Harley Merlin 18: Persie Merlin and Leviathan’s Gift

by Forrest, Bella

  She brandished the sealed jar up at Victoria and yelled to us. “Tell me there aren’t, like, fifty more.”

  “There are as many as there are,” Ms. Jules replied, her eyes glittering with admiration.

  “Right, so there might be fifty more.” Genie stowed the jar in the satchel and headed for the only part of the arena she hadn’t scouted yet. A pretty glade in the middle of a ring of vibrant trees, their leaves tinged with the reddish kiss of autumn.

  From between two tree trunks, a unicorn emerged. But it wasn’t like the ones that had visited my dreams. This looked like the nightmare version, with a black horn that had a pointed, gilded tip, and jet-black hair that shimmered like the night’s sky as it walked. Its mane and tail carried a scarlet hue, as though it had absorbed the blood of its foes, and from what I knew of the species, its hooves were the same shade, although they were mostly concealed by undergrowth. I also knew, from past dream experience, that its eyes would be entirely white, giving the impression of blindness—but it could definitely see.

  It charged at Genie with its killer horn aimed. Using the beast’s momentum against it, Genie grasped the horn and yanked down hard, bringing it crashing to the dirt. There, she brought up vines of Earth to wrap around the creature until it couldn’t move. Its white eyes blinked in confusion as it whinnied loudly, the sound echoing in my head long after it had disappeared into the jar.

  Just then, a siren blared, making me jump so hard I almost teetered over the edge.

  The end of the test… Only Victoria could say if Genie had passed or failed. But the other candidates burst into rapturous applause, having already decided that she deserved to succeed. And I clapped right along with them. Something might have been off, but my friend had put on an incredible display, and that deserved all the cheering my lungs would allow.

  Victoria lifted her hand, and everyone went silent. She possessed the kind of gravitas that few people acquired in their lifetime, and even fewer truly deserved.

  “Congratulations, Miss Vertis.” Her voice carried without her having to project. “You have passed the entrance test and are eligible to join the Basani Institute. I commend you wholeheartedly. It’s been many years since I’ve seen such a display. I won’t forget it in a hurry.”

  Genie bowed. “Thank you, Ms. Jules. Does this mean I can come back up now?”

  “It does.” Victoria gave a whisper of a laugh as Taryn was sent to collect my friend.

  Shortly afterward, we reunited at the top of the arena. Genie ran into my open arms, the two of us jumping around gleefully. I would’ve let myself enjoy the moment, but curiosity got the better of me.

  “You were on fire out there. Did you use a spell or something?” I whispered, out of earshot of the others. A spell wasn’t technically cheating, though the idea did make me feel a bit… uncomfortable.

  “Nope, something much better. The thing that’s going to get us both through this. Here.” She slipped a hand behind her back, before embracing me again and turning us so I had my back to the wall. Before I could protest, I felt her attach something to my back. A fleeting pain jolted through me before a shiver of electricity coursed up the length of my back, making my body tingle suddenly. Fortunately, Victoria and the candidates were all distracted by the next competitor—a young woman who’d pretty much kept to herself and was now being taken down to the arena.

  I pulled back and blinked at her. “What did you do?”

  “Gave you what you need.” She smiled secretively. “Keep your shirt tucked, and you’ll be fine. It’s your turn next. Use it, and you’ll pass. Trust me.”

  I patted beneath my shirt discreetly, feeling metallic legs and a ridged back. A curled tail with a stinger on the end confirmed my suspicions. I knew this object. A scorpion amulet from ancient Egypt that my mom kept in a velvet display box in one of her office drawers.

  “This is my mom’s!” I whispered in shock. I knew what it did, and, while I was happy that Genie had succeeded, I wasn’t okay with this. A spell came from within a person at least, but a device seemed plain dishonest. Powered by the supposed might of Ra, it granted the wearer additional strength, speed, stamina, and senses—all of the important S’s.

  “Okay, I might have snuck it from your mom’s office last night. You remember I said I had to get something? This was it,” she admitted, looking a little sheepish.

