Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,116

give me a damn second before flying their hate flags again?

Apparently not.

With the witch hunters closing in and Leviathan’s warning echoing in my head, I slipped my hand into my pocket and dialed.

Thirty-One

Persie

“Grab her, Reid!” the ringleader bellowed as the witch hunters moved closer. A few of them hesitated. Undoubtedly, if they knew who I was, they believed what Reid had initially believed—that I had power by the truckload. Which meant I’d bought myself and my backup a couple of minutes.

Unless…

Reid got to his feet and dusted off his knees, unable to look at me. He stood right beside me. He only had to reach out to catch me, while the others were still fifteen feet away. My chest clenched in a vise of panic. If Reid decided to “stay loyal” and do as these idiots said, I’d lose that wiggle room altogether. I’d divulged the truth to him. He was the only one in this fishery who knew I had no power other than the ability to spew up monsters, and I hardly had control over it yet.

I shook my head. “Reid…”

“I told ye.” He finally met my frantic gaze. “I’m a man of me word.”

“Which word?” The fealty he’d presumably pledged to the Veritas, or the vow he’d made to me, that he wouldn’t stab me in the back once I’d gotten him his antidote? My throat seized up. I looked him dead in the eyes, wondering if he was conflicted because he had to do as they said, or because he had to go against them?

Before I had the opportunity to find out which way his moral pendulum was swinging, Gren crashed through the doorway of the fishery with my beloved trio of pixies fluttering around his furry green head. The quartet unleashed a terrifying war cry. The pixies were small, but they were the fiercest buggers I knew. They made easy work of darting around the witch hunters, as tiny as they were, and surged toward me. They stopped just in front of my chest, turning their backs on me. The pixies linked arms, unleashing a blast of cerulean light from their cuttlefish spots, their magic spinning in a dizzying vortex until I stood in the center of a protective wall of pure energy. To the left of me, Reid had the sense to stagger back, his eyes widening in shock. Meanwhile, Gren had scattered the enemy, diverting their focus to him.

“What the flamin’ hell is that?!” The ringleader fell backwards in fright as Gren ambled toward the nearest witch hunter, fangs dripping venom and ready to bite.

Don’t! I mentally cried out, before I could stop myself, as Gren lunged for his target—a young man with a shock of red hair, who hadn’t spoken at all throughout this encounter. In the light that flared from the pixies, I saw his terrified face. His whole body shook as he screamed and he put his hands up to protect himself, as if that would’ve made a smidgen of difference.

To my relief, Gren paused just shy of ripping the guy’s head off. Instead, he cast me a green-eyed look of understanding before he raised his talons and swiped at the witch hunter, sending him flying into the fish-gut-stained wall. The young man slammed into it and crumpled to the floor, unconscious but alive.

“Persie!” Genie skirted around Gren to join the fray, with Nathan sprinting in behind her.

“I’m okay!” I shouted back.

The older woman with wiry gray hair delved into her pocket and took out something small and shiny. It looked oddly like a boomerang or a shuriken, but I couldn’t tell if it was magical. “She must’ve been followed!” the woman raged. “Let’s take ‘em all. Show ‘em what we’re made of!” She simultaneously hurled the peculiar boomerang directly at Genie’s head. Genie’s hand shot up, lightning fast, to catch it before it could strike. But the moment her fingertips closed around the projectile, it expelled a bolt of crackling electricity that shot up my friend’s arm, delivering a shock that very few could withstand. I watched, horrified, as her body went into violent spasms. But Genie was a Verso—she’d be all right, wouldn’t she?

She might’ve been, had the wiry-haired woman not had another boomerang at the ready. It sailed through the air and struck Genie directly in the head, sending a bolt directly to the brain. My friend’s eyes opened wide in alarm, lighting up with two bright sparks.

“NO!” I howled, plunging through the pixies’ defensive vortex and