Page 40 of Iridian

She didn’t even hesitate.

“No fair,” Taland muttered when she disappeared behind the stairway.

“Looks like I’ll be resting for a little bit after all,” I teased, and with a quick peck on his lips, I made to follow Poppy.

Except he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to his chest and squeezed my ass like he couldn’t fucking tell that there were others coming up the stairs. He licked the side of my neck just a little. Just to get me perfectly breathless.

“Taland!” I hissed, but he was already letting go.

“Don’t take too long. I’ll be waiting.”

My heart was still trying to beat out of my chest when I made it to the kitchen.

Chapter 10

Rosabel La Rouge

“…and you know what else she did? She called all my brothers, too—tell her, Tal. She called them and told them totalk to meand tell me tobehave—can you imagine? Can you fucking imagine how pissed off Radock was?” Seth said from the backseat.

Yes, Seth was in the backseat, riding with us to West Virginia, and I’d had to stop Taland from violently dragging him out of the car when we found him there a couple hours ago.

Madeline had given us a car, so we were driving behind the SUVs and the trucks of the rest of Selem and the Council, and Taland had been happy that we’d be riding alone, but then Seth had already been in the back, waiting. Claiming he’d rather ride withmethan with his brothers because they didn’t let him talk and I was a great listener.

The look on Taland’s face…

I still giggled every time I remembered it.

At first, I regretted not letting Taland kick Seth out of the car, but then I was thankful for him. Because it was almost onein the afternoon and we were on our way to another fight that could potentially kill us all and I had no space in my head to worry because every corner of my mind was occupied with Seth’s stories about him when he was a kid, and about his friends, and about his girlfriends, too, all the“crazy exes”he’d had to“go through”he said. The perfect distraction, and I even laughed a few times.

Then, Seth continued to tell us about the fights he’d picked at school, about how he’d created a system to challenge himself, how he’d felt mighty smart to come up with it.

“It was all Kaid’s fault,” Taland muttered, just when I thought he was focused on the road ahead, on the SUV where his brothers and the Mergenbachs were riding, and the other cars and trucks and vans of the Council and the IDD soldiers and agents Madeline had sent here with us.

A lot more were behind us, too. To see them through the side mirror made me feel like I was going on a mission with my old team.

“It was, it was,” Seth confirmed. “He taught us spells when we werethisbig.” Grabbing our seats, he pulled himself between them and almost came all the way to the front, then held up his hand to show us how big he meant. “All kinds of spells—to fight and to manipulate, even kill spells, too.”

I looked back at him, suspicious. “Kaid taught you kill spells?”

“Yep—when I was eleven,” Seth said.

“He taught me when I was nine,” said Taland.

And I shook my head. “Who taughthima kill spell?” Those were the most dangerous kinds of spells out there, able to stop a heart in an instant. Dangerous stuff—I only ever learned a couple at the training academy with the IDD. Kill spells were not common knowledge and one needed special permission to evenlearn them just like one needed a permit to carry a gun around in some states.

“Radock,” Seth and Taland said at the same time.

“Not only that but Radock made him responsible to teach it to us,” Seth said, laughing. “So, imagine my teenage self walking around with two kill spells in my memory, and I felt like I had a loaded gun with me even when I couldn’t do magic. Just the idea that I knew words that could kill someone on the spot gave me a boost of ego—never mind that Icouldn’tkill shit yet.”

“Wow,” I whispered because what else was there to say? On the one hand, I couldn’t believe that Kaid or even Radock would tell his brothers kill spells at such a young age, and on the other, Ienviedthem so much. To have brothers with whom you did mischief or who told you things you weren’t supposed to know or who just made you miserable every day for the fun of it—yes, I envied that so much.

“You know what else he taught me?” Seth said. “A dream haunter spell—and, boy, did I have my fun with it for a while when I first got my feather.” He laughed and laughed as I shook my head.

“A dream haunter,” I said, and I asked Taland, “Really, was there a forbidden spell or curse that you guysdidn’t knowgrowing up?”

Dream haunters were considered curses—not dangerous per-se, except for the fact that they gave you the worst possible nightmares, all tailored to your own thoughts and fears, the kind that could leave you without sleep for days. They could ruin lives, which was why they were considered forbidden, and you could actually go to jail if you were arrested for doing one.

“Unlikely,” said Taland with half a smile on his handsome face—a smile that made me think about all the things he’d done to me just before we were on our way, even though we’d only gotten an hour.

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