Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,109

and took out her phone. “He got there five minutes ago. Everyone is in place and behaving.”

“Then you should get to him. I’ll take the traditional route, in case Reid sees me with backup and takes off. I don’t know why he would, but… this is still all very confusing.” I gave a nervous laugh and took out my own phone, sending a message to the man himself: I have the cure. Meet me at the abandoned fishery in fifteen minutes. It seemed like the safest place for our exchange, since it was out of the way. The hunters had cleared out of there a few days ago after coming up empty. Plus, there were crusty, crumbling old boathouses and storage huts around the fishery where Nathan, Genie, and the monsters could hide.

Genie reached out for a parting hug. “You’ve got this, Pers. This is how you save the day again, as always. There probably won’t be accolades this time, but that’s the mark of a true heroine. Saving lives in secret. The caped crusader, shrouded in mystery.” She gave me a firm squeeze. “Just remember, you don’t need to be afraid of this guy. You’re the one doing him a huge favor. Just make sure he doesn’t get riled up and turn all misty on you, and we should be good. No need to use the monsters at all.”

“Thanks. I needed to hear that.” I hugged her back, and then it was time for us to go our separate ways. I wished I could’ve kept her at my side, but I needed to make this walk alone. We couldn’t risk Reid knowing I had my friends waiting in the wings to unleash hell if he tried anything funny.

She turned and crouched, drawing out a chalk-door. “And remember, shout or call, and we’ll come running.”

“I will,” I promised, though I prayed it wouldn’t come to that.

A few moments later, she disappeared through the doorway, leaving me alone on the cliff path to meet my former kidnapper at the very place where he’d tried to intimidate me. In retrospect, I could’ve gone for somewhere less traumatic, but the text had been sent. As if responding to my thoughts, my phone pinged.

I’ll be there, his message read.

“Come on, Persie. It’s not hard. Just put one foot in front of the other,” I told myself as I began to walk. On the horizon to my right, the sun was making its slow descent into darkness, splintering the sky with fragments of fuchsia and vermilion cut with a bronzed orange and a subtle swell of midnight purple. I would’ve preferred to do this in broad daylight, but there were far scarier things than the darkness. A horde of untreated Fear Deargs, for one.

Twenty-Nine

Persie

I made my way down the stone staircase, cut into the cliff itself, to reach the fishery. The walk took longer than expected, my legs turning sluggish and heavy with anxiety, but I was finally here. And I’d heard nothing back from Reid to say if he was also late, or if he was already waiting. Nada.

I’m doing the right thing, I told myself. I’m stopping worse trouble from happening. I repeated the mantra, ad nauseum, until it stuck. I wasn’t scared to see Reid again, per se. I was more frightened by the idea of losing Victoria’s trust. Moreover, if anything did go south during this exchange, any kind of cavalry, aside from my two friends and four monsters, was a long way away, with no idea that we’d even left the Institute.

Reaching the wide cove where the fishery sat like a decaying corpse of forgotten industry, I took a deep breath and headed into the decrepit building. On the threshold of the dripping, stagnant hellhole, I pinched my nose and strode into the dimly lit space, but even that wasn’t enough to keep out the pervasive stench of rotting fish. It hadn’t gotten any better since my last visit. If anything, it had grown worse, reeking like a dead whale that had exploded on a beach from natural gas buildup, spilling out putrid scents galore. If I’d dared to take a proper whiff, I probably could have listed the decomposed remains of whatever the dead fish had last eaten.

Where are you? I texted Reid, trying to comfort myself with the blue light of my phone. Even though the sun hadn’t fully set, the cliffs on either side of the cove blocked out most of the remaining daylight, leaving me in