Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,14
spotted that bear of a scholar, Ingram something or other, teaching a small class.
“Hey, isn’t that—?” Persie gave me a nudge in the ribs.
“Who?” Of course, I knew who she meant. I wasn’t blind. He stood at the back of Ingram’s glass box, taking notes.
Persie smiled. “Mr. O’Hara.”
“Oh… yeah, maybe. I can’t tell from here.” I could smell the BS, and there was no way my pal hadn’t caught the reek. Fortunately, Charlotte saved me.
“This is where you will learn Monster Theory, if you hadn’t guessed from the name. MacLoughlin and his assistants will be teaching you.” She gestured up to the yawning rafters. “It also serves as a library, if you want to study privately. Although we do have five libraries, so you can take your pick depending on your needs.”
She didn’t even announce that we were moving on this time. She just turned and headed off, leaving us to trail after her like eager ducklings. There was something about her cool, matter-of-fact attitude that intrigued me. I’d yet to see her break a smile. Not that it was necessary, it just made me wonder if she’d been roped into this against her will, as a favor to Mama Basani. As with all legacies, I guessed she felt the Basani name weighing on her shoulders. I guessed she had other, more complicated dimensions to her, ones she didn’t want to show to the newbs.
I could understand the crushing heft of legacy, and not just from being friends with Persie. Being the only Atlantean at the Institute came with novelty value, sure, but it also singled me out. I didn’t look like everyone else. I had tattoos on my face, for one. And I had more power than everyone else, for another. I wasn’t tooting my own horn or anything, it was plain fact. A gift and a curse. Normally, I didn’t let that faze me, but I remembered the words my dad had whispered in my ear when we parted ways: “You will be our nation’s representative. Make Atlantis proud.”
Ah, the motherland… The double-edged sword that loomed over my life. But I wasn’t doing this to make Atlantis proud. Long before Persie had even suggested this place, I’d daydreamed about becoming a monster hunter for one woman and one woman alone: my mom. She’d been one of the finest hunters in Atlantis. Yes, it had taken her away from me in the end, but she’d loved her job with everything she had. I’d sat on my dad’s knee and listened to his stories about her death-defying captures and the weird and wonderful monsters of the deep, and I’d been so awestruck that I’d forgotten to breathe. I had known even then that I wanted to be like her, without ever having known her.
“Take a breath, baby shrimp,” my dad would whisper to me. Apparently, it had been her pet name for me because I’d slept curled up like one. And he’d continued it, in her memory. Though it had been a long time since he’d called me that.
I want to make you proud, Mom. I want to be as great as you were. Maybe, it’ll make me feel like you’re… still here. I had to blink away unexpected tears and pretend to stare at a few display cases filled with hunter paraphernalia. If Persie saw, she’d worry, and she didn’t need my problems on top of hers. There was so much I hated about Atlantis: the traditions, the arranged marriages, the paternal expectation. But it was where I was born. It was where I was loved by her. It was where I’d said goodbye to her, even though I’d been too young to remember. And that bound me to that backward little world, no matter how far away I roamed.
“Don’t get too close, she might hex you. They’re sentients, you know—sneaky buggers.” My head whipped around. The two closest cadets, with ponytails so tight they had permanently startled expressions, shot me daggers and descended into furtive giggles. I didn’t know which one had said it, and I didn’t want to cause a scene. But this wasn’t the first instance of this. There had been sly looks and whispers for the last five days. I’d ignored them, for the most part, hoping they’d wear out their petty bigotry, but it got harder each time.
“I wouldn’t waste the energy,” I hissed back.
They exchanged a worried look and scuttled to the front of the crowd.