Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,127

confirmed it. The contagion had ceased. How could I call Reid a truly bad person after that? The rest of the witch hunters sucked, and I had no love for them whatsoever, but I could sort of understand their perspective—a lie as big as that of the magical world couldn’t help but ruffle feathers of those who knew they were being lied to. Ignorance could be bliss, after all. But then there was Victoria, the woman I had looked up to for the last six months, who muddied those black and white waters into so many more shades of gray. She’d clearly been up to something bad, but she must’ve had her reasons, and maybe they were good reasons. I just didn’t know what they were. Maybe she’d thought she was doing the right thing for a good cause.

I guessed, when it boiled down to it, everyone had shades of good and bad in them. One good act or one bad act did not cancel out the other, but it also didn’t make anyone wholly one or the other. Just like Chaos had Dark and Light, people did, too. I wasn’t an exception. I’d known the possible implications when I’d given Reid the antidote. By helping him and containing the contagious effect of the curse, I’d essentially freed the witch hunters to run amok again. And who knew what mayhem and hurt they would inflict on my people with that freedom. Trying to do the right thing inevitably left room for some bad to slip through the cracks, it was just about limiting the worst evil in each situation. Victoria, Reid, the witch hunters, Nathan, me… we were all guilty of it.

Leaving the arena after what could only be described as a car crash of a session with Johannes Noah, I walked through the corridors toward Victoria’s office. I had another half-hour of mentorship with her before Monster Biology, but my thoughts were elsewhere. We’d gotten away with taking our massive risks, sure, and there’d been zero fallout over the graffiti on Victoria’s door—in fact, that had weirdly been swept under the rug. Thank goodness, since we wouldn’t be able to explain why Genie had done it.

You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore. William Faulkner comforted me on my walk, my nerves eerily calm considering what I planned to do. There was every chance that this walk through the Institute would be my last, and yet, I wasn’t about to turn back. My metaphorical shore was the security of this place, but everything had been thrown into disarray after Nathan’s revelation. How could I toe the party line for someone who didn’t play by magical rules? I had to know what kind of person I’d chosen as my mentor. I had to know if she was the one who’d cursed Reid, so I could un-muddy the waters a touch. After that, well… we’d just have to see. I hoped I was wrong about her.

Reaching Victoria’s office, I knocked and waited for her usual reply.

“Come in,” she said.

I drew a long breath and entered. She sat in her armchair, sipping from a fancy cup and saucer, looking especially regal in a bottle-green suit with her cropped hair swept back. Two emeralds dangled from her ears, matching the necklace around her throat. I rarely saw her this dressed up, and wondered if she knew, subconsciously, that this would be a rare conversation.

Taking the seat opposite, I wasted no time on small talk. I knew I was putting Genie and Nathan in the firing line, as well as my pixie privileges, but… the truth had to come out. I’d promised to be honest with her, and I intended to keep that promise. In return, I needed her to keep up her side of the bargain, no matter how nasty things might get.

“I helped the cursed guy who kidnapped me,” I said in a rush. Then, I regaled her with as much of the story as I dared to tell. I told her about the second meeting in the market trailer, Reid’s desperation, our agreement. I left out the part about the Grimoire and Genie’s involvement in the vandalism; I’d never tell her about the latter, and I was holding onto the former for later in the conversation. I even told her about the antidote, the fight with the witch hunters, Gren’s death and Atlas’s birth, and how the witch hunters had fled in fright,