Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,117

sprinting for my friend. I couldn’t go through this again. The déjà vu was too much. A red mist descended over my eyes, just as it had done when I’d thought Genie was gone for good. The pixies chirped frantically at me, flying in my face to get me to stop, but I ignored them and charged toward the enemy.

Meanwhile, Nathan was down on the ground, trying to shake Genie awake. The younger woman leapt onto his back and wrapped a silvery rope around his neck, pulling with all her might. The rope gleamed magically as it seared Nathan’s flesh, making him cry out in agony. He lifted his palms to fight back, but the sparks of his Chaos sputtered out the moment they erupted. The rope appeared to be a transmutation of Atomic Cuffs.

These bastards have been busy. They had devices and anti-magical tricks up their sleeves that I’d never seen before, and they knew how to use them. Brimming with stolen Chaos. As Nathan thrashed, the squat troll of a witch hunter took over on the rope, crossing the threads behind Nathan’s neck and pulling until his eyes bugged. Gren turned his attentions toward the rope-yielding witch hunter and headbutted him so hard that he sailed across the entire length of the fishery and hit a cluster of rusty equipment at the back. Nathan collapsed and lay still on the ground, his eyes rolling back into his head.

One of the witch hunters came at me from the right, wielding a shock stick. As adrenaline surged through me, I remembered something Marcel had taught us in our Martial Arts classes: “If ye cannae beat ‘em, duck ‘em.” Skidding to my knees, I glided right under the shock stick and leapt straight back up into a run, keeping my eyes on Genie and Nathan—who were still fairly close to the doorway—and my peripheral vision on everyone who was spread out around me. The witch hunters had dispersed throughout the fishery, thanks to their panic at Gren’s arrival, with some keeping to the distant sidelines and others daring to come closer. With Genie out before the fight had even begun, I needed to step up. Otherwise, these witch hunters were going to have three prisoners to take back to their evil lair.

“Get some Cosmic Cuffs on that lass, NOW!” the ringleader barked, having managed to drag himself up off the floor.

I shot him a cold stare. “They’re Atomic Cuffs, you assclown!” I felt as though I were channeling both Leviathan and my mom as I stooped to snatch up a length of iron piping that had been left on the filthy ground. Marcel had taught us Kendo as part of our training, and though I usually ended up flat on my back after he swiped me behind my knees, I was determined to give it my best try. With Nathan and Genie out for the count, I had no choice. Gren might have been enormous, but there was only one of him, and I didn’t know what else these vipers had up their sleeves. One of them was trying to get one of the silver ropes around Gren’s neck, but he continued to throw the witch hunter off.

Another witch hunter came at me from the right. I grabbed his arm and twirled around him until I faced his back, using a maneuver Marcel had made us practice until we’d felt like ballerinas at the Bolshoi. Startled, he didn’t turn fast enough, giving me an open invitation to crack him across the back of the knees with the iron pipe. His legs buckled, and I brought a second strike down on his shoulders. He toppled face down, groaning in pain.

“What are ye all standin’ around for!” the ringleader shrieked. “Knock her out and get her in Cuffs!”

With the executive order given, the hunters converged on me, blocking my path to my unconscious friends. Each took out a weapon or device of some kind: another boomerang, another shock stick, a pair of sparking nunchucks, a strange bow that had a string of thrumming energy stretching from point to point instead of wire or horsehair, and a handful of what appeared to be Entrapment Stones, amongst other unnerving, pilfered artifacts. For a split second, I thought of the poor souls who must’ve hexed and charmed all of this stuff for them. And how the witch hunters were able to make these things work. A temporary Chaos infusion, drained out of magicals, maybe? If they