Harley Merlin 3: Harley Merlin and the Stolen Magicals Read online

  He glanced at me. “She taught me how to make portals in high-pressure situations. She taught me how to control Chaos and make it work for me. She’s spent weeks teaching me all of that, and I still screwed up when it mattered.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Wade said. “It happens. Take Harley, for example. She’s good, but she still glitches. She almost killed an entire room of people because she wavered.”

  I shot him a look. “Thanks for sharing.”

  “It’s the truth. Self-control and determination are key when dealing with Chaos. All the theory in the world, or the practice, won’t prepare you for casting spells in the midst of true danger,” Wade replied, then raised an eyebrow at Jacob and Isadora. “I doubt Isadora here was literally chasing you around and trying to kill you when she trained you to open portals.” He sighed. “What I’m trying to say is, everyone has to keep practicing. Nobody’s perfect. Besides, we got away, and that’s all that matters. So just forget about it and move on—that’s the only way to learn.”

  Jacob sat back in the front seat of the Jeep. Wade had a point, but I’d get him back for making me the center of his little lesson. I didn’t nearly kill a room full of people. I dropped a chandelier, that’s all. But something tells me I’m never going to live that down.

  I turned in my seat as Isadora stirred. Wade joined her in the back seat, reaching over to help her sit up as she came to with a slow blink of her blue eyes. A smudge of soot streaked her chest, a black mark reaching all the way up to her jaw. The fireball had hit her square in the ribs, knocking her out in one harsh blast. She grimaced as she gripped Wade’s arm, forcing her aching body into a sitting position.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  “Wade’s Jeep,” I replied. “More specifically, we’re parked outside the San Diego Coven.”

  A trickle of sweat meandered down the side of her face. “I won’t go inside, Harley. I know you want me to, and there are very few things I would not do for you, but I can’t set foot inside that place. Not right now.”

  “Alton will keep you both safe,” I promised.

  She smiled. “I believe he would try,” she said solemnly. “The trouble is, he can’t protect us from Katherine and her army of agents. He doesn’t even know who the spy is, amongst members of his own coven. Someone followed you tonight, and if what you told us is true—that nobody saw you create the tracer spell and you told no one of your plans to find us—then Katherine is having you watched more closely than you think. The coven has been compromised.”

  “We’ll sneak you in,” I replied, struggling to hide the note of desperation in my voice. “We’ll sneak you in and we won’t tell anyone that you’re there.”

  “Until Katherine’s spy has been outed, I can’t stay. We aren’t even sure if there is only the one.”

  I stared at her and willed her to change her mind. There was so much I wanted to know, and if she disappeared again, I had no idea when I might see her again. The coven had definitely been compromised, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t stay. I knew we could always hide Jacob and Isadora in the Bestiary, under Tobe’s care. It was more secure than anywhere else in the coven. Either that, or we could give them a secret room, similar to the one that Alton had spoken with me in. We were working on fixing the problem, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t protect them in the meantime, within the coven. And anyway, soon enough, the spy would be found, and everything would be secure again.

  You’re not naïve, Merlin. You don’t really believe that. They’re like dirty little weeds—remove one, another one takes its place.

  “We don’t know if the Shapeshifter that attacked us tonight is different than the spy who’s been feeding information to Katherine,” I said reluctantly. “There still might only be one, working from within the SDC. That’s something we need to figure out, and fast. We’d be able to get it done quicker if you helped us, Isadora.”

  A tight chuckle rasped from her throat. “I’ve made my choice, Harley. Nothing can make me change my mind.”

  “But how can you continue to train me if you’re not with me?” Jacob asked. “Tonight proved that I’ve got a long way to go, and I can’t figure this stuff out without you. You told me yourself, this skill is so rare that there are virtually no textbooks on it. It’s not like I can teach myself.”

  “I can’t teach you, Jacob,” she replied bluntly. “Not if you stay here and join the coven. I can’t train you, and I can’t protect you.”

