Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,107

career suicide. But it was too late to change the plan now. By this point, if everything had gone well, Genie and Nathan would already have played their parts.

I went over the plan in my head. First, the schmoozing with Victoria to try and crack her for some intel, then straight to the antidote once Nathan had gotten enough to work with. Nathan had promised to secretly release the pixies and Gren and take them somewhere I’d hopefully be headed soon, in case anything went awry. I’d protested at first, not knowing if it was a good idea to take an enormous monster like Gren out of his enclosure. But then my lovely, green-furred Purge had whined and pounded his talons against the glass, letting me know that he wanted to help. I’d sensed his willingness to cooperate, resulting in my eventual acceptance. Still, if Victoria found out about that, there would be heads on pikes before dawn.

So, where are they? I knew all of that would take some time, but anxiety reigned supreme. The clock showed that two hours had passed since Genie had snuck out of here, shrouded by her Invisibility spell. Since Victoria hadn’t come bursting in, demanding answers, I clung to the hope that they hadn’t been caught. It sucked being the one whose job was to stay put.

It sucked even more because, with all this time to kill, my moral compass had decided to behave very indecisively, spinning toward all four corners. By helping Reid, were we paving the way for these witch hunters to come back at us magicals with a vengeance? Or would he stick to the price he’d paid for my assistance? I didn’t know him well enough to be sure. Heck, I didn’t know him at all, not really. But just as I had a sixth sense about monsters and their emotions, I had a similar feeling about Reid. His sincerity and desperation had shone through everything else, and I could only hope it didn’t come back to bite us in the ass.

A faint knock came at the door and my head shot up, my heart leaping into my throat. I approached the door, putting my ear close to the surface. “Who is it?”

“The Grim Reaper,” a familiar voice hissed back. “Who do you think?”

I opened the door, relief flooding over me, and I smelled an odd, burning-popcorn scent as my invisible best friend slipped by me. A green flare of light pulsed in the center of the room and began to travel upward, unraveling the Invisibility spell around Genie from toes to top. I hurried to close the door, eager to hear what she had to say. I’d pleaded with her to keep me up to date before she left, but she’d rattled off an argument about keeping paper trails to a minimum, and my phone had been agonizingly silent since.

“Oof, that burns.” Genie heaved out a breath, looking a little too pale for comfort. Guilt twisted in my stomach. She was really going out on a limb to help me here, even though she hadn’t properly recovered from, you know, dying and being brought back to life, and then getting a bad cold from her dead body being left out in the rain. She must’ve noticed me observing her with a remorseful expression, because she pulled me into a hug. “I’m fine, Pers. You know me. Tough as old boots.”

“I just wish we could’ve waited a few more days, until you were better,” I murmured into her shoulder.

She chuckled. “What are you trying to say? You think I look like crap? My ego already took a knock today, after meeting that hex-y potions woman. But I’ll have you know I’m in top form, so don’t you worry about me.” She pulled away and fixed me with an intent gaze. “The sooner we finish this, the better. Then we can forget about Reid, the witch hunters, Veritas, all of it, and leave this episode behind us. So, runner number three, are you ready to receive the baton?”

I straightened up and remembered why we were here. “Does that mean everything went smoothly?” Nathan hadn’t given much away when we’d conjured up our plan of action. He’d only said that he needed to pay two people a visit to get the answers we were looking for: Victoria and a woman called Ariana.

“Smooth-ish.” Genie dipped into her pocket and pulled out a bronze ball with slivers of glass cut into the polished surface.