Page 52 of Iridian

Then—“Grab my hand!”

The voice came out of nowhere. My instincts must have still been working because I reached out both hands toward where the sound came from, even though I had no idea who’d spoken or where I was or how the hell I was going to grab anybody’s hand while I was falling.

But I did.

Two strong hands grabbed me by the arm and stopped my fall, but it felt like they tore my arm off my shoulder completely. Zach’s face was looming somewhere over me, and the pain sent live flames all over my body.

Goddess, I couldn’t fucking breathe. I couldn’t tell him to let go, that he was tearing me apart!

But maybe I should have been thankful that he caught me, that I didn’t fall all the way into the valley from that altitude because I’d have died. And there was a good chance that Iwoulddie, after all, because Zachary was wounded himself, and he couldn’t hold onto me. I was too heavy, and he was too bloody, too weak.

“Hold on—just hold on!” said Aurelia, who was dragging herself by her arms over that rock where she and her brother had fought the Devil. They had won, apparently, but they were both just as messed up as I was.

And my leather jacket was covered in blood—Hill’s blood—so it slipped from Zachary’s hands. He couldn’t stop it. It slipped fast, so fast.

They called my name, screamed it.

I fell again, but this time not for long. Maybe mere seconds before I hit the ground on that same shoulder that didn’t feel like my own at all. Then I rolled and rolled and there was dirt in my nose and mouth and eyes, and Hill’s blood was all over me, and I just wanted to burn. I wanted flames to eat at me, cleanse my skin from any stain of him. I wanted to scrub any sign of him off my body forever.

Instead, when I stopped spinning, I found I couldn’t even open my eyes. The best I could do was lie there in whatever position I was in and focus on breathing.

Sound came from somewhere far away—a voice, but I couldn’t understand a single word it said. Darkness pulled at meharder and faster with every new breath until I heard nothing at all anymore. Until even the thoughts in my head, the terror, the panic, thehopefaded away into nothing.

I let go.

Chapter 13

Rosabel La Rouge

Hill is dead-Hill is dead-Hill exploded!

My eyes popped open, and my panic reached its peak before I’d taken my first breath. I could see nothing but brown at first, and something awful was on my tongue, and my body felt like it had been through the fucking sewer—but I was awake. I could hear voices, could understand that I was conscious. I could remember, could think back to the reason why I was here, almost completely paralyzed, with blood and dirt in my mouth and eyes, forcing myself to draw in air.

David Hill was dead. He’dexplodedwhile I had my arms around him still, when I’d taken him down for fear that he’d make it to his feet again and would somehow survive. He didn’t, though—that bracelet made sure of it. The magic that came from both Taland and me made sure that not only his heart, but his entire body came apart.

The bracelet that wasn’t on me—I felt it, even now. Felt the absence of it around my wrist, and before I even knew what the hell was around me, I felt vulnerable without it. Weak.

Hands on my arms, pulling me to the side, then putting me on my back. A blue sky was over us and I saw masked faces, two of them. Navy colored masks—IDD soldiers, and one of them was saying something, trying to get me to respond. The best I could do right now was blink my eyes and try to clear the view. Wait for Taland to come down here and get me so we could disappear.

Because Hill was dead and there was a good chance his blood was in my mouth and nose, even eyes, and we could leave now. We could get away, run to the edge of the world, be alone. It had worked—Goddess, it worked!—and I could cry with happiness. With relief. With gratitude.

It had worked, our plan, and now everything was over.

Thinking back now, I wish I hadn’t been so utterlyhappythen. It almost felt like I jinxed the whole fucking thing—but I digress.

The soldiers pulled me up by the hands even before I was able to tell them that I could. That I wasn’t dizzy. That I wasn’t going to fall unconscious again. But wasn’t it a miracle that I’d even survived? I’d fallen from so high up. The magic of the explosion had pushed me right off the edge and I couldn’t hold on.

Then…Zach and Aurelia.

I remembered the voice—Grab my hand!—and Zach’s face, his wounded arm. I remembered Aurelia trying to make it to me when her legs didn’t even work at all. I remembered how they’d tried to save me but all that blood on my leather jacket had made sure I slipped right through Zach’a fingers—yet I’d survived. From that rock the fall wasn’t long, and I’d survived.

I was alive and Hill wasn’t, and that was all that mattered.

Until I was pulled up by the same soldiers who were still speaking and I still couldn’t understand. I was pulled up all theway to my feet, and both of them held my weight because, turns out, my legs couldn’t really carry me. Not yet, anyway.

But finally, I forced myself to focus, to push down the thoughts in my head and reach for my face to wipe the dirt from my eyes, and I focused on my ears, too.

I’d fallen in the valley, indeed, and the first thing I saw in the distance was the soldiers. The fucking soldiers of the Delaetus Army, with their flesh and their armor on, their eyes closed as they remained perfectly still. Another wave of relief crashed onto me—Hill had managed to use his soul vessels, but he hadn’t awakened them. He’d needed the bracelet for that, and the bracelet was ours. Mine and Taland’s, and even if it wasn’t on me right now, hehad it, so it was okay.

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