  Jacob sank down in his seat and turned his gaze out toward the pummeling raindrops beyond Isadora’s head, where they rattled against the back window. He looked completely torn. Either he stayed here and floundered over his powers, or he followed Isadora wherever she wanted to go. He’d clearly formed a familial attachment to her, but the coven offered something he’d never experienced before… a true family. A group of people who would rally around him and accept him. As one person, Isadora could never offer him that.

  “What did the Shapeshifter mean about my parents?” he asked unexpectedly. “Why did they say that my parents were on Katherine’s side?”

  Isadora fidgeted, a vein ticking in her temple. My stomach tightened. I felt her dread for what she was about to say. “There’s something I didn’t tell you, Jake.” She hesitated. “I know who your parents were. With abilities like ours, the lineage is fairly limited.”

  Jacob’s jaw dropped so fast. “You hid that from me?” I felt the stab of betrayal as if it were my own. Emotions like that, so raw and visceral, were hard to block out.

  “I didn’t want to tell you about them, in case you were captured. I feared they would try to use it to persuade you into joining them. I suppose I hoped that, if you ever discovered the truth, you might think they were lying, and you wouldn’t listen to them,” she explained. “Family is a potent thing. Sometimes, you’ll do anything and believe anything to feel close to them, even though they’re long gone. And on the wrong side of Chaos.”

  I had a feeling she was talking to me, too. After all, I would’ve gone to the ends of the earth to find out more about my parents, even if she hadn’t come along to fill in some of the gaps. Turning to Jacob, I could already feel a flurry of inner turmoil gathering.

  He frowned. “Shouldn’t you have left that up to me?”

  “I couldn’t, Jacob.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Elan and Zara Sowanoke,” Isadora replied after a stilted pause.

  “And they worked for Katherine Shipton? The Katherine Shipton? The one who sent those twins to try and kill the Smiths?”

  Isadora nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. They worked for Katherine at the height of her power,” she said. I could tell she was tiptoeing around the subject. “In fact, Katherine was the one who encouraged them to be a couple. Elan was a Portal Opener and Zara was a Sensate. She probably figured that the two of them would create a powerful child.”

  Of course she did. That sounds about immoral enough for her.

  “Great, so you’re telling me I’m only alive because of that evil bitch?” Jacob muttered.

  “No, I’m saying that something good came out of her wickedness.”

  He shook his head. “How can you say that?”

  “Because it’s true,” she shot back. “You have to understand that Katherine was, and is, a ridiculously charming woman. She can influence minds without a person even realizing it. Honestly, she’s a master of brainwashing. She puts Charles Manson to shame.”

  “Charles who?”

  “Never mind… What I’m saying is, she targeted your parents and she made them feel like part of something important,” Isadora explained. “That’s how she gets people to do what she wants. If they disobey, or they refuse to budge, she finds a way to bend them to her will. She’s spent years researching the most forbidden spells in the world. With them, she uses whatever dark and terrible means she can, until people break and give her what she wants.”

  The more I heard about Katherine’s past ex
ploits, the more I loathed her. There didn’t seem to be any line she wouldn’t cross. It terrified me, too. What lengths would she go to this time, to succeed in her future plans of total evil?

  Jacob dropped his gaze. “Did she brainwash my mom and dad?”

  “I think it’s highly likely. They had something she wanted.”

  “But you can’t say for certain?”

  Isadora touched Jacob’s shoulder. “No, Jacob, I can’t.”

  “What happened to them? Are they still working for her?” I heard the underlying question in his words: Why did they leave me?

  “Katherine wanted your father to open a portal to the realm where the Children of Chaos exist in their raw forms,” she said. “He opened the portal, as instructed, and she sent him to see what’s out there. He never came back. Before and after your father went missing, your mother was responsible for mapping out the locations of rogue magicals so Katherine could monitor them and collect them as she saw fit. However, something about your father’s disappearance snapped your mom out of her trance—not by much, but just enough.”

