Page 14 of Iridian

“What difference does it make? We’re all going to him, aren’t we? Didn’t you just say that we’ll need the Council to defeat him?” It made perfect sense to me already because I was in a rush to figure out how to get to Rosabel and how to get them all to join me.

It took the rest of them a minute, but they all came to the same conclusion.

“So, we go back to Baltimore, and then…” Kaid started.

“Then we go to the Council, if they haven’t killed her already,” Radock said, his eyes never leaving mine.

A cold chill rushed down my spine at the idea. Rosabel,killed?

Never.

“Then we tell the Council we know how to find Hill if they agree to fight with us,” said Aurelia.

“I can see that happening. They have a lot of people. A lot of soldiers and agents. People trained to fight. Yes, yes…” Violet’s voice trailed off as she stared at her feet.

“And then—” Zach started, but I’d run all out of patience already.

“Then we all go and find Hill and stop him,” I finished for him. “Now, I’m going to turn around and I’m going to leave. Come with me or don’t—it’s entirely up to you.”

A moment, that’s all they had. A single moment of thick, heavy silence that I could feel in the air going down my throat.

Then I turned, just as I said, and walked for the doors with the bracelet around my wrist.

The rest of them,allof them except Violet, came after me.

To say that I wasn’t relieved would be a lie. The Council was still the Council, the most powerful mages in the world even without their soldiers and guards and agents. Against them I’d have died on my own. They would try to kill me without hesitation, right away, and even if they didn’t, there was a good chance that they wouldn’t take me seriously if I went alone. Having Radock and Kaid and the Mergenbachs there would change that.

As much as I wanted to justflyover to that mansion and get Rosabel and disappear, I couldn’t, so I had to play by these rules for now.

Lucky for me I had something they all wanted, and right now I was going to use that as best as I could. Hill and the Devil and the Delaetus Army could wait—for now. Everything could wait.

I’m coming for you, sweetness.

Chapter 5

Rosabel La Rouge

Every thought in my head disappeared just as fast as Madeline’s magic that was holding me down on that couch. The doors to her office opened. Now I couldn’t get up for an entirely different reason—my legs would never hold me. Not when the face of Helen Paine was in front of my eyes, and not when I realized that the rest of the Council was coming in through those doors, too.

Had my heart stopped beating? Because suddenly I couldn’t feel it or hear it—I could only hear those footsteps slamming against the shiny wooden floor of Madeline’s office.

Then the doors closed.

Madeline was on her feet by the coffee table where she’d just been sitting, hands folded, not a wrinkle in sight on her red suit. The Council members stopped in front of her, and they looked sobigfrom down here because I still couldn’t bring myself to stand. They looked so different, too, because they were wearing ordinary clothes, pants and dresses and jackets, not the black robes they’d had on when I met them the first time—but the suspicion, the rage in their eyes was the same.

Thehatredthey all felt for me was perfectly visible on their faces when they looked at me—except for the Mud councilman. I didn’t know his name, but when he looked at me, analyzed every inch of me, he looked more concerned than suspicious. Moresorrythan angry.

But I knew that that wasn’t going to make a difference.

“She just woke up.”

Madeline’s voice rang in my ears and it felt like the entire room held their breath for a moment until her words made sense.

“I suppose it was too much of a bother to put her in a car unconscious,” said the Redfire woman, her eyes just as fiery as I remembered, her dark skin shimmering like she had golden blood in her veins and it was just slightly peeking through—or maybe it was the warm overhead lights of the office.

“It wasn’t—but I wanted to bring her to you awake,” Madeline said, not in the least bit concerned, even though she could see the way the Redfire woman looked at her.

“Time is of the essence here, Madeline,” said Helen Paine. “No matter. We’re here now.”

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