Page 11 of Iridian

“She went home. Madeline Rogan took her,” she added.

Every drop of blood in my veins turned to stone.Madeline Rogan.“The IDD?—”

“Notthe IDD—she’s in the mansion in Baltimore. She’s with her grandmother.”

I took another step closer, and I felt the cool tiles underneath my bare feet as if they were trying to call to my mind, to my attention, to remind me that I was in a room full of killers who could take my head if they wanted.

Here’s the thing, though: I could take theirs easier. Iwouldtake theirs because whatever kept them alive and clinging to this world was much weaker thanmypurpose.

“Whyisn’t she here with me, Radock?” I asked my brother becausehehad been there at the Devil’s lair. I’d seen him before my body gave up on me. He’d been there.

Radock took a moment to look me over. “Because I was concerned with getting my brothers out of the ruins, Taland. Because I didn’t need Madeline Rogan on me while I was tending to you.”

“What you’re saying is, you’re a coward.”

The words slipped out of me—in normal circumstances I’d have kept that thought to myself. However, there was nothingnormalabout any of this and hadn’t been for a while now, so I’d lost the will to bother.

Radock clenched his jaws so hard the whole room could hear it.

Then Aurelia was coming toward us. “That’s no way to talk to your brother, boy.”

And I had plenty to say to her, too, but Radock didn’t let me. Maybe because he knew and he didn’t want me to make a bigger mess out of this little meeting they had going on here?

He was right.

“There was no time to hide her properly when they came. I wasn’t about to riskeverythingfor her the way you continuously do.”

A bitter smile stretched my lips as I moved back a couple feet and rested my hip on the edge of his desk. Then I slowly reached for the bracelet he’d left there—herbracelet.

“You didn’t have time to hide her, but you had time to takethisoff her wrist?” He was a fucking liar is what he was—and he knew I knew.

“Yes. It was fairly easy, too. She was unconscious,” my brother said, and I hadn’t wanted to slam my fists on his face so much since he was torturing Rosabel in the basement back home.

“We couldn’t have kept her hidden, Taland,” said Aurelia, stepping in front of me. “Look at me.”

I did. I was taller than her, so she had to look up at me, those wide blue eyes as intense as always. Like they held secrets. Like they knewmysecrets.

“There was nothing we could have done. The Council would have come after us with their everything the moment they found out what happened. She’s safer with Madeline Rogan.”

I leaned closer just a bit. “Move out of my way, Aurelia.”

She was shocked and she was pissed and probably feeling plenty of other things, but before she could voice any of it, I was in front of Radock.

“She told you. I know she told you the truth. She saved me. She savedusfrom the Devil, too. Yet you decided she wasn’t worth the effort when you know she can usethis.” I raised the bracelet between us.

“She also told me thatyoucan, too,” my asshole of a brother said.

“And it didn’t occur to you that I would use it againstyouif you don’t help me get to her and bring her here safely right now?” I didn’t even care whereherewas, but wherever I was, that’s where she had to be.

Otherwise, I was going to fuck something up.

“If you’re thinking about starting a fight, you can’t win against all of us, Taland. Not in the state you’re in,” said Kaid, shaking his head with a sigh. “Drop the attitude. We did the best we could. We gotyouout—and Seth, too.”

“If only his own life and mine were as valuable to him…” Seth said from where he sat on the floor—and he was absolutely right.

“But you left her there,” I reminded them. “And now…what? What happens when the Council gets to her? What do you think they’ll do?” I went closer to Radock. “Do you think Madeline Rogan is going to save her, brother?Spareher? Do you?”

Radock held my eyes but said nothing, and I knew he was tense. He hated to be spoken to this way, but I currently had zero fucks left to give. They were all back in Silver Spring where he left them behind—together with Rosabel.

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