Page 121 of Iridian

“It’s nothing personal, brother,” said Kaid. “All we wanted was the soldiers on our side. After all, it’s thanks to them that we all made it. They died for us. It’s the least we could do to try to keep them alive.”

Taland and I looked at one another. These people had absolutely no idea what they were talking about or what the soldiers even were. I couldn’t blame them, though. Talandhadn’t had a clue when he first brought them back, and I didn’t, either, when I asked him to share them with me. It’s not something anybody else could hear since everything happenedinsideour heads.

And we wanted to keep it that way. I could tell just by the look in his eyes and the small nod he gave me—the less the people knew about the Delaetus Army, the better. We could handle this on our own.

I nodded back.

“But all’s well now,” Aurelia said. “Rosabel has them—that’s perfectly fine by us. You’re on our side…right?”

I am on the people’s side,I thought, and I said, “Yes, I…” My voice trailed off and I took in a deep breath, held her eyes. “Actually, I’m just on the people’s side.”

Her smile turned up a notch. “Then we’re all in the right place here.”

I nodded. “Cassie?” My heart skipped a beat at the mentioning of her name, even though Madeline had already told me. I just didn’t let myself believe anything she said—old habit.

“Awake. Healing. I’ll take you to see her as soon as we’re done here,” Aurelia said, and the next breath I took came so much easier.Goddess, thank you,I prayed.

“That’s a deal.” I had no doubt that Cassie wouldn’t mind my eyes, either. And even if she freaked out, I still planned to give her the hug of her life.

“Like I said, there will be no pretending, little brother. We did what we thought was right. Your soldiers saved us all. Whether they’re yours or Rosabel’s—I really don’t care. They died so that we didn’t have to. That I will not forget,” Radock said then.

Do you hear that?I asked in my mind, and the ease with which I thought that took me by surprise because it came so naturally. So quickly.

We hear, Mistress,the soldiers said, and I don’t know why that made me feel better. Why it was important that they knew what they’d done for us, how much their help had changed the world we lived in.

It had changedeverything.

“Fair enough,” Taland said. “I appreciate the honesty.”

“Now sit down—all of you. We’re facing a completely new era and we have a lot to talk about,” Radock said, waving for me and Taland to get behind the large table, to turn our backs to that beautiful view of the city while the others were dragging and rolling chairs from all parts of the room to come together.

The soldiers followed behind me, pushing Radock back as they went. Not on purpose, but they demanded space and they were pretty big fellas. Not that I felt bad, to be honest.

One of them—Lind again—was already pulling the chair back for me to sit as I went around the table.

Thank you, Lind,I thought, and sat down, feeling all their eyes on me, but strangely it didn’t affect me as much as I thought it would.

Like Taland said, we were here now, the people who had stood up and fought, the same ones who’d taken down the old system, and were on the cusp of creating a new one. I actually didn’t mind being here at all now that I sat with them and they were all talking at the same time, his brothers asking Taland questions, before they turned to me.

In fact, it felt…right.Like I was meant to end up right here all along.

It felt like I had a voice now, and though I’d never thought about it before, that mattered. It was exactly what Madeline had talked about when she lectured me on power—having a voice and making a difference in decisions that would affect the people. Our people and the humans. The entire world.

Iwantedto be here. After everything, Iwantedto change the things that I spent so long fighting against. All of us here sitting at this table did.

“Shall we begin with the most obvious?” said Radock, folding the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows, a silver pen in his hand and a pad in front of him.

I didn’t know what the most obvious was, but I smiled together with the rest of them, and nodded. Taland and I looked at each other for a moment, and he seemed just as calm as me. He felt that being here, now was the right thing, too. Where we were meant to be all along.

Together, we began.

A week later

It took a thought to get them to leave me alone for a minute, but even then, half of them had their eyes on me at all times. They didn’t care about people seeing them or about freaking others out—they spread around the neighborhood like nobody else in the world even existed. So long as some of them could see me, the others were cool enough to stay in the car with Taland.

I’d assigned two to him personally, to be with him at any given time, despite his complaints. He didn’t need babysitters, he told me, just like I told him back when the soldiers obeyed tohisthoughts.

And I agreed. They were seven-centuries-old soldiers, not babysitters.

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