Page 60 of Iridian

Unfortunately, it was time to get back to reality once more.

“It’s probably too late to say this, but youreallyshouldn’t have done that,” I said after a long time.

Taland chuckled—it brought out my smile.

He continued to chuckle, and so, of course. I joined him ten seconds in. We laughed together at the utter absurdity of our situation. What a fucking nightmare…

“I don’t regret it, though,” Taland said eventually.

“Not even the part where your eyes turned white?” I said, to tease him, but I was also genuinely curious.

“Not even that part, no,” he said, and again, he sounded so…depressed.I wasn’t used to it. In fact, I hated it.

I reached for his hand across the table. “You did what you had to do.”

“I did,” he said. “I amnotgoing to let anybody near you again. Nobody deserves to even be in your presence, let alone order an end to your life.”

Is it wrong that I loved him for saying that?

Yes, probably. But did it make me feel like the most important person in the world? Also,yes,so…

I just changed the subject. “It’s the Council—what the hell did we expect?”

“Oh, I expected them to turn on us, just not right away.”

“The same second Hill died,” I said, flinching at the memory. They hadn’t waited for us to even go back to Headquarters, or the city, or even to our fucking cars.

“I’m glad for it. If we’d gone back, I couldn’t have stopped them.”

I looked at him. “If we’d gone back, we’d have had a chance to escape. You wouldn’t have had to…” The words didn’t come because I had no idea exactly what Taland had done—or rather,whatithad done to Taland. “Can you explain it to me? How could you just…awakenthem? What exactly does that mean? Are they…yoursnow? At your command?”And what the hell were you thinking, getting yourself in this kind of trouble?!was what I didn’t say because I didn’t want to make it harder on him.

After all, he’d done all of this to protectme.And needless to say, I’d have done the exact same thing in his shoes.

Taland took a moment to think as we looked out at the trees. Goddess, it was so peaceful here, I never wanted to leave this place. But then again, I suspected the key element to many places I never wanted to leave was his presence.

“Hill employed the soul vessels he’d collected,” he eventually started, and I had to interrupt him already.

“I still have no idea what exactly that means.” And I couldn’t wait to start learning about magic—for real.Not what they taught us in high school or the IDD training academy—for everything magic could actually do.

“He basically gave an energy source for the soldiers to latch onto, to come back to life, something touseto…exist. Those little lights he sent into them contained life energy, and through it the soldiers could recover everything death took from them through the centuries. Flesh and blood and skin—and a functioning mind.”

I flinched, both because the explanation made sense—our souls were what keptusalive, too—and because it didn’t. Because how in the world could a soul still work on seven-hundred-year-old skeletons?

“He had everything prepared, thought through every single detail, and sweetness…” he squeezed my hand until I looked at him, and it was still a shock to see those eyes. So strange. Beautiful, but so damn strange. “He would have succeeded if you hadn’t stolen that bracelet.”

Heat rushed to my cheeks. “I didn’t even know what the hell I was doing,” I muttered because it was strange to be complimented fortheft,too.

“My little criminal,” Taland said with a grin that didn’t last, but it was the exact same grin as always, and I appreciated it. It reassured me that he was okay still, just…a bit changed.

“Like I said—he had everything prepared. They even found the bones of Titus, the same guy who madethem with his curse, together with the spell to basically call them to service.He planted the bones insideeach soldier before he planted the soul vessels, and so the army was actually capable of moving and performing magic exactly like before. Then all he needed was the actual magic to make his call.”

“The callyoumade instead.”

“The spell wasn’t complicated, believe it or not. Very standard necromancy, not even close to what Hill did to plant the soul vessels in them,” Taland said.

“And where are those spells now?” I dared to ask.

“Burned them—all three of them,” he said. “Destroyed the Script of Perria, too, though I suppose it’s useless now. The Army isn’t there anymore.”

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