Page 46 of Iridian

And all around the edges of the dug-up valley, IDD soldiers were fighting Hill’s men already.

For a moment, it all felt like a dream. Everything had happened so fast, and that fall was like a wakeup call shakingme awake to what was really going on around me, all that blood that was being spilled, all that magic hanging in the air, making it almost too thick to breathe.

“Hey, you’re okay,” Taland said, pulling my hand to get my attention—and I was. By some miracle the fall hadn’t hurt me too much. My shoulder still throbbed, but I wasn’t bleeding and I could move just fine.

“I am,” I said and focused on him for a moment. He was slightly bleeding in the corner of his lips, but he seemed to be okay, too. He was putting away a gigantic raven feather in his pocket that shone with all imaginable colors under the bright sunlight. “Need a healing spell?”

“Nope. Good as new,” he said, looking up at the mountains, at that landing that protruded from the side of it, atop which was Hill.

“C’mon, weaklings. Race you to the top!” Zachary called as he started running up the steep incline of the valley right where we’d fallen, and Aurelia followed.

“Ready?” Taland asked, and I nodded even if I wasn’t. But we were here now, and we were going to make the best of it.

Together, we ran.

The soil was slightly wet and stuck to my boots, but it also made it a bit easier to climb all the way up the edge again. By then I no longer really expected to make it to Hill or even the Devil who was still smoking his cigar sitting on that rock, grinning at us. Aurelia and Zach were already fighting a group of soldiers who’d been waiting for us.

I started chanting even before I made it up the edge behind Taland. He’d pushed back the two soldiers from the bigger group a bit farther away fighting the Mergenbachs. The soldiers had been throwing their Bluefire at us—standard combat spells, which meant these guys were trained in the academy, too. Hill had taken them from the IDD.

My bracelet heated up and my magic rushed down my arm—faster than ever before, it seemed to me. I could have sworn that the more strongly I felt about any given situation, the more magic I had access to, and right now I was thankful. For the fear and for the thrill that went through me when I raised my hand forward and aimed it at the soldiers.

Eleven of them. Eleven were fighting the siblings and Taland, who, when he saw me chanting and aiming my hand, shouted, “Get down!”

Flames full of colors burst out of me just as they moved their heads down. My magic shot forward, so bright even in the sunlight, and slammed against the soldiers like it was something solid, pushed them back and threw them to the ground much like that explosion had thrown us down the valley.

Power hummed in my veins, raw power.

“Let’s go!” Aurelia shouted when the colors faded and all those soldiers we’d been fighting remained on the ground, still trying to get up.

We didn’t bother with them, though. We just kept on running toward that mountain, andmoresoldiers dressed in white were waiting for us, but I wasn’t afraid. There simply was no room for fear in my mind—survivingrequired all my focus.

We clashed with the second group of soldiers, and the others we’d left behind would be on us soon, too. At least most of them. The magic might have broken a few ribs, but it hadn’t killed them. I’d used a third-degree, but right now I was thinking I wanted to go with fourth-degree spells only because I could. Because all those colors that were buzzing inside me could absolutely handle it.

“Go, go, go!” Zachary said as he pointed his wand at the group of eight soldiers throwing spells at us from a distance, clashing onto our wards.

“C’mon!” Aurelia called, waving for us to follow her while Zach kept the soldiers back with his bright blue flames, the halo over his head unwavering.

“Just keep running, baby. I got your back. Keep your focus forward,” Taland said while we ran, and I believed him. I heard him chanting and throwing his magic behind, and I assumed the soldiers were already on us, but I kept my eyes ahead on Aurelia as she ran, closer and closer to the edge of the mountain, to another group of ten soldiers who were waiting for us with their hands raised.

How many more of them would there be?I wondered, my ears already used to the screams and shouts and the sound of bodies slamming against the ground.

Goddess, this was worse than the Iris Roe.

“Move aside!” I called at Aurelia as she ran, and she did, just as another blast of blue flames left her wand and slammed onto the group of soldiers, who were under a stronger ward than their friends. No matter. I was already chanting my second spell—a fourth degree energy blast this time, and I had my hand raised and ready.

They all tried to attack me, too, and a couple even fired their guns at me, but the bullets fell before they reached me. And my magic charged at them like a vicious animal full of colors that faded before the blast slammed onto them, picked them up and threw them against the rocks of the mountain at their back—and not only that. It made the entire mountain shake and groan, and it made the Devil laugh out loud like he’d just witnessed a damn miracle.

Meanwhile Aurelia cheered.“Woohoo!”then proceeded to chant another spell to hit someone behind us. I turned for a second, but all I saw were the blue flames of her spell, and the black ones of Taland.

“Don’t die!” Aurelia told me, pointing her index finger at me like she was ordering me.

I could have laughed.

“Keep your eyes ahead. We’ll cover you,” Taland called, and I did. More than that—I was starting to feelready,like maybe being here wasn’t a complete disaster. Like I could actually make a difference in this fight and not hold anybody back—I already had! Those soldiers were down, and the ones who’d tried to get to their feet again had already met Aurelia’s magic, and even Zach was running toward us again, having beaten the soldiers that he’d stopped to fight, too.

Hope—such a beautiful, terrifying thing. It took over me, fell around my shoulders, wrapped around me like it had arms, clung to me as I ran. More soldiers dressed in white came from the side of the mountain, but I was climbing because Taland reminded me to keep my eyes up. He and Aurelia, and even Zach took care of the rest, and I saved my energy and I looked upward—right at the face of the Devil who had stood up and thrown his cigar away. It finally felt like he was taking us seriously, at least enough to stand and wait, prepare himself.

I had no illusion that he’d be as easy to get through as those soldiers. I had no doubt that his wards would be much more problematic to break. His wouldn’t be standard protocol wards that all IDD soldiers and agents used—no, his would be personal and stronger, butmymagic? Those fourth-degree spells that I seemed to be able to push out of me with the same ease as Madeline did?

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