Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,58

“I know what you’re thinking.”

“Do you? Are you a secret Telepath?” I retorted, worried for my friend. And still busy digging a grave for my doubts.

“No, I didn’t mean that.” He dropped his chin to his chest and sighed heavily. “I just mean, you probably think I’m a fool. How could I look at those creatures and think they had anything to do with Xanthippe’s disappearance, right?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Hmm. Maybe you’re a bit Telepathic, then. You got the fool part right.” Perhaps I was being too hard on him. But his show-and-tell, in addition to Charlotte’s snotty words, had resulted in Persie having a one-on-one with the head huntswoman. If that wasn’t cause for being stern, then I didn’t know what was.

“Allow me to explain.” Nathan tugged on the collar of his polo shirt. Seriously, how many of those did he have? “One may look innocuous enough, but when you take into account a horde of these pixies—them being… dangerous isn’t that outlandish. Persie didn’t have an exact number of how many she’d Purged, but she estimated thirty or more. That’s clearly a lot. Pixies are little rascals. They probably don’t realize that taking a student is far more than mischief.”

“They didn’t do this,” I replied stubbornly, but my resolve had waned a little.

He paused and hit me with an intense stare. “Why are you so sure?”

Honestly? I don’t know. But I couldn’t say that, so I let my quick mind do the talking. If only to talk myself around, too.

“Put yourself in their tiny shoes, Nathan. If they’ve got any sense, they’ll have tried to escape the Institute. Once they realized they couldn’t get out, they’ll have known they were in trouble. And if they saw the pixie Persie caught, they probably understand that they’re stuck in a place that traps monsters professionally. You were the one who said these things had more pizzazz than people give them credit for. Why would they even risk showing themselves, much less incurring punishment for kidnapping a student?”

Unless they want leverage to bargain for their freedom… The thought came out of nowhere. I guessed I hadn’t buried my doubts deep enough. Everyone seemed to think they were responsible, and the timing was pretty suspicious... What if… dammit, no! No what-ifs! I had to keep these doubts at bay. Didn’t I?

Nathan tapped the stack of books. “That’s precisely what I intend to find out, if only to take them off the list of potential culprits. You have to understand, pixies haven’t been seen for hundreds of years, and we don’t know why they stopped being Purged.” He took off his glasses to wipe them clean. A nervous tic, I’d noticed.

Or maybe a thoughtful one.

“Sometimes—and this is only a theory of mine—Chaos appears to remove certain beasts from the Purging roster, if you will, because they’re considered very dangerous. In the old days, magicals would even pray to Chaos to eradicate certain Purge beasts due to crop failures, attacks, deaths in the family, that sort of thing.”

I nodded, partially understanding. “So, you’re saying we don’t know enough about their behavior or their past rap sheets to exonerate them?”

“Yes, exactly.” A curious smile appeared on his lips. Like I’d impressed him. “I haven’t found much in the lore to suggest they’re particularly dangerous, but I need to do more intensive research before I can say that with certainty. I’ve already requested access to old archives from the Cornish coven, which might help us understand why they went extinct. Until now, I mean.”

His broken bracelet fell to the floor. I automatically picked it back up and handed it to him. “You don’t waste time, do you?”

“With a girl missing, we can’t hesitate.” He took the bracelet from me. Our fingertips brushed, and he looked like he’d been jolted with 1000 volts. Fumbling, he tried to tie the bracelet back on. I thought about helping him, but he’d only have wigged out again. Poor guy had clearly spent so much time with his books that he’d forgotten what human contact felt like. And, dammit, it was kind of endearing. But he’d caught me at a sensitive moment. My friend’s fate hung in the balance. Of course, I was going to be affected by his kindness.

I turned to the office door, mostly because I wanted Persie to come striding out, everything a-okay. But partially so Nathan wouldn’t feel self-conscious about botching his bracelet repair.

“What’s the bracelet for? Hippie mumbo-jumbo?” He didn’t strike me as the holistic