Page 81 of Iridian

“Where’s he going?”

“The wards are being tested,” Taland said. “He’s just going to get the IDD to back off, no worries.”

I sighed deeply, thinking this was a good thing, that if they came to try to break through the ward now, they wouldn’t for another few hours at least. Enough so that Taland could finish the spell and rest for a few hours, heal if he needed to, and then we could be on our way.

The plan made perfect sense in my head. We were dressed and we had everything we needed—the bracelet. The rest we could figure out on the way.

When the soldiers were done preparing that circle with different shapes and Iridian words, they stood up and moved back. Taland gave me another kiss on the forehead before he entered it, stood in the very middle. He didn’t once look down to make sure everything was positioned right, I imagined because he trusted the soldiers, too. Or maybe because he simply saw through them?

His lips stretched into a wide grin and he winked at me. For a moment, even with his eyes all white, it was like we’d gone back in time and we were just a boy and a girl going to school together, falling in love. So…open.

That’s because Taland was relieved. He washappyto finally be doing this, to disconnect himself from these soldiers.

And I knew it was the right thing to do. We couldn’t keep these men here, trapped in our time, tied to this world still when they no longer belonged here. They belonged with Iris. Their soulsdeservedto be free.

But that didn’t mean that it hurt less.

So, when Taland kneeled on the ground and raised his hands toward the leaves and the stones that surrounded him, I turned my back to him for a moment, just to gather myself, to breathe while he chanted slowly. To remind myself of why he was doing this.

Not just for himself, but for these soldiers. These unfortunate men who’d been trapped here for so long, and now they stood here, motionless, forced to serve Taland, to obey every word hethought.

“You’ll be free,” I whispered, though I wasn’t even sure if they could hear me. “You’ll all be free soon.”

Then Taland stopped chanting abruptly.

It could have very well been that he finished the spell—one to keep the magic secure and inside the circle, very standard stuff to start off any big spell with.

But when I turned, I found him looking down the mountain, and he was slowly standing up, too, arms lowered. It didn’t look like he had any intention of continuing whatever spell he’d seen in the memories of the soldiers right now.

“Taland?”

I went closer because I could have sworn that he wasn’t breathing at all. He wore a simple black shirt that was tight enough around his torso so I could see that his chest was still. He didn’t turn to even look at me at first, and when I went closer, I saw nothing down the mountain. Heard nothing at all, just the animals of the forest.

“What is it, Taland? Is it the IDD?” Because that soldier had gone down there and he hadn’t returned, but others weren’t rushing after him like they would do if he needed help. They were all linked—the other soldiers would know.

“No,” he said, shaking his head, finally looking at me. “It’s my brothers.”

My stomach fell all the way to my heels. “Your brothers?” Barely any voice came out of me. “Why? What…what do they want?”

They hadn’t come to look for us, not even once. They had never come close, and we had talked about it, Taland and I. We figured they were laying low, that they were still tending to their wounds, regrouping, that they couldn’t get close to us because of the number of soldiers that seemed to be permanently stationed around this mountain.

“To talk,” Taland said. “They want to talk.”

I looked at the trees again, expecting the face of Radock Tivoux to simply materialize among those leaves. A thousand questions, a thousand instincts came over me at once. Within the minute my mind was a chaotic mess again.

“Sweetness,” Taland said, and I knew what he meant.

“Let them come,” I said. “I think we should let them come up here.”

“Are you sure?” Taland asked, and I wasn’t. Not even close. I was half convinced that it was my fear talking, that my subconsciousness was convincing me because I wanted to postpone that spell as much as I could, even unknowingly.

No, I wasn’t sure, but then again… “There must be a reason why they are coming herenow.”

“There is, I think,” Taland said, closing his eyes for a moment. “Radock looks…desperate.”

It shocked me all over again that he couldseehis brother from all the way up here, just because one of his soldiers could.Fuck.

“Let them come,” I repeated, just because I knew that if we didn’t see them, didn’t talk to them, we’d regret it later.

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