Page 48 of Iridian

“Keep going. Keep going,” Taland said, as if he could tell that I was struggling and I needed his voice to keep me grounded. In the moment. To make me hope again simply because if these men won, they’d kill us. They’d kill Taland, and that just wasn’t acceptable. I’d never allow it, hope or no hope.

These men could not—would notwin.

Even though the thought didn’t clear my head all the way like I hoped, I was able to focus on moving my limbs faster, getting up there in time so that I could kill David Hill and put an end to this bullshit once and for all. No more threats—couldn’t I just have that? One day and month and year without fearing for my life or the life of my loved ones. That’s it, that’s all I wanted, and only David Hill was standing in my way.

It took us a while to climb all the way to him, and not only because the surface of the mountain wall became smoother, with less edges to hold onto, and steeper as we went, but he washigher up than I’d realized. Blood on my fingers and my limbs were screaming in protest, my muscles aching, but I kept going.

Ignoring the sound of the battles around me, I kept on climbing until I could see the edge of that landing, and I could see Hill kneeling up there with those eggs in front of him in my mind’s eye, too.

“Just a little more, baby,” Taland said. He was just as breathless as me, but he refused to stop, too. I had no idea for how long we climbed, but he never once fell behind or stopped to take a breath.

Until finally, I gripped the edge of the landing and pulled myself onto it, and he followed. We were both on our stomachs, breathing heavily, and when we looked up, we finally saw Hill—standing. Chanting.

That’s when we realized that we were too late.

Chapter 12

Rosabel La Rouge

That man made my skin crawl even when I couldn’t see his face. He could make me want to close my ears just to keep his voice out of my mind.

I breathed like I’d been climbing for days while I struggled to make it to my feet and help Taland to stand, and we were close, so close.

Not close enough, though.

His voice echoed in my head. The words of the spell he was chanting didn’t sound like Iridian words at all, and he still had those pieces of paper with him right there on the smooth, flat surface of the landing. Those pieces of paper that remained in place, didn’t move with the breeze at all, like he’d frozen them there with his magic as well—and the eggs…

My Goddess, the eggs were all cracked open, and inside them was light. Small white lights like enlarged fireflies were slowly rising from the broken eggshells as Hill held his arms up and chanted furiously.

“Taland!” I screamed because I was trying to get closer, to call for my magic, but I couldn’t. Fucking hell, the magic radiating from Hill was keeping me perfectly motionless, and it waspushing me back!

Taland as well. I couldn’t turn my head to the side at all because whatever spell Hill was doing, it was keeping me frozen while it pushed me to the wall of the mountain, all the way to the sharp edges that were trying to dig into my back.

“I can’t…break…through…” Taland said, his voice strained as he tried to push the magic back but couldn’t.

Icouldn’t move.

David Hill was right there, not even twenty feet away from me at the edge of that landing looking out at the valley beneath him, with his arms spread and those lights rising all around them, defying the light of the sun—and I couldn’t fucking move.

Panic squeezed my throat and stopped what little air had been going down to my lungs completely. The magic pushed me back, tried to make me one with the rocks behind me. Hill continued to chant as his voice rose, and those lights…

Those fucking lights werebuzzing,vibrating in place like they contained the energy of the entire world and they were about to burst open any second.

I wanted to call Taland’s name again, but I couldn’t. My magic raged inside me, and I tried to force my jaws to move, to chant, todo somethingother than just stand there, but I couldn’t.

I could do nothing but watch as my bracelet heated to a point that I thought it would scorch my skin, and my magic raged but couldn’t come out of me, and Hill chanted and chanted and looked up at the sky and those lights buzzed and buzzed and became brighter—until they moved.

For a second, just as Hill stopped chanting abruptly, the lights stopped vibrating, suspended in air, frozen just like I was.Then they shot toward the ground, below the landing to where we couldn’t see, fast as lightning.

David Hill laughed.

The magic that had been holding us against the rocks let go and we both fell to our knees.

Screams somewhere below and Ihad to-had to-had tosee. That’s why I was already crawling toward the edge on all fours, until my limbs gave up and I fell on my stomach again, but I could see the valley now just fine. I could see the people screaming—Helen and Flora and Radock, too.

I could seewhy.

The lights had stopped right over the skeletons, and I still couldn’t see all of them, but I saw plenty. I saw how the lights slowly descended onto their helmets, and how the others were being kept back just like Taland and I a moment ago. I saw how they tried to get through the magic, to stop whatever was about to happen, but couldn’t.

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