Harley Merlin 8: Harley Merlin and the Challenge of Chaos by Forrest Bella

Author:Forrest, Bella
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nightlight Press
Published: 2019-05-13T04:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Three

Harley

As I entered the infirmary, Zalaam’s ruby eyes flashed right at me, a look of impatience on his face. Well, Levi’s face.

Raffe, Santana, and Tatyana were standing awkwardly around the hospital bed, and nobody seemed to be speaking. Even if Zalaam hadn’t been looking annoyed, it wouldn’t have chased away the dark cloud across everyone present.

I guessed Astrid and Garrett were still working through all of the video feeds from across the globe, pushing Smartie as hard as possible, but I wasn’t sure where Dylan was. Or Alton, for that matter. Wade was standing at my side, accounted for, and Finch was probably on his way back from Waterfront Park, or having a stern word with Kenzie.

Meanwhile, Louella was in her steadfast position at Jacob’s bedside, one hand fixed on his temple. I couldn’t see Krieger anywhere, but a moving shadow behind the blinds of his office let me know he was keeping busy.

“Where’s Dylan?” I asked, so used to seeing him at Tatyana’s side.

“He went to tell Astrid and Garrett about our latest failure,” Santana replied.

I sighed. “No luck with the old sites?”

“Zilch.” Santana shook her head. “The place was empty. Not a scrap of evidence anywhere.”

“Sorry,” I murmured.

“Why are you sorry?” She smiled. “It’s not like you’ve got your feet up, chillaxing while we bust our asses. Not like others I could mention.” She shot a look at Zalaam, who smirked. “It’s just massively disappointing. It sounded like such a good idea, but nope—just us slamming our heads into another dead end.”

“Isadora used to say a dead end was just a good place to turn around,” I said, lowering my gaze.

“And she never let us down,” Tatyana replied, with a sad chuckle. “She’s right. We’re just wallowing right now, but we’ll be back to our usual, determined selves in no time.”

“Are you all quite finished?” Zalaam muttered. “Your droning on is giving me a headache. I’m almost tempted to retreat back inside Levi, if you’re going to carry on. I feel like one of you is about to lead us in a communal prayer.”

“That wouldn’t be such a bad thing,” Raffe snapped. “You could certainly do with a bit of soul-searching.”

“What do you think I’ve been doing?” Zalaam shot back. “Why soul-search when you can search more practically? Ah, I suppose you wouldn’t know anything about that, since your djinn isn’t mature enough. Funny, I was mature enough by the time Levi was your age. I guess you were stunted somewhere along the line.”

“Getting forced into a cage every time you turn a tiny bit red will do that to you.” Raffe balled his hands into fists and stormed off to the far side of the infirmary. Santana followed, putting her hand on his shoulder, talking to him in a low voice I couldn’t quite make out.

“Have you found something?” I turned my attention back to Zalaam. After all, that’s why I was here. If he was toying with me, I’d be majorly pissed. I didn’t have time for this, not unless he had something useful to say.

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