Harley
The following morning, with the sun barely risen, we gathered in Wade’s office. I’d hoped for a decent sleep, but in the aftermath of my Suppressor breaking my mind had had other ideas. I’d been buzzing away all night, waking every couple of hours with a start and a sudden realization that the Suppressor was actually gone. At least there were no more nightmares, but I could’ve done with one whole night without being woken up by something out of my control. The others seemed equally tired, standing around like zombies with gigantic flasks of coffee, all pilfered from Santana’s secret stash.
“So what happened in that box?” Dylan was the first to speak. I hadn’t really said much about it, with the whole Levi debacle after the fact, and they’d been nice enough not to bombard me with questions right away. To be honest, I was still making sense of it in my own head.
“A lot,” I replied with a sleepy smile. “After making a deal with Echidna, she put her hand on my head and broke the Suppressor with her own powers. I think she wanted to watch me squirm a bit more. I had to rush to get the Sanguine spell completed, otherwise… well, I don’t think I’d be standing here right now.”
Wade moved closer to me. “What do you mean?”
“When the Suppressor broke, I couldn’t control any of the energy coming out of it. I… uh, sort of disappeared for a while. ‘Disintegrated’ is probably a better way of describing it. All that power was tearing me apart, quite literally. There was so much going on, and I was trying to get the freaking words of that spell out.” I took a deep sip of coffee. “My life flashed in front of my eyes, and I was pretty sure that was it. Game over. Done. Dead. Pushing up daisies. And then… well, I thought of you, the people I care about most in the world, and I managed to get the last few lines of the spell out. Light and Dark collided, and I guess they figured out a balance. More or less.”
I expected at least one of them to crack a joke at my cheesiness. Instead, sad eyes stared at me from around Wade’s tiny office. Their emotions, a mix of fear, relief, sorrow, and anxiety, drifted off them in steady waves. I understood why they felt that way. They’d been stuck outside the box, unable to help me and not knowing what the outcome might be.
“I know how that feels,” Jacob murmured.
I nodded. “If I hadn’t been able to think of you guys, I honestly don’t know where I’d be right now. It was everything Astrid had described to me about dying, and I… man, I thought I was a goner.” I stole a glance at Wade and leaned closer to him, wanting him to somehow know that he was the true source of my survival. Thoughts of him had pulled me through.
“How do you feel now?” Tatyana asked.
“Weird.”
“How so?” Raffe asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t feel like it’s over yet. The Sanguine spell was more of a Band-Aid than a cure-all for the broken Suppressor. I mean, the Suppressor is definitely gone, but all of that power is still there, and the Light and Dark sides aren’t exactly as balanced as I’d hoped they might be. Something still feels strange, if that makes sense?” “Maybe it just needs time,” Louella suggested, though she didn’t seem convinced. She was smarter than that, and I could feel the nerves brimming through her. I’d become truly dangerous overnight, and they all knew it.
Isadora put her arm around my shoulders, giving me a hug. “We’re all just glad you came out of that box in one piece, Harley,” she said softly. “But I have to ask, what was Echidna’s price for giving you her blood? She must’ve wanted something in return.”
Santana snorted. “I think it’s a freaking miracle that Echidna didn’t eat her whole the moment she stepped into the box. Monsters love power, and Harley must have walked in like a frigging all-you-can-eat buffet.” She glanced at me. “I can say that now that you’re out of there, right?”
“I had the same thought a couple of times,” I replied with a laugh. “She threatened to eat me more than once, too. I must have had about three showers when I got back to my room, and I can still smell her.” “We didn’t want to say anything.” Raffe nudged me in the arm, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
About the smell, or about what your djinn knows? I cast him a meaningful glance, which made him dip his head in understanding. It seemed like he could sense the intense power in me, and my fight to control it, even now.
I turned back to the others. “So if I’m wandering around in a cloud of perfume for a while, that’s why.” I gave a nervous laugh. “She really was scary as hell. Imagine your worst nightmare and multiply it by about a thousand, and then add fangs and scales.”
“Harley?” Isadora prompted, no levity in her voice. “What did she ask for?”
I sighed, knowing I couldn’t put it off. “She gave me the blood in return for… being given the right to name my firstborn child. Only if I survive Katherine, of course. She put a curse on me to make sure I come back and do as she’s asked.”
“She asked you to do what?” Santana sounded outraged, her shock mirrored on the rest of the Rag Team’s faces. Wade looked particularly troubled, though he didn’t say anything. I guessed the thought of me and babies was as terrifying to him as it was to me. His emotions were certainly nervous and shocked, all at once.
“Name my firstborn.” It was a weird prospect, but it felt improbably far away. There was a lot to get done before I even had to worry about it, and there was no telling if it would ever matter. “I don’t even know if I want kids, so I probably got the better end of the deal.”
“You understand the significance of names, though, right?” Santana asked.
Raffe nodded. “Names have untold power. You should never give that gift to someone else.”
I forced down a sudden bubble of panic. “Hey, it’s not like she asked me to fight Leviathan or something! I really don’t think we need to worry about this, not anytime soon. In ten years, maybe, but even then… I don’t know. I might never want one.” I was flustered, the words tumbling out. Having Wade nearby made it even worse, because I could see him looking at me in confusion and fear.
