Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,126
hear this, so just… come back to me, Genie. Please, just fight whatever is doing this to you!” I tried to shake her, but she remained stubbornly fixed to the same spot. Even Boudicca had a go, flashing her pulsating lights in Genie’s eyes to try and break her out of the trance. But nothing worked.
Then, the bone-white leaves overhead began to rustle loudly. That wouldn’t have been strange, except… there wasn’t any breeze to speak of. My head lifted, and I watched the leaves shake against some unknown, unfelt wind. And when I lowered my gaze back to Genie, I got the fright of my life. Her gray eyes were looking right at me, her expression blank and eerie.
“Uh… Persie.” Nathan glanced over his shoulder, the color draining from his face. “I think we have a problem.”
I followed his line of sight and my heart plummeted. “Yeah, that’s not good.”
Across the riverbank, the formerly hypnotized abductees were trudging slowly in our direction. A young woman in modern clothes reached the embankment and stepped right into the water without a moment’s hesitation. My head whipped back around to find more abductees approaching in a zombie-like horde from our side of the river, all headed for Nathan and me.
“Genie, please, you have to—”
My words were cut short as she lunged for me. I managed to stagger backward just in time to avoid her clawing hands, but it wouldn’t stop her for long. Everywhere I looked, abductees marched toward us, blocking off every exit. I thought about diving into the river and letting it sweep us all the way to the ends of the pocket, but who was to say there wouldn’t be more waiting for us there?
Crap, crap, crap! I weighed my options, wondering if I could somehow coax out a Purge if I panicked hard enough. That would be a last resort, considering I had no control over what emerged. Still, I could keep it in mind, if things really got desperate. The pixie Purge had turned out all right, after all.
As Genie lunged for me again, the pixies propelled themselves into defense mode. Boudicca led a battalion of six against my best friend, whizzing around her head and pulling her hair—but Genie’s focus was unbreakable. All around me, the rest of the pixies set to work, trying to push back the encroaching zombie horde. They flashed their gaudy lights and scratched, scraped, punched, kicked, and clawed at the clueless enemy, but nothing they did made a difference. The zombies marched on, apathetic to the attack.
“Persie, quick!” Nathan grasped me by the elbow and dragged me closer to the tree trunk, away from Genie’s intent hands. With a rough shove, he pushed me into a crouching position and joined me there. His palms went up, and scarlet sparks juddered out of his hands, spinning around us in a vortex as his mouth moved in a silent spell. The vortex gathered into a revolving ball of dark red, rippling with threads of silver and gold. He clamped his hands into fists and the ball responded, shooting out a shimmering dome of magical protection that slid around us and slammed into the ground with a hiss, singeing the grass where it hit.
I eyed the dome suspiciously. Through the reddish sheen, I could still see everything beyond, and the zombies were getting closer by the moment. “Another spell from the Grimoire? Tell me it’s strong enough to keep these people from strangling us.”
He panted. “It’s a very strong one, which is why I don’t use it too often. Not that I usually have a reason to.” He tipped from a crouch to rest on his knees. “As you can see, it takes a lot out of me.”
“If Genie could snap out of this trance, she’s got a billion tricks like this up her sleeve.” I saw Genie looking blankly at our hiding place. Evidently, we weren’t quite invisible, as she began to approach our shelter. Before long, she was right outside the protective bubble, bumping against it and swiping at the shield to try and break through. The thud of each impact bounced the bubble around as though we were crouched inside a balloon, but it appeared to be holding.
The pixies! I suddenly remembered the rest of our party and scanned the Wisp realm for them. Fired up, they were still in a one-sided battle with the zombies, divebombing the listless abductees. A large group of pixies had managed to bring one of