Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,69

water, she could douse its flames.

But even as I ran to help, I could see the burning eyes pulsating through the torrent of water that crashed down on the Fear Dearg’s head. The water might have delayed it temporarily, but that was all.

Skidding to a halt beside Genie and Nathan, I searched around for something I could use to fight. I spotted a large rock, which I snatched up, aimed, and hurled through the wall of water at the Fear Dearg. The projectile just sailed right through the monster and into the bushes behind.

“What are you doing here?” Nathan rasped, his face pale. “Get back to the Institute, now!”

Genie closed her eyes. “No.” With that simple refusal, more intense blue sparks fired out of her, skidding away toward the rainclouds. As soon as they collided, the heavens opened, cold rain tumbling down from the skies. She sucked in a strained breath and the downpour bent like a charged magnet, pummeling toward the Fear Dearg.

I picked up another rock and waited for the torrent to subside, praying it had subdued the monster. But as I watched, the creature stepped right through the curtain of water. Coming closer with every wispy step, it opened a gaping, shadowy mouth and unleashed an ear-splitting roar that made my every hair stand on end. Still, that wasn’t the worst part. As it roared, a churning, fizzing ball of bronzed light gathered in that cavernous mouth. An unsettling current, like the moments before an electrical storm, throbbed through the atmosphere around us. The Fear Dearg was building its energy…

Its form of attack, when the terror hasn’t worked… The memory exploded in my mind: the one survivor, who’d aged almost sixty years in a single blast and died two years later.

Time seemed to slow as the ensuing events unfurled before my horrified eyes. The Fear Dearg lurched forward and the ball of light fired out of its mouth, heading directly for Nathan. Before I could stop her, Genie leapt in front of him, no doubt believing that her Verso ability could absorb the attack, and she could hurl it right back. I saw my hand reach for her, a gut instinct telling me that she was about to make a terrible mistake, but my fingertips slid off her hoodie sleeve.

The bronzed blast struck her square in the chest. Her eyes widened in surprise and her mouth fell open as if she wanted to scream, but no sound emerged. The blast disappeared inside her, closely followed by an aftershock that pulsed out of her in ring after ring of sparking, red-tinged light. As the ripples hit Nathan and me, that wrenching dread pricked through my veins once more. Only this time, I couldn’t tell if it was the magic of the Fear Dearg or something far, far worse.

“No!” I screamed. Genie’s hands flew upward, clawing her throat frantically, like she could somehow force her airways open. I tried to move the couple of paces toward her, but my legs wouldn’t cooperate. Nothing seemed real. Nathan lunged to catch her, but he was a moment too slow. Her knees gave way and she crashed to the ground, gasping for breath as her skin turned from Atlantean pale to an impossible, terrible gray. The living pink of her lips drained to a deathly purple, and the light went out of her eyes. She fell still, one hand still wrapped around her throat.

My best friend was dead.

Twenty

Persie

I forced my shaking legs to function, staggering forward and collapsing to my knees beside Genie. I couldn’t even see the Fear Dearg anymore. All I saw was my friend, lifeless on the ground. Hauling her into my arms, I shook her gently, willing my voice to work.

“Wake up, Genie!” I begged, unable to figure out how to breathe and speak at the same time. “Please, Genie. Please, please, please… you have to wake up. You’re okay, I know you are. You’re going to be okay. You have to be okay. You can’t be…” I couldn’t say it. “Genie, just open your eyes. Just tell me you’re all right. Genie… Genie!” I clutched her, staring into her vacant, slate gray eyes, expecting her to blink at any moment. She would blink. She would take a breath. She would be okay. She couldn’t be… gone. My head wouldn’t even contemplate it.

A soft, familiar voice broke the night air. “I… I didn’t mean te do that.”

Tears streaming down my face, I lifted my gaze from my limp