Harley Merlin 19: Persie Merlin and the Door to Nowhere

by Bella Forrest

  Turning slowly, I gasped at the sight of him. His eyes had glazed over, his mouth moving in a frightened whisper. “What if I can’t make a difference?” he said. “What if I can’t defy the order of things? What if I’m not doing enough to prevent future harm?”

  No… The Wisps flanking Fergus must’ve launched a sneak attack at Nathan when I wasn’t looking.

  I grabbed Nathan by the shoulders and shook him hard, just as the defensive shield failed with a frazzled crackle of magical sparks—in his hypnotized state, he couldn’t hold it anymore. “Nathan, don’t listen to the Wisps! You have to ignore the music. Please!” I shook him so hard my own teeth chattered, but I refused to give in.

  Fergus smirked in my periphery, giving a small nod of approval to the guardian Wisps. With his focus distracted for a second, it gave me the chance to palm the specterglass in Nathan’s hand and slip it into my own pocket before Fergus noticed. I had to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what this Wisp trance did to people. And I prayed that when I looked through that lens, it wouldn’t show me they were all dead. My heart wouldn’t be able to take it.

  “Why are you doing this?!” I screamed. “Give them back. Give them all back, or so help me, I’ll rain monsters down on your little paradise until you can be certain it’s hell.”

  I had enough panic coursing through my veins to make good on that promise, though I was surprised at the ferocity in my voice. It didn’t sound like me talking. It sounded more like… No, I wasn’t like him. I wasn’t anything like him. I would not fall prey to Leviathan’s will. This was about Genie and Nathan, and all the people Fergus had taken. Nothing more.

  Fergus laughed coldly. “Aye, o’ course ye will. And I’m Queen Mab.” He whispered something, and the Wisps came spinning back. For someone who obviously loathed these beings, he seemed to rely a whole lot on their obedience. “Ye’ll be a lot happier when ye stop fightin’ it, lass. I suggest ye give in.”

  Not a chance. I didn’t have useful abilities, but if the Wisps attacked, I’d do what I could to punch and swipe them back. Plus, I supposed I had my not-so secret weapon: the creatures I’d created. As if sensing my need for help, they rallied to my aid. The pixies might’ve been decimated, their number halved, but the remaining horde left their dead and hurled themselves into the air, coming to my defense. The Wisps wanted to take me, but I’d stopped hearing their music. The voices had to be singing somewhere, or Nathan wouldn’t have fallen under their spell, but I was deaf to them. And I had no idea why. Was it Leviathan, somehow protecting me from afar? Or the pixies? Or had the Wisps’ song just stopped working on me?

  As the Wisps made their charge, the pixies formed a protective circle around me, their pulsating lights on full blast. They joined hands, forming a chain. A moment later, they lit up like a Christmas tree, chanting in their pixie tongue. Fizzing threads of dazzling purple light shot down their arms and into their neighbors’, connecting them as one entity, with me in the center of their defensive ring. Their voices grew louder until an almighty explosion of violet-tinged energy surged from them in a juddering pulse, pushing the Wisps back. Nathan toppled like a domino, too, though it didn’t seem to affect him. He kept right on repeating his mantra, curled on his side with that blank look in his eyes.

  They’ve adapted. There might’ve been fewer pixies, but their strength didn’t necessarily appear to depend on their number. Their survival instincts had kicked in, and they were stepping up their game to avoid a second round of decimation. It seemed they were willing to throw everything they had at these Wisps… and all to protect me. Why? Was there so much power in being their creator? I didn’t know. But I did know that if we made it out of here alive, I would give the pixies what they deserved for this—their freedom.

  “You asked a Child of Chaos to build this realm for you, to trap the Wisps. You obviously hate them, yet you use them to round up people for you,” I ranted, trying to buy the pixies some time. Fergus clearly controlled the Wisps, and if I could keep him talking, perhaps he’d call them off. “You can’t possibly believe this is the best place for anyone. Even you don’t want to be here—I can see it in your face. I want to know why you’re doing this.”

  He paused, and so did the Wisps. “Ain’t it obvious?”

  “If it were, would I be asking?” I retorted. So far, the plan to keep him talking was working.

