Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,30

building weapons.”

I laughed it off. “You shouldn’t believe everything you read online. Propaganda is alive and well, unfortunately. King Apollo is a decent guy, and he doesn’t go in for the whole weaponry thing. He’s more likely to bore people into submission by holding endless summits about trade deals.”

“Says you.” Ponytail #1 smoothed a palm over her plasticky hair. So lacquered, you could probably bounce a penny off it.

I’d have felt more welcome at an anti-Atlantean rally— I’d never seen one, but I’d heard they happened now and again. At least those protestors didn’t use sarcasm and sourness to sugarcoat the way they felt about my people. They just spewed outright hatred. Worse, sure, but more honest. This awkward jelly-feeling in my chest—no, that didn’t suit me at all. I wasn’t one for bottling things up in the face of underhanded nastiness.

I set down my mug, cool as a cucumber. “So, is someone going to come out and tell me what the smacked-ass faces are about, or are you just hoping I’ll give up and run away with my tail between my legs? If it’s the latter, you’ll be waiting until after graduation.” Possibly not the best approach to making pals, but I wouldn’t grovel or kiss ass or whimper like a puppy for the sake of integrating. If I stayed silent, they got to chalk up another win against “people like me.” Not just Atlanteans, but people like Kes, whose differences rubbed folks the wrong way. Society’s targets, magical and otherwise. No way was I about to let them do that.

Colette stared down into her hot chocolate, all talk until it came to confrontation. “We didn’t invite you to our table.”

“Oh, excuse me, I didn’t see names carved into the wood. Now, why don’t you give me the real reason? You’ve clearly got beef with me, and I’d like to know what it is. So far as I know, I personally haven’t done anything to piss you off.”

Bike-Pump Biceps piped up, their fearless, meathead leader. “We don’t want you at our table. We’re not interested in having an Atlantean hanging around us at all, right now or any other day.”

“Nice to see that you’ve all picked up some deep-rooted discrimination along the way.” I held my ground, wrapping my hands around my mug on the table until my knuckles whitened. “Let me guess, your parents told you that we’re all sly devils who should be avoided at all costs? Or did you learn it at your covens, maybe? Oh, I’d love to have a word with your Magical History teachers—everyone loves a clear-cut, black and white enemy, don’t they? But, tell me, have any of you or your parents or your history teachers actually met an Atlantean?”

I should’ve lowered my voice. A crowd had started to gather, beady eyes watching and waiting for the Atlantean girl to lose her cool and explode in a shower of Chaos sparks. They were forgetting how long I’d been alive. They couldn’t rile me up or get me to throw a punch just by being nasty to me. Their words hurt, and it sucked, but I wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction of seeing me throw a fit.

This was the catalyst, I realized, as I waited for the clammed-up crew to respond. My dad had been so happy about our transition into the wider magical world. That happiness had cracked and faded over the years because of people like this. People who sneered and jeered at him. People who made him feel less than he was. People who battered his pride and his heritage, until the world we’d left no longer seemed like the worst place we could be. He’d dealt with this for nearly twenty years. I was just getting my first proper mouthful of it, out in the open, instead of snide, under-the-breath comments.

“Atlanteans are backward and dangerous.” Ponytail #1 glowered over a half-eaten candy. “They nearly destroyed the magical world, thanks to Princess Kaya and that maniac Davin Doncaster! We wouldn’t be sitting here if our people hadn’t stopped yours.”

I glowered right back, taking a shaky breath to steady my voice. “That ended twenty years ago, and it wasn’t just ‘your’ people who helped prevent outright war. My father nearly got killed fighting back. King Apollo helped stop Kaya, and his best friend, Thebian, gave his life to get the jump on Davin Doncaster. You wouldn’t be sitting here if they hadn’t gone against their own queen. I’m not