Page 89 of Iridian

“About two hundred,” Zach finally said. “They’ve hit most of our communities. Have killed a lot of our people already.”

“That’s not going to cut it.” Two hundred wasn’t enough.

“Except it is,” Kaid said, standing from where he sat on the armrest of the couch near Radock, his eyes on Taland. “With your army, we can get through easily. In West Virginia, we all saw what they are capable of.”

I looked at Taland, too, the question in my eyes. Everything that happened in that valley from the moment I fell from the landing and until I passed out was a blur to me still. I’d been wounded, tired, so weak.

Taland said, “I think so, too. They can get past any defense they have. They can get to the Council members.”

And I believed him, except… “They’ll know we’re coming. They’ll be prepared.”

“They will,” Radock said. “I am actually counting on it, and I think they willwant to fight themselves because they want the soldiers. They’ll try to take Taland out quickly, and I don’t think they’ll trust others to do that.” That actually made a lot of sense. “Your soldiers will fight them, while the rest of us keep everyone else off their backs.”

The more he spoke, the moreI sawthe whole thing unfolding before my eyes. Maybe because I’d been in a lot of fights, or maybe because I’d been face-to-face with death so many times, but I felt like I could taste the blood on my tongue, feel the magic in the air, hear the screams in my mind.

Goddess, Ididn’t wantto do this anymore. I never wanted to have to fight anybody ever again, but I knew I had to. All of us did. Like Taland said, there was no way I’d ever be able to live with myself if I sat back and watched now.

But if we were all lucky,thismight be the last fight any of us ever needed to have.

For a while there, everyone was lost in their own thoughts, trying to imagine a scenario in which this worked in our favor. Incredibly hard to do, or maybe just for me. Because I knew what the Council was capable of. What the IDD was capable of.

“We’ll have a system that David designed himself,” Zachary eventually said. “I’m sure he never expected the day would come when we’d actually use it, but I believe it’s a good system. We might have only two hundred people to fight with us, but if we know what we’re doing, they’ll be enough.” Then he looked at me. “And if we have help from the inside, that would be even better. I’m sure Madeline Rogan is still in charge of the?—”

“No.” I spoke so fast it was almost funny.

“He’s right, though,” Aurelia said. “She is in charge of the IDD army right now—there is nobody more qualified that the Council trusts. If we can get her to help us?—”

“She’ll serve us to them on a silver platter,” I cut her off, too. Just the thought of actually working with Madeline or trusting her in any way made my skin crawl, made me want to start screaming at their faces until they came to their fucking senses. “You remember how you found me when you came to her mansion. She had already servedmeto the Council. They were about to kill me when you arrived. Right there in her office, on her couch, in front of her eyes.”

They all flinched and lowered their heads, except for Radock. “What if we offer her something, though? She doesn’t care aboutyou, but I’d say she cares a great deal about herself.”

“There’s nothing you can offer her that she doesn’t already have.” Money, power, the Council’s favor—and now she got to run the IDD and command its army, too, at least until they picked someone else to do it.

To her, that waseverything.

“We still have Cassie,” Kaid said. “She can still give us information.”

“What little she has access to isn’t going to be very helpful to us,” Radock said, then looked up at me. “La Rouge here is a former agent, like she said, and she might know a thing or two about how they build their defenses.”

“In such a way that you die if you get close,” I said because I knew he was trying to mock me. “They’ll have three layers of protective wards, if they’re treating the Council chambers like the Headquarters, which they probably are. And they’ll have three soldiers assigned per head of opponent, with another three lying in wait close by.”

“Which is basically what they did in West Virginia,” Aurelia said in wonder. “And that’s fine, isn’t it? We can put David’sstrategy to good use. We’ll separate our forces into three, deal with the wards, and the soldiers, and then…” She looked up at Taland as her voice trailed off.

“I think Radock is right,” Taland said. “The Council will be there themselves, and the soldiers will engage with them right away. If we’re lucky, we won’t have to make anyone else fight at all.”

“You’re certain they can defeat all the members,” said Radock, and Taland nodded.

“Half of the soldiers, if not more, will be destroyed, but they can defeat them.” The ease with which he spoke left no room for doubt.

Suddenly, Radock stood up, and everyone else followed. I did, too, and Taland was already beside me, taking my hand in his.

“That’s all we really need to know,” he told us. “Pack your bags then, brother. La Rouge. We’re going back to the real world.”

Hold on,I wanted to say.

This is too fast, too sudden.

I was getting used to living here with Taland, watching movies and reading books and being at peace for once in my life.