Harley Merlin 2: Harley Merlin and the Mystery Twins Read online

  I heard him groan, and sighed again when I felt his energy drain out of me. I experienced relief, thankful that I didn’t have much trouble with letting a spirit go. I was getting better at commanding the ghosts, from what I could tell.

  My arms and legs felt weak all of a sudden, and I was aching all over. All the strength I’d gotten from Oberon was gone. In its wake was a tired, jelly-like Tatyana. I was just grateful I didn’t pass out, as I’d done in the past after a possession. I had learned a few breathing tricks, and perhaps I was making progress.

  Dylan was on the floor, lying on his back while Wade checked his vitals. “He’s okay,” he said. “Quite stable, but we need to take him to the infirmary.”

  “Krieger should take a look, for sure,” Alton replied. “Dylan will be out for a couple of days, though. And so will Damian,” he added, handing a second cure bottle to Tobe. “You can handle an angry human, right?”

  Tobe scoffed. “Now you’re just insulting me.”

  Alton chuckled. Santana put an arm around my shoulders as we watched Tobe go into Damian’s glass box and force him to take the cure. A beastly hexed human was much easier to handle than a Herculean, that much was obvious. The spell did give Damian ridiculous strength, but it wasn’t above Tobe’s level.

  Wade and Raffe carried Dylan to the infirmary. I quietly watched them go, nagged by a dull pain in my chest.

  I made it my mission to get my hands on Kenneth Willow. That little brat was in for a serious butt-kicking after what he’d done. Right after the Ryder twins. I had a bigger bone to pick with those two.

  Twelve

  Harley

  After Dylan was taken to the infirmary, Alton called in a cleanup crew to take care of Damian. He was given medical attention, then had his memory wiped—just like they’d done with Maria, his wife. The Hellers didn’t need to remember this nightmare.

  Wade, Santana, Tatyana, Raffe, Astrid, and I followed Alton into his office, where we briefed him on our progress so far. Each of our teams had visited two of the twelve families on the list he’d given us, before the Kenneth Willow incident.

  “I know we still have more to run through, but the attack and Dylan’s condition took precedence,” Wade concluded his reporting.

  I was restless, not just because of my own emotions, but also because of everyone else’s. They were all worried and fearful, mentally bracing themselves for another potential disaster. We were still reeling from what had happened with Finch and Katherine Shipton, after all, and the rumors of her emergence were still buzzing in the background of everything we said and did.

  “No, that was a good call,” Alton replied. “However, we’ll need to check on the other families on our list as soon as possible. I need you all on this, first thing in the morning. Until then, however, I’ll send the Ryders’ photos out to the security team and have them keep an eye on each of the remaining houses.”

  “Yeah, that’ll work until we get there and debrief the families,” Wade agreed.

  “I’ll prepare more charms in the meantime,” Santana said. “I used up most of my supply for every room of the two houses we checked. I didn’t think we’d need so many.”

  A few seconds passed in silence. I felt as though there was a big elephant in the room with my name on it. After all, I’d broken protocol with the Cranstons, and Alton had yet to say anything to me directly about it. That wasn’t in his nature.

  “About the Cranstons—” I tried to speak, but Alton was quick to cut me off.

  “I know why you did what you did,” he said. “You had good intentions. I get that. But it was against coven regulations. However, lucky for you, it proved to be a more viable strategy in the long run.”

  “What, using the kids as bait?” I snapped.

  Alton raised an eyebrow. “I’m confused, Harley. I thought you wanted them to stay with their parents, magical or otherwise.”

  “Yeah, but… now we’re using them as literal bait for the Ryders,” I murmured.

  “And? Do you think I’m happy with that decision?” Alton replied. “Far from it. I’m quite annoyed, actually. But you need to learn a lesson here, and we have no better alternative to try and capture two clearly hostile and dangerous rogue magicals. I would’ve loved to have the children back here, under our protection, but I’ve decided your way was… well, not better, but more productive.”