  “Color me surprised, since ye seem to know so much already.” Sarcasm dripped from his tongue. “Aye, I did ask a Child o’ Chaos for this world. I called te Gaia, and she answered. I did it for love, and I’d do it again, a thousand times over.”

  I frowned in confusion. “Love?”

  “I asked her for the power te make this world—many centuries ago, now. I lose count—for me and me beloved, Lorelei. For years, I been waitin’ for me love te come back. I lost her ‘cause o’ these Wisps, and I asked Gaia te punish ‘em for it. She agreed, and now they’re paying the price. They answer to me now. I get ‘em to take people from around the gateway in the hopes that they’ll bring me Lorelei too, someday.” He sighed, showing a flicker of emotion for the first time. “Life, death, and everythin’ in between ain’t worth a damn thing without her.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.” I kept my hand closed around the specterglass, waiting for the right moment. “Why would taking living people bring your love here? If you built this place a very long time ago, then she must be dead, too. If you loved her at all, you should wish she’s in the afterlife, safe and sound. You should pack this whole thing up and join her there. Pass on to the next world, and free everyone else.”

  Fergus’s expression hardened into pure rage. “She’s lookin’ for me! She’ll follow me trail here, one o’ these days!” He waved his riding crop as though it were some kind of magical wand and began to cry out. “Bain an t-anam seo. Tóg gach duine nach leis an saol seo. Níl fáilte rompu anseo. Déan iad a dhíbirt ón saol seo. Níl mé ag iarraidh iad anseo.”

  Before I knew what was happening, my body lifted into the air. The pixies floated up with me, all of them flailing, battling the unexpected Telekinesis. But Nathan remained on the ground, having joined the zombie ranks in a way I hadn’t. I guessed that meant he could stay.

  Lightning fast, since I had no idea how much time I had left, I whipped the specterglass out of my pocket and lifted the lens to my eye. The image that came back made the breath rush out of my lungs. A hazy collection of white and red mist swirled into the human shape of Fergus, revealing his dead spirit. And where the gaseous orbs of the Wisps floated, another shape hovered beside each one. Human shapes. Arms outstretched, holding the death candles. These were the spirits that had been enlisted to guide people to safety in the afterlife—a task they’d spat on for their own hijinks, like Boudicca had told me. However, as I scanned the lens over the rest of the crowd, my heart lifted slightly. Those in modern dress, including Genie and Nathan, didn’t have any mist at all, which I hoped meant they were still alive—they weren’t touched by specter dust, or haze, or whatever this misty stuff was. They’re not dead. We’re not too late. But I couldn’t say the same for the people in period clothing, from bygone eras. It was centuries too late for them.

  I realized I might’ve spoken too soon. As Fergus flung the pixies and me across his pocket of paradise, the gateway roared open, and we sailed through it.

  He was banning us from his personal heaven—maybe for good.

  Thirty-One

  Persie

  The gateway spat us out into the bottom of the sphere, right back at square one. The twenty-strong band of pixies wheeled around and flew back at the now-closed Door to Nowhere, making rude gestures and hurling insults. I admired their spunk, but we had no time to waste on a gateway that would no longer open for us. It wasn’t as though it had a handle I could push, and the pooling light had disappeared back into vacant darkness. We were in a race against the clock, before that specterglass showed something I didn’t want to see—Genie, Nathan, and the other Institut
e abductees swirling in a death mist. I had no idea how long someone could exist in Fergus’s world without losing their hold on the living world. Decades, years, days, weeks, hours? I couldn’t risk delaying, either way.

  But how do I get them out of there?

  I stared at the thin, glowing outline of the doorway. It wasn’t like I could borrow some C4 and blow it open. Leviathan’s words came back to bug me—I had to be careful. But there was more to it than that. I had to be cautious, not just in the realm, but outside of it. After all, what would happen to the people that were taken decades and even centuries ago, once they set foot outside of the eerie paradise? The dead pixies hadn’t morphed back into Chaos mist to be returned from whence they came, but I would’ve bet good money that they would as soon as they were out of there. And that probably went for the other lost souls. If Fergus’s physical body had rotted away in that place, leaving him as a spirit, it wasn’t a huge stretch to think that the same might’ve happened to the older residents. They wouldn’t last out here in the real world, because they didn’t belong here anymore.

