Page 57 of Iridian

They weren’t.

“Of course, I’m afraid, Taland. You have white eyes!” As if he needed me to remind him…

He squeezed them shut and shook his head, a ghost of a smile on his lips. “I thought you were afraidof me.”

This time I did laugh even if the sound was awful and chased the birds nearby away. “I figured that much when I didn’t wake up in your arms, asshole.” I rose on my tiptoes and kissed his lips, both to feel him all the way and to ease this terror that had gripped me by the throat.

“I’m sorry, sweetness. I…I didn’t know how you’d react,” he whispered, and his eyes were still closed as he caressed my cheeks and pushed my hair back.

“Look at me,” I said, and it took him a while to open his eyes. It took him a while tolookat me.

I couldn’t even tell you how I knew that he could see me when his eyes really were purely white. I couldn’t tell you how I knew that I was at the center of his focus, but I did. Ifeltit.

I shook my head, battling that terror still. “Whyare your eyes white, Taland?” I sounded breathless because I was.

Again, he closed his eyes and tried to lower his head, maybe because he still thought I was afraid of him.

“No, don’t!” I said and pushed his chin back up again. “I’m not afraid of you, Taland. I couldn’t care less what color your eyes are, but I need to know that you’re okay.”

That I even had to tell him that was ridiculous, but right now neither of us were really thinking straight.

He smiled again and it looked painful. “I’m fine. I promise, I’m fine,” he said.

“Then tell me why. Can you…see?” I thought he could, but I still needed to hear him say it.

“Better than ever, actually. I can see every color of your hair. Every speck in your eyes. Every single freckle that my normal eyes missed.” His hands were on my face and he traced his thumb on my skin like he really was witnessing wonder.

“How?”

“I…” He shook his head. “I lost it, sweetness. They were going to kill you. They were holding you down and I couldn’t stop them. I couldn’t get there in time—and even if I could, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything against them on my own. So, I just…lost it. The spell was there. I picked it up and I chanted. I didn’t think—whether it would work or not, I didn’t think.”

Again, that bitter laughter came out of me—poor birds. “You…you brought back an army of dead soldiers for me.” And wasn’t that just fuckingwonderful?!

He touched his forehead to mine. “I’ll bring the sky down for you, too, if you want.”

All those tears that slipped out of my eyes made my view of him blurry. “Let’s just leave the sky alone for now.”

He kissed me with his breath held and his whole body frozen, like he, too, wished we could just stop right there forever, in that moment, in that place. But we couldn’t stop time, unfortunately for us, and so eventually, we had to face the voices in our heads. We had to face our reality.

“Talk to me,” I said, my lips against his still, our hands on each other. “Where are we? What happened at Perria? Where are the others?”

The images flashed in front of my eyes as I spoke—of the Council and his brothers, and Zach carrying Aurelia in his arms.

“We’re in another Selem safe house, the only one they have on a mountain that I know about. We’re on Mount Rhoden in Virginia, about two hours away from Perria,” Taland said. “The others are all alive. I made sure the IDD and the Council were gone before I left them and took you away.”

Took me away.

I stepped back, the feel of those hands around my arms suddenly in the center of my mind. “Where…where…” I couldn’t even bring myself to ask, but Taland knew exactly what I was trying to say, so he answered.

“They’re here,” he said, and how was I still standing?

“They’rehere,”I repeated, just to make sure I’d gotten it right.

He nodded. “They’re…around.”

I drew in a deep breath. “I—”want to see them,I was going say, to go against every single instinct in my body and say those words that were absolutely not true. Ididn’t wantto see any dead soldiers come back to life. I didn’t. Not now and not ever.

Except I knew I had to.

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