  Poor bastard. I wonder what happened to him. It was hard not to think about. He must have gone somewhere and gotten himself trapped. Either that, or something hadn’t allowed him to return. I wasn’t sure which was creepier. My thoughts lingered on Jacob’s mom, too. Just like with my dad, Katherine’s actions had awakened a primal desire to protect at all costs.

  Jacob looked up. “What do you mean?”

  “You had recently been born, and I guess it awakened a protective streak in your mother,” she replied. “As Katherine became more crazed, her thirst for power got out of hand, and your mother got scared that something terrible might happen to you. She was so worried about your safety that she snuck away in the dead of night and gave you up for adoption. After that, she ran away from Katherine and the cult. I guess she hoped she could come back for you once everything blew over and the Mage Councils banded together to get rid of Katherine.”

  But she never did. I’m so sorry, Jacob. I knew what that felt like. He’d probably waited and hoped his real parents would one day return and save him from the uncertainty of the foster system, the same way I’d done.

  He shook his head. “How can you possibly know all of this?”

  “Because I was the one who rescued her… at least for a while,” she said. I gaped at her in disbelief. All the skeletons were coming out of the closet. “You see, it’s a little-known-fact that Portal Makers can sense the portals other Portal Makers have created. They have a funny bonfire scent, and they leave a silvery trail in the air. Once you can spot them, you can travel through them. Elan left her with a very rare object called an Ephemera—a one-shot gemstone filled with the specific ability of a magical. As far as I know, only a few exist, though they destruct after use. It can only be used by the person it’s gifted to, and your mom used it to escape. I’ll show you how to follow these trails one day, though you can only focus on the trail once your skills have advanced.”

  “You rescued her?”

  Isadora nodded. “I traveled through her portal and found her hiding out in a shack in the Mojave Desert. We moved around as often as we could. I harbored her in every safe house that I knew about, but… I couldn’t protect her, in the end.”

  A still silence settled across the Jeep. Wade remained quiet, taking everything in. Meanwhile, I wanted to ask the question on everyone’s lips, but it wasn’t my place. That had to come from Jacob, if he wanted to know. I could understand his reluctance—coming from the kind of past that we’d come from, sometimes it was harder to learn the truth. All our lives, we put these people on a pedestal. It took one truth to knock it all down. Already, I could see he was struggling with what he’d learned.

  “What… what happened?” Jacob murmured.

  “Katherine’s agents found Zara while I was away,” she replied. “They tried to get her to go back to Katherine. She wouldn’t go with them, and she fought back tooth and nail. The facts aren’t entirely clear, even now, but an explosion destroyed the safe house. Your mother was inside when it happened. It killed her and Katherine’s agents.” She took a shaky breath, and I could almost see the memories glistening in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Jacob. But please know that she loved you. She put you up for adoption in order to save your life.”

  Jacob cleared his throat. “So, Katherine is looking for a replacement? She wants a Sensate and a Portal Maker, and I fit the bill. Two for the price of one, huh? She knows I’m their son, right? That’s why she set this whole thing up, as a way to reach me?”

  “I believe so.”

  He sighed wearily. “I don’t get it. Why would they have worked for a nutjob like Katherine, knowing what she was? I know you say she might have brainwashed them, but what made them join in the first place?”

  “Even good people can fall for cults, Jacob. Lonely people, who don’t feel like they belong anywhere—they can find comfort in such groups, because it doesn’t feel like a cult when you’re in the middle of it. They can make a person feel found again.” Isadora smiled. “Your mother had a hard childhood, and even harder teenage years. She told me a few stories, now and then, but I could never get everything out of her. In a way, I didn’t have to. Just hearing her speak… you could tell she’d been badly wounded.”

  My heart broke for Zara Sowanoke, and for the boy she’d had to leave behind. If she’d put herself through all of that, then one thing was clear: she’d loved Jacob more than anything. She’d wanted to keep him safe. It just hadn’t worked out the way she might have hoped.