  I shook my head. “This isn’t right. Take it off.” If there was one thing my mom and I agreed on, it was the principle of fairness and the importance of earning your success. But she’d also told me that, when the odds were stacked against you in a fight, you had to do whatever you could. I needed to get through this test. Maybe, just this once, a bit of assistance wouldn’t hurt.

  No! That’s not how I want to win. I’d sworn to do this under my own steam, and that meant no outside help, no matter how tempting.

  “It’ll help you,” she urged.

  “You didn’t even need it.” I kept my voice low, in case I got us both in trouble. “You’re more powerful than all of these people put together!”

  She sighed, her cheeks turning pink. “I wanted to try it out so it’d be prepped and ready to go for your turn.”

  I reached behind my back and ripped the scorpion out of my skin. “I’m not going to cheat, Genie.”

  “It’s no different from using a hex or an ability. This is your advantage,” Genie insisted, trying to push the scorpion back into my hands.

  “My mom is going to realize this is missing. And when she does, she’ll come looking for me, to ask if I’ve seen it. When she can’t reach me on my phone, she’ll track me down some other way. Then, she’ll find out that I’m here and…” I gulped down a breath as panic set in. And panic spelled Purge. I needed to get a handle on this before I spewed something up in front of everyone. They had enough monsters to worry about.

  Another siren blared. Down below, the young woman was being carried away on a stretcher, her hair sticking up at all ends after getting on the wrong end of a lightning strike.

  “Who is next?” Victoria asked.

  In a last-ditch attempt to get me to take it, Genie gave me a firm nudge with the hand concealing the scorpion. The movement drew the attention of the head huntswoman, who looked at me expectantly. If I backed out now, she’d think I was a coward, and it’d be game over before I’d even begun.

  I swallowed loudly. “I’ll go.”

  Just please don’t let me Purge… please… To the Basani Institute, I imagined the only thing worse than a coward was a girl who couldn’t stop Purging the very thing they hunted.

  Twenty-Eight

  Persie

  Fear is the mind-killer. To be honest, I’d never entirely understood what Frank Herbert had meant until this exact moment. My mind refused to cooperate, going all fuzzy and blank, reducing me to the staring moron I didn’t want to be, who couldn’t connect her mouth with her neurons.

  “Persie.” Genie gave me a sharp nudge.

  The gray matter reluctantly activated. “Right, yes. Sorry.”

  “Place your hand here.” Victoria offered up the binder and I obeyed. The shock she’d displayed at Genie’s details paled in comparison to mine. “Persephone Merlin-Crowley? As in—”

  “Harley Merlin’s daughter.” I filled in the blanks before she could. Everyone always followed my name with my mom’s.

  She quickly covered her surprise with an expression of casual interest. “And I thought Miss Vertis would prove to be the greatest potential candidate today.” Her eyes drifted across the details in the binder, and her forehead creased. “Oh… that must be wrong. It says here that you are classified as non-magical. Could you place your hand down again?”

  I shook my head. “No need. It’s the truth.”

  Here we go again… My stomach churned like nobody’s business, and my chest had that tight, grippy feeling that suggested an imminent Purge.

  “Pardon?” She tilted her head slightly.

  “There’s no err
or. I don’t have any magic.” My cheeks flushed with warmth as everyone stared at me. A few incredulous smirks made my blood boil. “I thought everyone knew.”

  Victoria closed the folder. “I wasn’t aware. I knew your mother had a child, but...” she handed the binder off to her assistant. “Forgive my bluntness, but why are you here then? How do you expect to become a monster hunter without a single ability?”

  My head swam, but I no longer knew if it was a fear response or a Purge response. But I wasn’t going to blow this by coughing up an inopportune beast.

  You don’t control me. Do you hear? I shouted inwardly.

  “I… uh… I have other skills that I… um… intend to apply to monster hunting.” I managed to choke the words out, though my rapidly swelling throat made it difficult. “Sorry, I’m a bit nervous.” I cleared my throat and tried again, digging my nails into my palms. “I’ve got a lot of other talents that lend themselves to the art of hunting, and I plan to show the magical world that children born without abilities aren’t necessarily write-offs.”