Wade stared down at me. “Harley’s right. We can’t worry about this too much now. We’ve got Washington to think about.” He was trying to bring the team back into the moment while covering his own discomfort around the subject, and for that I was grateful. Still, the flood of anxiety and concern coming off him was hard to ignore. I was still getting used to controlling my new, supercharged Empathy, and blocking out emotions wasn’t as easy as it had been before.
“At least my father can’t keep us out of this one,” Raffe muttered. “He’s got no choice but to trust us and let us lead the charge.”
“You really think he’ll do that?” Garrett retorted. Both he and Astrid had been silent since entering Wade’s office, making me wonder if they’d had some sort of talk about her current state.
“Yeah, unless you know something we don’t?” Raffe shot back. “You seemed pretty cozy with him yesterday, when you walked off to have a little ‘chat’ about some bullcrap or other.”
Garrett narrowed his eyes. “I was trying to do something to give us the upper hand. He’s got his concerns about all of you, which means you need someone who’s in his good books to get the inside scoop.”
“Did he say anything about keeping us out of it?” Astrid asked.
“Like Raffe said, he doesn’t feel like he has much choice but to let us in on this mission.” Garrett’s expression softened, though a glimpse of sadness moved across his eyes. Yeah, they’d definitely had some kind of talk, but there wasn’t time to delve too deeply into it, not with the event in Washington on our heels.
“Even if he does try something funny, you’ve got me to portal us all there,” Jacob piped up.
Isadora nodded. “That will be especially important if he decides to use me for the same purpose.” “Wouldn’t he just use the mirrors?” Santana replied.
“With the Katherine situation, he might wish to be a little more secretive about his arrival. Plus, if he wants to keep us from getting involved, he’ll take me just to be sure that you have no way of reaching Washington in time,” she explained. Sneaky bastard.
“No matter what Levi has to say about it, we’re reaching Katherine before she can get to the president.” I looked at the gathered group. “It’s pretty clear that there are a lot of people withholding vital information from the magical public, especially about Katherine. The president included. Nobody wants to be associated with her, for good reason. But that doesn’t change the fact that the president knew her well a long time ago, which makes him vulnerable to her attack. She’ll know things about him that we don’t, and Levi seems to know more than he’s letting on, too.”
Garrett nodded. “It seemed like it to me, too.”
“Care to elaborate?” Raffe replied.
“Levi didn’t say too much last night when I spoke with him, but I got the feeling he had something in mind— like, he was coming up with a plan of his own to try and intercept Katherine.”
I shook my head. “Right, so we need to get to the president before Levi and Katherine if we want to stand any chance of succeeding.”
A knock at the door startled us. “Come in,” Wade said, a note of reluctance in his voice.
O’Halloran peered around the door with a grim look on his face. “I was hoping I’d find you all here.”
“O’Halloran? What’s up?” Wade replied.
“Levi sent me to give you all a message,” he announced, evidently none too pleased with what he was about to say. “None of you are permitted to get involved in the mission in Washington. He’s mobilizing the National Council
—the members he can trust, anyway—and a group of experienced magicals to increase the overall security at the gathering.” He looked at me specifically. “He doesn’t want you or the Rag Team involved in any way. I tried to convince him otherwise, but he’s resolute about it. I believe ‘ticking time bomb’ was thrown about a few times. For what it’s worth, I don’t agree.”
Anger spiked through me, though I wasn’t sure what else I’d expected from Levi. He hated me even more now than he had before.
“Are you serious?” Santana grumbled.
O’Halloran pulled a sour face. “Unfortunately, yes.”
“This is ridiculous!” Raffe snapped. “There’s no freaking reasoning with him!”
“Easy there, mi amor.” Santana put her hand on his shoulder.
“I had a feeling he might do something like this,” Garrett murmured. “I thought I’d managed to get through to the guy.”
Tatyana glowered. “The man is an idiot. An absolute idiot.”
“Can’t argue you with you there,” O’Halloran replied.
“Doesn’t he understand how far Katherine’s reach is?” Dylan added grimly.
Jacob nodded. “Yeah, what if she’s already manipulated the National Council?”
“It wouldn’t be so outlandish,” Isadora said bitterly. “I don’t think any of us could have imagined her bending Nomura’s loyalty to benefit her. And yet he’s downstairs in one of the cells, and she’s running around, free as a bird.” We were all pissed off by this decision. It flowed around the room in dark, angry waves.
“I should’ve tried to read Levi’s mind when I had the chance; then we could have gone to Washington without him even knowing,” Louella muttered. “Not that I’ve made much progress with my Telepathy.”
O’Halloran gave an awkward little bow. “I’m needed elsewhere in the coven in a couple of minutes. Hopefully, I’ll end up someplace where I can’t hear about how you plan to sneak out of the coven and get to Washington.” He gave a conspiratorial wink and headed for the door. “Just a heads up—you have ten minutes before I send a team of security magicals to keep you on site. They’ll watch and listen to your every word, so be cautious. Isadora, you’ll have to come with me. I’m sorry, but I have to follow my orders.”
Isadora nodded. “No need to be sorry, O’Halloran. I was expecting it.” She joined him at the door, and the two of them left the room together, leaving us to contemplate our next move. It was clear what we had to do now, though time was running out.
Even if it got us shipped off to Alaska or Avarice, we had to get to Washington and stop Katherine ourselves.
And we needed to move quickly. The Assembly was tonight.