Page 36 of Iridian

He tried. With four spells he tried, called up simple ones, then more advanced, with his eyes open, then closed, whispering, then screaming until the fresh sunlight reached us.

It didn’t fucking work.

And when he was done trying, he didn’t hesitate. He strode over to me with a smile, like he wasgladof the outcome, and he put the bracelet around my wrist while Taland loomed over him at his side, watching his every movement like a hawk.

“There. Where it belongs,” said Nicholas, smiling down at me, his brown eyes warm. He patted my hand and stepped back, looked up at Taland. He just nodded at him, then went back to his place near Ferid.

Nobody spoke for the longest time, as long as it took for the sunlight to finally fall on the ground and touch those parchments laid out in wait.

It hadn’t worked. The bracelet refused to work for any of them—the most powerful mages in the world. Yet I felt it when it touched me, like it was a living thing. Like it was whispering to me—just like it did the night before. It whispered.

Taland took my hand and pulled me to the side, toward where they’d set the open scrolls. Everybody was already standing around them, eyes wide and breaths held.

Everybody except Madeline, who was on the other side, a few feet away from the rest of us, watching me without an ounce of emotion in those cold amber eyes.

A strange feeling settled over me, one I’d never really felt before.Detachment.I almostsawstrings being cut between us in the new light, as if my mind was trying to tell me that nothing tied me to her anymore. I was my own person now—because I had power. Because I had Taland.

And, most importantly, because I’dneverhad her.

“Look,” someone said, their voice full of wonder, and it was Aurelia with both her fingers pointing at the parchments, but I couldn’t see anything yet. Just my parchment, those shapes that looked like mountains—that’s all.

“I don’t…” Helen began, but her voice trailed off just as my breath caught in my throat.

Because slowly, so slowly, shimmer was appearing on the surface of the parchments that had been empty to my eyes until now. That same shimmery ink that painted the one I’d been given, was now creating shapes on every inch of those yellowed surfaces.

Within the minute, the ink had created all that it was going to create, and it was really difficult to make out, too, because it was almost translucent when the light hit it right, and…

“It makes no sense,” Helen said, kneeling so she could see it better. “None of this makes sense.”

And she was right.

“A puzzle,” said Zachary. “It’s a puzzle.”

“Like the ones we used to do when we were kids,” said Aurelia, lowering to her knees on the grass and picking up the first parchment.

“Yeah, I remember those,” said Kaid, squatting down, too. “Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“I can’t really see anything,” said Natasha, and she was trying, leaning closer, squinting her eyes. “What puzzle—I can’t see shit!”

Some laughed. Even I was tempted to crack a smile.

Taland said, “Wanna play?”

I shook my head. “How about I just watch you?” Not because I was lazy or didn’t want to help, but because I was still processing all these feelings. It was amazing how I could postpone feeling something for a while if needed, but then when it got to me, it got to me good.

The Regah chamber. Seeing Taland chained to a wall, knowing he had been tortured. Having the Councilalmostkill me by sucking out my energy not even half a day before, and then having them all trying to get my bracelet to work because they thought they could do a better job, be more powerful with it.

Regret coursed in my veins as thick as blood—I shouldn’t have let that woman have it. I shouldn’t have let any of them touch my bracelet; I should have kept it myself. After all, the only reason these people hadn’t killed me was because Taland stopped them and offered them something they wanted. The only reason these people allowed me to have my bracelet back was because they couldn’t use it, and they were afraid of Hill. Afraid of what he could do. Afraidtheywouldn’t be enough, and so they’d agreed to work with Selem. Withme.

And it made me wonder, when this was over, what exactly was going to happen to us? What would the Council do to us, assuming we managed to defeat Hill and make it out of that fight alive?

Too much.It was way too much to think about right now, so I didn’t. I just kept my eyes on the others who were moving the scrolls around, the Mergenbachs, Kaid and Taland, Helen and Flora. Even George the Bluefire had decided to join them, too curious not to.

They weren’t bickering, which was surprising. They actually worked together, and they were confident that they knew what they were doing, even if it didn’t look like it to the rest of us. I mean, it wasshimmery, almost transparent ink on old as dirt parchment.

But when I noticed Madeline coming toward me slowly, I forgot to pay attention to what they were doing completely and focused on her. I didn’t turn, didn’t make eye contact, pretended I didn’t even see her when she stopped at my side. Just her presence had such a good hold over me that it took me a few moments to get myself under control.

“Here,” she said, raising her hand, and it was impossible not to look down. My father’s ring was in the middle of her palm, just like the last time she’d found me when I was unconscious.

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