Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,47
the vigor I could muster—I had a naughty gang of pixies to wrangle.
A knock at the door disturbed my inner monologue. “It’s open!” The pixies had broken the lock when they’d escaped last night, so that would probably get added to my ever-growing repair bill.
Genie appeared, wielding a brown paper bag and two expertly balanced coffees. “Delivery for the Queen of the Pixies.” She flashed a grin. “I got you a plain bagel with cream cheese. Figured I’d go easy on your stomach after your Purge.” Her nose wrinkled as she sniffed the air. “Oof, I bet that smokey smell clings to this room until you graduate.”
“Thank you!” I reached for the bag, but she swiped it back. “I opened a window, but I think I might need to get some air freshener or something, to take the edge off.”
“We can get you all the smoke cover-up you need later. No time to laze around, my friend. We’ve got half an hour before training with Hosseini kicks off, and we need every spare second to find your wily offspring.” She nodded to my fluffy PJs. “Get into your training gear, and you can wolf this down on the way.”
I grimaced. “Don’t call them my offspring.”
“Noted. I’ll go with ankle-biters.” She tapped an invisible watch on her wrist.
I gave up on the brush and pulled my dark hair into a bun. “Right, yes, got it. More haste, less chat. Give me a second.”
As she headed back into the hall and closed the door, I pulled on bottle-green workout leggings and a soft gray T-shirt, then yanked my black SDC sweatshirt over my head. It would probably draw some choice looks, but I didn’t care. If the GIs could be proud of where they came from, so could I.
Ready, in more ways than one, I grabbed my backpack and ran out to meet Genie. I felt like a new woman—if slightly bruised and battered and thoroughly exhausted. The huge welt on my elbow that had appeared after Fridgegate was the worst of my injuries—my first at the Institute, and I hadn’t even started training yet. I supposed it was best to get accustomed to pain, considering what everyone, including Victoria, had warned us about the challenges ahead. Bath salts. Remember to ask Mom for bath salts.
“Where to?” Genie handed me the brown sack, and I duly stuffed the bagel in my mouth.
“Repository.” Crumbs flew everywhere as I devoured a massive chunk. What could I say, Purges made a girl ravenous. “I think the pixies might gravitate toward the one that got put there last night.”
Genie raised her coffee cup. “Ingenious!”
“No, that’d be you.” I chuckled, tearing off another huge bite. With hunger like this, there was no room for table manners. “So, are you going to tell me what really happened with Charlotte yesterday?”
Genie pulled a sour face. “Like I said, bigots and assholes.”
“Come on, you’ve got to give me the details. I told you everything about the pixies. I know it’s not the same, but I want to know,” I insisted. “I realize I’ve been a tornado of mayhem lately, and you’ve been here the whole time, helping me through it all. But I’m here for you as much as you’re here for me, and I can’t hold a grudge on your behalf if I don’t know who’s in my bad books.”
She sipped her coffee with a faint smirk. “I’ll give you the abridged version. Basically, I was trying to make friends and our classmates decided to really dig in with some deep-rooted hate for me. Well, Atlanteans, but since I’m the only one here, I got the whole barrage. Nasty words were hurled, and some stuck-up snoot from Charlotte’s clique hogged the mic a lot.” She paused.
My intuition told me we’d arrived at the part of the story Genie didn’t want to share. “And?” I pressed.
She looked at me apologetically. “Then, they took a stab at you. And I lost it. I dragged up all the water in the banquet hall, had a bit of fun, then dumped the whole wave on their heads.” She shrugged. “What can I say? They were getting a bit heated, so I figured I’d cool them off. Hosseini walked in, demanded to know what just happened. He basically guilted Charlotte into cleaning up because she’s a Basani. Face of the Institute and all that. She wasn’t happy about it. I helped mop up, because I’m just that nice.”