Page 122 of Iridian

It’s not like he could do anything about it, though, which I loved to remind him of. Just like Icouldn’t do anything about when we were in that safe house and he had them following me around every second we weren’t in the house.

It was still funny to see the look on his face any time he came out of the bathroom, though. I lived for it. It had been a week since we found out we weren’t going to die, after all, and I had over a thousand pictures on my new phone of him coming out of the bathroom and realizing that two soldiers were on either side of the door, waiting for him.

Priceless.

We lived in a penthouse now—only because of the soldiers. I’d have preferred a small apartment, to be honest, but small apartments wouldn’t fit eleven soldiers in and still leave space for us to live, so a penthouse it was. Only temporary until we found a house that we both loved. Right now, we needed to be close to Headquarters, so living in the city was a must.

After all, we were the new Directors of the IDD.

There was no telling how much work there was to begin with, let alone to alsochangethe entire system at the same time as mending the damage the Council had left behind,andmaking sure that criminals didn’t take over completely while we were busy looking away.

That, too, was temporary—or at least we were promised it would be. In that meeting with the Tivouxes and Mergenbachs, we’d decided to stay and work for thisnew era,as Radock liked to call it, simply because we’d fought too hard and gone through too much not to make sure that the world ended up a better place for real at the end of it.

At first, when Radock asked us to take over the IDD, I hadn’t been all that sure about taking onmoreresponsibility. We could help with other things, I thought, until Taland turned to me and said three words:the Iris Roe.

That game that had been my doom and my salvation. My blessing and my curse. That game that was the reason so many lives were lost regularly—andlegally.

After that, it had been a no-brainer. I’d accepted my position alongside him and our first act as the newest directors of the IDD had been this:no more Iris Roe.The game would be permanently shut down, the playground reconstructed—and it was just the tip of the iceberg. So much in the City of Games that needed to change, but the Iris Roe, at least, wouldneverhappen again.

Taylor Maddison wouldnotbe happy about that, I figured, but that’s only until she saw what I brought for her in my pocket.

It was dark, past ten p.m. when I finally made it down the street from the human neighborhood, to the trailer where she still lived with her family. They hadn’t been captured or killed by the Council in those weeks of blind rage, and for that, I was so thankful. So many had lost their lives—we were still putting the names on record. Far too many—but the lights were on in the trailer, and Taylor Maddison was alive.

She always knew before when I came to visit, but right now as I looked behind the trailer where I’d caught her coloring once, there was nobody there. I looked back at the road, at the black SUVs Taland and I traveled in—again, because of the soldiers who insisted on staying with me all the damn time—and I knew he was watching me. I’d wanted to do this alone first, and he could meet Taylor later.

He really wanted to, and I loved him more for it.

A moment passed and Taylor still didn’t come outside, but I was dying to see the treehouse that carpenter had promised me he’d build for her, and I knew she would find me eventually. She always did.

So, I slowly moved to the back of the trailer, past the clothes that had been hung out to dry, and into the small forest where I spent so much time with her before. Where I got the peace and quiet—andwillto keep going when it felt like there was no way out of the maze that was my life.

I went deeper, slowly, eyes wide, and for a moment, as I tried to see everything, I accidentally sort ofswitchedto what Taland calledall-eyes-mode,and I was suddenly looking through the eyes of the two soldiers who’d went all around the houses, and I knew for a fact that they were in the forest with me.

They were—and Edric, one of the soldiers, had eyes on the little light that was coming from the tree.

From Taylor’s tree.

It didn’t scare me anymore, to be dragged down that tunnel. Not saying I was used to it, just that it didn’t freak me out as it did in the beginning.

Still, I preferred to be looking through my own eyes only, so any time I slipped, I quickly came back. A smile on my face as I rushed to get to the treehouse.

Two minutes later, it was right there in front of me, better than I could have possibly imagined—and light was indeed coming from inside.

Tears in my eyes. It was a big tree house, big enough to fit Taylor comfortably. I thought about calling her name, but then figured I should make sure she was alone first by walking around the tree to search for the shadows up there.

Except…

A head popped out of the window of the tree house.

“Who’s there?” Taylor Maddison called, and my heart all but burst right out of my chest.

Our eyes locked.

I remembered mine were white now. She was a kid and she could be scared of me.

Sun glasses, Rora. Sun glasses!

Except this was Taylor, and she wanted to win the Iris Roe when she grew up and she’d broken into the IDD Headquarters once just to see me—of course, she wasn’t going to be afraid of some eyes without color.

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