Harley Merlin 18: Persie Merlin and Leviathan’s Gift

by Forrest, Bella

  Get in the water! Splashes would be a dead giveaway. My leg vibrated with tension as I watched.

  Instead, Rollins used his Water ability to surround himself with a vortex, draining the pond dry. On one side, a small shape dented the vortex. The gremlin had gotten inside, but at least Rollins had made the fighting ground smaller. I couldn’t see through the wall of churning water, but I could hear the battle raging inside through the arena speaker system: shouts and expletives and howls as Rollins tried to get the better of the tikoloshe.

  After an unbearable wait, the vortex fell away. Rollins panted in the center with an unconscious tikoloshe on the ground at his feet, the smooth pebble beside the gremlin. Rollins had no doubt squeezed the beast into submission, the same way he had with the raiju.

  “Doesn’t he realize he’s supposed to be capturing these things?” Genie muttered.

  I shrugged. “I keep thinking he’ll remember eventually. It must be the stress.”

  As though he’d heard me, Rollins took out a jar and laid it next to the tikoloshe. I was a little surprised not to see the fancy puzzle boxes people had told me about. Maybe going the old-fashioned route was part of the test. With bleeding crescents turning his white t-shirt pink, Rollins waited for it to slip into the jar before plowing on to the next stage. The tikoloshe had done serious damage before Rollins had bested it, and some memory of Monster Biology told me those wounds would fester.

  He walked slowly up to the mouth of a cave and froze when an almighty squawk echoed from inside. Through the glass roof, created for the spectators’ benefit, a hulking creature stomped forward, emerging from the darkness. Three heads poked out first, bald and ugly with razor-sharp beaks. All three heads were attached to one enormous, feathered body, with wings so wide they dwarfed Rollins.

  Rollins put up his fists. As if that would help him.

  Genie’s eyes bugged. “What is that?”

  “No idea.” Apparently, even my dreams had limits. I’d been on a roll with the monster stats, but this made me glad I hadn’t gone first. I learned more with every stage Rollins went through. I waited eagerly to absorb what came next so I’d be more prepared when my turn came.

  The monster wasted no time charging. Rollins ducked out of the way, only to get pecked by one of the heads. Mauled might’ve been a better description. It caught his arm in its savage beak and shook its head violently, dragging Rollins around as if he were a sack of coal. I flinched with every wrench, wanting to look away, but morbid curiosity kept me watching. Rollins managed to punch it, and the beast let him go. I gasped in nervous alarm, silently urging him to get as far away as possible before it came in for another attack. He jumped up as quickly as he could, but the vulture-headed monster was faster. It bowled into him and knocked him down, and my heart sank. A second later, the beast jumped onto Rollins’s chest with its full weight and tore into him with talons the size of dagger blades. Its beaks pecked at him relentlessly until he stopped moving, and the siren blared to signal the end of the test.

  “I thought you said nobody could die?” one of Rollins’s meaty friends said nervously.

  Victoria kept her eyes on the scene below. “I did not lie.”

  A gate opened in the wall of the arena and medics sprinted out with a stretcher. Meanwhile, the vulture thing retreated back to its cave to await the next contestant. The medics lifted Rollins onto the stretcher and carried him away.

  “Will he be okay?” I asked. He didn’t look good, but I wanted to believe the head huntswoman when she said nobody could die. Still, he’d be in a lot of pain, and that didn’t make me feel good. Exams weren’t supposed to leave a person unconscious and covered in bite marks.

  Victoria looked surprised by my interjection. “He will recover, and once he has been stabilized in our infirmary, he will be sent home to recuperate. But an ellén trechend is not a creature to be taken lightly.”

  So that’s what the vulture thing is. It still didn’t ring any bells, but at least I had a name for it now. And names, as I’d recently learned, had immense power.

  “Chances are, the nightmares will never go away.” Victoria sighed and turned to address the sea of shocked faces. “Do not underestimate your foe. Monster hunting is serious business. It’s not for the faint of heart. The most important factor is how you observe and act in the moment.”

