resulting from their Purges are proportionally bigger and deadlier. But they can all lose their material form once they’re stuck inside these proprietary glass boxes. Come along, let me show you.”

  I followed him deeper into the Bestiary. He took a sharp left turn and stopped in front of a wall with about fifty glass boxes, each roughly the size of my head, with brass edges and small locks with symbols engraved around the keyholes. Each box was filled with puffs of black smoke, much like what the gargoyle had turned into the other night, prior to getting sucked into the Mason jar.

  “These are small monsters, mostly the result of Purges from young witches and warlocks who’ve used a lot of magic over a short period of time,” Alton explained. “The more magic you use, and the more powerful you are, the bigger the monster and the more painful the Purge. Looking at you, I imagine you’ve never had a Purge yourself. You won’t need to worry about having one for another year or two. It’s usually in our early twenties that we start to let the toxic stuff out.”

  “So, let me get this straight,” I murmured, unable to take my eyes off the puffs of smoke. “These are all monsters. Like the gargoyle?”

  He nodded. “More or less, yes. They’re not as big or as dangerous as the creature you and Wade encountered, but they’re the result of the same process. The moment they first touch the air, these clouds of black smoke manifest into beasts. Shapes vary depending on the magical’s nature, but they all fall into a certain category—gargoyles, changelings, trolls, and goblins, mostly. Size-wise, it’s the gargoyles and trolls you want to be careful with. Changelings and goblins are just pesky and troublesome little turds.”

  Alton gritted his teeth while referring to changelings and goblins, immediately pointing out a personal disdain for the creatures. I couldn’t stifle my grin. “I take it you don’t like them, huh?” I said.

  “I’d burn them all to a crisp, if I could,” Alton said with mild amusement, “but we need their energy. You see, once we put them in these glass boxes, they lose their physical manifestation and return to their original smoky form, and that’s when their energy can be drawn into the central system of the Bestiary. It’s the stem, the core of this structure, and it processes it all into the power that our covens need, worldwide. It is truly one of our greatest accomplishments.”

  “I can imagine,” I said, slowly tapping the glass on one of the boxes. The smoke reacted to my touch, swirling closer to my finger. I could almost see a crooked lizard head shaping up, when Alton put his hand on my shoulder and startled me. “Son of a—” I croaked.

  “Sorry.” He chuckled, and the smoke lost its attempted shape, scattering around the box. “Let me show you the bigger ones.”

  “Oh, yay, bigger monsters,” I replied sarcastically. “Because that’s how you convince me to move into this place. Tell me it’s filled with flesh-eating whatever.”

  “I’ll be honest, 90 percent of what’s in here definitely wants to kill you—us, for that matter,” Alton replied. “But as magicals, we really try to avoid killing. Which is why the Bestiary was such a good idea. It gave us the opportunity to spare the lives of these creatures and help develop our societies at the same time.”

  “You can’t go without them anymore, huh?”

  “Not after a thousand years of progress, of building our covens and fueling them with this power. If the Bestiary were to fail, everything we’ve erected in these dimensional pockets will either cease to exist or, worse, it will burst out into the human world. Either way, it would be a disaster on a global scale. The loss of life would be cataclysmic.”

  “What if you let the monsters out?” I asked, the worst-case scenarios popping into my head with alarming speed. This place made me feel so uncomfortable.

  “Well, the same, really. Plus, a horde of supernatural monsters roaming freely through the human world.” Alton sighed. “Thing is, before we were able to capture them, some of these monsters were free. Some cultures clashed with them, and others worshipped them. These are strong beasts that, even in their glass boxes, retain their gruesome forms. Here.”

  We stopped in front of a large glass box, about as big as my apartment, filled with dirt, grass,
and jagged rocks. Just like the other boxes, this one was kept shut with an engraved lock. It looked worryingly small, compared to the size of the box itself, prompting me to frown as I pointed at it.

  “How does that tiny thing keep the monster inside?” I asked.

  “It’s a charmed lock.” A low, gruff voice made me turn my head to the right. I froze on the spot, watching a massive creature walk toward us. It was twice my height, with a man’s body—mostly, except for the talons and claws it had for feet, and the bright golden-and-white feathers covering its arms. Its head was that of a lion, with a thick mane and soft, amber eyes. The whiskers moved as it spoke. “It doesn’t need to be big. What matters is the symbol, the magic used to contain the beast.”

