Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,112
te get ye out of this, I promise, even if it costs me dear.”
“Finally, little Reid came out o’ the woodwork.” A deep, gravelly voice rumbled through the tension of the fishery, vibrating along the taut strings of my terror. It seemed to come from a thick-set bruiser of a man who stood at the front of the witch hunter group. “Ye thought ye were bloody good at yer little game o’ hide and seek, didn’t ye? Well, we’ve got the numbers, so it weren't hard te smoke ye out in the end, even if ye did send us on a wild goose chase for a while there."
Reid was telling the truth. I didn’t quite understand the dynamics between Reid and this squad of ten, but they evidently had some beef with him. I clung to Reid’s hand as I realized he might be the only person in this building who was on my side, and the only person who could help me get out alive. My friends and monsters were waiting for my call, but I didn’t want to sound the alarm until I absolutely had to, in case… well, in case blood got spilt.
“I wasn’t hidin’ from ye,” Reid spat back. “I was helpin’ ye.”
A thinner man with a hawkish face sneered. “Aye, and ye must think we was all born yesterday. Ye infect us with yer witch poison, then disappear without a trace. Ain’t exactly hard te put the pieces together, is it? Ye ran off ‘cause ye didn’t want te deal with yer mess, and we’re here to make sure ye clean it up.”
“Or maybe there’s another reason ye took off.” A woman of around forty jabbed a skeletal finger at me. “Got yerself a witchy lass, do ye? Wouldn’t surprise me if that’s why ye infected us, so ye could leave us all te suffer and run off into the sunset with one o’ them!”
The ringleader nodded. “Aye, lad. Any trust we had in ye has long gone. Ye been snakin’ about with the enemy. This all started when ye were tasked with tailin’ that lass there. Don’t tell me that’s coincidence, else I’ll smack ye into next week,” he growled. “She’s tricked ye, like all witches do. She put that curse on ye, probably while whisperin’ sweet nothins in yer ear, then ye infected us when ye came back covered in her filth. And now, yer both goin’ te pay. Te end a curse, ye kill the cursed one and the one what cast it. I don’t need te be a witch te know that!”
Reid took a step back, urging me to move with him. “That’s blatant lies!”
“O’ course, that’s what ye’d say.” The woman snickered icily. “I bet she’s got into yer mind, made ye think ye’d do anythin’ te protect her. I’ll tell ye this for nothin’—she ain’t goin’ te protect ye when we end this curse our way. She’ll slip out o’ one o’ them magic doorways and leave ye bleedin’ on the ground.”
A shorter guy, as tall as he was broad, shuffled forward. “Well, she can try.” He brandished a strange-looking device that reminded me of a face massager. It had a silver handle with two silver balls on the end that were glowing an electric blue. “Lucky fer us, we’ve got ways te stop slippery witches from gettin’ away.” The sight of that glowing thing cemented my thinking that these guys definitely had magicals working for them, voluntarily or involuntarily. They’d need magical input to use devices like that, pre-charged with Chaos so they could wield them. I shuddered as memories of those returned magicals, the ones that my mom and dad took care of at the SDC, came back to me. Was that where they were getting this magical juice?
No… The plan had been for Nathan and Genie to charge through a chalk-door if things turned for the worse, but if he had a device to prevent that, then I was even more screwed than I thought. I didn’t know which of the nearby boathouses my friends were hiding in, but it would take them a good few minutes to get here if I called for help. Those few minutes could be the difference between life and death.
“Ye can believe all the bollocks ye want, but that ain’t the case.” Reid gave my hand another squeeze, as if to say, “We’re going to be okay.” I had no clue how I was supposed to believe that. “This lass