Page 18 of Iridian

“She’s telling the truth. It wasn’t on her when they found her. It was taken.”

“By whom?” the Greenfire asked me.

By Radock Tivoux,I thought. “I don’t know,” I said.

“You stole it from the Vault,” said the Mud councilman—Nicholas. “Did it speak to you—is that why? Did it connect with you right away?”

I shook my head. “No. I just saw the picture of it in that book.” I looked at the copy ofThe Delaetus Armystill on thetable where Madeline left it. “I got curious. I took it. I didn’t find out what it could do until”—the memory of those colors in the woods coming out of Taylor Maddison’s hand was at the center of my mind— “later.”

“We tested you,” said Helen in wonder. “I saw your Redfire with my own eyes. We all did.”

“I was under the impression that the Mudcan’tdo magic of one color at all,” said Flora. “That’s what I’ve known my whole life.” And she sounded pretty fucking frustrated about it.

“That’s what we all thought,” said the Greenfire with a bitter smile. “I knew about the bracelets. I’ve seen drawings of them—I knew they wore them, but never did I even entertain the idea of finding one or trying to make it work.Never.”

“David Hill did,” George said, then clenched his teeth. “He thought about it and he actually found it.”

“It’slucky,I guess, that your granddaughter stole it,” Helen said to my grandmother.

“Lucky, indeed,” Madeline said.

Goddess, how I hated that world—lucky.I despised it.

“Not only the bracelet,” I said, like something suddenly came over me. And I knew—Iknewexactly what awaited me, yet I couldn’t help myself, refused to keep my lips sealed. Refused tonothelp them, at least with what I could. “He found everything else—the Devil told us. The veler that you allowed to be locked up in the Vault when I stopped Taland from stealing it at the school, something calledsoul vessels,the bracelet, the Script of Perria. And he said he still neededmoresoul vessels and…” My eyes closed and I was violently thrust back into the memory of that Regah chamber, and the Devil was laughing and Hill was pissed off. The words came back to me despite the fear and the panic. “His bones.” I raised my head and looked at the Council members. “The Devil said that Hill still neededhis bones.”

Silence, that heavy silence.

“The bones of Titus,” Flora finally whispered.

“Yes,” Helen said with a nod. “I imagine he would need the bones to bring back the army.”

“Goddess,” the Greenfire said after a moment. “Hereallyis going to do it!”

I found myself in a state of disbelief, too, even though I had already known that Hill wasn’t fucking around since the moment the Devil told us his plans.

“We have to find him—now,” Ferid said, and his hand shook a little as he brought the glass to his lips.

“It’s gone, it’s all gone,” said George, and all our eyes turned to him. He was sitting on my grandmother’s desk chair with a big phone in his hand as he typed furiously. “Everything—gone, gone, gone.”

We were all sweating by then, even Madeline.

“What’s gone? What’s gone?” asked Helen, but she knew. We all did.

“The veler. The vessels. The-the-the Script of Perria—it’s gone,” said George, looking up at her with bloodshot eyes. “He took everything, burned the physical reports, erased the digital footprint. Everything.”

Suddenly Flora jumped to her feet. “This ismadness!How are we to find him now—madness!” Her voice was so loud my ears whistled.

My eyes closed, and those angry tears returned. I cursed myself in my head over and over for not returning for the Script that night when Taland found out it had fallen off him.

If we only had it now. If we only hadsomethingto make sure Hill failed…

“Enough,” said Helen, drinking the last of her wine. “That’s enough. We focus on one thing at a time.”

“But we must find him! Now, before it’s too late—we must,” Madeline said, and for once she wasn’t as perfectly composed as ever.

“And we will. We’ll find him. We’ll search every inch of the world,” Helen said. “But first we must do what needs doing to ensure that we win when we do capture him.”

The sky fell right over my head. Every set of eyes in the office turned to me again.

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