Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,121
naïve kindness turned against me, seeing my friends injured because they’d wanted to protect me. In a twisted way, this monster made sense. Why else would I have Purged a battle-ready warrior, if not to defend the people and beings that I loved most from those who’d made themselves my enemies?
As my monster edged closer to the last man standing, I headed toward Nathan and Genie. Reid wouldn’t be able to outrun the Purge beast, even if he suddenly changed his mind and decided he wanted out. It gave me the opportunity I needed to check on my friends, to make sure they weren’t… dead. I knelt beside Genie first, then Nathan, pressing my fingers to their necks. Two strong pulses gave me a sliver of comfort that I hadn’t lost them.
Satisfied, though aware that I needed to get them back to the Institute soon, I turned back to join my monster in front of Reid.
“I just wanted to help. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.” Words finally tumbled out of my mouth as I neared my monster. Atlas, I would call him, because he looked like he really might’ve been able to bear the weight of the celestial heavens on his massive shoulders.
Atlas growled a few inches from Reid’s face. Smoke puffed out of his nostrils as his leonine head drew back, his jaws opening in a bone-shaking roar. I wasn’t even close to Reid, but I could feel the heat of Atlas’s fiery breath. Still, Reid didn’t move. He just kept standing there, staring into the eyes of the creature that could kill him at any moment.
“Neither did I,” Reid replied calmly.
I walked the length of Atlas’s long, spiny body, coming to a halt beside the monster’s head and reaching out to place a hand between two of his three horns. He still seemed to be listening to me on some telepathic level. As though hearing this thought, he glanced at me with flaming red eyes and gave a quiet snort. I am here for you, it communicated. He was waiting on me to decide what I wanted to do with Reid. The roaring and the smoke and the hot breath were just intimidation tactics to keep Reid in line until I made up my mind.
“Is this how Veritas repays kindness?” I asked Reid. “Your people killed my monster and hurt my friends. I know that’s all he was to your kind—a beast—but I gave him life, and they obliterated him.” My voice shook with sadness, a lump lodged in my throat as I glanced back at the last specks of ash and the still-unconscious bodies of Genie and Nathan. “Do you have any idea how that feels?”
Reid nodded toward Atlas. “I can guess. He’s yer rage and pain in living form, right? Fire and brimstone.”
“No… He might be the embodiment of what I’m feeling, but there’s no fire in here.” I beat my palm against my chest. “It’s ice. That’s what betrayal feels like, and that’s what regret feels like. There’s no warmth in it.”
“I’m sorry, Persie.” He used my shortened name for the first time, his voice soft and sorrowful. “I ain’t goin’ te run like them cowards. I owe it te ye, te face ye—person te person. Even if there’s a fire-breathin’ lion sort of creature starin’ at me, too.”
I held my nerve. “Are you any better than them? You didn’t lift a finger to help.”
“I know.” He lowered his gaze. “And I’m sorry for that, an’ all. See, I meant what I said about keepin’ me word. I wasn’t goin’ te fight ye after the good ye did, but I had te keep me word te Veritas, as well. That’s why I couldn’t fight with ye, either. I’m between a rock and a hard place, and I’ll have a lot of explainin’ te do when I return to headquarters. But… what them bastards did were wrong, and there ain’t no two ways about it.”
“I doubt your organization will see it like that. Isn’t this part of your manifesto—to show us magicals that we’re nothing? That you’re not afraid of us? I imagine there’ll be a parade when those scumbags tell everyone what they tried to do here today. That they ‘used’ a magical for their own benefit, then attempted to turn the tables,” I spat, my anger rising. Atlas growled loudly, gnashing his fangs at Reid.
Reid put his hands up in a placatory gesture. “That ain’t true, Persie. My supposed ‘colleagues’ showed that