  I crossed my arms, not liking the guilt that was gnawing at my stomach. Deep down, I knew Alton was right. I’d had a few hours to think about my intervention. It was like picking the lesser of two evils, and I’d gone with the worst, thinking I was doing the right thing.

  “So, you’re doing this to teach me a lesson? You’re leaving these young magicals out there for the Ryders to grab or influence or whatever, just to show me I’m wrong?” I asked, even more annoyed. I knew the answers. I just didn’t like what all this had escalated to.

  Alton shook his head. “No. I’m doing this because the Ryders became dangerous in a rather short timeframe. If it had been just the Cranstons, I would’ve been more adamant about bringing little Micah in. But it’s not just them anymore. The fact that I get to teach you a lesson about why coven rules are so important is just an upside to this entire debacle.”

  That irritated me, but I couldn’t do much to change it. I could focus on protecting the kids, instead, and finding ways to stop and capture the Ryder twins.

  “Based on what we’ve seen so far, the Ryders have an agenda,” I said, changing the subject. “And different approaches, depending on the magicals’ ages and whether their parents are magicals. For example, Micah is only five, and his parents are human, so the Ryders left their card but didn’t interact with any of them. Mina is six, but her parents are magical. The Ryders talked to them, pretending to be from our coven.”

  “And the Ledermeyers were human, while their kid, Samson, is a three-year-old magical,” Tatyana said. “They had no recollection of the Ryders, either. Whereas with Kenneth Willow and the Hellers, it was clearly different.”

  “That’s right. Kenneth is a young adult, and his foster parents are human,” Alton replied. “They were aware that he was different, but they didn’t send him back. They stuck by him. And when the Ryders came in, they only spoke to Kenneth, leaving the humans out of the conversation. From what I can tell, Kenneth was the first they successfully coerced to their side.”

  “They could’ve taken the kids, too, but they didn’t.” Wade sighed, scratching the back of his head. He was confused, and for good reason.

  “They tried to get Mina’s parents to send her to the coven,” I said. “I mean, that’s probably why they posed as coven members and why they left their card behind. Maybe the Ryders didn’t want to test the parents’ magical abilities. Maybe it was easier to just get Mina out of her parents’ reach for them to kidnap her. Wouldn’t it then be safe to assume that, had the Travises agreed, the Ryders would’ve intercepted and snatched her?”

  Alton shrugged. “I’m not sure. It could be. A magical incident involving adults could’ve drawn too much of our attention, too soon. Without knowing how powerful the parents were, the Ryders could be trying to play it safe. But we don’t have enough information. Nor do we know their intentions, or who they’re working with, if they’re working with anyone.”

  “Do you think Katherine Shipton is involved?” Tatyana asked.

  My blood ran cold just from hearing her name. “If she is, we’re in for a doozy,” I muttered.

  “The most important thing for us to do right now is to speak to the other families on that list,” Wade replied. “Once we’re there, we’ll most likely find out more about what the Ryders have been doing or saying. We also need to make sure we’re ready if the Ryders visit any of them again. I’m willing to bet they’ve already been to see the families we’ll be seeing tomorrow.”

  “Did you find out anything from your mom back in Houston?” I asked.

  Wade shook his head. “She’s had her assistants dig through th
e files, but there’s nothing. Either they were never recorded, or their files were wiped on purpose.”

  “The cards bug me, though.” Santana sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Why would they leave them with families they didn’t even speak to? Do you really think they did it for us, Alton? Because that’s the theory we were floating earlier.”

  We all looked at Alton, who seemed equally befuddled.

  “That would mean they knew you were coming,” he said. “And that makes me feel uneasy, because I gathered the intel from different magical reports from the field. Either the Ryders are following our coven operatives around, or we have a spy in our ranks.”

  “So, if they really are sending us a message, what is the message? That they’re spying on us? That they’re looking to drive magicals away from the coven? Both?” I asked.

