And there she was. Genie, sitting in the silver grass, rocking slowly back and forth with her knees tucked under her chin, her eyes staring into the water. She looked so small and vulnerable that I had to do a doubletake, confirming that it was, indeed, my best friend. Seeing her like that was all the reason I needed to take off at a full sprint, skidding to a halt only when I reached the water’s edge. The pixies stopped messing around with the fruit and flew after me, careful not to let me out of their sight. I sensed their defensive streak kicking in.
“Do you think it’s safe to cross? What if it’s acid, or something?” I turned back to Nathan as he caught up.
He eyed the river for a moment, breathing hard, before shaking his head. “It can’t be. Look, Genie’s jeans are still wet. She must’ve waded across.”
“I really hope you’re right.” I swallowed hard. “Don’t suppose you’ve got any Water abilities you could use, or a spell to carry us over?”
He hesitated. “I could try to build a land bridge.” Lifting his palms, green sparks erupted and sputtered out almost immediately. “How odd…”
“Is something wrong?”
He stared at his hands like they were broken tools. “My Chaos doesn’t seem to be working. Let me try something else—it won’t help us cross, but I’d feel better knowing we weren’t entirely vulnerable here.” His mouth moved and a fizzing shield of light slid up his arm and over his body. A moment later, he dispensed with it.
“What’s the consensus?” I asked nervously.
“Hexes and spells appear to work, but my Elemental abilities won’t. It’s very strange, for this interdimensional bubble to be so specifically preventative.” He put his hands down. “It seems we will have to proceed without magical assistance.”
I managed a quiet laugh. “Nothing new there.”
Stepping into this world, I thought, was the bravest thing I’d ever done, and clambering down into unknown purple liquid was probably the second bravest—or second dumbest, depending on your perspective. I’d never done anything like this before. I could be quietly courageous at times, but transforming that into ballsy action had never really been my forte. Genie had always carried that flag. And now it was my turn to take it up.
I slipped into the water and waited for my skin to start sloughing away, or for tiny aquatic creatures to devour me. At the very least, I’d expected it to be cold, but it proved to be neither cold nor dangerous. Satisfied that I wouldn’t dissolve, I pushed through the river with Nathan beside me, careful not to lose my footing and get swept away. Meanwhile, the pixies skated across the surface, cutting only faint lines through the water, like they were ice dancers. The current pulled slightly on my legs as I reached the center of the river, but my boots kept me rooted to the smooth, silty bed. Puffs of glitter rose in the silt, disturbed by my footfalls. Beautiful but unsettling, like everything else in this peculiar world.
Reaching the opposite side, I dug my fingernails into the dirt and heaved my body onto the bank. The pixies attempted to help, pulling on my hands and my wet shirt, but they didn’t have the strength. They could never have carried a person away, Victoria, I thought to myself once more. Nathan jumped out with surprising agility and immediately helped me to my feet. Only when I’d grasped his arm to use as leverage did I see that the dirt beneath my fingertips wasn’t the usual mucky brown. No, this dirt was blood-red—the same shade as the trees. I hastily wiped it away on my dark jeans. Maybe I didn’t want to know.
“Genie!” I ran the rest of the way and knelt in front of her. “Genie? It’s me, Persie.” I grasped her face in my hands, trying to tilt her head back, but it was like her neck was made of solid steel. I couldn’t get her to move an inch, let alone make her look at me. Her eyes carried that same glazed sheen as the others. I couldn’t deny the truth sitting right in front of me—Genie had fallen under the same trance as everyone else.
“My father would hate to find out he was right, so I won’t tell him,” she whispered. “I don’t want to go back to Atlantis—I want to be free to do whatever I want and go wherever I want, and love whoever I want. I don’t want an arranged marriage with a puffed-up Atlantean who’s never seen the outside world.”
Nathan leaned in, his eyes glinting. “What did she say? Is she… getting married?”
“Not if she can help it,” I replied, my heart breaking for Genie. She would’ve hated this, to be frozen and trapped in her own mind.