  A bevy of nodding heads responded, including mine. I’d already learned a lot by observing, but nobody knew how they would react until they were in it. Still, it surprised me to hear her tone soften, giving a hint of humanity to her formidable façade. If anything, it made her all the more inspiring—the kind of stern yet supportive presence that I wouldn’t mind learning the trade from.

  “And I suggest you take that satchel when you begin, instead of having to run back for it. I would’ve thought that was obvious.” She shook her head in disappointment. “We train hunters to capture beasts, not pummel them. What would be the use of that?”

  She clearly wanted the crème de la crème for this institute, and silly mistakes wouldn’t be tolerated. She had her reputation and the reputation of the Institute to protect. The Basani twins, after whom this place was named, had set a high bar for monster hunting. I’d heard about them from my uncle and mom, and the occasional online article about their heyday, and they had a heck of a record. Rollins would never have made the cut.

  “May I ask a question, Ms. Jules?” I didn’t know if it was allowed, but something had been bugging me since we’d arrived.

  “You may, but I can’t promise I’ll answer,” she replied.

  I took my chances. “Why is the Institute here in Ireland? I thought the Basani twins were Australian.”

  Harsh laughter did the rounds, and disapproving eyes prickled the back of my neck.

  Victoria gave another small, kind smile. “It is a valid question. One of our founders married an Irishman—the director of the Galway Coven. There was plenty of room for an institute here, and Ireland is exceptionally rich in wild monsters.”

  “I see.” I nodded awkwardly, feeling stupid. “Makes sense.”

  “One needn’t know every minute detail of this place to do well in the exam.” Victoria cast a frosty look over the rest of the candidates. “Although, I can’t say if a lack of knowledge on the subject will help you or hinder you. I imagine I’ll find out in due course. Now, who will be the next candidate?”

  To my alarm, Genie stepped forward before anyone else could get a word in. “I’ll go next.”

  Twenty-Seven

  Persie

  “And who are you?” Victoria opened the binder to a fresh sheet. I stared at my friend, my panic skyrocketing. Obviously, I’d known we’d have to step up to take our individual turns at some point, since that was why we were here. But I’d expected us to be two of the last to go, when there wouldn’t be so many people watching, and after we’d gained more insight into tactics and techniques by watching more candidates.

  Genie placed her hand on it, and her information appeared. “Iphigenia Vertis.”

  “An Atlantean.” Victoria’s eyebrow raised marginally as she looked over the data. “I don’t like to assume based on appearance. I see enough magicals attempting to copy those tattoos, but you appear to be legitimate.”

  “You sound surprised.” Genie smiled. She wasn’t an attention seeker, but she didn’t shy away from the spotlight, either.

  Victoria tapped the metal sheet. “I don’t mind admitting that I am. We attract candidates and hunters from all over the world, but we’ve never managed to entice an Atlantean to our fair shores.”

  “You know what we’re like.” Genie chuckled, and I could tell Victoria was pleased at the idea of adding someone like my friend to her roster. Atlanteans might have become part of society, but they were still a novelty, drawing in all sorts of grants and bursaries from the MUN in the name of ongoing integration.

  “Yeah, a bunch of backward snobs,” one of Rollins’s cadet friends muttered.

  Victor
ia whirled so fast it made my head spin. “If that is how you view magical variety, perhaps you shouldn’t be in this room.”

  He took a sulky step back. “It’s not like I’m going to put her in a Mason jar.”

  “You won’t be putting anything in a Mason jar if I hear prejudice like that again.” Victoria didn’t raise her voice, but she didn’t have to. Her steady calm held way more sway than a yell. “I accept no form of discrimination in this institute. Iphigenia deserves nothing but your respect and encouragement, or at least your silence. As I am sure she will respect and encourage you, despite your misguided comments.”

  You tell ‘em, Ms. Jules. The SDC didn’t accept prejudice either, but it received a lot of flack from other magicals for being the first to initiate the integration program. Even now, it had nicknames like “Atlantis 2” and “The Trash Heap.” We’d been shielded from the worst of it by being amongst decent, open-minded individuals. Friction only raised its ugly head when we went on field trips and exchanges to other covens. Genie never acted like she cared, but I knew it got to her from time to time. And it was one of the reasons her dad was so keen for her to go back to Atlantis.