  My heart started pumping fast, and I slowly moved backward, until Alton caught my arm and squeezed gently.

  “Don’t be afraid. He won’t hurt you, Harley,” Alton said. “This is Tobe, the Beast Master.”

  “Oh, the Beast Master,” I blurted. “Because that’s totally normal and makes all the sense in the world, that you would have a big-ass beast looking after a bestiary.”

  Both Alton and Tobe chuckled, while I tried to adjust to this new reality without screaming and kicking. Alton was surprisingly strong, though, easily keeping me in place with just one hand. Tobe bowed before me, and it was then that I noticed his feathered arms were purely extensions to a pair of wings.

  “Tobe here is 1,058 years old,” Alton explained, “and is the only monster with a conscience and cognitive abilities to ever come out of a Purge.”

  “Oh, wow,” I breathed, unable to stop myself from staring at Tobe. His muscular mass was impressive, even beneath the layers of gray linen he’d fashioned into a toga. I was willing to bet he could crush a twenty-pound melon in one hand. Effortlessly.

  “The witch that ejected me was one of the kindest, sweetest souls to ever roam this earth,” Tobe replied, sadness drawing a frown between his feline eyes. Despite his animal head, he was surprisingly expressive, especially through the raw tone of his low, masculine voice. “She was also one of the most powerful magicals. She was known as Selma, though very little is known about her origins today. After so many years, I can barely remember her.”

  “Tobe here is a wonderful and welcome anomaly,” Alton said, “mainly because he is the only one that these monsters fear and listen to, perhaps because he too was born from a Purge. He’s not a magical per se, but he is the result of magical activity, and has some Chaos-related abilities. Tobe has been with us magicals since he was created, shortly after Selma died. She couldn’t bring herself to kill him, as was the custom at the time, because he was kind and, well, harmless, despite his impressive size.”

  “Once Theodore Dumonde created the glass boxes and the idea of a Bestiary came to fruition, I found my calling,” Tobe added. “I’ve been the Beast Master ever since. I look after this place. As of recently, I’ve been getting additional support from the coven’s magicals.”

  He frowned, then gazed into the giant glass box. Alton didn’t seem happy either, for some reason.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I’ll explain later, in the Main Assembly Hall. But, in short, we’ve been having some issues with the Bestiary. Someone’s been sneaking in and letting monsters out, which is why I’ve added some extra security here, to help Tobe manage. He half-sleeps like a dolphin anyway, but I’m hoping the magicals assisting him will play their part in preventing further leaks.” Alton sighed.

  “The gargoyle,” I said, thinking back to that fateful night at the casino. “Did it escape?”

  “Yes. We mark all our beasts,” Tobe confirmed. “However, there are some still at large. Most are the result of unexpected Purges from magicals that have yet to be registered with a coven. A few I know personally to have been around for centuries, hiding from us, fearing capture. But we’ll get them sooner or later. We cannot let them roam free in the human world. Too many lives at risk—”

  A heavy, spine-chilling hiss made me turn my head, slowly, to look inside the glass box. I yelped, then quickly covered my mouth as I watched a massive snake slither out from beneath a large rock. It wasn’t a regular serpent, though. Its body was unnaturally thick, at least three feet in diameter, and covered in bright golden-and-green scales, each the size of my palm. Its head was huge, with a rich collar made of white-and-fuchsia feathers, which extended along its spine, all the way to the tip of its tail.

  This thing was a colorful killing machine, and I didn’t know whether to scream or to marvel at its beautiful scales and plumes.

  “Ah, there he is,” Alton exclaimed, grinning with excitement.

  “Normally, people scream when they see a giant snake,” I retorted. “You, on the other hand, sound like you’ve just found your favorite toy!”

  Alton chuckled. “I’ll be honest, this guy here is definitely one of my favorites.”

  “Good to know you have… favorites,” I mumbled, then shifted my focus back to the giant serpent. Its big, turquoise eyes were fixed on me in a way that gave me goosebumps.

  “His name is Quetzalcoatl, but we call him Quetzi, for short,” Tobe explained. “He’s one of the oldest monsters to ever be Purged and was once worshipped by the Aztecs. He has some abilities of his own, like all the large creatures in this Bestiary, but he’s contained in this glass box.”

