Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,39

ricocheted between my temples. If he noticed, he didn’t say anything.

“Then ye’ve left me no other option.” He reeled back and extinguished the lighter. Blending into the shadows, he walked a few yards into darkness and heaved something across the floor with a scrape that shivered up my vertebrae, setting off another blinding pain that heralded an incoming Purge. Rocking slowly back and forth, I remembered my breathing routine. In for ten, hold for ten, out for ten. Lather, rinse, repeat.

It might’ve worked if I hadn’t seen the object he’d dragged over: a bulky car battery connected to a pair of jumper cables. An instrument of torture, if ever I’d seen one. I thought of those listless returnees, covered in cuts and bruises. Had they suffered something like this? He brought the two metal ends close to one another, and a spark jumped across the gap. I had no idea how many volts, but I could only hope it wouldn’t prove a deadly measure.

It might even jump-start the Purge. I’d never actively looked forward to a Purge before, but I couldn’t deny the impeccable timing. If anything could give me an opportunity to escape, it was a wild monster. As long as it wasn’t so big and powerful that the Purge knocked me out or left me too weak to run away, and assuming the Atomic Cuffs didn’t prevent the Purge from coming. That was the never-ending roulette I played with every Purge—I could never guess the outcome.

“I hate te have te do this, but ye can’t say I didn’t ask nice first.” The man stalked forward, wielding the cables. He was a few paces away when his eyes suddenly turned red, flickering flames taking over his pupils. A ripple of red mist swelled across his body, making his hands spasm. Unfortunately for him, it drew the cables inward to his abdomen. He jolted violently, his arms shooting up in a comedic waggle. Well, it would’ve been funny if I wasn’t petrified for my life. The electrocution seemed to ward off the red mist, sending it back into his body, and the fire in his eyes died.

He paused, seeming to reconsider his decision to apply the cables to me. “It’s b-barbaric anyway,” he stammered, clearly still feeling the aftershocks. He switched the battery off and kicked the cables as far away as possible. They slithered across the floor like snakes, away from him, and he knelt back down. All the bravado seemed to have melted away, leaving desperation in place of anger. “Look, just tell me what I want te know. Who did this te me? People’s lives are at stake.”

“Then maybe you should’ve started with that and just asked me for help, instead of kidnapping me and scaring me with freaking jumper cables!” The Purge was taking control of my tongue, doing away with any niceties. I desperately wanted to wrap my arms around my stomach to alleviate the churning, but he’d made sure I couldn’t. This was its own kind of torture.

He looked surprised. “I… didn’t think ye’d listen.”

“I bet that’s what you said about all those other people you’ve hurt.” I lurched forward, feeling the familiar tug of something creeping up my throat. “And I’m guessing you didn’t stop with the car battery.”

“What?” He tilted his head in confusion. “I didn’t touch ye with the bat—” He didn’t get to finish. My mind flashed with images of the returnees, though I’d only seen the pictures and reports in my mom’s files when she’d had her back turned. Their faces beaten to a pulp, their bodies scarred and dappled with bruises. I remembered reading about a girl’s screams whenever a man came near her. I wondered if he’d looked like this guy, hiding his face so he might lessen his own guilt. The sheer horror that I could be used and dumped like that triggered the final stages of the Purge.

I glared at my abductor as my body convulsed. You really chose the wrong magical, asshole.

Eleven

Persie

“Oi! Don’t even try te use yer beasty business on me, lass!” the guy shouted, snatching up the knife and waving it awkwardly in front of him. “I’ve put them Cosmic Cuffs on ye. Ye can’t use yer witchy powers while ye’ve got them on, so you can pack it in tryin’ te trick me!”

My mouth curved into a sneer. “They’re Atomic Cuffs, you moron. This monster is coming, and nothing is going to stop it. Not you, and not these Cuffs.” I