Page 86 of Iridian

They all spoke almost at the same time, and I understood exactly what they meant, how this looked to them from outside—easy. They saw Taland like this all-powerful mage who had super soldier slaves doing his bidding without him even having to speak an order out loud.

Maybe that’s really what he was on the surface. Except this whole thing went much deeper than that.

“That’s enough,” said Taland when Zachary opened his mouth to speak again. “Enough. You don’t need to understandanything, and you may think of me whatever you like, but I’m still going to set them free.”

In the silence that followed, I heard what he didn’t say to them, what we’d talked about all night. All those stories, the way it made him feel to carry their burden on his shoulders…

It was wrong, so fucking wrong that they were tricked and bonded and had to suffer like this for the past seven centuries. Cruel, evil—pick your favorite word.

But at the same time…

“We won’t survive it,” Aurelia said. “Without them, we won’t survive this outrage of the Council, or their new regime. They have plans. They havemonstrousplans on how to keep the people under control, and they’re not playing around. This is serious, Taland.” And she suddenly sounded terrified.

My heart grew heavier.

“Oh, he knows how serious this is. He knows the Council,” Radock said, putting his hands in his pockets again. “But apparently these soldiers are more important than we are.” He came closer and it made me so damn uncomfortable that I stood up just to keep him away from Taland. I didn’t trust this man, either.

But then he said, “What aboutherthen?” My stomach fell. “What about Rosabel?How are you going to keep her safe from them when they come—andthey willcome. As surely as I am standing here, they will come.”

“Step back, Radock,” I said, despite my better judgment, despite the part of me that wantedmeto step back and let them talk about it. But since he’d already putmein the conversation, I wasn’t going to back down now.

“He’s right,” Zach said. “Without those soldiers to keep the Council off your back, they’ll find you. Even if you hide, they’ll find you eventually. You saw what it’s like out there.”

I looked back to find Taland had closed his eyes, jaws clenched, hands fisted.

Fuck, he needed to be away from everyone right now.

“We’ll need a minute,” I said and grabbed him by the wrist the next second, pulled him to the doors.

“We don’t have a minute—we don’t have any time at all!” Aurelia said, but I didn’t stop.

“I know, Aurelia. We’ll be right back.”

Taland walked with me, let me drag him all the way to the door while the others complained, told us that the Council was moving, that they weren’t giving anybody a second chance, not even afirst.And I knew that, I knew that very well, but I also knew what they didn’t—how much it cost Taland to keep up this curse, to be linked to those soldiers the way he was. His pain was my pain, and we were going to take a moment no matter what they thought or what the Council was doing. Taland deserved a fucking moment.

I locked the doors and led him all the way to the porch on the other side of the house, from where we could look at the trees and the bright blue morning sky, where only animals moved and birds sang. No soldiers and no Council and no Selem—nothing, just us.

Letting go of a long breath, I turned around and I wrapped my arms around his torso before the first tear slipped from my eyes.

It was going to be a long day.

Chapter 21

Rosabel La Rouge

We didn’t let go of one another for a while. It was easier to talk like that, anyway. He kept me grounded and I did the same for him.

“Talk to me,” Taland said.

As if on cue, angry tears burned my eyes. “They’re fuckingsick.” Just as sick as David Hill, as my grandmother—as fucking Titus had been. Power-hungry assholes with no limits and no care for anyone but themselves.

“They are,” he whispered, kissing the top of my head. “Don’t lie to me, sweetness. Tell me what you think.”

I held onto his shirt with all my strength and squeezed my eyes shut tightly. It hurt everywhere all of a sudden. I just wanted to run away and disappear.

I bit my tongue and pressed my lips together as my silent tears wet his shirt because I didn’t want totalk, damn it. I knew what the consequences to both options were very well.

On the one hand, if Taland saved himself—which I wished he would do despite everything—he’d doom everyone else. And ifhe tried to save everyone else,ifhe even could with only thirty soldiers against the Council, he’d doom himself. There was no telling what it would do to him to keep those men linked to him like this. It had already drained him completely in less than two weeks.

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