Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,59

sort, but if I asked too nicely, he’d have been on his guard.

He braced one of the leather ends against his chest, threading the other end through the loop. “I’ve had it forever. Someone… uh… sent it to me in the mail for my sixteenth birthday, and I’ve worn it ever since. I realize it may look like this is the first time I’ve fixed it, but it’s not.”

“I bet you had a puka necklace too, huh?” I gave him an olive-branch smile.

He chuckled. “Only until an ex-girlfriend told me it looked ridiculous.”

A flicker of irrational jealousy reared its head. “Would you just let me tie it for you? It’s killing me, watching you fumble with it.”

“Oh… uh… that would be very kind,” he said tentatively.

Eager to pivot away from the subject of his ex-girlfriend, I leaned forward and grasped the two ends. He smelled really good. Expensive cologne, masculine and clean. “What’s going to happen to her?” I needed someone to lie to me and tell me it would be fine.

“Persie?”

I rolled my eyes. “Who else? The Queen of Babylon?”

“Ah… yes, sorry.” He adjusted his jacket. No tweed today. Instead, he wore an academic corduroy number over a white polo shirt. Why did he like that look so much? Judging by the anecdote about the puka necklace, his fashion sense must always have been a bit… quirky. “Honestly, I think her ability is too unique and rare for her to be dismissed.”

I squinted at him and released his now-tied bracelet. “You have ‘but’ face.”

“Pardon?” He frantically wiped his face with the sleeve of his jacket. I would’ve laughed if things hadn’t felt so serious.

“I mean, you look like you’re about to say ‘but.’ Ergo, ‘but’ face.”

He lowered his arm and turned beet-red. “Oh… very good. Very funny. Perhaps you’re right about me checking out that book on humor. You say everything so deadpan. You could tell me there was a nine-foot flamingo behind me, and I’d believe you.” He chuckled, embarrassed. “As for my ‘but’ face… We can’t deny the dangers of her ability, much as I’d like to. Personally, I think it’s astonishing. However, if, one day, her Purge ends up killing someone, or if the pixies did abduct a student, then there may be only one option for her.”

Don’t you dare say it. My heels started clicking again.

“She may have to be locked away,” he said.

“What, like Echidna?” My anger peaked again. “Persie’s not a monster, Nathan. She’s not the same. And you can’t just chuck someone in a box because their ability goes haywire. Anyone with magic is capable of messing up. I could, I don’t know, freeze someone for a minute too long and accidentally kill them. Would I deserve to be put in a box?”

Nathan’s eyebrows knitted together. “That’s apples and oranges, Genie. But, yes, you would be culpable if you did something like that, though the accident part would be taken into account. Avarice and Purgatory don’t fill up for no reason.”

I shuddered at those names. The magical prisons—one for little crimes, one for the nastiest. Persie had freaked out over the average Bestiary box; I hadn’t even thought about the biggest glass boxes of them all. Did he mean they might put her in prison? Somehow, that felt way worse than a Bestiary box. She wasn’t a monster, but she definitely wasn’t a criminal. She didn’t deserve to be locked away, end of story. For the first time, I fully realized the validity of her panic. If level-headed Nathan could jump to that idea, then everyone else was probably thinking the same thing.

“She didn’t ask for this,” I murmured, my heart heavy. Leviathan had wedged her between a rock and a hard place. And she only had me to protect her from the cage-happy ideas of everyone around her. But, if that sentence ever came down on her head, what would I actually be able to do about it? I had Atlantean mettle, sure, but against an army of Victorias, O’Hallorans, Charlottes, and the UCA… I’d be as helpless as my pal. And that scared the heck out of me.

Nathan put a tentative hand on my shoulder. “I know, and that’s the worst part about it. This is all new to her. She’s had no time to train or prepare. I’m not sure if there’s anyone alive who would’ve been able to make this transition smoother for her.” He took his hand away again and looked at it for a second. “But