Naomi took a lengthy sip of her tea, leaving Genie and me on tenterhooks. “You make an excellent argument, but…”
My heart sank. It was going to be another no, and I really didn’t want to have to steal the boxes. Nor did I want to rely on the handful of Mason jars I had in my backpack. They wouldn’t be close to enough, but with a decent number of puzzle boxes and the jars—then we’d be in business.
“But?” Genie urged.
Naomi sighed. “I can offer you five boxes. That’s all I can spare.”
“Seriously?!” I yelped with excitement.
“Yes, but I have provisos.” She waggled a stern finger at us. “They are to be brought back as soon as you’re done with them, and all captured pixies are to go to the Repository every single time. No keeping them as pet projects, tempting as that might sound. The Institute is already on edge about this fiasco, and they will be until Xanthippe is returned. Don’t make me regret this, do you understand?”
I grinned at Genie. “We won’t let you down, Ms. Hiraku. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“Why do I already feel like I’m making a huge mistake?” Naomi griped, but she didn’t rescind her offer, and that was all that mattered. After a relentless day and night, things were finally starting to go my way.
Fourteen
Persie
Puzzle boxes and Mason jars safely stowed in my backpack, Genie and I set off on our two-woman mission through the Institute. Keeping things nonchalant, of course, so as not to attract any unwanted attention. We paused beside display cases and pretended to read the notes, all the while eyeing our surroundings for any whisper of a pixie. Black-suited hunters swarmed the main corridors and common areas, encouraging us to stick to the paths less traveled. The pixies wouldn’t be foolish enough to come out where their would-be captors were congregating, which made me wonder why they were being so obvious. Perhaps the hunters had some sort of flushing operation to siphon the creatures into one spot.
Anyway, their plan of action didn’t concern me too much. We just had to stay out of their way and keep our heads down. Not literally, though, or we wouldn’t be able to scan for the mischief-makers.
“Anything?” Genie whispered, as we walked down a narrow corridor that housed a bunch of study doors. They had bronze plaques outside, bearing names I didn’t recognize: Scheherazade Rouhani, Advanced Tactical Practice; Damian Greatorex, Covert Operations; Kofi Smithson, External Affairs. I guessed they weren’t people we needed to know in our first year. There were so many people in this place, from students to teachers to graduated hunters to visiting hunters to general administration, that I doubted anyone knew everyone’s name.
I shook my head. “Not even a wing flutter.”
“They can’t, like, go invisible, can they?” Genie stopped for a swig of water.
I shrugged reluctantly. “I don’t think so.”
“I love you dearly, Pers, but why did you have to Purge something that’s been extinct for ages? Couldn’t you have gone for a critter that at least has a crystal-clear entry in monster history?” She pretended to flip open a book and run a finger down the imaginary page. “Bullet-point one: this creature can’t disappear at will. Bullet-point two: leave out a cookie and it’ll come running. That’d be sweet right now.”
“I don’t get a lot of choice in what I Purge.” I took the water flask she offered and gulped down a mouthful. This secret-agent stuff made a girl sweat. No wonder my mom always came back from her missions looking disheveled. “Hey, maybe when I get better at this Purging stuff, I’ll be able to decide what I create.”
Genie laughed. “Promise you’ll make them small and singular?”
I crossed my heart.
“Come on.” Genie made to continue up the corridor. “Let’s check the orchard, see if we can notice any signs of a pixie shindig.”
Twenty minutes later, we had fresh air on our faces. It made for a nice change from being stuck indoors. There didn’t appear to be any black-suits out here, either. It gave me hope that we were on the right track.
“I should’ve worn an extra sweater,” Genie grumbled as we ambled through the trees. The spitting rain pattered at the leaves, and misty rays of dulled sunlight sliced through the canopy, dappling the ground below. The weather might’ve been grim, but the rain and soft light soothed my raw nerves. The earth was covered in a mass of foliage in various stages of decay: fresh green leaves on top of their dry, russet-toned forefathers, with the browned mulch of older dead carpeting the ground beneath. Tufts of grass pushed through, creating a pretty patchwork of color.
Admiring the scenery, I almost forgot why we were really there. In fact, I was so engrossed in the shade and light that I didn’t see the figure stalking toward us until she was beside us.
“Shouldn’t you be in your rooms, staying out of the way?” Charlotte shoved her hands aggressively into the pockets of her jacket. Her hazel eyes fixed me with a stony glare. “Hunters are sweeping the place, and I don’t want anyone holding them up.”
I rubbed my arms to chase out the cold. “There weren’t any hunters out here, so we figured it’d be okay.” I understood her frostiness more than she knew. If Genie were missing, I’d be hostile to anyone who I thought was remotely responsible.
“Well, it’s not okay.” Her voice hitched for a split second, exposing some serious subtext. She was torn up about this, and who wouldn’t be? She wanted her friend back, even if her friend did happen to be a bigoted snob. After all, friends were the
