Page 35 of Iridian

“Would you hand over the bracelet and let us try?”

My heart fell all the way to my heels. Taland was beside me in an instant, his hand around mine. “Easy, baby. Breathe,” he told me, and I was breathing. But a part of me wanted to sayyesto Helen because what if they were right and Nicholas could actually really use this bracelet as his anchor? What ifwedidn’t have to go with them and die in a fight with David Hill—what if?

Another part of me thought me a coward for even having that thought, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t a coward—I was trying to be rational here. Because as much as I hated it, Flora was right. Compared to them, Iwasa child, and if any of them could use the bracelet, they would be a hundred times more powerful than I could ever be. This was the Council we were talking about—the most powerful people in the world.

“Rosabel?” Taland whispered when I raised my hand and looked at the bracelet around my wrist.

Suddenly it had gotten so heavy. “If it works…” I started, but I couldn’t even speak the words out loud—we’ll stay behind.Goddess, I didn’t want to stay behind. I wanted to look Hill in the eye again and fight him until my dying breath if I had to.

“If it works, our chances of winning against him become much better,” said Helen.

I looked up at her. “And if it doesn’t?”

Silence in the air. The sky had become so light so suddenly, and the sun had just peeked from behind the horizon in the distance.

“If it doesn’t, we’ll return it to you.”

I searched for a hint on her face that would tell me if she was being truthful. I found none.

“Do I have your word?”

Are you seriously doing this!?my own mind screamed at me.

“You have my word,” Helen solemnly said.

I took the bracelet off.

“Rosabel, you don’t have to do this,” Taland told me, but he knew, too. He knew that it was for the better, that if one of them could use this bracelet, winning would be guaranteed.

“It’s okay, I want to,” I lied—but it wasn’talla lie. Just half.

Helen came over and took the bracelet from my hand without a single expression on her face.

My stomach turned. Bile in my throat while I watched her put it on and close her eyes and look up at the sky, then chant, whispering Iridian words with her hand raised.

Try once, and twice, then try again the third time, harder.

It didn’t work.

“Breathe,”Taland said.

But I couldn’t breathe easy when Flora took the bracelet next and put it around her wrist, either.

“You’re wasting time, but what the hell.” Radock shrugged. “We’ve got a few more minutes to kill. It’s not going to work.”

Helen stepped closer to him—and I could have sworn that she wasn’t looking at him the same way she did last night. She was…waryof Radock now. Almost like she feared him, which made me wonder about what had happened in this mansion while Taland and I had been locked up in my room, how many conversations had taken place within those walls.

“How do you know?” she asked him as we all watched Flora chant—in vain.

“Because we tried it,” Radock said.

“All of us. Didn’t work,” said Aurelia from the other side where she stood next to Zachary.

“It will for Nicholas,” said Helen, and that’s why when Flora was done, the others didn’t bother. The Redfire, angry now, put the bracelet on the Mud councilman’s hand.

His eyes were wide as he looked at me and stepped forward, almost like he was sayingsorry.I liked Nicholas; he had never hated me, not since the first time he saw me. Maybe because he understood or maybe because he was a good guy? Didn’t really matter.

But the bracelet didn’t give him magic, either.

---