  For a long time, nobody said anything. The rain pattered on the windows, reminding me of uncomfortable RV trips with old foster families. Tears brimmed in Jacob’s eyes. I watched him fight against them, a muscle twitching in his jaw. I thought about reaching over and touching his arm, to let him know it was okay to cry. Instead, I sat back and let him deal with it however he wanted. That was the only way he’d get through this and process the tarnished memory of parents he’d never met.

  “I think I’d like to stay and train with you for another month, Isadora,” he said. “I keep thinking about how I messed up back there, and what might’ve happened if I hadn’t been able to get my stuff together. Without my portal ability, I’m pretty defenseless against anything that Katherine might throw at me. Yeah, I have some Air elemental powers, but they’re weak as hell. If I’m going to escape sticky situations like that one at the hideaway, I need to know more. Otherwise, I’m a liability and I may as well have none of this power.”

  “I think that’s very wise,” Isadora replied.

  “And after the month is up?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Once I feel more confident about my portal skills, I’ll come back here. I’ll make the pledge and stay at the coven… even if that means leaving you behind.” He glanced at Isadora with sad eyes. I knew those words couldn’t have come easily to him.

  “I can’t make any promises about my future plans,” Isadora said, her tone understanding. “Until Katherine’s spies have been dealt with, the coven is off limits to me. If, by some miracle, they are discovered, I may reconsider.” Her eyes found mine, the two of us sharing a private moment.

  “Can you stay for a while now?” I asked tentatively.

  Her shoulders sagged. “We must go before that Shapeshifter decides to come after us again. I’m sorry, Harley.”

  “I only need half an hour,” I pressed. “There’s so much I want to ask you about my parents.”

  “I promise I’ll send you a full explanation of everything as soon as I can. I know it won’t be the same as hearing it from me directly, but I hope it will be enough.” She drew in a ragged breath. “The truth is, you might not want to hear what I have to say. It’s dark, and dark secrets are often better left unspoken. But I won’t take that choice from you... It just might take you a while to understand.”

  She turned to Jacob before I could respond. “We need to leave.”

  Wait, what
? What secret could be so dark or bad that I wouldn’t want to hear it? Hadn’t I already heard enough bad things about my dad and my mom? What else could there possibly be?

  Unless this wasn’t just about my family. Was it about me? A grip of anxiety seized my chest.

  Jacob nodded. “Do you want me to make the portal?”

  “No, I’ll handle that.” Shuffling along the back seat, she opened the Jeep door and got out. Jacob followed suit, the two of them walking out into the driving rain.

  Wade and I leapt out after them, though I knew I couldn’t change their minds about staying. I needed to know what she had to tell me, but with spies in our midst, Isadora was right: they were safer away from the coven.

  Alton was not going to like this, though. Well, if he wants this job done, he can get off his ass and do it himself. I’m not chasing them through wormholes, all across the country.

  “See you later?” Jacob said, stepping forward shyly.

  “You bet,” I replied, pulling him in for a hug.

  Isadora came up to me next. “I promise I’ll explain everything. Take care of yourself, okay?”

  “I will,” I said, my heart still anxious. We held each other for a moment, before I pulled away and dusted myself off. I’d see her again, I comforted myself. I would.

  With the goodbyes over with, Isadora opened up a portal in the middle of Balboa Park, and the two of them jumped through. It snapped shut with a rush of cold air, leaving Wade and me alone in the rain. I was past caring about the water soaking through my clothes. In fact, it felt kind of nice, after all that.

  “So, what are we going to tell Alton?” I asked with a sigh, as we turned and made our way back to the Fleet Science Center.

  “The truth,” he replied.

  “You think he’ll be pissed?” I murmured.

  Wade shrugged. “I think he’ll be as thrilled as he’ll be disappointed. I mean, this way, he knows Jacob is coming back. It’s just a matter of when.”