  “I think you’ll have a clearer picture tomorrow, if there’s a repeat of today’s pattern,” Alton replied. “What’s crucial here is that you are all prepared. Kenneth Willow might not be the only kid they’ve subverted. Be on your guard at all times.”

  That made sense. From what I remembered reading in the file, there were at least two other potential teenage magicals that the Ryders might’ve gotten to. The last thing we wanted was a repeat of the Dylan debacle. The poor guy was looking at days in the infirmary under Krieger’s care.

  I worried about little Micah now. I’d been so eager to make sure he stayed with his family, only to later realize that maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. It haunted me, but I had to keep pushing.

  Santana gave me a gentle shoulder squeeze, prompting me to look at her. I found her smiling at me. “Don’t worry, Harley, the charms are on point,” she said, as if having read my mind. “We’ll know the moment there’s a threat.”

  “Thank you,” I mumbled.

  Looking back, I didn’t miss the old days. I liked having people like Santana, Raffe, Tatyana, Astrid, Dylan, and even Wade around. They were reliable and protected one another. There was a bond among us that was hard to describe, and possibly just as hard to break, now.

  They weren’t just fellow magicals. They were my friends.

  And I knew that I would need them by my side for what came next. Whether it was confirmed or not, it didn’t matter to me—this whole thing reeked of Katherine Shipton. My instincts rarely failed me.

  Thirteen

  Harley

  Dinner was rather gloomy. We didn’t talk much, each of us worried about Dylan, the Ryder twins, and the fact that Kenneth Willow was at large. The coven had put out its equivalent of an APB on Kenneth and the twins, notifying all magicals in the California area of their presence. Alton was liaising with the California Mage Council on this as well. We were bound to get an earful from Leonidas Levi. He didn’t like our coven much, mostly because of how we’d emerged from the gargoyle incident.

  After dinner, I went back to my room to read my parents’ file. Alton had been kind enough to prepare it for me, and it was time for me to delve a little deeper into my family history.

  From what the timeline suggested, my parents got together shortly after Dad hooked up with Katherine Shipton. That mustn’t have sat well with her, but love had this nasty way about it. Hester and Hiram Merlin tied the knot one year after they became an item, while Katherine stayed mostly out of the public eye.

  Because of the legacy of both the Merlin and Shipton names in the magical community, my parents’ wedding was a big deal, with coverage in all the coven newspapers across the States. Heck, I even found a clipping from the British papers mentioning their union. There were, of course, gossip columns dedicated to rumors about Katherine being quite upset about their relationship, but no one suspected that, years later, it would all go sideways so badly.

  Based on what I’d learned from Finch, he’d already been born when my parents married. Katherine had sent him off to be raised by Agnes Anker, who gave him her last name. Apparently, there was still some stigma regarding magical children out of wedlock at the time.

  My parents made an amazing magical team, it seemed. Both were powerful Telekinetics. My mom was an Empath, like me. My dad was a full Elemental. I’d gotten the best of both worlds, much like salted caramel. The Merlins were the pride and joy of the New York Coven, and my dad became the youngest magical to become a director. He was only twenty-five at the time.

  “Wow,” I murmured as I flipped through the file pages. “So, Alton isn’t the youngest, per se. My dad was. Way to go, Merlin…”

  During that time, my parents began working on a Grimoire together. That was extremely rare, from what I’d learned during Lasher Ickes’s Magic History classes. The Grimoire was a book of spells, which not all magicals endeavored to create. It acted as a part journal, part instruction manual for new or modified spells. It was loaded with the magical’s memories and energies. Alton had appended a note regarding the Grimoire.

  A Grimoire is the most honest manifestation of a magical’s connection to Chaos. Because we, as witches and warlocks, adhere to either Light or Darkness, so will the Grimoire be influenced by our Chaotic inclination. It is a book that can influence and even change minds, and it’s a wonderful tool to have if one is on the side of Light. Where Darkness is involved, however, the Grimoire can become more like poison, rather than a cure, killing its reader slowly, but surely.

