Harley Merlin 19: Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere Read online

  A wave of surprised whispers rolled through the crowd. I guessed that showed just how little they knew about my homeland. Did they think we didn’t have hunters?

  That’s right. You didn’t know that, did you? My mom’s career made me prouder than anything. If they’d wanted to hear stories, I’d have happily regaled them. But they’d only just described me as a powerful upstart who hadn’t earned her spot. And now, Hosseini had delivered a few home truths. That made him my new favorite, usurping Nathan from the top spot.

  “Get out, all of you, and take this evening to reconsider your actions here. If I so much as hear a hint of this sort of thing happening again, there will be far greater consequences. Consider this a first, and last, warning.” Hosseini dismissed everyone, and they all went running. He turned back to Charlotte. “Charlotte, you’ll help clean this up?”

  Resentment passed over her face, but it was quickly replaced by her usual armor. “Yes, Hosseini.”

  He noticed and visibly returned to that gentle giant I’d seen on stage, touching Charlotte’s shoulder in a friendly fashion. “People look to you as a leader.” He gestured to the room-turned-aquarium. “We want to set a good example for those who are… ignorant. When people in authority stand back in the face of discrimination, it gives validation to the act itself. We must always fight that battle.”

  Charlotte bowed her head. “I know, I could have—no, I should have intervened more firmly…”

  I wondered if she was sincere, or if she was thinking about her mom. Shailene wouldn’t be happy to hear about this. Places like the Institute received integration grants from the UCA. She’d be irked if she found out the bigotry of some of her hunters, and I was sure neither she nor Charlotte wanted their surname tied up in it in any way.

  Hosseini looked at me. “Genie, I’m sorry you had to go through that. I hope you can forgive the idiocy of mob mentality.”

  “I’ll give Charlotte a hand,” I replied. “In the spirit of peace. It was my mess, after all.”

  “Very honorable of you.” He dipped his head. “For my part, I’m looking forward to training you and turning your talents toward less chaotic ends. If you have Water abilities that can cause this, then your future as a hunter is very promising, indeed.”

  I grinned, though my insides felt hollow. A futile victory. “The feeling’s mutual.”

  “I’ll leave you to it.” Hosseini walked out, leaving me with a sullen Charlotte. She hadn’t argued against the punishment, but I could see she wasn’t jazzed about cleaning up. I couldn’t blame her. If anyone should have been mopping up, it was Bike-Pump Teddy and his fan club.

  I stalked over to the counter, where one of the banquet hall workers was gathering mops. He handed two to me, complete with rusty buckets. I carried them back over and set one down beside Charlotte.

  “Thanks,” I said, “for speaking up.”

  She merely nodded, remaining cool to me as we cleaned, extinguishing any notions I had of a budding friendship between the two of us. Maybe the others would have a change of heart, maybe they wouldn’t. I couldn’t control anyone but myself. What hurt most was knowing my dad had faced this for years and had shielded me from it. But he’d hung on, thanks to the few who’d made him feel he belonged. That was enough to help me cling to my faith in the magical world. There was room for me in it. And I’d find my nook, sooner or later.

  I was stubborn as a mule. It would take more than this for me to give up.

  Seven

  Persie

  With everything rapidly slipping out of my control, I flung open the window, snatched up my backpack of pre-hexed Mason jars, and raced out the door, slamming it behind me to try to keep the smoke from setting off any alarms. How would I even begin to explain the mess in my bedroom to anyone who caught a glimpse? It looked like a bomb had gone off. Eyes watering and still shaky from the Purge, I took off down the hall to find the little monsters.

  You’re not screwing this up for me! I ducked into doorways and hid behind walls to avoid being seen, keeping my eyes well and truly peeled. They couldn’t have gotten far, right? Oh, who was I kidding… of course, they could get far. They had freaking wings and a frightening determination to cause as much mayhem as possible. And I had absolutely no clue what they were. I’d never met them in a dream before, and though they resembled the sprite that Nathan had shown us, they definitely weren’t the same thing. Different bodies, different colors, different wings, and a penchant for bizarre accessories.

