Page 56 of Iridian

Then…

Kill them all.

Three words that rang in my ears and chased away the beautiful song of the birds. My eyes finally opened as my heart picked up the beating, and the pieces of the puzzle in my mind connected, and I finally saw the bigger picture. I finally saw where I was the last time I was awake, whose hands had been on me.

Armor, helmets, bracelets, white eyes—I sat up with a scream stuck in my throat that didn’t even let me breathe properly now. I blinked my eyes possibly a thousand times to convince myself that I wasn’t in that fuckinggravebetween the mountains, but instead I was surrounded by trees and birds and sunlight.

And Taland.

It took me a moment to notice him standing not fifty feet away from me in a wide pathway between large green trees, his back turned to me. It took me a moment to see where I was, understand that there was no danger near me anywhere, convince myself to allow the birdsong to calm me down a bit so I could think straight. The air was light here, indeed, and it smelled like flowers. I wasn’t wearing my jacket, only my shirt and jeans, and most of the dirt and blood on my hands had been cleaned, but more remained. Under my nails, in the cracks of my skin. All of it remained to remind me of what had happened, as if to prove to me that all of it had really been real.

I sat up, reminding myself to breathe, to shake the numbness out of my hands, to not panic or fear because Taland was right there—alive and standing between those trees, looking out at something. And I was alive, too. Though my limbs were weak and numb with anxiety, I didn’t think I felt any pain, at least right now.

My clothes, though. Goddess, they were a mess of dirt and blood, and the memories of how I came to be covered in so much blood were right there suddenly, at the center of my mind. It was like I was reliving the whole thing all over again, like I had my arms wrapped around Hill, like heexplodedbetween them and threw me off the damn landing.

A muffled cry escaped my lips before I could catch it with my hands, but it was loud enough in the quiet of this forest we were in.

Taland heard.

Taland turned and looked at me.

A whole new kind of terror took hold of my body and mind and heart.

My eyes rolled in my skull and I passed out again.

Minutes, or maybe years later, I came to. Felt the slow breeze, and the sunlight now on more than half my body. The birds were still singing, and the air was still featherlight.

My mind still insisted that what I’d seen—minutes or years ago—was real.

Taland with his hair back and his skin pale and his eyes white.

The same shock and fear pulled me awake violently, and again, I sat up, hands to my heart to keep it inside my ribcage. It wanted to fly out right now—right now.It wanted to stop beating, too, with the same intensity.

Taland was sitting about ten feet away on the wooden railing of what was a porch to a house I’d never seen before, with large trees and large leaves falling all over the roof and the pillars. The top of the railing was as thick as a bench, probably on purpose, and that’s where I was lying, too, though on the other side of the low stairs that led to the porch.

On the other side, so far away from him, yet I could still see with perfect clarity that his eyes were white.

Like white spheres, white marbles stuck to his skull. No color. No iris. No pupil. Nothing but white.

“Baby, don’t be afraid of me.”

If he’d have slapped me in that moment, I’d have probably been less surprised.

“You…you…” I shook my head, swallowed to wet my throat. “You’re adamn fool.”

When I made to move, to stand up from that railing, I didn’t actually think my legs would hold me, but they did. When I walked as fast as I could I didn’t actually think that I’d ever make it all the way to Taland, who had also stood up and was looking at me like he expected me to fall unconscious again.

Tears streamed from my eyes when I wrapped my arms around his neck and fell against his chest and I held him to me with all the strength I could muster. He was alive and it washim—his face and his voice and his warmth. He’d made it.We’dmade it. Somehow, in some fucked up way, we’d actually made it and we were here, whereverherewas.

He kissed my hair and buried his face on my neck and breathed in the scent of me like I smelled better than the air. The birds sang louder, and they came closer and sounded more cheerful—or maybe it was just me. We stayed there for a good long moment, soaking up each other’s warmth, allowing our hearts and minds to calm down for a bit.

“You passed out,” Taland whispered eventually, and I could have laughed.

“You have white eyes.”

“I thought you were afraid.” And he soundedhorrifiedby the fact.

“Iam.” I let go of him to lean back a little, to see his face, half of me sure that I’d only imagined it, that his eyes would be the same as always. Dark and rich with color and secrets and sparks that could make the stars jealous.

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