  Does that mean I’d be killing them, in a way? I shivered uneasily, having a crisis of conscience. That kind of purgatory wasn’t living, but it wasn’t dying, either. And I’d be taking the choice away from the people who would likely die the moment they set foot outside. Or, perhaps, like Nathan had suggested, I couldn’t defy the order of things. Maybe it was their time to pass on, and Fergus’s realm was holding them back from that. It felt impossible to know which was the right way, but I had to save my friends. That part was clear. Plus, I had the added guilt of knowing that pixies had died for me, in there. The creatures I’d given life to couldn’t pass on and return to Chaos, and I didn’t want them stuck like that. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure what happened to a Purge beast if it couldn’t return to the Chaos stream after death.

  “Did you think you could hide from me? Did you think I wouldn’t find you?” A familiar voice cut through the silence, followed by the comedic squeak of someone sliding down the pole from above. A shadow descended, and I staggered back.

  I clenched my jaw. “Not now, Charlotte. I’m busy.”

  “Busy causing problems.” She hopped down onto the ground and raised her palms. “And I’m here to take you in.”

  I ducked a lasso of Telekinesis while the pixies regrouped around me. “Then why are you here on your own? I thought you’d have gone straight to Victoria!” It seemed odd that she hadn’t brought a hunter entourage with her, so I decided to try and call her bluff. Maybe she wanted to take me to Victoria to get the glory, or maybe it was payback for toppling her in bear form.

  “This is my family’s Institute. I let you get away, so I have to clean up my mess.” She lashed out with another lasso, and I kicked my leg out to avoid it slithering around my ankle. “Victoria has enough on her plate. After all you’ve said to me about fixing your own problems, I know you’ll understand why I have to do this.”

  “Then, for Chaos’s sake, would you listen for one freaking second! Our goal is the same!” I shouted. Boudicca led a quartet of badass she-pixies in a bombardment, all four of them slicing through the air, legs extended, preparing for their trademark dropkick.

  Charlotte yelped in surprise when the pixies made contact. “I knew you were involved! I knew it!” She threw out two lassoes in an attempt to wrangle the pixies, but they were too fast. Boudicca managed to land a dropkick to her cheek, and two other she-pixies snatched up her hair and wound it around her eyes, blocking her vision. “Why are you doing this, Persie? Why are you getting these monsters to kidnap people?” she spluttered, trying to clear her hair out of her eyes.

  “I’m not!” I resisted an eye roll. “They’re on our side. That’s what I’m trying to tell you, but you need to quiet the heck down so I can explain!”

  My tone threw me—I rarely got this riled, and never with people I didn’t know—but I was thin on patience these days. Fergus had already pissed me off, and now Charlotte was intent on getting on my bad side. If I showed weakness, she’d eat me alive, and I couldn’t risk getting marched down to Victoria’s office. No one would pay attention to the truth there, either.

  Boudicca chattered something back at the remaining pixies and they swarmed around me, forming another defensive circle to protect me against Charlotte’s Telekinesis. This time, however, it looked like they’d adapted yet again. They gripped hands and dove toward the floor, bright violet light sparking between them. An ancient chant rose up from them, and they rose with it, spinning faster and faster in their circle until a translucent veil of purplish Chaos rippled around me. These incredible little critters had built me a shield, to keep me safe from Charlotte.

  “You’re lying.” Charlotte ducked and pulled her knotted hair away from her eyes, batting away the pixies who weren’t forming the shield. They’d split into a defense group and an attack group. “You just want to protect your Purges. You’re as bad as Nathan; just another monster lover.”

  As Boudicca and her warriors retreated inside my shield, Charlotte got to her feet. Her eyes widened in shock as she took in the pixies’ protective shield.

  “What… are they doing?” she said.

  “They’re defending me against you, because you attacked me. They aren’t nasty creatures. They’re kind, and they’re loyal, and they don’t deserve your hatred. It’s not about loving monsters, it’s about respecting them.” I huffed out a sigh. “And they’re trying to help. See, they know if I can’t get you to hear me out, then the people who were taken won’t be coming back again. And that will be on you.”

