Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,71
and face the truth. The longer I could keep venting my bitter grief at this asshole, the longer I’d be able to keep the lie going—that my best friend wasn’t dead on the ground, killed by his hand.
Just then, an arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me away from my kidnapper. I whipped around, coming face to face with Nathan’s devastated expression and teary eyes. His glasses had fogged, his face blotchy, his breaths coming in short, difficult gasps.
My fists beat his chest feebly. “Let me go, Nathan!”
“Go to Genie and keep talking to her. I know that sounds stupid, but… just trust me. Keep talking to her. It’s important,” he murmured, confusing me. Either this was a distraction technique, or he knew something I didn’t. He gave me a more urgent look. “I’ll deal with him, but you have to keep talking to her. She needs you to. I need you to.”
I finally looked at the sight my heart couldn’t bear. Genie, lying on the bench where Nathan must’ve moved her. A switch flipped inside me, all of the overwhelming fury draining out of me as I went toward her. Carefully, and with some difficulty, I pulled her upper body until she was in a sitting position and wrapped my arms around her, cradling her head against my shoulder.
“Please come back,” I whispered, the dam bursting open. I didn’t need Nathan’s insistence—I couldn’t help but talk to her, even if it was useless. Even if she couldn’t hear me anymore. Tears flooded my cheeks as I rocked her, a bestial howl of pain and despair growling out of my throat. “You still have eighty years, Genie. There are… so many things we’ve still got… to do. I can’t be a naughty old lady without you… You were at my side before I was even born. We have to go out of this world together, when we’re gray and we’ve… done everything together. You have to… live the life you want, like you said. So, just… come back, okay? Don’t go now. Not now.”
I buried my face in her shoulder and screamed until my lungs burned, unable to cope with the weight of it all. I covered her hair with my hands to try and stop her from getting wet. The storm that Genie had brought down on us with her Water ability knew how I felt. It hammered down its own mournful tears, drenching me to the bone. I liked to think it was still tinged with her Chaos, even if that wasn’t true.
“I don’t want to do this without you,” I whispered into her damp hoodie. “Don’t make me, Genie. My life doesn’t make sense if you’re not here. And you’ve still got to go on your first date with Nathan, so you can have that kiss you missed out on. You’re not allowed to leave before you’ve been in love. It’s not right. Please, just… wake up.” I smoothed down the back of her hair, my fingertips touching the hard silver of her Esprit. She felt so small and vulnerable in my arms, instead of the giant she’d been in life.
My heart hurt, like someone was twisting a knife in my chest. This couldn’t be happening. No, this had to be one of Leviathan’s messed-up dreams, intended to test me. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to clear my mind, hoping that I would be the one to wake up when I opened them. But when I did, nothing had changed. My best friend still lay dead in my arms. I could endure a lot of things, but not this. Never this. We’d only just spoken about the long lives we might have, and the love she desperately wanted. It was too cruel to take her away after that, her hopes and dreams and life unfulfilled.
Leviathan? Can you hear me? I made a last-ditch effort, prepared to sell my soul to the devil if it meant she could live. He’d said that the telepathic pathway tended to open between our minds when I was in a moment of heightened emotion. If he couldn’t feel this pain an ocean away, then he had to have been lying.
I am sorry, my Persephone, his voice reverberated in my head, confirming the emotional connection. I know what you intend to ask. It is not something I can give. I can offer comfort, nothing more. It is a shame. I was fond of her.