Page 63 of Iridian

“All these years he went behind everybody’s back,” I whispered, closing my eyes for a moment, trying to get the image of his face away from my thoughts. Impossible.

“And he was incredibly smart about it. Gathered everything he needed, put it in the Vault. Not only did he make everything looklegal,hid it in plain sight, but he ensured the best security system and countless trained soldiers would be there to keep it safe.” Taland shook his head. “The only part of his plan that went astray wasus,” he whispered. “He couldn’t foresee that we’d fall in love.”

Goddess, how I loved those three words.

“I think I know why hechose methat day, and not Poppy. I think he thought I was too damaged, too closed up to allow anybody in.” That’s why he’d showed me those pictures of my parents, and why he’d asked me if I was sad or happy. I’d said no and he’d believed me. Or at least he didn’t know how I really felt.

So, in the end, maybe my ability to play a rockdidhelp me. It didn’t doom me—it saved me. Saved us all from him.

“He had a plan for everything,” said Taland in wonder.

“Imagine that kind of dedication to his actual fucking job,” I spit. He’d have made the world a better place for real if he’d spent all that energy being the actual IDD Director, instead of plotting to take over the world.

“He’s dead,” he said, as if he was reminding himself, too. “He’s gone—that’s all that matters.”

“Except now you’re stuck with thirty dead guys who live off magic, not air, and you have white eyes, and I haveno cluewhat we’re going to do next!” I laughed—couldn’t even tell you why. The pressure, the fear, the paranoia?

But the bitter sound was cut off abruptly when something moved to my side.

I turned, heart in my throat, but Taland said, “It’s okay,” before I started screaming.

Because one of the soldiers who’d been perfectly motionless until now, standing in line with his eyes closed, was walking down the mountain. His eyes were open and as white as I remembered, as white as Taland’s, and he stepped out of the formation and continued to walk ahead like we weren’t there at all. He must have been six foot seven, shoulders as wide as most tree trunks in this place, yet you could barely hear his footfalls on the forest floor as he moved. Walked, just like normal people, even though he was everything but.

That my heart didn’t leave my body was a miracle.

“What…what…what the hell?” I finally managed when the soldier went too far for me to see or hear, and then I turned halfway to the others, expecting them to come alive and open their eyes, too.

None did, though.

“Someone’s close to the wards down the mountain,” Taland said. “He’s going to check to make sure they go away.”

I shook my head again. “Are you serious?”

“They have our location. I wasn’t trying to hide,” Taland said. “They’ve come before—twice now. It’s fine.”

I stepped away from him and looked down at the trees, laughing like a fucking lunatic. “Who?! Who the hell is—who?”

“The Council, the IDD. Soldiers, agents,” Taland said, hands in his pockets as he looked at me with his white eyes.

“And?What happened?!”

“Nothing. They realized they can’t get through, and they walked away. They’re gonna keep coming back for a little while longer, I suspect, before they leave us alone for good. They’ll want to make sure that we stay here, I suppose.” And he was awfully calm about it. Not in the way that Taland was usually calm, no—it was a different calm, one I didn’t like at all.

With my eyes closed, I took in a deep breath and I tried to get my shit together. I really tried.

“What if they come through?” I asked in a whisper, but Taland had come closer to me so he heard.

“They won’t.Can’t.”

“But…but…” I didn’t even know what to say. Fuck, I was freaking out and I didn’t even know how to stop.

Luckily, Taland did.

He grabbed my face in his hands and came close until the tips of our noses touched, and even though his eyes hadn’t changed, hadn’t gained their colors back, in my mind I saw them for how they really were.

“Breathe with me, baby,” he whispered. “Breathe with me.”

So, we did.

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