Page 91 of Iridian

No.Fuck, no—none of these people could have them.

Again, Taland pulled me closer to and whispered in my ear, “Ignore them, sweetness. None of it matters.”

And he was right, of course.

But the others kept on talking and I couldn’t help but be afraid that they’d somehow find out that Taland couldsharethe soldiers with someone else if he chose to. I couldn’t help but feel like they would be just as big a threat as the Council, and as ridiculous as that idea seemed on the surface, Radock wasabsolutelysomeone who’d usemeto get Taland to do his bidding. He wouldn’t even hesitate. There was no doubt in my mind about that part.

Which was why it was important to keep that information to ourselves.

When we made it to the bottom of that mountain, there really were no cars and no IDD, just the soldier that Taland had sent first, waiting for us. I looked at him and I tried to figure out which one of them he could be, what his name was, his story.

I couldn’t, of course. The helmets didn’t let anybody see their faces, even notice the white of their eyes from a distance.

“Our cars are just a couple minutes away,” Kaid told us, nodding ahead at the large trees.

Before walking under the thick canopy of the forest, I looked up at the sky and I saw the little machine far away—so far it looked like an insect to the untrained eye. But I knew what it was. I’d seen those magically enhanced drones countless times, had gone on missions with them leading my way with the team.Maybe there were no soldiers on this side of the mountain to stop us, but the Council had eyes here as well.

The Council saw us, possibly live right this very second, and they knew we were coming. They would prepare and they would put up the fight of their lives. I had no doubt about it.

I just hoped for our sake that what was left of the Delaetus Army really made the difference we thought it would make.

It took us almost five hours to get back to Pittsburgh. The farther away from the safe house we traveled, the heavier my shoulders became.

The soldiers had torunbehind us until we reached the nearest town from the mountain and found a big enough vehicle to fit all of them in. A bus would have been ideal, but all Radock managed to buy was an old van that barely fit twelve of them, and a large truck for carrying trees that we made work for the rest.

Taland assured me that they didn’t feel discomfort and they didn’t mind sitting so close together, that the wind didn’t bother them, that they weren’t uncomfortable in any way. Still, I couldn’t help but feel guilty. I couldn’t help but feel they were vulnerable out in the open like that, where anybody could see them, attack them, or call them in at the very least.

But the Council already knew where we were—they’d seen us through that drone. And we weren’t trying to hide, Taland said.They should know we’re coming,and they did. I had no doubt about that.

Even so I didn’t stop fidgeting until we made it to that warehouse near The Diamond Club where Radock had ordered Kaid and Seth to kill me the night I came looking for them.

The bad memories settled on my shoulders, too, but the warehouse attached to the strip club hybrid had plenty of space to accommodate the soldiers. Ten remained outside, spread out to watch the perimeter. The others came in, took their places by the walls of the room we brought them into—I’m sure by Taland’s orders. And once they did, they all closed their eyes in unison as if they’d clicked off completely. Like they’ddisconnected.

This because it was easier on Taland’s mind when they were asleep—fewer voices in his head, less information to process at any given time.

Meanwhile, Radock and the others continued to look at him, to be amazed,fascinatedby the way he and the soldiers were connected.

Don’t get me wrong—I was, too. It was amazing and fascinating and incredible, but they only saw half the story here. They only saw what Taland allowed them to see—which was the surface. Thebenefitof this curse, if there even was such a thing. They had no idea about the voices, the pleading, the stories that Taland carried in his head every second. They had no idea what the price to pay for such control over these men was.

And a part of me was certain that theywouldn’tbe paying this price at all if it was them. If any of them had had the power to awaken the Delaetus Army, they’d have had no trouble silencing the soldiers even when they were awake. They had what it took to wield such weapons—just like David Hill would have had. Like Titus did.

Not Taland, though. His heart was too pure. He could never live with the guilt of knowing he did nothing tohelpthese men—and neither could I.

So, in the end, it didn’t really matter what they thought, just like Taland said. It didn’t matter if Radock hoped to change Taland’s mind about releasing them, or if they thought he was afool for wanting to in the first place. They couldn’t stop us. When the time came, when the Council was no longer the Council, Taland could do the ritual and release them.

Then and only then would the two of us be really free as well.

For two days, we remained in the warehouse, slept in these rooms made of concrete walls and low ceilings that made me feel like I was suffocating any time I felt a little anxious. There were no doors to these rooms, and so we could hear the others sleeping in the ones near us in the basement as well. I barely got any sleep at all.

Taland was the same. Not just because of the rooms or the uncomfortable mattress, but because of the soldiers, too. Their voices that he was trying extra hard to keep at bay now that we were in the company of others. He didn’t want them to know, he told me that first night when we went out for a walk to get some air behind the warehouse. He didn’t want anybody to know the toll it took on him because he didn’t trust Radock not to try to take advantage of it somehow.

The plan was to attack the Council in their chambers—which was on the other side of the city from Madeline’s mansion, at the very edge—on Saturday, which was three days away. I thought we needed more time to get properly ready, to make sure we prepared as many wards as we could. To make sure that we’d gathered every single person who wanted to fight against them, to train them just a little bit longer on basic combat spells. It surprised me because the moment they put out the call, over three hundred responded—people who’d never been in Selem before, people who’d been of the Council through and through. I guess they didn’t agree with how they were handling the public now that they felt threatened, that they feared their control had slipped. And it wasn’t just in Maryland; the IDD had alreadystarted to go absolutely crazy in every other part of the country as well.

It was chaos, worse than anything I could have ever imagined, which was the story of my life. Reality had a way of finding more twisted and surprising ways tobethan what any of us had the capacity to foresee.

Meanwhile, Taland insisted that we shouldn’t wait at all, that the bulk of attacks on both the defense forces of the Council and the wards would be done by his soldiers. Radock and Aurelia didn’t agree, though. They wanted to save the soldiers for the Council because they knew that they couldn’t win against them.

Wealone couldn’t win against them, unfortunately. That I knew. Taland and I had beaten Hill only barely—together, using the bracelet and our Laetus magic,afterhe was already exhausted by having used those soul vessels to basically give flesh and skin to the soldiers, preparing them tobe alive.

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