And we’d left our one lifeline behind. The book.
Twenty-Nine
Persie
“Who are all these people?” I murmured. They looked solid, not like the hazy spirits I’d expected. Wisps floated about, zigging and zagging more animatedly than they’d done in the Institute. I supposed they didn’t have to put on a pretense here in their own realm. After all, if we were standing on their turf, they’d already done their job.
Nathan shook his head slowly. “I’m not sure. They’re not from our time, that much I can say.” His eyebrows raised. “Except for those people.”
I followed his eyes across the slopes of the nearby silvered hills, where individuals in modern clothing stood in groups. Without waiting, I hurried toward them with my aerial fleet of pixies flocking me, hoping someone might have seen Genie.
“Wait!” Nathan called, chasing after me. My boots crunched against the strange grass, and my senses filled with the metallic aroma of ozone. It reminded me of being by the sea, although I couldn’t see one. Clearly there were some odd atmospheric forces at work here, but that didn’t concern me right then. Getting my friend and the others out of here was the only thing I cared about.
I paused beside a youngish guy in jeans and a T-shirt, his eyes fixed dead ahead on the expansive hills and purple sky beyond. He was chattering to himself, saying, “I have to remember to do my laundry. Mom will be mad if I don’t. I should call her and let her know I’m okay.” I waited for him to acknowledge me, but he didn’t. He just repeated the same sentences over and over again, caught in a glitch.
“Do you recognize this guy?” I whispered to Nathan.
He nodded. “That’s David Harper. He was the seventh person to go missing, I think.” He approached the entranced man. “David? Can you hear me?”
But either David couldn’t, or he had forgotten how to reply. He wouldn’t even turn to look at us, his eyes out of focus like he was sleepwalking.
“What happened to him?” I tried to shake him by the shoulder, but he seemed unaware of that, too. Nothing was going to get through to him.
“I don’t know,” Nathan replied anxiously. “However, I think it’s highly likely that everyone we’re seeing here are the people that the Wisps have drawn to this place. Possibly over the span of a thousand years or so.”
I hit him with a confused look. “How can that be? I thought the Wisps were trapped here, with no way out until the Institute accidentally opened the gateway.”
“They must’ve found a way to slip out from time to time. And they wasted no time enticing as many people as possible.” Nathan visibly shuddered. “As you’re already aware, Ireland is rich in natural Chaos. Perhaps, when monsters came near, it allowed the gateway to temporarily open.”
“Well, we already knew the Wisps were sneaky.” I set off to explore, determined to find my friend. Genie was around somewhere and I wouldn’t rest until I found her, even if I had to travel to the very edges of this interdimensional pocket.
Hiking up and down the hills with my pixie entourage, peering behind chalky bushes with ripe blue fruit and scouring the shade beneath those strange blood-red trees, it didn’t take long for frustration to set in. Not even the pixies, picking the blue fruit and hurling it at each other, could lighten it. I’d counted around thirteen people in modern clothing, and a lot more in period clothing, but Genie wasn’t among them. Part of me wondered if she’d managed to escape somehow and was just lost in the real world, trying to find a way back to the Institute.
But that smarted of wishful thinking. In truth, there was a higher chance that something worse had happened to her. I’d seen those Wisps turn violent. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to play ball, and it had landed her in trouble.
“There!” Nathan shouted sharply, yanking my arm and spinning me around. “Over there!”
I squinted, not seeing her.
“On the riverbank, just in front of that tree.” He jabbed a finger toward the biggest tree on the horizon, which branched up and out on the opposite bank of a crystalline, purplish river. I searched the riverbank desperately, bracing for the worst.
And there she was. Genie, sitting in the silver grass, rocking slowly back and forth with her knees tucked under her chin, her eyes staring into the water. She looked so small and vulnerable that I had to do a doubletake, confirming that it was, indeed, my best friend. Seeing her like that was all the reason I needed to take off at a full sprint, skidding to a halt only when I reached the water’s edge. The pixies stopped messing around with the fruit and flew after me, careful not to let me out of their sight. I sensed their defensive streak kicking in.
“Do you think it’s safe to cross? What if it’s acid, or something?” I turned back to Nathan as he caught up.
He eyed the river for a moment, breathing hard, before shaking his head. “It can’t be. Look, Genie’s jeans are still wet. She must’ve waded across.”
“I really hope you’re right.” I swallowed hard. “Don’t suppose you’ve got any Water abilities you could use, or a spell to carry us over?”
He hesitated. “I could try to build a land bridge.” Lifting his palms, green sparks erupted and sputtered out almost immediately. “How odd…”
“Is something wrong?”
He stared at his hands like they were broken tools. “My Chaos doesn’t seem to be working. Let me try something else—it won’t help us cross, but I’d feel better knowing we weren’t entirely vulnerable here.” His mouth moved and a fizzing shield of light slid up his arm and over his body. A moment later, he dispensed with it.
“What’s the consensus?” I asked nervously.
“Hexes and spells appear to work, but my Elemental
