Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,117
the knowledge required to succeed.”
“And whose fault is that?” I really wanted to hit him, but I had a feeling my knuckles would shatter if I tried to punch his armor plating. “You had every chance to give me more information, and you chose to be all vague and ‘disinterested.’ I’ve had to figure things out for myself, and we were about to get more intel when you decided to play this… telepathy trick on me.”
“I highly doubt that,” he replied coolly.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Then start talking. Tell me what I need to know about the Door to Nowhere. You can begin with how to open the damn thing.”
He laughed, his silvery eyes glinting with mischief. “You do not know me very well, do you? I would not make it that easy.” He lunged forward on his coils, but I didn’t flinch. “I will not rule with a weak queen at my side. You must prove that you are worthy of my gifts. I must see your value. You say you have had to figure things out for yourself, but I see no evidence. You have sought aid at every turn.”
“I. Don’t. Want. Your. Gifts!” I punctuated each word with a palm to the glass. In all my life, no one had aggravated me more than Leviathan. How could he stand there and spout all this bull about me not doing things for myself? Yes, I’d had help, but that didn’t minimize what I’d managed to achieve so far. And he was one to talk—his mind would still be in deep freeze along with his body if it weren’t for me, which didn’t make me feel good, but it was still the hypocritical truth.
Mom always said that the sign of a true fighter was one who knew when to share the load, which she’d learned the hard way. I wouldn’t let him make me feel guilty about accepting help when I really needed it, like getting out of my bedroom thanks to Nathan. Nor would I let him belittle what I’d done myself. I’d been the one to figure out the pixies weren’t responsible, and I’d managed to coax them into joining forces with me. As self-sufficient victories went, mine weren’t half bad. And my shared victories weren’t bad, either. Besides, I didn’t care what he thought of me, and I definitely didn’t want to be his freaking queen! All I cared about was rescuing my friend and exonerating my Purge pixies.
Leviathan chuckled. “And yet, you have grown to admire the creatures you birthed. If you were to suddenly find yourself without your new gift, you would feel its absence. That is enough for me. For now.” He pulled back, giving me space from his rotting fish breath. “As for information… the best I can do is point you in the right direction. You will find what you are looking for in the new wing of the Institute. That much I heard from your pixie friends.”
“What?” That didn’t make sense. How could he have heard it from the pixies?
“I can now communicate with others of my kind. All thanks to you, and my link to you.” He sighed wistfully. “Our bond has turned you into a telepathic satellite dish, of sorts. I hear messages and thoughts from my kind as they bounce off you and reach me—in a way that’s never happened before. Since the Institute is full of monsters, I can hear a great deal. Now I know the lay of the enemy terrain.”
What’s he going to do with that sort of intel? I didn’t dare ask. As long as he remained in his box, there wasn’t anything he could do in the outside world… right? I doubted he could manipulate the monsters through this link, or he would’ve done it already to break himself loose. Still, the idea of being his cellphone tower, with thoughts pinging off me and back to him… It didn’t sit well with me at all. He didn’t deserve an outlet to the wider world. He’d shown he couldn’t be trusted with it.
I squinted at him, deciding what to say next. “I’m already in the new wing. That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier.” I allowed myself a small smirk as his eyes widened in surprise. “I told you I was capable.”
“You are already there?” He sounded baffled and intrigued. “How did you figure that out?”
“Oh, now you want me to spill the beans?” I grumbled, not wanting to