Persie Merlin and the Witch Hunters - Bella Forrest Page 0,72
left. Then what good are you? I snapped. If you can’t help, I don’t want to hear from you. You’ve got no right to feel what I’m feeling.
Very well. I will go, he said sadly. But I will be here if you need me. When it feels like too much to bear, let me take some of the weight.
I ignored him, putting all of my energy into holding my friend, and soon felt his presence fade away. I couldn’t accept that she was gone. So, I just sat there and wailed, hugging her close.
“I really didn’t mean te,” my kidnapper said to Nathan, though I was barely listening. In truth, I had no idea how Nathan was able to face that bastard without beating him to a pulp. I might’ve lost my best friend, but Nathan had lost the woman he cared about, and his chance to confess his feelings to her. We were both in the same painful, sinking ship. “It were ye, spyin’ with that magic thing.”
“I had nothing to do with your curse,” Nathan said. “We were actually trying to find out what happened to you, and then you go and do this.” I heard the venom in his voice. “You took her from me. You are fortunate that I understand what a curse like this could do to a person’s control, otherwise I’d be picking up where Persie left off.”
“I need te go,” the kidnapper gasped. “I think… I’m about te turn again.”
“Don’t you dare,” Nathan barked, raising his hands to unleash a spell. “You killed her, and you tortured her friend. You’re going to face punishment for both.”
The kidnapper shook his head. “I don’t want te hurt anyone else.” He turned to me and I glared back, hating the sight of him. “I know it’s not enough, but… I really am sorry. I wish I could take it back. And I know I don’t deserve it, but please… forgive me.” Nathan launched a flurry of sparks at him, but he was one step faster. He dodged the attack and turned tail, sprinting off through the bushes where he vanished while still in human form. I didn’t know whether to be glad or livid, but one thing was for sure: he wasn’t going to escape justice, not if I had anything to do with it.
Still holding Genie close, I watched Nathan walk toward us. His head hung and his shoulders slumped, such that I couldn’t make out the expression on his face. But I could read his body language and felt the pain in every step he took. As he rounded the bench and came closer, he knelt on the sodden ground and looked up at me. His eyes were ringed with red.
“Can you stand for a moment?” he said quietly. “Lay her down.”
Puzzled, I squinted back at him. “Why?”
“You’ll see,” he said shortly. “I want you to know, Genie, before I do this, that I didn’t mean to keep it from you,” he murmured, as though I wasn’t there at all. “It’s not something I’m proud of, but I can’t… let you go. When I first saw you, I knew I was in trouble of the best kind. You were like a lighthouse in a storm—so bright and bold and fearless and unapologetically yourself. I refuse to let your light go out. And it’s not just because I didn’t get the chance to tell you how I feel. You are needed in this world, Genie. So, I’m going to be like you for a moment—I’m going to be braver and bolder, and I’m going to be who I am, without apology.”
What is he talking about? I opened my mouth to ask, but his actions stopped me. Slowly, he placed his hands on Genie—one on her abdomen, one on her chest. He closed his eyes, and a moment later tendrils of violet light slithered out from his palms, diving into Genie’s skin with a life of their own. I gaped in shock as her veins lit up, pulsing purple, the Chaos coursing through her at breakneck pace, churning up the pathways of her stilled blood. It branched up her neck and across her face until it reached her eyes. The pupils of her open, blank eyes flared with a violet glow that instinctively made me step back.
“Please,” Nathan whispered, as brighter tendrils thrummed out of his hands and into Genie. Eventually, her entire body glowed with a halo of purple, flecked with misty strands of black.