Nathan ruffled his hair, clearly irritated by this particular topic and torn between wanting to know more and wanting to stay focused on the situation at hand—de-hypnotizing Genie. “Is… is her father intending to marry her off?”
I sank back into a sitting position. “He’s talked about it, and she’s refused. But it’s a huge custom in Atlantis, apparently, even for Atlanteans who’ve integrated. They’re expected to marry one of their own kind for the sake of maintaining Primus Anglicus bloodlines, but she’s never going to go willingly.” My shoulders sagged. “That is, if we can even get her out of here.”
“I’m pleased to hear that,” he mumbled. “I’ve never liked the idea of arranged marriages, especially not for the sake of something as foolish as bloodlines. People should be allowed to love whomever they please.” He turned his face away from me, his body hunched as though he wanted to shield his emotions from me. “And we will rescue her from this place, I assure you. There’s a way. This can’t have all been for nothing.”
I reached for Genie’s hand and tried to hold it, but I couldn’t loosen a single finger of her iron grip. All the while, she repeated the same ideas in an endless cycle. Coming through the Door had only raised more questions. Why was she stuck thinking these particular things? Why was she stuck at all? Were the Wisps doing this? I couldn’t see how it benefitted them, unless this was somehow a vengeful ploy to get back at the person who’d trapped them here. But Fergus McLeod had to be long dead by now. Unless he was stuck here, too, repeating his fears on a loop like Genie and the others.
“Genie?” I begged. “Genie, you have to snap out of this. I know you’re still in there, and you have to be able to hear this, so just… come back to me, Genie. Please, just fight whatever is doing this to you!” I tried to shake her, but she remained stubbornly fixed to the same spot. Even Boudicca had a go, flashing her pulsating lights in Genie’s eyes to try and break her out of the trance. But nothing worked.
Then, the bone-white leaves overhead began to rustle loudly. That wouldn’t have been strange, except… there wasn’t any breeze to speak of. My head lifted, and I watched the leaves shake against some unknown, unfelt wind. And when I lowered my gaze back to Genie, I got the fright of my life. Her gray eyes were looking right at me, her expression blank and eerie.
“Uh… Persie.” Nathan glanced over his shoulder, the color draining from his face. “I think we have a problem.”
I followed his line of sight and my heart plummeted. “Yeah, that’s not good.”
Across the riverbank, the formerly hypnotized abductees were trudging slowly in our direction. A young woman in modern clothes reached the embankment and stepped right into the water without a moment’s hesitation. My head whipped back around to find more abductees approaching in a zombie-like horde from our side of the river, all headed for Nathan and me.
“Genie, please, you have to—”
My words were cut short as she lunged for me. I managed to stagger backward just in time to avoid her clawing hands, but it wouldn’t stop her for long. Everywhere I looked, abductees marched toward us, blocking off every exit. I thought about diving into the river and letting it sweep us all the way to the ends of the pocket, but who was to say there wouldn’t be more waiting for us there?
Crap, crap, crap! I weighed my options, wondering if I could somehow coax out a Purge if I panicked hard enough. That would be a last resort, considering I had no control over what emerged. Still, I could keep it in mind, if things really got desperate. The pixie Purge had turned out all right, after a
ll.
As Genie lunged for me again, the pixies propelled themselves into defense mode. Boudicca led a battalion of six against my best friend, whizzing around her head and pulling her hair—but Genie’s focus was unbreakable. All around me, the rest of the pixies set to work, trying to push back the encroaching zombie horde. They flashed their gaudy lights and scratched, scraped, punched, kicked, and clawed at the clueless enemy, but nothing they did made a difference. The zombies marched on, apathetic to the attack.
“Persie, quick!” Nathan grasped me by the elbow and dragged me closer to the tree trunk, away from Genie’s intent hands. With a rough shove, he pushed me into a crouching position and joined me there. His palms went up, and scarlet sparks juddered out of his hands, spinning around us in a vortex as his mouth moved in a silent spell. The vortex gathered into a revolving ball of dark red, rippling with threads of silver and gold. He clamped his hands into fists and the ball responded, shooting out a shimmering dome of magical protection that slid around us and slammed into the ground with a hiss, singeing the grass where it hit.
