Page 77 of Iridian

Taland said nothing for a little while.

“Do you hear me? Do it, Taland. Set them free,” I repeated as he walked over to my other side, all the way to the last soldier in line, to the very edge where the mountain continued on a steep rise of smooth rock, impossible to climb. Even so, I knew someone would try to get to us from the other side eventually, but I was prepared.

Because this was inhumane. This was unacceptable.

“I can’t,” Taland whispered, lowering his head, his jaws clenching.

“We’repart of it,”I said, shaking my head at myself, at him. “The longer we keep them here, the longer we are a part of this cruelty.” I went to him, grabbed his hands. “We’re no better than Hill or Titus, Taland. We’re?—”

His finger pressed over my lips. “Don’tever say that again,” he told me. “There’s not a single part of you that could compare even remotely to what those men were capable of. WhatIam capable of. You are not us and you never will be.”

Funny guy. He made me laugh. “Oh, you think you’re on the same level as Hill and Titus? Why don’t you try saying that to me when you actually order these soldiers to stay silent, and you don’t lose your fucking mind to their cries of help. Try then, Taland, and maybe I’ll believe you!”

Because I could be wrong, and we didn’t compare to the likes of David Hill and Titus, buthewasn’t evil. Taland, as much as he tried to appear so to the world, had a bigger heart than anybody I knew.

“Sweetness—”

“And maybe we’re not those men, but we will be if we keep this up. We will be just as guilty if we don’t release these soldiers.” That, at least, was a truth even he couldn’t deny.

A bitter smile curled the corners of his lips. “Ican’tdo it, baby. Not only because I can’t keep you safe on my own now, but because I don’t know how.” His hands framed my face. He touched me gently. “I don’t know how to release them. Hill only had the necromancy spell with him, not the original spell thatmadethem, or anything that could set them free of this curse.”

My stomach turned. I held onto his wrists and rose on my tiptoes to give him a peck on the lips because it almost seemed like he was expecting me to push him away or something because I was pissed off and panicking.

“Then let’s figure it out.” We were no experts on revived soldiers or curses to basically possess them, but we could learn, couldn’t we? “There must be somewhere we can go to search for answers, someone we could talk to.”

“There isn’t,” Taland said. “I’ve been thinking about it since we got here. I’ve been searching their minds, their memories, trying to figure it out, but Titus was very thorough. He left no loose ends and if he ever created a counter spell for his curse, he never shared it with anyone. Not that these soldiers know, anyway.”

I shook my head, turned to look at them, then back at Taland. “Then we’llmakeone,” I whispered. “You have the power, don’t you? If you can control all of these soldiers, you can create a spell to break this curse.”

Taland paused for a moment, and I knew that he wasn’t focused on me, even though his eyes were still just as white.

“You there?”

He sighed, smiled a little, and leaned in for a kiss. “Yes, of course. I’m here, just thinking.”

“You’re a Blackfire. Necromancy is kind of your thing,” I whispered. “Well, youwerea Blackfire, but now you have the power of a Laetus and the expertise of a Blackfire. To me that sounds like a very good start.”

“It’s not so simple,” Taland whispered. “Titus didn’t use necromancy to create the curse—he used Whitefire. He created—forgedthis inter-soul link from scratch.”

“But you can destroy it,” I said—not because I knew he could, but I was just hopeful. Desperate.

“Destroying it doesn’t mean they will be free, though. That’s the thing—merely undoing the curse doesn’t guarantee that they’re released from the bond with Titus. He still lives, in a way, through them. Through his bones that Hill planted in their bodies.”

Taland’s eyes squeezed shut, and I understood. My head was killing me, too—all of this was too complicated, and I couldn’t even begin to understand what it took to make—orunmakesomething of this magnitude.

But I knew one thing, though. “We have to try.” For the sake of these men who were tricked and trapped and suffering every second of every day.

“We will,” Taland said. “We’ll try.”

“It’s going to work,” I said, not because I knew it for a fact, but just because I wanted to believe it. Ineededto believe it. “It’s going to work, Taland. You are very powerful—that you were even able to bring them back proves it. And even after they’re gone, we will be perfectly fine because we still have the bracelet. We can both use it—together. That’s how we killed Hill, remember?”

Again, he smiled, but this time it was sad. Heartbreaking. “I do. I remember everything.”

“So, you know that we will be just fine, you and I. We’ll disappear somewhere, live off the radar.”

“On another mountain. Maybe an island somewhere,” he said, with a nod.

“And we can create our own protection shields and wards from scratch. We can be invisible to the whole world.” Maybe notinvisible, but we could find a way to make wards last for a long time. Like the charm his mother made him—we could take that spell and alter it, enhance it. “As long as we’re together, I don’t mind living anywhere at all. I don’t care where we are or if we have to run and hide all the time.”

---