  Victoria nodded slowly. “Intriguing.”

  “The good kind… I hope?” I forced my voice to function.

  The head huntswoman said nothing for several long seconds. When she finally opened her mouth to speak, my stomach dropped in nervous anticipation. “I like your mettle, Miss Merlin-Crowley. That is one of the main traits we look for in potential candidates. And I did speak of not tolerating prejudice in this institute. What sort of figurehead would I be if I didn’t stand by my own principles?” She offered a wary smile, as if she thought she were making a grave mistake. “You may proceed.”

  You won’t regret it, Ms. Jules. I grinned at her like an idiot. All I’d wanted was a chance, and she’d given it to me. I might’ve been terrified after what I’d seen in the arena, but this was my dream. I had to seize it by the horns.

  I glanced at Genie as Taryn beckoned to me. My friend gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up and an ecstatic smile, though a hint of anxiety glinted in her eyes. I supposed she was wondering how I’d get on without the scorpion, and truthfully… so was I.

  Heart racing like a runaway train, I followed Taryn into the elevator. It descended through the ground, obscuring the glass and pitching us into total darkness for a while. I welcomed the darkness as an opportunity to close my eyes and take some deep breaths, trying to stave off the incoming Purge symptoms. Not now, not now, not now… I repeated the mantra to ease my crammed brain. Anything to give the impression of normalcy. Taryn had probably seen all kinds of nerves in this elevator, but I still worried she might bring my test to a halt before it had even begun. By the time we reached the arena level, the fever had receded, and I could think a bit clearer.

  Huh… maybe I am the one in control of this, after all. Finally, I’d caught a break. Except I was still walking into an obstacle course full of monsters that I had no idea how to fight.

  “Good luck,” Taryn whispered, as she ushered me out onto the rocky plinth. I felt the curiosity from above, but aside from Genie and Victoria, they could all take a running leap. If I focused on them, I’d only get more nervous, and nerves meant Purges.

  Breathe. Just breathe. The starting siren sounded and I bit my tongue in fright. Repeating the breathing mantra, I shuffled up to the end of the plinth and picked up the satchel. I had no clue if I would get to cross the proverbial finish line. With twenty monsters to capture, I might have bitten off more than I could chew.

  “Just keep calm,” I told myself as I sifted through the satchel. There weren’t any entrapment stones, only Mason jars. And that meant battering the monsters into submission first, to negate the need for the stones. “You can do this. Remember what’s at stake. You can do this.”

  Putting the satchel over my head, I dropped down from the edge of the plinth and headed for the cornfield. The raiju in my dreams had been noble, beautiful creatures with sweet temperaments, but these raiju were programmed to fight.

  Heading into the stalks, I listened for the sound of rustling. But the blood pounded so loudly in my ears that I couldn’t hear anything else. Cursing under my breath, I scanned the corn. Up ahead, a few of the stalks swayed unnaturally. The wolves were literally at my not-so-literal door.

  Think! I racked my brain for any raiju knowledge that might be useful, but nothing came back.

  Just then, the wolves pounced. The first arced gracefully through the air and landed on my chest, sending me careening backward. I hit the dirt with a thud that knocked the air from my lungs, only to look up to see the blue and white face of the beast staring down at me. Up close, it had the most astonishing eyes—a swirling galaxy of color, flecked with silver. In the near distance, I heard the familiar howl that brought lightning. And that last girl had gone out smoking.

  Instinctively, my hands shot up and grasped the raiju around the neck, holding on for dear life. It flung its head left and right frantically to throw me off, but I refused to let go. I had the weight of my entire future resting on the success of this entrance exam. If I showed weakness now, I shouldn’t have bothered coming.

  A crack split the air, and the lightning bolt came down on the raiju and me like a ton of bricks. I buried my face in its throat as the bolt struck its mark, trying to make myself as small as possible. A yelp escaped the beast’s throat, and it slumped on top of me. Scrabbling for a Mason jar, I held it up to the creature and watched in absolute incredulity as it turned to black smoke and filtered slowly into the glass.

  Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! The second raiju padded over with a mournful whine, limping along with smoking fur. Raiju were conductively connected creatures, able to pass electrical currents between each other. Evidently, the blast that struck the first beast had residually hit the second. It nudged the jar with its nose, its galactic eyes searching for its fallen friend. I reached out for the creature and scratched it between the ears, the way Huntress liked. With a defeated expression, it flopped to the ground and placed its head on its forepaws. And, though I felt a teensy bit guilty about taking advantage of the sad raiju, I slid a Mason jar between said forepaws and watched it disappear inside.

  “Come on, Persie!” Genie cheered me from above. “You got this!”

  I looked up at her and smiled. Two down, eighteen to go.

  I moved forward without hurrying. The tortoise had won his damn race, and I fully intended to win mine. I planned to take Genie’s way through the course and save that vulture thing until later. Maybe even last.

  At the pond, I waited for the tikoloshe to appear. It slunk out of the trees and made for the water. I didn’t try to stop it from swallowing the pebble. Instead, I kept my cool and watched the muddy banks for footsteps. They appeared shortly after the beast turned invisible, making their way toward me. I held my nerve until the footsteps came close enough, then hurled myself at empty air and got a mouthful of mud and a bite in the shoulder for my troubles. Undeterred, I staggered back up to my feet and waited to see footprints again.

  “I’m not your afternoon snack,” I muttered. Spying him a yard away, I hauled the satchel off my shoulder and swung it in a circle as fast and hard as possible. To my surprise, I felt it connect with something solid, and then I heard a loud splash. The tikoloshe coughed up the pebble and began to flounder in the water, apparently unable to swim. Driven by the thrill of my success, I waded into the pond and whacked the hairy bastard again. It ceased thrashing and sank under the surface, blending in with the fibrous algae that floated on top. Another pang of guilt clutched my heart, but I pushed it aside for the sake of the exam. Plunging my hand through the water, I lifted the beast and held a Mason jar up to its hunched body. I almost screamed with joy as it flowed into the jar.

  “Go Persie!” Genie yowled, clapping so loud it nearly made up for everyone else’s dubious silence.

  My confidence and my adrenaline levels surged as I put my third creature into the satchel and pressed on to the griffin. It meant climbing over that vulture cave, and I had the climbing
skills of an eel. I looked up and saw the cadets snickering.

  You won’t be laughing when I pass and you fail. I let that anger spur me on across the crumbling cave, ignoring the scrapes and cuts from the rocks as I made my way over the top. They didn’t laugh so loud when I slid down the other side and strode toward the griffin forest.

  The half-screech, half-roar cut right through me, making my head pound even harder. My vision blurred as the huge beast crunched out of the undergrowth, spreading its wings wide and unleashing another deafening bellow. I blinked rapidly to try and clear it, but it did no good. The fever scorched across my forehead and up the back of my neck, my throat swelling up again. My insides churned with a fresh vengeance, and the acid of inbound bile surged up my already-raw throat.

  Not a Purge. Not yet! I tried to make it listen, but I’d gotten it wrong… I wasn’t in control of this.

  I tumbled forward onto the grass at the same moment the griffin made a charge for me. I felt it coming, but it was as though I were watching the scene unfold from somewhere else completely. The griffin rose up on its hind legs and clawed its talons through the air in warning, letting out another unholy shriek. But I couldn’t get up.

  “Persie!” I felt a rush of Air nearby, but I couldn’t see anything except vague shapes of foggy nothingness. The griffin screeched again as it made for us. Arms encircled me and a rush of Air careened outward, hitting the griffin and forcing it back. “Persie, are you okay? Is it happening again?” Genie’s voice filled my head, but she felt so far away.

  The siren blared to bring the obstacle course to an end and another voice screamed through my skull.

  “Miss Vertis, it is against the rules to intervene.” It was Victoria, sounding as though she was at arena-level, but I couldn’t see her. And she did not sound happy. “If your friend was going to fail, you should have let her fail. You have taken her opportunity from her.”

  “And let that griffin attack her, while she’s clearly not well?” Genie shot back.