  The fascinating part about Hester and Hiram’s Grimoire was that it involved both Light and Darkness. After all, Hiram was Light, and Hester, as wonderful and kind and noble as she was, belonged to the Darkness. Therefore, their Grimoire attained an incredible and never-before-seen balance of both.

  I’d learned from Preceptor Ickes and Alton a few things about the Children of Chaos and how we were connected to them. I, for one, understood that I was directly connected to Gaia, as an Elemental. Light and Darkness, however, had a different role to play in a magical’s life, from what I remembered. Those with Darkness were drawn to the danger and death side of Chaos (though not necessarily to inflict it, per se). Light was more attuned to nurturing and growth. Gaia was, in her way, connected to Light, for example, which was why an Elemental was, most of the time, drawn to Light. I had to do a little more digging as to what Light and Darkness did to our magic, though. The details were rather fuzzy in my mind.

  Moving on to complete the file, I found myself saddened by its conclusion. I read out loud this time, just to fill the silence that had begun weighing heavily on my shoulders.

  “The Grimoire was never completed. With approximately 75 percent of its pages filled with wondrous new charms, spells, hexes and cures, thoughts, impressions and memories, it would be one of the greatest literary and technical creations of contemporary magic… had it been finished. An incomplete Grimoire will not have the same power and influence as a full one. The spells can still be used, but they wouldn’t be 100 percent efficient. Once a spell is recorded into a Grimoire, Chaos somehow makes it official and universally applicable. It’s a process we’ve never fully understood, but rather went with…”

  Now, I was officially curious. Extremely curious.

  The Grimoire was never completed because of what happened to my father—he went berserk, murdering several magicals and… my mom. Shortly before that, according to Finch, my dad had gone back to Katherine Shipton. And it was after they got together that he went all mass-murdery, and everything changed.

  The one thing that everyone got wrong was me. They’d thought I was still in my mother’s womb when she died, and they weren’t able to do an autopsy because my mother had been turned into ashes.

  Tears streamed down my cheeks, but I kept reading. I couldn’t stop now. I once again raised my voice, aggravated by the silence around me.

  “Hiram Merlin disappeared for three years after killing Hester. The entire magical community mourned. The covens were in an uproar. A manhunt followed, but Hiram eluded them each time. Meanwhile, Katherine Shipton had gone on her own killing spree, killing dozens of high society magicals for reasons s
till unknown. The motives behind all the murders committed by both Hiram and Katherine were never discovered, nor could we verify that they were still together during those three years. Once Hiram surrendered, he claimed he was innocent. His alibis, however, didn’t support his statement. The evidence was against him. The judicial authorities were never able to establish any other connection between Katherine and Hiram either, beyond their affair. It was considered an amorous triangle gone horribly wrong and treated as such. Hiram was tried and… executed…”

  My voice faded.

  I exhaled, put the file on my bed, and got up. I’d had enough of that epilogue. I knew what happened afterward, more or less. There were too many gaps in this known timeline for me to ignore them, though. Plus, the few memories I’d recovered of my father, along with the pre-murder stories about him and Mom, spoke in his favor. I had a hard time imagining him as an enraged or cold-blooded killer.

  The one thing I needed to know more about, in the meantime, was the Grimoire.

  Since it was also used as a journal to record important moments in a magical’s life, I was certain I’d learn more about my parents, if I could get my hands on it. It was supposedly back in New York, but I knew where I could find more information about it. As part of a lead investigative team, and especially after my contributions to Finch’s apprehension, I had unrestricted access to the most sensitive parts of the coven, including the Forbidden Section and the Secret Archives.

  I also wanted to get a better look at a Grimoire, just so I could understand what it looked and felt like. It had been bugging me since I’d first laid eyes on them. The little devil on my shoulder insisted that I should do it, and I didn’t even think to object.

  It was past midnight when I left my room and quietly made my way to the Forbidden Section. The hallways were mostly dark and quiet. Everyone was probably already asleep—like I should’ve been, since I had to get up early to continue the family visits.