“How come Marius and Azar know all about it, then?” I might’ve been coming across a little petty, but the point stood. Last I’d checked, Marius and Azar weren’t part of my parents’ Secret Agent Squad. Actually, last I’d checked, they were in freaking Mexico. They were the same age as me, and they weren’t carrying around a big “Merlin” target on their backs. Surely I deserved to be in the loop—or was that forbidden, now that O’Halloran had decided I was a menace to polite society?
My mom sighed, and I saw the depth of the fatigue she’d been hiding. “They’ve been assigned to the SDC’s agent training program. They both showed an interest in wanting to make careers out of it, so they signed the NDAs and all the forms and they were brought on board.”
“In a week?” I might’ve snorted.
“It was already in the works before you went away, Persie,” my mom explained. “They were given their first tasks when they got back from Mexico two days ago.”
My dad offered me an apologetic look. “However, if our investigation goes anywhere near Galway or the Institute, we’ll let you know what’s going on.”
Yeah, because that’ll happen. My dad was just paying lip service to stop me from trying to pry more information out of them. Still, I knew a hopeless cause when I saw one. Without an NDA, or my dad bursting into the room again without spotting me on video call, I wouldn’t find out anything else. And the sudden spike of annoyance and jealousy made my stomach churn in a deeply unsettling, painfully familiar way—a Purge was coming. The shivers would be next, then the chest pains, and then the need to expel.
“I get it.” I drew shaky fingertips across my lips. “Ask you no questions, you’ll tell me no lies, right?”
My dad gave a reluctant nod. “It’s just red tape, Persie. You know we’d tell you if we could.”
Best not to open that can of worms… A comeback tingled on the tip of my tongue, but I let it stay there. Leviathan’s gift had already been given, so there seemed little point in dragging up old quarrels and old lies for the sake of landing a jab. Especially with the nausea rising and the shakes settling in.
“Kes has been asking about you.” Mom switched back to fluffy small talk. “He’s insanely jealous of you and Genie. Tobe had to carry him out of the Bestiary at least six times this week. He’s been trying to spring some beasties loose so he could start up his own monster hunting program. Last I heard, Tobe went to ask O’Halloran if he could put a magical bell around Kes’s neck, so he’ll know where Kes is at all times. Finch keeps joking that it’s Victoria Jules’s fault for mesmerizing him, but I think he’s keen on the bell idea.”
“Really? That’s… uh… very Kes.” I wrapped my arms around my stomach, the nausea still bubbling up. Sweat began to bead on my forehead, while the telltale prickles began to scuttle up the back of my neck like ants. “Maybe Tobe could… teach him?”
My dad chuckled. “He’s too young. In three years, maybe, but not yet. The potential backlash, if anything went wrong, would be enough to put anyone off.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess… I hadn’t thought of… um… that.” I jiggled my legs, fighting back the swell of the sickness. “Look, this is awkward, but I’m going to have to say goodbye and nip off to the bathroom. We had tacos for dinner, and I think I ate a bad one.”
“Bad tacos? Are you sure it’s—”
I cut my mom off. “Okay, I’m going to sign off before I need to… uh… trash these pants. Bye! Love you, bye!”
The last thing I needed them to see was me Purging up whatever happened to be coming. If they saw, they’d come crashing through the mirrors before it was even over. I ended the call before they could respond and flopped off the chair onto all fours.
Oh no, oh no, oh no… Pain splintered from my stomach up into my chest, forming a heavy ball of agonizing weight that threatened to crush any organs in the way. Blinding bolts of white-hot lightning ricocheted away from the lump in my chest and sizzled down my arms and legs until my fingers went into frantic spasms. Hugging my knees, I rocked back and forth while sharp stabs pinballed between my temples. Black spots danced in my field of vision—the evil twins of the floaty orbs from the hallway.
“I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.” I repeated the mantra in a panicked whisper as more symptoms crept over me. I hated Leviathan so much, I wanted to snap off his stupid glowing hypno-thing and shove it down his throat.
My heart hammered hummingbird fast. Sweat drenched my white T-shirt and my sweatpants, darkening the gray fabric until it was closer to black. And then the punches came, socking my stomach, my chest, my legs, my back, my arms, my throat, until everything hurt. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this particular Purge would be a sizeable beast. And I wished I had the strength to push it back down into the ether, but that wasn’t part of the game Leviathan had forced me to play.
Wrenching pulses launched my body into convulsions. I raked my fingernails across the stone floor in an attempt to stay connected with something solid, until the floor scraped my skin rusty-red. This didn’t feel like any Purge I’d had before. In my chest, I felt that heavy ball moving upward. When it reached my throat, my eyes bulged. I wasn’t aware of much beyond my own pain, but I could’ve sworn I heard the bones in my throat creak and strain to make way for the foreign object.
Finally, with one exhausted retch, a