  “Where the heck are you?” I hissed to the empty hallways as I entered another part of the Institute. Still living quarters, but not a section I’d visited before. Amber light flickered from the sconces on the wall, creating shadows that flitted and darted like the very creatures I was after. It left my head spinning and my stomach churning, until I had whiplash from turning left, right, back, and forward in an endless rhythm. But the tiny critters were nowhere to be seen. It was only the shadows messing with my already screwy head.

  Okay, let’s think about this logically. How much harm can they actually do? I pressed on down the hallways, a million worst-case scenarios thudding in my brain. What if they got into Victoria’s room and scrambled her wardrobe, or got into her bathroom and did what they’d done in mine? What if they reached the main assembly hall and started smearing muck, or worse, on all that clean, white marble? What if they snuck into the Repository and let the monsters loose? They might not have looked violent, but they were really freaking mischievous. And there were so many things in this place for them to smash! They seemed to love smashing. And throwing things. And, holy crap, they’d really loved the fire.

  “Why did it have to be these beasts?” I muttered, peering around a corner to make sure the coast was clear of people. Meanwhile, my eyes squinted through the gloom for the glint of a monster. “At least one big one would’ve been easier to spot.”

  This would all come back to bite me if I couldn’t capture them. Speaking of which, where the heck were all the hunters who’d been stationed to watch over me? The one at the bottom of my corridor hadn’t been loitering there, and I couldn’t see any suspiciously placed personnel on my sprint through the hallways, either. I really hoped Victoria hadn’t called them off because I’d gone five days without a Purge. What if I’d lulled her into a false sense of security at the very moment when I could’ve used some help? Not because I couldn’t handle capturing what I’d created, but because there were so many of them. I’d estimated thirty, maybe more, had exploded from that weird black ball of mist.

  Should I go to Victoria? I weighed the options as I pressed on. She’d given me a direct line to her office phone and an emergency beeper for occasions like this. But if I went to her with this incident or sounded the alarm, perhaps she’d worry that this might be a common occurrence in the future—Purging multiple beasts at once. What if that swayed her to reconsider my position? My insides wobbled at the thought of being forced to leave. I mean, I hadn’t even started training yet.

  No, I had to fix this myself. There were no two ways about it—I had to catch them, or all those thoughts of independence and self-reliance could take a flying leap out of the window. At the very least, I had to give it my best try, or I’d be back where I was before I came to this place. Always running for help at the first sign of trouble, with everyone looking at me as a dud or a hopeless case, not worthy of the Merlin name. Maybe if I’d Purged a stampede of griffins or Cerberuses, I’d have no choice but to phone her and call in the cavalry, but these weren’t huge, devouring beasts. They were small and hadn’t seemed bloodthirsty. They were a good jumping-off point to start testing my skills as a hunter who deserved her place here—a follow-up to what I’d started, and never got to finish, during my exam.

  So far, I hadn’t seen any smashed glass or signs of miscreant behavior, which meant I still had time to remedy the situation. Hadn’t I asked for an opportunity to prove myself? Sure, I hadn’t expected there to be so many critters to catch at once, but this
would give me a chance to put my money where my mouth was when it came to cleaning up my own problems. My mom would’ve tried to clean things up herself before reaching out for assistance, and it was about time I started acting more like my mother’s daughter. Then, if things did go awry and I couldn’t wrangle all of them, I had Victoria and an Institute full of hunters to fall back on. But, if it came to that, I’d be able to say that I’d tried to fix things myself first. Proof of my perseverance.

  “I don’t suppose you could make this easier for me and friggin’ show yourselves?” I grumbled, scouring every possible nook and cranny for the buzzy bastards. I searched cupboards, storage rooms, behind statues, under side tables, inside vases, in bathroom cubicles, behind every curtain—just about every dark hiding place they might’ve snuck into.

  Peering through open doors, I checked over common rooms, bathrooms, and kitchenettes, listening for any startled screams. The halls lay uncomfortably silent, like the little creatures were deliberately toying with me. With every corner I turned, I half expected one to leap out and shriek in my face, just to get a good laugh. And, perhaps, to get a giggle out of seeing my sweatpants turn soggy again. I would’ve preferred it if they had tried to frighten the living daylights out of me. At least then I would know where they were.

