“Man, I’m glad you saw that! I kept thinking he was going to lunge at me, just to get me to stop,” I replied cheerfully, ignoring Wade’s preachy remark. I’d learned it was the easiest way to keep out his constant grounding of me. Besides, I had no problem with being a work in progress. I was working on my skills and getting along pretty nicely—thank you very much.
“You did so well, Harley,” Astrid chimed in. “You were all like, pow, and then whoosh and then crash! And the way you slammed your hands down on the floor like a legitimate superhero? Amazing!”
Tatyana nodded. “I admit, my favorite part was the dramatic revelation of the biker boots. Full of flair. I nearly deafened poor Wade with all my proud screaming.”
Wade grimaced in agreement. “Yes, you made your pride audibly clear. I never thought I’d ever hear you shriek the way you did then, rooting for Merlin.”
She shot him a brief, ice-cold glare that made me smirk. Nobody got to question Tatyana’s enthusiasm, not even Wade.
“Speaking of which, I should probably get changed,” I said, brushing the front of the silk dress. “Unfortunately, the party’s over for us.”
“What do you mean? Everyone’s just getting started. There are like eight courses to get through,” Dylan replied, gesturing to the room. From the looks of his stacked plates, he’d already worked his way through three. Even without my Empath abilities, the atmosphere was awesome. It felt happy and contented, a million miles away from the fear and terror that had run rampant for the last month or so.
“Not us. We’ve got to get back to work. Alton’s orders.” I shrugged, wolfing down a few mouthfuls of buttery potatoes. “Well, actually, he said I had to get back to work, but I figured I’d drag you guys with me.”
The others chuckled, reluctantly agreeing to help. Only Raffe remained silent. He’d been quiet ever since I sat down, though I knew his sullenness had nothing to do with me; proximity to his father and the darkness of his mood appeared to be directly correlated.
“Did the Mage Council leave?” I asked, looking to Raffe.
“No idea. I imagine they’ll want to speak to Alton before they go,” Wade replied instead. “Lay down the law, so to speak. With those kids still missing, and everything that went on with the Ryder twins, they’ll probably be fastening a noose around his neck.”
“But we defeated the Ryder twins,” Tatyana interjected.
Santana shook her head sadly. “Yes, but at the cost of those children.”
“You think the Mage Council cares about our successes?” Raffe muttered. “They tally up the failures and stack them against us. They don’t even notice the good we do. They couldn’t give a rat’s ass if we killed Emmett and captured Emily. Until they get Katherine Shipton in custody, the rest is meaningless to them.”
Raw anger brimmed inside Raffe—a spike of frightening fury that didn’t fit with the Raffe I knew. His emotions were as weirdly mixed and confusing as ever, the rage mingled with disappointment. One of these days I’m going to find out why, buddy.
“Okay, well, I’ll get changed, and then we can bash the Mage Council in private, without the risk of eavesdroppers,” I announced, tipping my head toward Garrett and his band of merry pals, who sat a short way off. I polished off the last of my plate. “Plus, there’s a whole lot I’ve got to tell you. Where should we meet? Wade’s shoebox?”
He shot me a withering look. “I’ll say it again: at least I have an office.”
“Yes, and I have several shoeboxes.”
“Why don’t we meet in the Aquarium?” Astrid suggested, hugging Smartie to her chest. “Alton said we could use it, now that we have ourselves some bigger fish to fry… if you’ll pardon the pun. Plus, it’s quiet and it’s out of the way, and with everyone gorging themselves until they explode, nobody will disturb us.”
I frowned. “The who said what now? This place has an aquarium? Is it like the Bestiary, but with water creatures?”
“You’ll see.” Astrid grinned. “I’ll text you the directions from your living quarters.”
“Now, get out of that dress before you ruin it with food stains,” Santana chided, a chuckle rumbling from her throat.
I pressed my hands to the embroidered bodice and feigned a sob as we all got up to disperse. “And I barely got to know you, my beloved. You didn’t even get to shine.”
“I don’t know about that,” Wade said, his deep green eyes fixed on mine. “I’d say you, and that gown, will go down in coven history as the most eventful pledge ever. You did good, Merlin.”
This is the closest thing to a compliment on my skills that’ll ever come out of Wade Crowley’s mouth, I guess. I’ll take it.
Dylan nodded. “We’re all pretty proud of you, dude.”
“Not ashamed to be seen with me?” I arched an amused eyebrow.