I eyed the dome suspiciously. Through the reddish sheen, I could still see everything beyond, and the zombies were getting closer by the moment. “Another spell from the Grimoire? Tell me it’s strong enough to keep these people from strangling us.”
He panted. “It’s a very strong one, which is why I don’t use it too often. Not that I usually have a reason to.” He tipped from a crouch to rest on his knees. “As you can see, it takes a lot out of me.”
“If Genie could snap out of this trance, she’s got a billion tricks like this up her sleeve.” I saw Genie looking blankly at our hiding place. Evidently, we weren’t quite invisible, as she began to approach our shelter. Before long, she was right outside the protective bubble, bumping against it and swiping at the shield to try and break through. The thud of each impact bounced the bubble around as though we were crouched inside a balloon, but it appeared to be holding.
The pixies! I suddenly remembered the rest of our party and scanned the Wisp realm for them. Fired up, they were still in a one-sided battle with the zombies, divebombing the listless abductees. A large group of pixies had managed to bring one of the zombies to a halt by heaving backward on the young woman’s arms, legs, and hair, but she still made the motions as if she were moving forward.
I was about to turn back to Genie when I noticed the Wisps swarming—by the hundreds—and they were looking for a fight. Splitting in every direction, they launched their assault on the pixies. And my poor Purge beasts didn’t see it coming.
Now on their home turf, the Wisps were strengthened in violence and fury. They outnumbered my creatures considerably, surrounding the pixies and powering up their central flames, building to that scorching heat that had stung my skin in the sphere. Then I heard the most heart-wrenching sound… the scream of a dying pixie. I searched desperately for the creature who’d made the sound, but there were too many Wisps, their light hiding the pixies’ torment from me.
Another scream pierced the air, brimming with untold agony. They would all die, I realized, unless I did something.
“Let me out!” I yelled at Nathan. “They’re killing them!”
Nathan dipped his chin to his chest. “I can’t, Persie. If you go out there, they’ll hurt you too.”
A third scream shivered through the bubble, chilling me to the bone. I felt his last moments as though they were my own. I’d made the pixies, and I didn’t want them to die for me. I couldn’t just sit back and let them all get burned to a crisp while trying to protect me. I might not have been the bravest person in the world, but I wasn’t a coward, either.
“Let me out of here, NOW!” I shouted.
Nathan’s eyes hardened. “I won’t do it, Persie. I’m sorry. I don’t like this any more than you do, but I can’t let you go out there.”
“Listen to them, Nathan!” I was beside myself now, my voice cracking. “They’re dying! Please, let me try. I have to try!”
“No,” he said simply.
Frantic, I hammered on the inside of the bubble, causing the magical shield to spark. For a moment, it reminded me of my nightmare again, only this felt way worse. The helplessness came from a different place, heavy with the responsibility of the pixies’ fate. “Stop! Please, stop!” I bellowed, tears streaming down my cheeks. “They haven’t done anything wrong! Please, stop! They’re only trying to protect me. They don’t deserve to die! Please, please, please!”
I pounded harder on the bubble. “Please…” I slumped back on my haunches, holding my face in my hands. They weren’t going to listen to me. Who was I kidding? I’d brought the pixies here; I’d done this to them, and now they were paying the ultimate price. I owed it to them to look, but I couldn’t. It hurt too much.
“Persie…” Nathan nudged my arm.
I shrugged him off roughly. “I know, you won’t let me out. You said already.”
“That’s not it. Look.”
I peeked through my fingers, and my jaw dropped. The zombies had frozen in their tracks, and the Wisps had buzzed away like they were innocent little fairies who hadn’t killed anyone I cared about. And, in the midst of it all, a man emerged from the crowd of zombies, striding right up to our protective bubble. He had a mane of fiery red hair that touched his shoulders, impossibly green eyes, and the outfit of some kind of soldier—a cavalryman, perhaps, judging by his battered leather riding boots and riding crop.
“You were not led to this place. What are you doing here?” he demanded in a thick Irish brogue. The words didn’t sit comfortably on his tongue, as though he wasn’t used to speaking.