  This is hopeless… The Institute was enormous, and these creatures were teensy by comparison. Even if I searched every corner, it wouldn’t stop them from hiding somewhere else. I leaned against a wall to catch my breath. Part of me felt like crying, and part of me felt like descending into a heap of hysterical laughter. Of all the stupid things I could Purge, it had to be a hive of giddy critters with the collective maturity of a five-year-old.

  My head whipped around as I saw a flash of color down the corridor—one of the creatures, hovering in front of a doorway, twisting the door handle in its pesky hands. It swung the door open and disappeared inside. Oh no, you don’t! I bolted down the hallway, only to skid to a halt in front of a low-swinging sign that read “Scholar’s Quarters.”

  Whatever blood I had left in my face must’ve drained away at that moment. No wonder the corridors hadn’t seemed familiar—we weren’t allowed in this part of the Institute, and now a little monster had just gone inside one of the scholar’s rooms. Which one, I had no idea. It wasn’t very late, so I hoped the scholars wouldn’t be in their rooms yet.

  Steeling myself to enter, I just hoped I could get in, get the monster, and get out before anyone found out I’d been snooping around these parts.

  Please don’t wreck anything before I can get my mitts on you. Sending up my plea, I tiptoed inside the room the creature had fluttered into. Darkness shrouded what looked like an apartment, lit by a solitary lamp which had probably been left on so the owner wouldn’t return to pitch blackness. I froze, listening for any sounds that suggested someone was home. Silence echoed back, and I edged further into the apartment, only for my eyes to snap toward the kitchen. The sound of clinking bottles came from behind a jutting island. My heart pounded as I crept around the back edge of the island and peered behind it. Silhouetted in the glow of the fridge, one of the naughty critters—female, I guessed—struggled with a bottle of milk. And she was about two seconds from upending the whole thing.

  Lunging forward, I dove for the flitting beastie. With more light to see by, I might’ve noticed the rug in the middle of the kitchen floor. Unfortunately, tonight wasn’t going my way. My foot caught on the edge of it and I tumbled downward, faceplanting on the cold stone floor with a thud. A groaning wheeze puffed out of my lips like a sad balloon, and the creature, who’d no doubt witnessed my fall, began to laugh. To add insult to injury, she mimicked the sound, doing it over and over again until I managed to jump back up. Seeing me on my feet, she gave a shriek that sounded a lot like a curse word.

  “Come here!” I muttered, swiping at the fridge. The creature darted upward, and a pack of cheese and a trio of yogurts took the hit intended for it. The yogurts toppled onto the floor, a spurt of strawberry goo splashing out from under the lid.

  So much for not creating more of a mess. I’d deal with that later. But if I lost sight of the tiny creature, then I’d be back on my wild goose chase with nothing to show for it. Stepping over the rug this time, I raced after the monster as she made a beeline for one of the doors on the far side of the living room and vanished inside.

  Cautiously pushing the door wider, I took out my phone and shone the flashlight across the room, something I probably should’ve done earlier. A fastidiously neat bedroom was illuminated by the cold blue glow, with every corner of the bedsheets perfectly tucked. Seeing the room empty, I went ahead and flipped on the light switch. Bright orange light flooded the space, revealing a room that barely looked lived in: a desk with nothing but a lamp on it, bedside tables with short stacks of precisely aligned books, and no pictures or personal touches to speak of.

  Whoever lives here must be a bit of a square. A clatter distracted me from the rest of the room, coming from a partially opened door on the other side of the bed. I bounded over the mattress, action-movie style, and wrenched it open. The creature had opened every drawer of a large mahogany chest, and was flicking out underpants, socks, and ties as if she were in charge of a confetti cannon. I didn’t have time for embarrassment. The monster was so engrossed in her mischief that she didn’t notice me approaching, and if I lost this shot, who knew when I’d get another?

