Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,7
straight in the eyes and not get stung by the smitten arrow, but it was far rarer for Genie to look into a man’s eyes and get hit too. And, unless I was mistaken, it looked like she’d been hit.
Genie looked toward me, severing their connection. “Sorry about that, and all of this.” She gestured to the sheets in my hand. “We were trying to find the assembly hall, and we weren’t watching where we were going.”
Flustered, he took the papers from me and jammed them into one of the folders. “It’s fine, really. Happens all the time. More than I’d like to admit.” He cast her a shy look, but she was deliberately avoiding his gaze. I knew my friend, and she was definitely in shock. “And they’ll dry out, if any of them are wet. It might make them look a bit older, give them gravitas. You know, like those history projects when you were a kid, where you’d tea-stain a piece of paper and singe the edges to make it look old-timey?” A faint flush of pink tinged his complexion as he sought Genie’s eyes again, but she carried on pretending to be absorbed in the sketches he’d already tucked away. “I’m talking too much, aren’t I? Sorry. I can take you to the assembly hall—I’m actually headed there myself.”
“That’d be great, Mr.—?” Genie waited.
“Nathaniel O’Hara. No ‘mister’ necessary, Nathan’s fine.” He appeared to rally, making a show of pushing the stray pages into the folder. “And who might you be?”
I knew he didn’t mean me, but it didn’t bother me in the slightest. Actually, it did a bit, but only because I wanted to know more about his illustrations. Who was this guy, and why did he have folders of beautiful drawings that matched my own endless sketchbooks? True, we were in a monster-hunting Institute, so it wasn’t exactly odd, but there was something undeniably intimate about his artistry. Each touch of shade and light was painstakingly crafted, the creatures made three-dimensional with skill and thought until they almost leapt off the page.
“I’m Iphigenia Vertis, but Genie’s fine,” she copied him. “And this is my best friend, Persie Merlin-Crowley.”
He adjusted his specs. “Merlin-Crowley? As in—”
“Yep, my famous parents.” I rubbed the back of my neck, bracing for the usual torrent of compliments for my mom and dad. Even here, I couldn’t escape their legacy. I wished I could’ve been more mature about it, but it did tend to grate after a while. Instead, he just furrowed his brow, as if he were more irritated than impressed.
“I corresponded with her a few times when I was younger,” Nathan said, “trying to gain access to the Bestiary for research purposes. All my requests were denied.”
Huh, how about that… Of all the institutions in all the world, I happened to come here and meet the one person who didn’t immediately turn gooey-eyed at the sound of my family name. It was kind of refreshing.
Genie chuckled, though I spotted a subtle blush in her cheeks. “Maybe they know you’re clumsy. Being around all of those glass boxes and narrow walkways would probably push them up to DEFCON 1.”
“I’m the clumsy one? You’re the ones who barged into me!”
“Only because you were backing out of a doorway,” Genie retorted. I wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t teasing him. That tended to be a defense mechanism for her, but it was never easy to tell. Either way, I doubted it would diminish her charms in his clearly curious eyes.
He straightened slightly. “Don’t forget, you’re the new students here. I know my way around, and I’d urge you to be more careful in the future.”
“We really are sorry,” I cut in, before Genie could make another ill-considered joke. “You’re right, we should’ve been more aware, but we were frazzled about missing our orientation assembly. It’s not good to be late on the first day, you know? And I’m so sorry we made you drop all of your incredible sketches. Are they yours?”
He focused his attention on me, but I saw him steal another look at Genie as he spoke. “They are. I’m a scholar’s aide here at the Institute, in the field of Monster Research.” His body language relaxed as he struck more comfortable territory, his fingertips adjusting the arm of his glasses. “I delve deep into Purge beasts and their individual natures, though my main interest is in all things ancient and obsolete. Of course, that’s not as useful to the Institute, as