  Victoria turned back to Genie. “It says here that you are a… Go away!” Victoria’s eyes widened as a bit of her true Irishness slipped out.

  A ponytailed cadet almost craned right out of her seat to get a look at the metal sheet. “What is she?”

  “A full Elemental with verso abilities and a maturing Glacial ability.” Victoria smiled properly for the first time, and it transformed her face into something even more remarkable.

  “Good on paper, right?” Genie laughed and rolled up pretend sleeves. “Let’s hope it looks as good in the test.”

  Victoria closed the binder. “I look forward to finding out. Taryn, please take Miss Vertis down.”

  “Good luck!” I reached out and gave my friend’s hand a squeeze.

  “Thanks.” Genie squeezed back and followed the assistant to the elevator. As soon as it disappeared, the remaining candidates pushed and elbowed to get a front row seat, all of them crowding the edge of the arena wall. I took myself off to an open space closer to the door of the hall and sat down on the lip, wishing we could’ve gone together.

  Taryn and Genie reappeared below, the assistant leaving my friend in the same spot she’d left Jeremiah Rollins. A few seconds after Taryn backed away, the siren blared. Genie didn’t miss the satchel. Throwing it over her head, she took off toward the cornfield first, moving faster than I’d ever seen her move before. She was an avid runner, so I knew she was quick, but the pressure of the test seemed to have given her a boost.

  Come on, Genie. I know you can do this… I clasped my hands together and swung my legs nervously as she gunned for the raiju. Standing in the middle of the corn stalks, she kept perfectly still as the wolves prowled toward her. Unlike before, they both attacked at once. She just stepped back and let them sail over her, as if she’d known what they would do. Upon landing, both of them opened their mouths and unleashed that thundering howl, bringing down two jagged forks of lightning that crackled into my friend. She didn’t even try to escape it. Having seen her in the training room with the griffin, I understood why.

  Her face contorted as the lightning absorbed into her, setting her aglow with power. The wolves leapt at her, and all hell broke loose. A ground-shaking explosion rocketed out of Genie and took the two wolves with it, sending them crashing into the corn stalks. I waited for them to get up and try again, but they stayed down, whimpering and smoking faintly.

  Genie took two Mason jars out of the satchel and put one in front of each of the fallen raiju. They disintegrated into black smoke and slithered into the jars, which Genie promptly slotted back into the satchel.

  I looked toward Victoria, who had the ghost of a smile on her face.

  Silence blanketed the exam hall as Genie moved on to the tikoloshe, following the same path as Rollins. On the muddy bank of the pond, she waited. A few moments later, the hunched, hairy little man scuttled out from behind a nearby rock, ready to scoop up another pebble. Before he even touched the water, blue sparks shot out of Genie and rained down on the pond, turning it to ice.

  “Yes!” I shouted, drawing stares from the other candidates. “Sorry.”

  The gremlin turned to her, its face a picture of rage. It hurtled toward Genie on stubby, paunchy legs. A split second before it reached her, she skated out over the icy pond to the other side. The gremlin followed her in blind fury, only to get a watery shock as Genie melted the ice with a wave of Fire. A loud splash echoed up as the wave fell, and while the gremlin floundered in the murky depths, she turned the pond back to ice, trapping the nasty creature in the center.

  I could’ve sworn I heard Victoria snort, but when I glanced at her, she wore a blank expression.

  After securing the creature in another Mason jar, Genie moved on to the next task. She avoided the vulture thing by scrambling right over the top of the cave, agile as a monkey, and headed for a circle of shadowy forest instead. After what we’d seen it do to Rollins, I guessed she wanted to come back to it later.

  Someone had their oatmeal this morning. And she wasn’t even breaking a sweat. As she dropped down the other side of the cave and her t-shirt rose a couple of inches, I noticed a glint of something attached to the base of her back, but a bone-shaking bellow instantly distracted me. The sound was partway between a roar and a screech—a noise I’d heard before.