  “They’re protecting you?” She looked as though she’d just found out the Earth was round. Evidently, this scenario didn’t fit with her preconceived notions of what a monster should and shouldn’t be.

  I had to wonder just what kind of Monster History was being taught in this place. Hadn’t they heard about the Battle for Elysium, where countless monsters had given their lives to save the world? Sure, Tobe had coaxed them into it, but they’d fought side by side with magicals. The same went for Murray and the gargoyles, when my uncle went to take down Davin Doncaster. By Finch’s count, Murray had chewed Davin up at least twice—all to help my family and their friends.

  I glanced at Boudicca and she flashed me an encouraging grin, though it didn’t quite reach her big eyes. After losing her people, I guessed it would take a while before her smiles were whole-hearted again. “The pixies didn’t kidnap anyone. They’ve been helping me track down the real culprit, who just so happens to be behind that door.” I gestured to the faint outline. “Do you remember those strange orbs we saw during orientation?”

  Charlotte frowned and nodded slowly. “Yes. A prank or something.”

  “Not a prank. They’re Will-o’-the-Wisps, and they’re the ones doing this. They hypnotize people and guide them through that gateway, and then those people don’t come back. I’ve just been through, but the guy who’s running the show kicked me out because I didn’t fall under the spell.” I rattled off the words as fast as possible, not knowing how long I’d have her attention. I elaborated on what I’d seen in that mysterious realm, and told her everything I could about the Wisps, the Door to Nowhere, and Fergus freaking McLeod, until I ran out of breath.

  “And now, I can’t get back in to save everyone,” I finished. “But if you take me to Victoria, you can kiss your friends goodbye, because she’s not going to believe a word of this and they’re going to stay lost and zombified in there. It doesn’t fit with her story, but it’s the truth. I swear on Genie’s life.”

  For the longest time, Charlotte didn’t say a word. She lowered her hands to her sides and paced, thinking. I hoped that was a good sign, but I’d seen how quickly Charlotte could turn—literally and figuratively. If she went into bear-mode, or worse, I didn’t know how the pixies would fare.

  Abruptly, she turned to me. “I read about Will-o’-the-Wisps once, but they haven’t been seen in decades. Looks like extinct creatures
are popping up all over the place, thanks to you.” Was that... jealousy? Maybe? Her expression softened a touch. “Lucky for you, I’m inclined to believe you, since I know you don’t have the ability to create Wisps. Only someone with Necromancy skills could do that.”

  I nodded, hardly able to believe that she was listening. I knew who the Necromancers were, but she didn’t need to know that. The pixies did it, but they had their Necromancy stripped by a Child of Chaos after the Wisps went rogue. Still, that didn’t mean they were responsible for this. That much, I could say. “After the Wisps were sucked through the gateway, their actions were solely under Fergus’s control.”

  “It could’ve been me.” She turned her gaze downward, her body language stiffening with guilt. “I heard that music you spoke about—only for a couple of seconds, when I was drifting off to sleep last night, but still. I thought I imagined it.”

  I gave Boudicca a knowing look, and she instructed her pixies to lower the shield wall. “You were probably too far gone, sleep-wise, for the Wisps to influence you. They need you to see the lights and hear the music fully, or the hypnosis doesn’t work.”

  Charlotte was feeling guilty. Her best friend had been abducted, and she hadn’t. I knew exactly how she felt, like we’d narrowly avoided a mine while our closest confidantes had stepped right onto it. It hurt to know that they might’ve been able to avoid it, if only we’d understood sooner.

  “How do we fix it?” Charlotte’s head snapped up, determination replacing her guilty expression.

  “We have to work together. And fast, or the Wisps will keep taking people and nobody will be able to stop them. Now that the gateway is open, they’ll carry on until we can shut the Door for good, or until it gets buried under a pile of rubble and earth again. Saying that, we can’t let it close until we’ve got everyone out. So, you see the predicament we’re in.” I opened my mouth to say more, but at that moment the Door blasted open and the Wisps spun out in a frenzy, making a beeline for Charlotte.