Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,122
they’ve lost all sense of morality when they attacked ye and yer mates, and all that after ye’d just broken that curse for them. It makes me sick te me stomach. It were disgustin’ te watch, and they ain’t honorable in the slightest. That ain’t part of our code.” His eyes flitted from me to Atlas, and back again. “I’ll make sure they’re punished for this. Me da will agree, once he hears what I have te say.”
“Your father, the leader of the organization that hates us?” I mustered a cold laugh. Beside me, Atlas expelled two tiny fireballs from his nostrils, which burst into glinting red sparks a few inches from Reid’s feet.
Reid stepped back, almost flat to the decaying wall. “He’s only the leader of the Irish branch. He ain’t the biggest cheese. And there’s a vast difference between me da, Michael Darcy, and the people ye met today. Me da doesn’t hate for hate’s sake. He just wants a world without secrets—a level playin’ field, with no one lurkin’ in the shadows, foxin’ us folks without magic. He don’t think it’s right that somethin’ so huge is bein’ hidden from average people. He sees yer kind as a tickin’ time bomb that our sort deserve te be able te defend ourselves against, but not outright enemies. If he found out ye’d helped us, he’d thank ye himself, and he’d have accepted yer terms. He’d have done the same as me, agreein’ te leave this place alone in return for yer aid.”
“And you don’t think that non-magicals would wipe us off the face of the Earth if they did find out we existed?” Now that I’d seen the witch hunters using all kinds of devices against us, the need to stay hidden felt all the more prudent.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Nobody can, unless that reveal gets made, and we see firsthand how things play out. I like te think that everyone would be surprised by the outcome. I’m not talkin’ total harmony, but maybe it’d be more peaceful than ye reckon.”
Everyone always hates the bigger fish. Genie’s words came back to me. Atlantis had been on the surface for twenty years now, but the wariness and suspicion of the wider magical world had never faded. The peace between that bubble and the rest of the world was fragile at best, a tinderbox at worst. Is that all Reid hoped for? A tenuous harmony between magicals and non-magicals that could erupt into conflict at any moment? Baby steps toward integration had occurred over the years, my Auntie Ryann being a prime example. True, the non-magicals who were allowed to know about the magical world were sworn to secrecy, or faced the prospect of a mind-wiping, but it was a move in the right direction. Slow and steady. A sudden reveal definitely wasn’t the way to go. That would only lead to terror, and terror led to violence.
“I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one,” I said, preparing to deliver one last jab. “Although, you might find yourself wondering which side you should be on in the near future. Will your people really be able to trust you now that you have magic flowing through you?”
He sighed. “I know I’m still under this curse, but at least I’m the only one carryin’ it now. I’m forever grateful for that. One monster is easier te deal with than a load of ‘em, and I’ll just have te try and find a way to get more control over it so I don’t hurt anyone again.”
“That’s not what I meant.” I smiled sardonically.
His eyes narrowed. “Eh?”
“You’re more like me than you think.” I scratched between Atlas’s horns absently, my heart swelling with an unexpected sense of schadenfreude. “My unconscious friend over there found something out.” I nodded toward Nathan. “The person who cursed you must’ve believed what you believed: that you were nothing but a non-magical. However—and I hate to be the bearer of bad news—the curse wouldn’t have reacted the way it did if you were a non-magical. The contagious aspect of the curse came from a reaction with latent magic inside you. It’s why these types of curses aren’t supposed to be used on magicals, because the side effects can go haywire. That means you’re either a full-magical, a half-magical, or a dormant-magical. Any way you shake it, you’re a magical.” I delivered this last bit of news with pleasure.