  “Abilities? Like a magical?” I asked, cocking my head to the side. Quetzi mirrored my gesture, and I wasn’t sure whether that was cute or creepy.

  “Well, yes. He’s said to have been Purged by a powerful Aztec warlock, but we were never able to pinpoint his origins,” Alton said. “Nevertheless, Quetzi here can influence the weather. Rain, sun, hail, winds, and everything in between. He’s quite adept at creating natural disasters. And he is incredibly powerful. He was also known to use mist to confuse his prey.”

  “His prey,” I repeated, waiting for someone to tell me what kind of prey they were referring to.

  “Humans. He eats humans.” Tobe nodded, confirming my worst nightmare.

  I shuddered, then glanced around at the place. From that angle, I could see the stem that Alton had mentioned. It was a superb brass construction, much like a spine to which thousands of cables were attached, each connected to a glass box. A soft white light glimmered inside, bursting through every hole and joint. I counted over twenty levels of glass boxes, interconnected by various sets of stairs.

  “The Bestiary is given to a coven to look after, over the course of a century,” Alton said. “Tobe moves around with it and, as of January this year, the San Diego Coven was elected to take over. It came as a surprise to everyone, really, given how young and relatively Mediocre this place is, as far as its magicals are concerned. But the selection process was random, and, although we could have conceded, I wanted us to prove that we could keep it safe. Tobe looks after the monsters, and we look after Tobe, in a way.”

  Alton and Tobe walked farther down the aisle, and I followed, catching glimpses of scaly heads and beady eyes staring at me from large glass boxes on both sides. We reached a massive glass enclosure, where large, dark gray shapes fluttered frenetically, like overgrown bats. Chunks of limestone lined the back of the enclosure, while the creatures gathered around the small pond in the middle, sitting still long enough for me to realize that they were all gargoyles.

  “The creature you and Wade encountered the other night is in here,” Alton said, nodding toward the enclosure. The beasts with bat wings, horns, and ghoulish faces scowled at me before they all growled and exploded into puffs of black smoke that then scattered around aimlessly.

  “They are restless,” Tobe murmured, watching them with what came across as concern.

  I couldn’t feel him like the others, as an Empath, and that was probably because Tobe wasn’t human, or fully magical. I could sense his emotions—but not mirrored through me. They came across more like distant thoughts, faded memories. Concern, affection, wariness… it was all there, a
nd genuine.

  It was a very different experience for me, one that I honestly appreciated. Feeling others’ emotions the way I did could be exhausting, and I’d been surrounded by curious and suspicious magicals for the past couple of hours. Tobe’s diluted emotions were a welcome respite.

  “But they’re locked away now. They shouldn’t be able to get out anymore. Guards are on, twenty-four seven,” Alton replied. “They may not succeed in killing or capturing the beasts right away, but they can at least alert Tobe and the coven, so we can take the necessary precautions. This is what I meant when I said there are a lot of eyes on us now, Harley. With the Bestiary in our hands, the Mage Council keeps us under a magnifying glass. We can’t afford any mistakes, and we seem to have made a few already.”

  “We’ll discuss this further in the Main Assembly Hall, with the others,” Tobe added, then looked at me. “Is that your Esprit?”

  He pointed a feathered finger at the small, golden medallion around my neck. It was the only piece of jewelry I wore on a regular basis, a gift from the Smiths. They gave it to me when I graduated high school, and I was extremely fond of it. Not only was it the first gift I’d ever gotten from a foster parent, it was also a beautifully crafted depiction of Saint Christopher. I wasn’t the religious type, but I liked his story as a protector of travelers.

  “This? No, I don’t think so,” I said, lifting the medallion up with two fingers. “It’s Saint Christopher, patron saint of—”

  “Travelers.” Alton smiled gently, looking at it. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Yeah, my last foster parents gave it to me,” I replied. “I’ve always wanted to travel and see the world, at some point. They felt like Saint Christopher would be a good companion.”

  “They sound like nice people,” Tobe said. “But it’s not your Esprit…”

  “She hasn’t found her Esprit yet.” Alton shook his head, giving me a reassuring smile. “She will, sooner or later. I’m sure of it.”