Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere by Bella Forrest Page 0,83
but I couldn’t resist. He’d seemed so different. More relaxed, despite my haunting attempt. And he hadn’t been as nervous or shy around me this time. It felt like we were slowly getting to know each other’s idiosyncrasies. You know, like when you introduced a new pet to the old one, and they needed a bit of time to settle into the idea. Plus, I’d been told I made an intimidating first impression. My sense of humor wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but maybe he was learning to like it.
Such nice eyes. I grinned, envisioning the way they crinkled up when he smiled. The smile suited him better than bumbling confusion, although the bumbling confusion wasn’t without its charms. Man, I sounded like such a cheesy romantic. Was that even how I thought of him? I’d enjoyed our talk. I liked his company. Did that spell romance? Not necessarily. It could just as easily be the start of a friendship. Then I remembered the gray T-shirt and the sound of his laughter, and my heart did a weird clench. If I wasn’t careful, butterflies would be freed from their cage. And that signaled the rise of awkward, tongue-tied Genie—a rare creature who hadn’t been seen for many, many years.
“He’s not even my type,” I told the statue of a unicorn. But did types really matter? All my crushes on men who were “my type” hadn’t ended well, so maybe not. And change was a good thing, right?
I leaned on the unicorn and wrapped an arm around its neck. “Who am I kidding? It’s not like it could go anywhere, so what’s the use?”
It didn’t matter who the guy was, my dad would never agree to it. He’d laid down the law on that front. I could have my pick of stuffy Atlanteans, but no regular magicals. And while a secret romance sounded exciting in theory, in reality it required a lot of exhausting logistics. I wasn’t denying there were some absolute peaches in Atlantis, but an arranged anything didn’t float my proverbial boat. Romance and love shouldn’t be forced. It needed to be organic, or it would always feel like it was lacking. I believed this as someone who had no idea about love or marriage or any of it, of course, but my heart told me that was how it was meant to be.
“He did a hula dance. Can you believe it?” I asked the unicorn. A guy who could be silly was attractive as heck. Perhaps it was because he was slightly older and didn’t take himself as seriously as younger guys. Whatever it was, it had reeled me in—hook, line… but not quite sinker. Not yet.
Strolling away from the unicorn, I realized I’d somehow circled back to the Repository. It was technically part of the center, not belonging to a particular wing. And it felt rude not to investigate further up the hallway. I’d always stopped beside the Repository instead of pressing on to the new wing. I guessed none of us had mentioned searching there.
“Might as well cover all our bases, eh?” I winked at a dragon statue and continued down the hall. I followed the route Charlotte had taken us on during orientation, and it wasn’t long before I reached the building site.
Approaching with caution, I flattened myself against the stained-glass entrance and peered around the corner to check the situation ahead. The workers who’d been putting together the bones of this place had probably clocked off ages ago, and they’d taken their lights with them. I doubted they’d be back anytime soon, with the Institute on lockdown. Impenetrable shadow shrouded the foyer of the new wing, eerie and unsettling, like someone was watching me from the darkness. The flap of a tarp did nothing to ease my discomfort. It sounded like enormous wings, snapping violently.
I pulled out my dead phone and cursed under my breath. “I’m going to have to go in there alone, aren’t I?” With no one around and plenty of shadows to melt into, it was the perfect hideout for errant pixies. Usually, I wasn’t bothered by the dark, but there was something about this place that freaked me out. Namely, the huge black dome at the far end that I knew lay unseen. The current Repository had a welcoming feel to it, but this new one… not so much. A definite case of style over substance. Seriously, it looked like something out of a horror sci-fi.