Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,142

were being called back to pick up where they’d left off? I swam through the filthy water until a hand reached out to haul me from the grave. Charlotte’s hand, back to normal, but slick from the rain and mud. I clung with all my might as she heaved me onto solid ground. I collapsed onto my back, gasping for breath.

“What’s happening? I thought… it was over.” I struggled to sit up, Boudicca and the two other pixies perching on my shoulders.

Charlotte eyed the fizzing air. The atmosphere prickled my skin, like the moment just before a storm hit. Only, the storm had gone… hadn’t it?

“I don’t know, but we should get back.” She reached down and yanked me to my feet, the two of us holding onto one another as we staggered away from the danger zone.

Ducking behind a gravestone, I peered around the stone edge. I didn’t have the energy to run from another assault, but I could hide. My heart raced like a runaway train in my chest as bronze lines sparked to life, forming a glowing rectangle in the air, not unlike a chalk-door. Was someone coming to save us? Or capture us? Had Victoria figured out that we’d gone AWOL and sent her hunters to drag us back? I wasn’t sure how she’d know our location, but maybe the weird storm had tipped her off.

A swirling, sparking energy appeared, filling in the outline of the doorway, and I braced for the worst. The energy burst outward and heavenly light spilled out onto the graveyard, the sound of mystical singing drifting over the slumbering souls of the dead. I jolted in surprise—I knew that song.

“Can you see any Wisps?” Charlotte whispered, peeking through a gap in the circular cross at the top of the headstone.

I shook my head, my fear morphing into a smile. “No… something far better.”

Out of the gateway, people poured into the real world. Some were alone, some in couples holding tight to one another’s hands. They wore the old-fashioned clothes I’d seen in Fergus’s realm, the ancient wanderers imprisoned in his world, finally released. Feeling the icy wind on their faces, they paused and turned their faces to the night sky, marveling aloud at its beauty. It must have been a long time since they’d seen real stars. Smiles spread across their faces, and then, as a gust of sea air whistled across the graveyard, their bodies turned to dust, the gray flecks whisked away in a painless conclusion to their long imprisonment.

“They’re free now,” I said to myself, watching the gateway. It was bittersweet. The lives they might’ve lived had been stolen from them by Fergus and the Wisps, but at least they could be at peace now. Mother Earth and her elements would carry them gently to the next life, where, perhaps, they would be reunited with those who’d mourned them when they’d disappeared. There was beauty in that, no matter the circumstances.

A few minutes later, people in modern clothes filtered through the newly-positioned Door to Nowhere. It was the abductees from the Institute, all of them staring around in confusion. My heart lurched as wind chased the shadows across the cemetery, terrified that they would turn to dust, as well. But they didn’t. They hadn’t been in Fergus’s world for long enough, their lives and bodies still intact.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I didn’t know who I was thanking, exactly. All I knew was that the relief coursing through my veins threatened to overwhelm me. My limbs jittered, my heart pumped erratically, my lungs were barely able to snatch a grateful breath.

“Where are we?” a young guy muttered, rubbing his head.

The girl beside him hugged herself, rubbing her arms to fend off the cold. “Beats me. Feels like we’re still in Ireland, though.”

“Xan!” Charlotte leapt out from behind the tombstone, scaring the girl half to death. I realized that this was the nasty sourpuss who’d insulted Genie in the banquet hall. She took a moment to recognize Charlotte and yelped in excitement. The two girls collided in a fierce hug, jumping around happily. I might not have liked Xanthippe at all, but Charlotte couldn’t have been more overjoyed to see her. Watching them, I felt a pang in my chest. There were still two people who hadn’t come out.

Where are you? Please… I just… need to see you. I waited.

And waited.

And then Genie and Nathan stumbled from the gateway. The last to go in, the last to come