Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,29
going for a nighttime walk to get a snack.
“I dumped my bag in there.” She pointed back at the study. “I’ll have to pick it up later.”
A reason to see me again, maybe? I held onto the thought. It wasn’t as though Genie was a stranger to the Repository, but she usually brought Persie with her. I enjoyed Persie’s company, of course, but I’d take as much time alone with Genie as I could get.
I shrugged. “No problem.”
“Come on, then, before I turn cannibal on you.” She shocked me by weaving her arm through mine and dragging me bodily toward the exit. Maybe she’d realized that I was hopeless at romance and was taking the initiative. It was very… her. Bold, determined, utterly baffling.
“Apparently human meat is rather like pork,” I said, before I could stop myself. I should’ve kept my mouth shut until I was prepared to construct a normal sentence.
She barked a laugh. “You’re a strange one, Nathan O’Hara.”
Do you like strange? I cast her a side-glance, but all I could see was her smile, which masked any other emotions she might have been feeling. Still, I supposed it was a good sign that she hadn’t run off yet.
“Yes, I guess I am.” I matched her step as we walked through the Institute’s quiet hallways. I kept expecting her to take her arm away since we were in such a public domain, but she held on contentedly. It felt nice to have her so close, to the point where I could easily forget that someone might see us. Maybe I didn’t care if they did. “Are you pescatarian? I don’t want you to, um, you know, think I’m stereotyping or anything, but I know a lot of Atlanteans prefer seafood.”
Genie arched an eyebrow at me. “Have you met a lot of Atlanteans?”
“Well, no. But I’ve read a lot.”
“I’m not.” She chuckled, fixing her gaze forward again. “I think I’ve been topside too long. My dad depends on seafood, though—as traditional about his food as he is with everything else.” Her smile faded and her forehead creased at the mention of her dad.
You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. I’d longed to tell her so, ever since I’d seen her in that trance state in Fergus’s realm. But what right did I have to meddle in her personal affairs? She would make her decision, one way or another, if or when her father made demands of her. I only hoped that, if that time ever came, she would be as brave as she was now.
I decided to shift the mood. “Do you think your mum would’ve liked the surface world?”
“Nah, she was a water baby through and through. At least, that’s the image I get of her.” Genie’s expression changed subtly; her eyes stayed sad while her lips smiled again. “And she never got to see all the bad stuff that went down in Atlantis. Don’t get me wrong, the rot had already set in, but everyone thought they were in a utopia until… well, until the truth came out. They were living in a dying world. But I think she liked it there. I know she loved her job, my dad, her friends, her family, her life. If she came topside, she’d have been one of those hippies living in a cabin by the beach. Somewhere so close to the ocean that you could roll to it, you know?”
I discreetly pulled her closer to my side. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“It doesn’t, does it?” She grinned up at me. “Anyway, she’d probably be making waves in the Hunter Hall of Fame if she were still around. There are creatures in Atlantis’s Bestiary that would make your eyes pop out. And she caught a lot of them.”
“Do you think you were destined to follow in her footsteps?” I realized I was being a bit Spanish Inquisition with our conversation, but I wanted to know everything about her. And I doubted she had secrets to keep buried, like I did.
She nodded slowly. “I didn’t realize how much I wanted it until I passed the exam. Honestly, I don’t know where I’d be if Persie hadn’t suggested coming here. Maybe I’d have picked another vocation. Maybe I’d still have wound up in this field. But the moment I got in, it was like the stars were aligning. It felt right.” She paused. “I’m not a massive believer in fate, but this feels close to it.”