Page 110 of Iridian

I had no such place in mind, though. Taland was always the one who knew the places and had the plans to keep me safe. All I had was my room at the mansion that was never really my home.

The darkness claimed me again.

Chapter 27

Rosabel La Rouge

I knew that ceiling well. Perfectly white, perfectlyperfectin every line and every corner. There was no other like it, I was sure, and it was the ceiling of my bedroom at Madeline Rogan’s mansion, exactly as I saw it every morning when I woke up, and every night before my eyes closed to sleep.

I was in the mansion, and this time, when I tried to move, I could.

This time, when I made to sit up, I did.

The ringing in my ears intensified. Block dots in my vision but the faster I blinked the more they faded, until I could actually see light coming through the windows.

It was my bedroom, all right. And the sun was shining outside, the sky was blue, and I was in my bed, naked, and…not alone.

Every inch of my body froze in place again when I realized that the figures against the walls in all four corners of my room weren’t furniture—they were soldiers.

Soldiers of the Delaetus Army with their eyes closed and their hands loose at their sides. Eyes that opened the second I considered screaming until my lungs burned.

They were alive. Four of them were alive, and they were somehow in my room andIwas somehow in my room and?—

I screamed. Taland was in bed with me.

It took me a good moment to gather myself, to stop shaking, stop crying, clear my eyes of the tears and finally reach out a hand to touch his skin. Warm. He lay on his back, eyes closed, a lot of dried blood on his body—but no wounds. Not a single wound or scar or mark was anywhere on him, and he was most definitely breathing. He was breathing steadily and when I put my hand over his chest, his heart beat just as it should against my palm, and I about died of relief all over again.

What the hell had happened? How had we ended up here? Was I dreaming? How?—

“Not a dream. We brought you to safety, Mistress.”

The way I jumped out of my bed would have been funny to anybody watching.

I jumped and moved back and I eventually hit the wall, I thought, because I didn’t fall when I should have. I didn’t fall to the floor so I could close my eyes and urge myself to wake up.

“What…what…what…” The words wouldn’t come. Someone had to answer me because someone just did—in my head, and I needed to make sense of this before I started screaming again, this time to never stop.

We brought you to safety, Mistress.

Those same words—except nobodysaidthem. Not out loud. They just…popped into my head, at the center of my mind, in that voice—that same voice I’d heard before. That same voice that I was sure I’d heard for a long time now, every single day.

But I hadn’t, not really.

I shook my head as my mouth opened and closed a million times, and I looked at the soldiers, all four of them around me.Theywere speaking to me.Theywere speaking right into my mind. They were here, right here, in my chest, under my skin, inside my skull.

They were?—

Another scream ripped out of me when my view shifted, when something dragged me through a tunnel, and then I was looking at me.

Yes, I was looking at me from all four corners of my room. I was seeing myself, naked and covered in blood just like Taland, and my eyes…

Goddess, my eyes were white.

My legs gave up on me and I hit the floor on all fours, and the views disappeared. It was just the floor in front of me now and this urge to throw up, except I couldn’t because I had nothing in my stomach.

Footfalls.

Don’t!

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