Page 25 of Iridian

“I didn’t even have to walk over bones to do it. Just a couple of unconscious guys,” I muttered, reaching out a hand to touch his cheek. “Are you okay?”

“Perfect. You?”

“I could use some food, to be honest.”

He put his hand over mine and turned his head just slightly to kiss my palm. “Soon, baby. Soon.” Then he took my hand down, and while he held my eyes, he put the bracelet around my wrist so fast, I doubted anybody had seen it—they were still bickering, all at the same time. I didn’t see him moving either, only felt the cold of the metal against my skin.

“You should keep it,” I said, though to have that thing around my wrist made me feel like I couldflyagain. With it, I was safe—perfectly safe. With it, I didn’t fear for my life or Taland’s for a second. Not after a single spell with it ruined that screen—and the entire neighborhood, apparently.

“It’s yours,” Taland said. “It belongs to you.”

“But you can use it, too.”

“I prefer it when you do,” Taland said and slowly touched the tip of my nose the way he always did—small I-love-yousto carry around, Seth said. That’s what that touch meant to Taland and his brothers because of their mother who’d always done the same to them.

“We’ll make it out of here,” I said, and I sounded so sure.

“Sweetness, we made it out of the Iris Roe and the Blackrealm. Mansions don’t really scare me.”

Laughter burst out of me for a second, and to my horror, it did so in the same second thateverybodystopped speaking, so they all heard it. The sound echoed in Madeline’s office, and now every one of them was looking at us.

I suddenly felt like I was sitting on hot coals as I straightened in my chair.

Taland didn’t let go of my hand, though.

“Something funny?” Helen asked in that tone of voice that meant to humiliate us. And she thought she could—of course she did. She’d just been about to kill me not an hour ago, and I’d just sat there and waited, had been perfectly defenseless against her, and my own grandmother would have allowed her to go through with it without a word of complaint. Of course, she thought she could humiliate me—except I was not the same girl as I was when I was sitting on that couch before, confused and scared and helpless.

I had the bracelet around my wrist now, and my magic had already connected to it without my even having to think about it at all. But most importantly Taland was here. And I didn’t blame them for not knowing the kind of impact his presence had on me. Even I didn’t understand myself how my entire view of the world changed when he was near, but that was okay. I’d show her exactly what she was dealing with now.

“Youare,” I said, and her brows shot up, but if she planned to say something, I didn’t give her the chance. “You’re funny—all of you. The whole world turns toyouin times of crises becauseyou’resupposed to be calm and rational and work toward a solution. Well, we are in a crisis, even if the world doesn’t know it yet, and what areyoudoing?”

I wasn’t looking at her only, but at the Mergenbachs, too, and finally at Radock who had that small smile on his face like he was thinking inappropriate things—like how to skin me alive.

“You’re sitting here arguing about who to trust. Trust has nothing to do with this—we have a common enemy. After we’re done with it, by all means, go back to being enemies or whatever you are, but right now, let’s find Hill and let’s stop him.Calmly.”

I expected them to start laughing at me, at least half of them.

Nobody did.

“Very well, then,” said Aurelia, and she pulled the piece of paper toward her. “I’ll start and you can tag along, whoever feelslike it.” She looked up at Helen. “Save the bickering for later, like Rosabel said. Shall we?”

She didn’t wait. She didn’t let anybody make a single sound before she began to chant the long spell exactly as Taland had written it.

Which made every single person in the room hold their breath.

I looked at Taland. He winked at me. We were okay.

He didn’t let go of my hand when we stood up and went closer to Aurelia so we could read the spell, too. I might have been weak, but my magic was still there, and after we did the spell, we could eat and rest and do whatever. For now, we began together, joining Aurelia as she read through the second sentence slowly, to make sure we didn’t miss a single letter.

Magic in the air.

The others came closer, too, one by one. Zach and Flora and George and Helen, Radock and Kaid and Natasha, too. Meanwhile Nicholas and my grandmother remained in their seats, and Ferid kept looking at us, unsure whether to panic or stop us or join us.

He chose to do nothing.

The spell lasted a while indeed, and when the magic of each and every one of us began to come out of our skins, I was afraid.

Afraid that it would work and afraid that it wouldn’t. Afraid of what either of those options meant.

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