Stop panicking. Even Victoria doesn’t know the part about turning the world into monster paradise or him making me his queen. I served myself a swift reminder of the facts before the stress could take hold and bring on another unwanted Purge. Learning to control my emotions was my best defense against this ability. I needed to stop with the knee-jerk, paranoid reactions, before they got even more out of hand. My cousin Diana would’ve called me a “typical Pisces.” I didn’t necessarily believe in that stuff, but my emotions really did have an iron grip over me. One I’d have to loosen, if I wanted to get ahead of my curse.
Nathan smiled reassuringly. “Relax. No judgment here, remember?” He gave me a light knock in the arm. “Victoria mentioned it to me, in private, after she caught me trying to catch pixies in the Repository. She hasn’t told anyone else, but she knows about my research into ancient monsters. I think she wondered if I knew of anything that might be helpful to you.”
My panic turned into a fleeting glimmer of hope. “Do you?”
“I can only tell you what I told her: that I will look into it, and let you know if I find something worthwhile,” he replied. A few of the pixies at the back of Boudicca’s aerial squadron shoved each other for a better spot in the line-up, earning a sharp hiss from their gutsy leader. I wouldn’t have wanted to get on her bad side, either.
“Could you maybe tell me before you tell her?” I said. “Give me a grace period, to see if I can do anything with it?”
“It’s your ability, and your connection to Leviathan. It would be wrong of me to do otherwise. I swear on my integrity as an academic that I will come to you first. After all, you have more insight on this matter than anyone else.”
“Thank you,” I said, relieved.
He chuckled softly. “Might I ask a favor in return?”
“That depends…” I eyed him curiously. “If you’re going to ask me to set you up on a date with Genie after we’ve got her back safe and sound, I can’t make that sort of promise. I can put in a good word, but it’ll be up to her.”
He froze mid-step and turned to face me. “A… date?” His cheeks burned beet red. “Chaos help me, have I really been so obvious?”
I shrugged, smiling.
“She’s just… intriguing. I’ve never met anyone like her, and nor do I think I’ve ever had anyone keep me on my toes in quite the same fashion. I’m genuinely worried I might end up with some kind of repetitive-strain injury in my feet.” He smacked himself on the forehead, shaking his head at himself. “And now I’ve just gone and babbled all of that to you. That wasn’t even what I was going to ask.”
“Is it even okay for students and aides to date?” The prospect of a maybe-romance was a welcome distraction from monstrous, worst-case scenarios. I reminded myself that we’d rescue Genie, and everything would be all right again.
He swallowed audibly. “It is, but that’s really not what I was going to ask.” He looked down at the ground. “I’m just so worried for her welfare… I didn’t mean for all that to come out. Please, I’d appreciate if you forgot I said anything.”
“Forget you said what?” I gave him a conspiratorial smile to let him know I didn’t plan to breathe a word. Girl code maintained that I would have to, but he didn’t need to stress himself out over that. Besides, we didn’t even have Genie back yet.
I glanced up and realized that Boudicca had stopped and was waving her hands wildly. And probably had been for a while, judging by her annoyed expression.
“Crap. We’ll have to talk about this later, or we’ll lose the pixies.”
“Of course.”
We carried on up the corridor from the Repository toward the point where it branched off to the right. Above, Boudicca did a rude mime that made it clear she wanted to strangle the life out of me before fluttering onward.
“What’s the favor?” I asked Nathan, keeping an eye on the pixies.
Nathan looked up. “Ah, well, I was hoping you might be willing to tell me more about what Leviathan is like from a personal perspective. Anecdotes from your mother and her friends, from their experience with Echidna, would also be welcome.”
I mustered a halfhearted snort. “Would a page full of curse words do?”
“There must be hidden depths to him, even if they are—”
He came to a stop, eyes locked on Boudicca. She was waving maniacally from behind a rafter, her tiny colored dots flashing a red warning through the shadows. I frowned in confusion. Did she not want us talking to each other?
Everything became clear as Charlotte rounded the corner, carrying one of the heavy metal folders that I’d seen during my exam—the folders that connected to the wider magical world through the Krieger Detection Technology, or the KDT, as it was more commonly known. She must have been using one of those private offices that Nathan had mentioned, and we’d been too busy talking about Genie to hear the door close. Seeing us, she halted abruptly, looking from Nathan to me, then back again.
“You’re not supposed to be out here! Victoria put you on hexed lockdown!” She cast a conflicted look at Nathan. “And you… you should have stopped her. I remember what you said in the orchard, Persie, but I can’t allow this. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to hold you here and call for Victoria.” She
