Page 109 of Iridian

I urged them to come forward, to slip under my skin, to see into my mind the way I saw in theirs. To see all I’d gone through, all that I’d ever thought. Everything from the very beginning.

I was completely bare in front of them.

There is always another way, and I promise you I will find it. I promise you with my life that I will set you free if we stop this spell right now, break free of it together.

I wasn’t sure if they believed me, or if they even heard the thoughts in my head in the state they were in, screaming and begging and pulling at my limbs. I wasn’t sure if they saw what I was trying to show them, if they knew what it all meant. The vulcera and the ice statue of the roc and the dead crow on the rooftop and the legs of Madame Weaver with tips as sharp as blades. I wasn’t sure if what I promised could even be done, but I bet my life on it—quite literally. Because without them I couldn’t make this stop.

And I didn’t wait for an answer. I gave every ounce of me, all my energy and every bit of magic in my veins to the bracelet and aimed at the curse that had pulled them and unraveled them so mercilessly, had simply turned off their lights. I aimed to destroy it just as thoroughly as it had destroyed those souls, as thoroughly as it had torn through Taland and through me.

I didn’t know if the soldiers joined me, if they helped.

But when I gave it all away, I stopped hearing their voices in my head, and I stopped seeing their lights in the darkness.

Light—the kind that comes from the sky. Not overly bright, but it was there and I could see it, though barely. I could see it and Ichased it with my everything because I knew that if I couldn’t get to it, everything would be lost. I knew that if I couldn’t get to it, I would never see Taland again.

Nothing ever motivated me the way Taland did. Nothing could ever make me want to get out of my own skin so badly. And I launched at that light with my entire strength, which grew the more aware of myself I was, the more I awoke from that never-ending darkness. The more I realized that nothing was pulling me down anymore and nobody was screaming in my head.

My eyes opened.

The light over me had seemed brighter than it actually was. The sun continued to hide behind thick grey clouds that no longer even wept—a visual representation of the earth’s anger at what had happened. Whatwe’ddone. Us—all of us.

The fear was strong, forever present in my very bones because of what my life had looked like since I could remember myself. Always fear. Always running.

But right now, I just needed to sit up and look.

Since sitting up was out of the question, I tried to move my head, at least, to see where I was, where Taland was. I began to hear noises, but they seemed to be coming from every far away. The more I blinked the clearer the image of the sky in front of me, the smell of blood and magic in my nostrils. The smell of somethingburning.

My heart was in my throat. I managed to turn my head to the side just slightly, desperate to see where Taland was.

I saw.

He lay next to me, on his side, eyes closed, hair all over the place, blood all over him. His skin was torn everywhere, big and small cuts, surrounded by fresh and dried blood. A scream built up in me because my heart simply couldn’t handle the sight of him like that, but…his chest.

Itmoved.

Taland was alive.

The sky could have been mine. The earth and all the seas—but it still wouldn’t compare to what I felt in those moments.

Until something else moved, shook me to my core.

We must have still been lying on the rooftop of that bus because it moved, and it sounded like someone was climbing it.

Get up!my mind shouted at me.

I couldn’t.

All I could do was look up at the sky and thank Goddess that Taland was still breathing—right until they came, from all sides at once, and looked down at me.

The soldiers. What remained of the Delaetus Army. Men whose souls were tethered to my own, wearing helmets and armors and white in their eyes.

I expected a lot of things to happen in that moment. For them to kill me, stab me, burn me, call to me in that awful robotic voice, throw me to the ground—or pick me up and put me on my feet.

I waited, but all they did was look down at me, eyes unblinking, bodies perfectly still.

Do something!I wanted to say, but of course, I couldn’t. At least Taland would be okay, wouldn’t he? These soldiers were his…weren’t they? They wouldn’t hurt him.

Safety,said another voice in my head—and I could have sworn it belonged to someone else. But it must have been me, my own self trying to think of a safe place, of somewhere to take Taland to, somewhere wherenobodycould hurt him. Not the IDD, not Radock, not the soldiers.

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