  A sizeable griffin—though not as big as the one I’d Purged—stomped out of the forest, and I could see Genie’s shoulders rise and fall with what looked like laughter, followed by a subtle chuckle coming through the speaker system. At the ridiculousness of the encore, no doubt. As for me, I definitely wasn’t chuckling. That thing dredged up a bunch of bad memories, and though my friend had faced its kind before, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t do some major damage. Not all griffins were made equal. This one could be way nastier than mine. I leaned forward anxiously.

  It roared again, pawing the ground with its talons before pouncing, trying to snag her in its sharp beak. Genie darted out of the way and gripped its fur in her hands. Swinging her body up onto its back, she sat astride the griffin for a second, looking as majestic as a fearsome warrior queen. I didn’t even see the Mason jar until the griffin started to disintegrate into it, leaving Genie to somersault to the ground in one impossibly fluid movement—the jar on the ground, one arm up in the air, and legs bent.

  Hang on a second… Genie may have been a runner, but she wasn’t a gymnast. The only time we’d attempted yoga, she’d been so wobbly and inflexible that the teacher had given up and just let us take time for “personal stretching.” The other candidates stared at her in awe, and even Victoria looked vaguely impressed, but I smelled something fishy. Genie happened to be a freaking incredible magical, but she wasn’t a kung-fu master. Still, if something was going on, I certainly wasn’t going to point it out.

  “Way to go, Genie!” I whooped. She flashed up a grin and kept going, still apparently unphased by the exertion.

  Running like the wind and moving like water, she smoothly downed a five-strong group of goblins hiding under the spinning log with the swinging pendulums, all without missing a step. Then, all she had to do was collect her loot with five Mason jars while also maintaining her balance on the spinning log. A feat she managed with surprisingly little effort.

  I know she’s good, but this isn’t right. My concerns amped up with every successful catch: three gargoyles, a golem, a kappa, and a wyvern, bringing the total to sixteen monsters. She was too fast, too fluid, too effortless.

  By this point, I wasn’t the only one whooping and hollering my support. She’d won over the crowd, and every last candidate applauded wildly with every catch she made. Even Victoria’s hands twitched, as if she wanted to join in. Instead, she clasped them behind her back.

  Whatever she’s doing, I might need some of it. I gulped as she circled back to the three-he
aded vulture thing. Its screech turned the hall silent with anticipation. But Genie didn’t wait for it to poke its three heads out. Green sparks of Earth ability flowed out of her and made the cave tremble violently, until the whole thing collapsed on top of the vultures. Another shriek pierced the air as the creature tried to get free. Seizing her opportunity, Genie hopped up onto the debris and aimed her Mason jar right at the beast. It began to evaporate, making the rocks sink down where the creature had once been.

  After the vulture heads, a terrifying Kelpie became her next successful capture. It rose from a deep pool, the water a shade of darkest blue, so dark it almost looked black, and urged her onto its back with its hypnotic red eyes. She resisted, bringing it to heel before she zapped it into the jar.

  Okay, I can give her that one. Atlanteans and Kelpies went hand in hand, like cowboys and horses, peanut butter and jam, salt and pepper. No displays of athleticism required. But the rest were still suspicious. And the real question was: how many more monsters did she have to catch? The siren hadn’t sounded yet, and considering the length of this epic Challenge, I feared my own turn.

  “Ew! What’s that?” A grim-faced cadet, who clearly had more muscles than sense, pointed to the next monster.

  What looked like a melting ball of flesh and fat with veiny eyes shuffled along a stretch of red-soiled desert, its floppy feet making a nauseating, squelching sound as it walked.

  “This is a rarer species,” Victoria replied.

  The minute it saw Genie, it transformed into a good-looking man with perfect hair and a designer suit. I supposed that was what it thought Genie might like, but it didn’t know my friend at all.

  Genie appeared to chuckle and got ready. Bronze sparks flew out of her—the sure sign of a hex—and the glinting shards of Chaos began to quickly spin around the… whatever it was. It held the creature in a mesmerized trance, giving her the chance to slide a Mason jar under the vortex and capture it.