Page 24 of Iridian

Then Taland had asked me, in front of all of them, if I wanted them to have the script, and I saidyes.Not because I cared about any of them, but because we all had to work together, unfortunately. Just like Radock said.

Nicholas had given Taland a pad and a pen for him to write down exactly what he’d memorized from that script the Devil had sent him to steal.

“I am,” Taland said.

“Why didn’t you give this to the Devil?” I whispered under my breath, though there was a good chance that others would hear, too. I didn’t really care.

“I tried. That’s why I turned myself in. He wasn’t interested,” Taland told me without batting an eye, completely at ease now that I was sitting next to him.

“Itisa search spell, all right,” said Radock as he, too, analyzed the letters on that piece of paper.

“A very specific one,” said Zach as he drank his wine slowly, savoring every sip. “Very old, too. We haven’t created or used eighteen-line spells for finding things since…”

“Five or six centuries ago,” George the Bluefire finished.

“Because we’ve learned how to simplify the use of magic,” said Helen. “But just because this spell isolddoesn’t mean that it’s what we’re looking for.”

Her cold, almost white eyes fell on Taland. She, out of everyone else, was the most suspicious of him.

“I had the script in my hands. I read it twenty times. Memorized it. Then I lost it,” Taland told her. “Thiswas what the Devil sent me to steal.”

“And the fact that it’s not there anymore, this script, is proof enough.Thatmeans that this is what we’re looking for,” Aurelia told her. She, Taland, and I were the only ones not drinking alcohol right now.

“Exactly. Why would he take it with him if he didn’t need it or if he didn’t care if you could find it?” asked Kaid.

Meanwhile Seth stood by the wall and played with his feather and drank his white wine like it was water. Any time I looked up at him, he grinned and winked, and I was tempted to smile back. I would have if we hadn’t been in this situation because I was really glad to see that he was okay, that he’d made it out of the ruins in one piece.

“Youdo it, then,” said Natasha the Greenfire. “Do this spell and give us a location. Wasn’t that the deal?”

“The deal was to work together to stop him,” said Aurelia. “And if we do the spell, we’ll do it together.”

“Are you assuming wetrustthat the boy hasn’t hidden a curse in there somewhere?” asked Flora.

“Why would he bother to hide a curse in there when he wants Hill found as much as you do?” Kaid.

“Together. We chant the spell together,” said Radock. “Thatwill be your guarantee. Unless my brother wants to kill us all, I trust this is exactly what he says it is.”

“Andyoutrust him after he betrayed you—what am I supposed to make of that?” said Helen.

“Make of it whatever you like,” Radock said, and he didn’t sound happy in the least. “But we either do this together or not at all.”

Suddenly, everyone started to speak at the same time. Everyone had something to say:

Hill isyourguy—he operated under your nose this whole time!

And you assume we’re stupid to trust in anything you say! Have you no idea who we are?

If this goes south, which it will, who will take responsibility?

If we chant this spell and we find nothing, what happens then? Are you really ready to die here, now?

On and on they went.

“Look at me, sweetness.”

Taland’s voice snaked its way into my mind and took hold of all my thoughts, all the fear and the panic. I looked up at his wide eyes that were alive.

“You pulled me out.”

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