Breathless, I asked a question in return. “Who the hell are you?”
His eyes narrowed, his mouth twisting in a scowl. “I’m Fergus McLeod.”
Thirty
Persie
“How?” Nathan maintained the protective bubble, muscling between me and this strange man who claimed to be Fergus McLeod. It made me wonder how secure these defenses were if he felt the need to act as a human shield.
The red-headed man turned up his nose. “What d’ye mean?”
“How can it be you? No offense, but you should be dead.” Nathan discreetly pushed me further behind him. I appreciated the heroic sentiment, but I was more concerned about scanning the area for my pixies.
My heart wrenched as I saw the tiny bodies on the ground—far more than three. I counted twenty in total, prompting bile to rise up my throat. Only three had called out in their last moments, while the rest had died in stoic silence. Was it any wonder I’d felt their anguish and fear as though it was my own? The surviving half congregated around the fallen, bowing their heads and weeping quietly. I saw Boudicca among the living, crouching to press her tiny palm to the chest of one of the dead, and I breathed a small sigh of relief. Still, the guilt lingered for the ones who hadn’t been so lucky.
Shouldn’t the dead Purge beasts be turning back to smoke? I knew that was what happened to Purge beasts when they died, but the twenty pixies on the ground didn’t seem to be transforming. Perhaps the realm we were in prevented it.
“I am dead,” Fergus shot back, as if he thought we were idiots. “Do I look alive to ye?”
I turned to him. “Actually, yes.”
“Well, I ain’t. Me corporeal body turned te dust like bodies do, but me spirit stayed on. I bartered for it to stay in here, with them what forced my hand.” Fergus glared at the Wisps in the distance, which seemed frightened of him. They darted out of sight when his gaze rested on a group, hiding wherever they could. “And this is me own personal paradise, or me own personal hell—depends on how ye look at it, I suppose.”
Does that mean…? If he’d become a spirit, what about the others? Were they already dead, too, and we just couldn’t tell? I shook away the thought, unwilling to accept it. My friend couldn’t be dead. She looked so… solid, albeit dazed. Then again, Fergus didn’t look dead, either. But he was moving around however he liked, instead of
being stuck on a loop. Perhaps that meant he was the only truly dead person here, no longer bound by the endless cycle of thoughts that held the others captive. Or maybe I just didn’t want to see the truth—that we’d arrived too late.
An idea came to me as I crept back toward the fizzing shield. “You don’t like the Wisps much, do you?” I nudged Nathan and mouthed “specterglass” at him. He nodded back discreetly and dug into his jeans pocket for the lens.
“Don’t matter whether I like ‘em or not. I’m stuck with ‘em.” Fergus ground the end of his riding crop into his palm. “And they might not have brought ye here the proper way, which don’t sit too well with me. But ye’ll be joinin’ us regardless, now yer here.”
I looked to Genie, who stood as still as a statue. “No.”
“Yer what now?” Fergus scowled at me, his emerald-green eyes glinting with annoyance. A band of Wisps came to hover on either side of him, like his own personal guard. If they were singing their hypnotic song, I couldn’t hear them.
“I said no.” I stood my ground, feeling defiance build in my chest. “Why would we want to stay here? This place isn’t real. It’s just an illusion that you asked some Child of Chaos to create a long time ago. And even you can’t decide if it’s a heaven or a hell. These people—all of these people—belong outside, in the real world. My friend belongs there, and you’ve got no right to keep anyone here.”
Fergus eyeballed me. “Ye seem te know a lot, lass. I’d ask how, but it don’t matter to me. Naught matters much in this place. That’s why it’s better for everyone.” He swept his riding crop around at the motionless zombies, while two Wisps came closer to the protective shield. “People can be at peace here, not worryin’ about who’s goin’ te bother ‘em. A happy purgatory for folks who need a bit o’ quiet.”
“Purgatory isn’t living, Fergus. Why don’t you tell us why you’re really doing this?” I nudged Nathan again, so we could use the specterglass to see who was truly dead and who wasn’t. But he wasn’t responding.
Harley Merlin 19: Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere Page 30