Page 71 of Iridian

I kept calling his name.

“Please,” I said, those damn tears spilling down my cheeks without stop. “Taland, look at me. Snap out of it—justlookat me!”

He didn’t.

It was so strange to see him like that, so completely lost. So strange to be ignored by him that every time he stabbed that tree it felt like he was stabbing right at my heart.

“Taland! Taland, please, just—” I grabbed his arm, tried to pull him to the side.

The soldiers around us moved.

All five of them who’d been standing by the trees as still as the night took a step forward, towardus, and their eyes were open. Had they been open until now? I couldn’t really remember—I was so used to them being perfectly motionless any time I came across them, that I no longer even cared to look at their eyes.

“Taland, listen to me,” I tried again, telling myself that I didn’t have to be afraid because those soldiers weren’t going to attack us. Of course not—they belonged tohimnow. “Please, baby, listen to me. Look at me, Taland, look at me!”

I grabbed his hands and tried to pry the knife out of them, but it was like trying to move fucking steel.

And Taland pushed me to the side with all his strength the next second.

It was so unexpected, like someone had pulled me back by invisible strings, had slammed me against the ground hard.

The soldiers moved again.

Everything happened so fast.

Hands on my arms, pulling me up to my feet. Two soldiers were holding me, while another two stood in front of me, moving like they’d just materialized out of thin air.

Fear gripped me by the throat because I thought they were coming for me, that they would hurt me, or try to—and Taland couldn’t even tell. I couldn’t defend myself because I didn’t have the bracelet on me, hadn’t even thought to put it on, but…

The soldiers hadn’t turned on me. The ones who pulled me to my feet had already let go of me, though they remained by my sides, and the other two had their backs to me. They were all looking at Taland.

I could hardly believe my own eyes.

They wereprotectingmefromTaland.

A scream ripped out of me, and it came from my very soul. Not only because I didn’t understand what was happening, but because Taland couldn’t hear me.

Fortunately for me, that scream must have pierced through whatever spell he was under because, finally, he did.

Finally, he stopped hissing at the trees in French, stopped stabbing them.

He blinked slowly, looked down at his hands, at the knife in them. He looked up at the tree again, then at the soldiers between us andmestanding behind them.

He saw me. This time, hesawme.

“Sweetness…”

My knees gave and I hit the ground. The soldiers moved away from me and took their places around those trees again. Taland stood up, brows narrowed, shaking his head. The knife fell from his hand and he came to me, kneeled in front of me, touched my face, wiped my tears that wouldn’t stop coming.

“What…what happened?” he asked me.

Heaskedme.

Laughter burst out of me, the bitter kind that scratched my throat on the way out. I could hardly stop for a second to draw in air, even when Taland wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his naked chest.

We didn’t calm down for a long time.

My legs refused to carry me no matter how cold it was outside at this hour. Taland was burning, though, his skin hot. I was still against his chest, hands hanging onto his naked shoulders, and minutes could have passed since he came to his senses—or hours.

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