  I snatched up a pair of gaudy, pixie-discarded, Hawaiian-style boxers. Before she could fly away, I wrapped the beastie in them like it was Christmas Eve and the family was coming over. Realizing she’d been caught, she twisted her head back to glare at me. I half-expected her to turn into black mist and disappear, but she didn’t… or couldn’t. I wasn’t sure which. Either way, her tiny arms thrashed underneath the Hawaiian fabric and she began to chatter furiously.

  “Would you stop? I’m not going to hurt you.” As I spoke the words, I meant them. Holding this creature in my hands felt stratospherically different from squaring up against a griffin or a hydra. If I wanted to, I could’ve crushed her between my hands. I had no desire to do so, but it felt odd to have that kind of power over a living creature. A sudden protective instinct flickered inside me, something I hadn’t experienced before with any beast I’d expelled.

  She paused for a moment, as if she understood. Beneath my clenched hands, her little chest rose and fell frantically. In the bedroom light, I got a better look at her face. Iridescent scales formed a halo around her sharply pointed features, the colors shifting from blue to green to pink to purple, depending on how the light hit them. Mossy curls of pale green hair sprung up in tufts from her head, and I noticed detailed striations of yellow and blue banding that ran from the tops of her shoulders up to her neck. The banding contained minuscule swirls in a darker shade, and multicolored spots across the pale portions of her skin pulsated in time to her rapid breaths.

  “What are you?” I whispered.

  She chirped back, but I didn’t speak… whatever language she was speaking. Her big, round black eyes peered up at me, filled with emotion. The sadness and panic in them struck me like an arrow through the heart, making me loosen my grip slightly. Like Tobe and Nathan, I wanted her to be comfortable. I didn’t want her to feel trapped. I couldn’t explain why… I guessed I just didn’t want to see that sadness in her eyes and think I’d caused it. Sprouting out from between her unwrapped shoulder blades, her gossamer wings fluttered anxiously. I’d scared her, and she didn’t know what I was going to do with her. Right now, I wasn’t sure either.

  “Persie?” said a voice from behind me. I whirled around as Nathan walked in, his expression stern and confused. “What are you doing in my room?” A horrified gasp escaped his throat, his gaze darting to the creature ensconced in his undergarments. “Are… are those my boxers?”

  Oh, boy, this was going to be a toughie to explain.

  Eight

  Persie

  “It’s not what it looks
like!” I squeaked, nearly dropping the monster parcel. I wasn’t even sure what it did look like, but my mind had gone completely blank.

  Nathan took a step forward, his palms raised as if he were approaching a wild animal. “Okay, then, why don’t you put my… um… boxers back where you found them, and we can talk about this outside.”

  “I’d love to, I really would, but—ow!” The tiny monster whipped her head around and sank her sharp teeth into my thumb. Nathan had made the mistake of edging closer, his presence well and truly freaking out the parcel in my hands. Either that, or she’d been biding her time. Startled, I dropped the creature. Boxers and critter plunged to the floor, and my heart might as well have left my body. “Crap, no! Don’t let her get away!”

  Quick as a flash, Nathan swooped the jacket off his shoulders and hurled it with impressive accuracy toward the spot where his boxers had fallen, right when the critter attempted an upward escape. The heavy tweed swamped her, knocking the monster back down, and my heart re-entered my chest. With the door wide open, that thing would’ve beelined for freedom faster than I could have said “Don’t you freaking dare!” Her tiny form writhed underneath the stuffy fabric, unable to find an exit. I heard her shrieking and chattering savagely, and it was clear she wasn’t singing my praises.

  I dove onto the jacket and gathered the sides into a sort of old-timey sack—the kind put on the end of sticks in cartoons. “Thank Chaos for that.” I heaved a sigh of relief as I lifted the pouch. Meanwhile, the little monster dropkicked the heck out of her tweed enclosure. The whole thing swung like a pendulum, tiny dents appearing with each defiant punch and roundhouse.

  She might not have been inside a Mason jar, but I was halfway there. Part of me wanted to unleash an almighty scream of relief, but that would only alarm Nathan more. So, for now, I’d keep it to a quiet half-victory. Maybe not even half, considering I still had dozens more to capture.