Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,27
up his own monster hunting program. Last I heard, Tobe went to ask O’Halloran if he could put a magical bell around Kes’s neck, so he’ll know where Kes is at all times. Finch keeps joking that it’s Victoria Jules’s fault for mesmerizing him, but I think he’s keen on the bell idea.”
“Really? That’s… uh… very Kes.” I wrapped my arms around my stomach, the nausea still bubbling up. Sweat began to bead on my forehead, while the telltale prickles began to scuttle up the back of my neck like ants. “Maybe Tobe could… teach him?”
My dad chuckled. “He’s too young. In three years, maybe, but not yet. The potential backlash, if anything went wrong, would be enough to put anyone off.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess… I hadn’t thought of… um… that.” I jiggled my legs, fighting back the swell of the sickness. “Look, this is awkward, but I’m going to have to say goodbye and nip off to the bathroom. We had tacos for dinner, and I think I ate a bad one.”
“Bad tacos? Are you sure it’s—”
I cut my mom off. “Okay, I’m going to sign off before I need to… uh… trash these pants. Bye! Love you, bye!”
The last thing I needed them to see was me Purging up whatever happened to be coming. If they saw, they’d come crashing through the mirrors before it was even over. I ended the call before they could respond and flopped off the chair onto all fours.
Oh no, oh no, oh no… Pain splintered from my stomach up into my chest, forming a heavy ball of agonizing weight that threatened to crush any organs in the way. Blinding bolts of white-hot lightning ricocheted away from the lump in my chest and sizzled down my arms and legs until my fingers went into frantic spasms. Hugging my knees, I rocked back and forth while sharp stabs pinballed between my temples. Black spots danced in my field of vision—the evil twins of the floaty orbs from the hallway.
“I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.” I repeated the mantra in a panicked whisper as more symptoms crept over me. I hated Leviathan so much, I wanted to snap off his stupid glowing hypno-thing and shove it down his throat.
My heart hammered hummingbird fast. Sweat drenched my white T-shirt and my sweatpants, darkening the gray fabric until it was closer to black. And then the punches came, socking my stomach, my chest, my legs, my back, my arms, my throat, until everything hurt. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this particular Purge would be a sizeable beast. And I wished I had the strength to push it back down into the ether, but that wasn’t part of the game Leviathan had forced me to play.
Wrenching pulses launched my body into convulsions. I raked my fingernails across the stone floor in an attempt to stay connected with something solid, until the floor scraped my skin rusty-red. This didn’t feel like any Purge I’d had before. In my chest, I felt that heavy ball moving upward. When it reached my throat, my eyes bulged. I wasn’t aware of much beyond my own pain, but I could’ve sworn I heard the bones in my throat creak and strain to make way for the foreign object.
Finally, with one exhausted retch, a smooth orb, trailing black smoke, erupted from my mouth and hit the floor in an explosion of black fire. A second later, dozens of tiny creatures burst out of the flames and took flight. They zipped around the room in darts of vivid color, fluttering gossamer wings so fast it looked like they weren’t moving at all.
One landed on the ground by my trembling hand and looked me dead in the eyes. Similar to the sprite that Nathan had showed us, its wings looked like paper-thin sycamore leaves, tinged with an alarming shade of red. It wore what looked like a tiny bird skull as a helmet, with two beady black eyes glinting behind the eye sockets. Tufts of mossy hair extended from the bottom of the skull. As for its body, it had frog-like legs and arms, minus the webbed feet, which were banded with streaks of pearly white and indigo. Its thin torso didn’t look like it could hold the creature up, but somehow, it did.
It grinned at me, flashing a miniature set of razor-sharp teeth. Then it gave a sarcastic bow, like it knew it was about