Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,37

forcing her to loosen her grip.

“Are you kidding me? Every second counts, Nathan! If we wait and something worse happens to my best friend, I’ll raze the entire Institute to the ground!” I had no reason to doubt Genie. Persie meant the world to her, and Victoria’s instruction threatened Persie’s safety. Even so, I couldn’t change the order that had been given.

“It won’t take long for them to get here,” I promised, certain they would already be on their way. “But, pixies, you need to stay hidden. No one can know that you’re out of the Repository. And Genie, I might need to borrow that.” I gestured to the silver bracelet on her wrist.

She slid it off immediately and put it in my hand. “But it’ll lead back to me.”

“You can say Persie borrowed it, which is how you knew what it was,” I replied, focusing back on the trio of little monsters. “Pixies. Hide. Now!” I tucked my T-shirt into the waistband of my jeans and dropped Boudicca down the collar. I felt her tumble down to my waist and tried not to flinch as she tickled my abdomen and snuggled in close. Meanwhile, Cynane slithered deeper into Genie’s sleeve, kicking Spartacus out to find his own sleeve to hide in. He did so with pouty reluctance, fluttering over to Genie’s other arm and tucking himself inside.

Genie’s eyes met mine with a fierce defiance. “No, screw this. I’m not waiting. Persie wouldn’t wait if it was me.” She started walking, crashing through the gorse bushes. “If we find her before the hunters arrive, we can just send an update with our location. Say the monster came back and we chased it or something. This is Persie. That’s all I should have to say.”

I followed her, knowing she was right—Persie wouldn’t have waited. If she had heeded orders, both Genie and I would still be stuck in Fergus’s realm. And I didn’t want to find out what difference a few minutes might make now that she was the one in need of rescue.

I patted Boudicca gently. “Can you track her for us?”

A muffled squeak of agreement echoed back, and a sharp finger dug into the right-hand side of my stomach. I jumped in shock, but I got her message loud and clear.

“Genie, you’re going the wrong way!” I called out, and she reappeared through the gorse bushes. “My living compass has spoken. We’ve got to keep heading along the cliff.”

She tried to put on a brave smile, but it registered hollow. “You couldn’t have said that before I got thorns all over me?”

“Sorry. Boudicca was buffering.”

“Come on, then.” Genie grabbed my hand and, together, we took off along the path that would bring us closer to finding Persie.

Ten

Persie

He wouldn’t stop flicking the lighter on and off. I guessed it was supposed to be an intimidation tactic… and it was working. Every time the flame lit, my heart lurched. Between that and the knife, my chances of getting out of here felt slimmer by the minute. I fully believed he could hurt me. That he would hurt me. It was only a matter of time before my value decreased to nothing, and his need for me ended.

But what if there’s another way? Maybe I could persuade him that I’d find a way to help if he just let me go. It seemed unlikely, but I didn’t have any other options. And my stomach had begun to churn, a prickly heat crawling up my spine and tingling at the back of my neck. A sensation I knew all too well.

“Silence ain’t goin’ te help ye,” he said gruffly, now sitting on the floor in a strangely boyish way. Legs crossed neatly, his knee jiggling impatiently.

I took a deep gulp of rank, fish-gut-flavored air and spoke. “I won’t help you. Not because I don’t want to”—a blatant lie—“but because I can’t. I’m not a magical. I don’t have any abilities, so I don’t have the power to undo this curse.”

He jumped to his feet and stalked toward me, getting right up in my face. “Veritas thought the same thing at first, even though ye’ve got that fancy ancient bloodline. But then ye started throwin’ up them beasties, so say what ye like—I know what ye are. Magic as anythin’ and powerful enough te break a curse like this.”

My blood ran cold. The jig was definitely up. He absolutely knew who he’d kidnapped. More than that, he understood a lot more about magical society