Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,125
had always carried that flag. And now it was my turn to take it up.
I slipped into the water and waited for my skin to start sloughing away, or for tiny aquatic creatures to devour me. At the very least, I’d expected it to be cold, but it proved to be neither cold nor dangerous. Satisfied that I wouldn’t dissolve, I pushed through the river with Nathan beside me, careful not to lose my footing and get swept away. Meanwhile, the pixies skated across the surface, cutting only faint lines through the water, like they were ice dancers. The current pulled slightly on my legs as I reached the center of the river, but my boots kept me rooted to the smooth, silty bed. Puffs of glitter rose in the silt, disturbed by my footfalls. Beautiful but unsettling, like everything else in this peculiar world.
Reaching the opposite side, I dug my fingernails into the dirt and heaved my body onto the bank. The pixies attempted to help, pulling on my hands and my wet shirt, but they didn’t have the strength. They could never have carried a person away, Victoria, I thought to myself once more. Nathan jumped out with surprising agility and immediately helped me to my feet. Only when I’d grasped his arm to use as leverage did I see that the dirt beneath my fingertips wasn’t the usual mucky brown. No, this dirt was blood-red—the same shade as the trees. I hastily wiped it away on my dark jeans. Maybe I didn’t want to know.
“Genie!” I ran the rest of the way and knelt in front of her. “Genie? It’s me, Persie.” I grasped her face in my hands, trying to tilt her head back, but it was like her neck was made of solid steel. I couldn’t get her to move an inch, let alone make her look at me. Her eyes carried that same glazed sheen as the others. I couldn’t deny the truth sitting right in front of me—Genie had fallen under the same trance as everyone else.
“My father would hate to find out he was right, so I won’t tell him,” she whispered. “I don’t want to go back to Atlantis—I want to be free to do whatever I want and go wherever I want, and love whoever I want. I don’t want an arranged marriage with a puffed-up Atlantean who’s never seen the outside world.”
Nathan leaned in, his eyes glinting. “What did she say? Is she… getting married?”
“Not if she can help it,” I replied, my heart breaking for Genie. She would’ve hated this, to be frozen and trapped in her own mind.
Nathan ruffled his hair, clearly irritated by this particular topic and torn between wanting to know more and wanting to stay focused on the situation at hand—de-hypnotizing Genie. “Is… is her father intending to marry her off?”
I sank back into a sitting position. “He’s talked about it, and she’s refused. But it’s a huge custom in Atlantis, apparently, even for Atlanteans who’ve integrated. They’re expected to marry one of their own kind for the sake of maintaining Primus Anglicus bloodlines, but she’s never going to go willingly.” My shoulders sagged. “That is, if we can even get her out of here.”
“I’m pleased to hear that,” he mumbled. “I’ve never liked the idea of arranged marriages, especially not for the sake of something as foolish as bloodlines. People should be allowed to love whomever they please.” He turned his face away from me, his body hunched as though he wanted to shield his emotions from me. “And we will rescue her from this place, I assure you. There’s a way. This can’t have all been for nothing.”
I reached for Genie’s hand and tried to hold it, but I couldn’t loosen a single finger of her iron grip. All the while, she repeated the same ideas in an endless cycle. Coming through the Door had only raised more questions. Why was she stuck thinking these particular things? Why was she stuck at all? Were the Wisps doing this? I couldn’t see how it benefitted them, unless this was somehow a vengeful ploy to get back at the person who’d trapped them here. But Fergus McLeod had to be long dead by now. Unless he was stuck here, too, repeating his fears on a loop like Genie and the others.
“Genie?” I begged. “Genie, you have to snap out of this. I know you’re still in there, and you have to be able to