Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,133

and she instructed her pixies to lower the shield wall. “You were probably too far gone, sleep-wise, for the Wisps to influence you. They need you to see the lights and hear the music fully, or the hypnosis doesn’t work.”

Charlotte was feeling guilty. Her best friend had been abducted, and she hadn’t. I knew exactly how she felt, like we’d narrowly avoided a mine while our closest confidantes had stepped right onto it. It hurt to know that they might’ve been able to avoid it, if only we’d understood sooner.

“How do we fix it?” Charlotte’s head snapped up, determination replacing her guilty expression.

“We have to work together. And fast, or the Wisps will keep taking people and nobody will be able to stop them. Now that the gateway is open, they’ll carry on until we can shut the Door for good, or until it gets buried under a pile of rubble and earth again. Saying that, we can’t let it close until we’ve got everyone out. So, you see the predicament we’re in.” I opened my mouth to say more, but at that moment the Door blasted open and the Wisps spun out in a frenzy, making a beeline for Charlotte.

After all, the pixies and I were tainted goods.

But my monster allies were prepared for all eventualities now and refused to be taken by surprise. Before the Wisps could get near Charlotte to start up the hypnosis trick, the pixies split into two bands of ten. They wasted no time creating the spinning shield of violet light around each of us, the vortex making the Wisps reel back in alarm. As the pixies’ chanting grew to deafening levels and the glow of the shields intensified with the sound, the Wisps froze for a moment, unsure what to do next. A blast of fizzing energy erupted from the pixies, sending the Wisps flying back toward the Door. Evidently, they decided to cut their losses and run with their comet tails between their legs. But their quick retreat also caused the gateway to close again, shutting us off from those who needed rescue before we could even think about leaping through it.

With the Wisp wave held back, the pixies slowed their spinning and came to a stop. A handful hovered around drunkenly, holding tiny palms to their heads to ease their vertigo. Coming to my aid had taken its toll on them, but none complained. Instead, they giggled as they bumped dizzily into each other, while Boudicca kept one eye on the gateway.

Charlotte exhaled sharply, patting her body down to make sure she was intact. “Why did they do that?”

“Help you, you mean?” I smiled, knowing the Wisps had just put the icing on the cake. Now Charlotte had to believe that the pixies were innocent. They’d just saved her from a date with Fergus’s paradise.

She nodded stiffly.

“Maybe they wanted you to see what I see,” I replied. “That there’s not an evil bone in their bodies. A bunch of mischievous ones, sure, but they’re far from evil.”

Looking shaken, Charlotte fixed her gaze on Boudicca. “Thank you.”

Boudicca chuckled and mimicked her voice, pretending to tremble like a wet dog. Charlotte frowned, like she didn’t know what to make of the display, but I understood. This was Boudicca’s way of saying, “Don’t thank us yet. Thank us when you’ve told everyone that we’re innocent.”

“Don’t worry, as long as you show the pixies respect, they won’t mock you too much,” I assured, laughing at—or more like with—Boudicca. The she-pixie winked at me and touched down on my shoulder. Perched there, she indicated a shadowy object on the floor. It took me a moment to figure out what it was: the book the pixies had stolen from the library. I plucked it up, cradling it in my arms like the precious treasure of knowledge I hoped it would be.

Charlotte approached warily. “What’s that?”

“Nathan asked the pixies to fetch it. He thought it might be the answer to gaining entry, since we didn’t have a Wisp to lead us through the gateway.” I flipped through the pages to the section that had caught Nathan’s attention before. But the words swam in front of my eyes, and they weren’t written in English. “Can you read this? I think this was the line Nathan thought might be important.”

Charlotte took the book from me and scanned the Gaelic. “What did he say it meant?”

“Uh… something like ‘The maker’s strength holds the Will together.’ He thought it referred to the