They’d done their best, book-mutilation aside, but the language barrier was proving difficult to overcome. The pixies were wild, despite my unique connection with them.
Nathan huffed out a sigh. “Without going with them myself, I don’t see how we’re going to get this book.” He brushed a hand through his hair, and a throng of she-pixies swooned. Boudicca glared at them, as though she’d already staked a claim. “Although, I’m somewhat glad they didn’t bring the right one, otherwise I’d be looking at the pieces of a rare manuscript right now.”
“Then we need to come up with another game plan, and we need to do it—”
I was interrupted by a sudden, blinding pain that cut through my skull like a white-hot blade, severing the sentence before I could finish. My knees buckled and I toppled forward, unable to move a single muscle to break my fall. The pixies shrieked and swarmed, trying to catch me, and the ground rushed up to meet my face. A moment before I hit the deck, the lights went out in my world, and everything disappeared into darkness.
Twenty-Seven
Persie
I opened my eyes to nothing at all, a dull throb pinballing back and forth between my temples. My cheek rested on something hard and cold and smooth, presumably the floor where I’d fallen flat on my face at the bottom of the sphere.
Did something hit me? I struggled to recall what had happened. I remembered vague panic about the book, and then blackness. I squinted into the gloom, confused, trying to find Nathan and the pixies. They had to be nearby. They wouldn’t have just left me alone, unless… unless the Wisps had come back and taken Nathan. Still, that didn’t explain why Boudicca and the rest of the pixies would’ve left me. They’d had a chance to run away, and they hadn’t. Had I been out for hours? Days?
“Hello?” I called out. My voice echoed back strangely, as though it were bouncing off nearby walls. I hauled my body into a sitting position, frowning into the darkness. “Is anyone here?” The soundwaves spread out, creating a peculiar effect. It was as though I could see them, bouncing off invisible barriers that surrounded me on all sides. Bright ripples of bluish light suddenly shimmered across the unseen barriers, turning them into solid walls. And not just any walls.
Glass walls. I recognized them immediately.
No… I scrambled to my feet and ran for the glass, launching myself at it with my full weight. A clang echoed back, but the impact made no difference. Panic took over, sending me into a blind fury. Someone from the Institute had trapped me. I’d disobeyed Victoria, and she’d sent her minions to bash me on the head and take me out. And this was my punishment—the glass box that I’d feared since I Purged the hydra on my birthday. It wasn’t exactly the same as the glass box from my nightmare. It felt far more real, thanks to the pounding in my head, the ache in my bones, and the biting cold of the glass against my cheek. Details too concrete to be part of a dream. Plus, there were no familiar spectators standing outside the box, watching me. Beyond the pane lay nothing but endless dark.
My heart hammered harder as understanding dawned. That was why Nathan and the pixies weren’t with me. They’d been taken away, too. Maybe they were suffering a similar fate, somewhere else in the Institute. And Genie was still out there somewhere, needing my help.
“Let me out! I know who’s doing this! Please believe me! Please!” I screamed, pounding the glass until my already-tender knuckles swelled anew, reigniting old injuries. “My friend is in danger! Please, you have to let me out of here! I can’t… I can’t breathe!”
I slammed my hands, knees, arms, fists, hips, and feet into the glass in a violent cycle, until everything hurt. Even then, I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop, not until someone let me out. If I paused for even a second, the claustrophobia would take over, and there would be no coming back from that.
“Persephone?” A cold touch trailed across the back of my neck, and the shadows within the box shifted.
I whipped around, panting. “Leviathan?” Just like in the nightmare, he’d come to comfort me in my darkest hour. But I didn’t want him here. I didn’t want him anywhere near me. “Where am I? And what the hell is going on?”
He emerged from the thick, black smoke, coiling his scaly tail beneath him to prop up his humanoid torso. His glowing angler-fish appendage shone with a warm yellow light, but I’d learned my lesson about that. I turned my face to the side in case it drew me in again.
“Apologies, Persephone.” He bowed his head. “I did not mean to startle you.”
“Then don’t creep up on me, and don’t touch me!” I snapped. My chest felt like a ten-ton weight had been dropped on it. “I think you should start answering my questions, now.”
His striking eyes observed me with… concern. “You must relax, Persephone. I intend no harm. You are safe with me.” The end of his tail flicked, making the scales shimmer with a teal sheen. “I am sorry to have to contact you in this manner.”
“Wait…” I froze. “So, this is a dream?” I didn’t know what emotion I was meant to have. I felt numb and overwhelmed all at once, my mind a seething mass of panic and confusion.
“Yes and no. It is more of an astral projection,” he explained. “It was necessary.”
Anger sliced through me, finally fixing me on one emotion in particular. “Necessary?! I thought I’d been locked in a freaking prison cell, Leviathan! I thought Victoria had thrown away the key! Because of you!”
He had the decency to look sheepish. “I was worried.”
“You should be more worried that I’ll cave your head in, after