“Are you kidding?” Astrid yelped. “You made us the cool kids—the ones who roll with the wild child! The Merlin who won’t be tamed… and who called out Leonidas Levi in front of everyone.” Laughter rippled around my circle of friends.
Even Raffe mustered a smile. “Yeah, that was awesome. His face!”
I laughed. “Glad I could be of service. Now, stop distracting me with how legendary my pledge was. I need to get changed before the clock strikes midnight and I turn into a pumpkin.”
Dressed in the usual get-up of dark jeans, dark boots, a clean gray t-shirt, and my leather jacket, I followed the directions that Astrid had sent. A mindboggling labyrinth of corridors and staircases later, I arrived outside of a huge, frosted glass door. It arched upward, curving to a point like the doorway of a medieval church. Two white-gold handles were fixed in the center, both shaped like coiling fish, fitting into each other like the Pisces symbol.
Is this the place?
I’d never been to this part of the coven before. Here, the architecture was more Grecian in style, with white-gold statuettes lining the hallway in designated alcoves and a white marble floor stretching beneath my feet, shot through with fragments of silver. Ceramic pots and vases, embossed with dramatic friezes, sat on Doric plinths, each one filled with white flowers—roses, lilies, and sprays of cream buds. I felt like if I pushed the frosted glass doors open, I might find a gaggle of Olympian gods on the other side.
Instead, I found the Rag Team… and Garrett. Despite his fairly permanent position on our squad, part of me couldn’t quite include him under the banner of the Rag Team. It wasn’t that I didn’t get along with him—we had no beef left to squash. He’d apologized profusely for hurling abuse at me over my heritage, and he and Wade were even working toward a friendship, or at least a civility. Still, he had a long way to go before he could officially become one of us, which probably suited every involved party just fine.
The group was gathered in the middle of the room. I hurried toward them and took up my spot in the circle.
“Suits you,” Wade said as I moved up beside him.
“Better than the dress?”
“This is… more you.” A smile tugged at the corners of his lips, and a pleasant prickle of affection danced through my veins. It was coming from him. I smiled back and stood awkwardly beside him, my limbs forgetting how to function normally. More to the point, I had no idea what to do with my clammy palms. Realizing that everyone was looking at me, I shoved them in my pockets.
“So, what is this place?” I asked, looking around in awe. “Is it part of the Bestiary?”
The Aquarium was a huge, domed hall with a curved ceiling that sparkled with sapphires. The majority of the room’s light came from the enormous tanks that lined every single wall, right up to where the ceiling began to curve. A bluish glow rippled outward, a wave pattern undulating across the marble. A few of the tanks were pitch black, making me wonder what they held within.
“Think of it as an auxiliary generator,” Astrid replied. “The creatures here are on loan from the Bestiary—we have them here even if the Bestiary is elsewhere. Most covens have some variation of it, as a temporary backup in case the Bestiary should fail, and as an energy booster for certain types of magic. It fuels the magical reserve within this room.”
“Now that’s cool.” Shadowed shapes twisted and turned behind the thick glass. Unable to help myself, I wandered up to one of the tanks and pressed my hand to the cool pane. I peered deep into the water, but I couldn’t make out anything. Wisps of black coiled through the liquid, like diluted ink falling into a painter’s cup.
I turned around, only for a glint in the distance to catch my eye. As I whirled back to face it, a hulking shadow burst out of the blue haze and hurtled full-pelt into the glass. The impact echoed across the Aquarium, and a shiver of terror shot up my spine. I half expected the pane to crack. It reared backward and hovered in the seemingly endless azure—a gray-and-white beast that was half-fish, half-horse, with razor fins spiking along its back. Its long mane flowed with the current, while deep gills opened and closed behind the muscle of its jaw. Black eyes stared into mine.
“A Hippokampos,” Astrid explained.
“Isn’t that part of your brain?”
She shook her head, smiling. “It’s a water creature. Half-horse, half-fish, as you can see.”
“Why is it staring at me?” I whispered.
“Maybe it likes you,” Garret suggested, with a wry grin.
Tentatively, I touched the glass again, only for the creature to rear back and charge the pane once more, the glass vibrating.
“Nope, I don’t think it likes me.” Cutting my losses, I went back over to the group. “Anyway, let’s forget about water-horses. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
“News from Alton?” Santana asked.
I nodded. “He wants me to track down Jacob and Isadora. He thinks they might be able to help us if we need to evacuate and find a place where those kids can be safe. Something to do with the science of portal-opening and interdimensional pockets.”