Page 34 of Iridian

Meanwhile, Taland chuckled.

“You’re an asshole, you know that?”

All he did was shrug. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Luckily, when Poppy came back to bring me a pair of jeans and a green shirt that looked to be Taland’s size, I managed to convince him to stay in my closet. Poppy still hadn’t stopped blushing, though now she was smiling, too, eyes darting back and forth from me and into the room.

“He’s in the closet; he won’t come out,” I assured her. “Poppy, I?—”

She suddenly came close until our noses almost touched. “He’shot!” she whisper-yelled, then stepped back and cleared her throat. “Grandma and the others are waiting for you downstairs. The sun will be up in less than twenty.”

Again, she ran, but this time she alsojumpedevery few steps like she couldn’t contain her joy. I watched after her with my mouth open until she turned the corner and disappeared from my sight.

Five minutes later, Taland and I were in the backyard with everyone else.

Chapter 9

Rosabel La Rouge

We put the scrolls on the grass in the open field at the back of Madeline’s mansion. The sun would rise from the horizon in front of us, and we’d catch the first of its rays here. The sky was already gray with the coming light, and every person in the backyard was jittery with nerves.

They all looked well rested, better than the night before. They all watched me and the bracelet around my wrist like it was both a thing of wonder and the most dangerous weapon they’d ever seen. I didn’t let it get to me, of course, and it helped that Taland was right there by my side—wearinggreen. It suited him, even if it wasn’t his color. And the grin on his lips remained even after Madeline continued to look at him like she was disgusted by his very presence. I thought he thrived on her judgmental attitude—he kept winking at her every time she dared to meet his eyes.

I loved him a little more for it.

“Just to be clear,” said Radock Tivoux, who wasn’t all that happy that he’d had to spend the night at Madeline’s. He seemed more aggravated than he had been the night before. “If thisworks and we have a location of the Army,wewill be going there ourselves. We will not be sending soldiers to do the work for us.”

Silence for a moment.

Then Helen Paine, wearing white pants and a white shirt and her hair in a braid that made her look a decade younger, turned to him and said, “Of course. We’ll all be there. Madeline will be in charge of the IDD soldiers who will assist us. But Hill will be ours to defeat.” Her eyes suddenly stopped on me. “Just as soon as we receive that bracelet, we will be on our way.”

Ice in my veins.

“The bracelet is not going anywhere,” Taland said. “It belongs to Rosabel.”

Then Flora stepped forward and said, “I believe we can all agree that that magic will be much more effective and useful inourhands.”

And she could have been right, except… “Youcan’tuse it,” I reminded her. None of them could.

“I’m sure Nicholas could. He is Laetus,” said Helen.

“Except he hasn’t received the power of that Rainbow,” I said, smiling bitterly. “That’s why you were going to kill me last night—or did you forget?” Because I hadn’t.

The women looked at one another, then back at me.

“It could help us win, that bracelet,” Helen said.

“You are but a child. To join us in this fight is suicide.Weshall have the bracelet,” said Flora, and it sounded like a damn order.

“I am not a child,” I spit, stepping closer because right now I couldn’t have cared less about who she was. The shit we were in was equally deep for all of us. “And youcan’tuse the bracelet if I handed it over to you right now.”

“She’s right, Helen,” Radock said, playing with the bottle of water in his hands. “Don’t underestimate her—she’s tougher than she looks.”

I’ll be damned.

“We’re talking about—” Flora started,screamingnow, but Helen stopped her when she turned to me and said, “Would you?”

I blinked. “What?”

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