Page 94 of Iridian

Radock clapped his hands.

Some cheered and some cursed under their breath while Taland and I held each other’s eyes.

“Looks like it’s already time to party!” Seth shouted.

It wouldn’t be a party, but it was time, all right. It was time to get rid of the Council that had ruled our world for centuries now. The same people whose job had been toprotect us, who were now slaughtering their own, killing innocent people, takingbackthe power they were so terrified of losing. Taking back complete control.

It was no different from what Titus had tried to do at all, except the Council had found a way to make it look legal, too.

No more.

Taland pulled me to his chest, and I rested my head on his shoulder for a moment, just to gather strength, to breathe in deeply, to get the image of a bleeding, tied up Cassie out of my mind. It worked, but only halfway.

“Hey, look at me,” Taland said after a moment, and I did. His white eyes had become sonormalto me now, like he’d never had color in them to begin with.

“We’re going to get her out.”

“And we’re going to takethemout as well. Once and for all.” I strangely sounded much more confident than I felt.

Taland grinned. “I love it when you talk dirty to me, baby,” he whispered against my lips, and it was impossible not to smile.

“I’ll talk dirty to you all day when this is over.” When Cassie—no,the whole worldwas safe from the likes of the people who made the fucking Council.

“It’s a promise.”

Taland kissed me—right there in front of all of them.

Some told us to get a room and others called for us to keep going, that they loved to watch (Seth and Aurelia), but we didn’t care. We kissed for a moment and we breathed each other in, and when we let go, we were bothfuller.

Then we got to work, and I didn’t allow myself to consider even once that we would not make it out of this alive.

Chapter 23

Rosabel La Rouge

Three hours to Baltimore.

“I want to sit with them,” I said to Taland when we put on our warded leathers and prepared to ride to the city together with a small army of people, and a thirty-man army of cursed Laetus.

Talk aboutunbelievable.

“Of course,” said Taland, just when I expected him to want to argue about it, to tell me that I was better off in a car with him and some of the others. After all, it had been a hassle to figure out transportation from Pittsburgh to Baltimore for all the people who’d joined our cause. Most had their own cars, but plenty didn’t. Aurelia and Zach had made deals with a transportation company and a rental, and from what I understood, it had cost them a shitload just to get everything in place so we could leave at the crack of dawn.

Surreal.We were leaving for Baltimore—to fight. The Council, the IDD—to fight. We were all going to a battle we weren’t sure we would win. In fact, most didn’t think they’d ever make it back. You could feel it in the air, see it in their eyes, theway all of them wanted to say something to someone,anyone,but then chose not to at the last second. Chose to hope because wasn’t that all that we had right now?Hopeand the desire to change the world we lived in—in the time that was ours. Hope for a better life for those who came next.

Taland and I would ride in this old school bus with eighteen soldiers. They were already inside, but I stayed by the doors and waited for him while he went to clear things with Radock and the others.

While I waited, I watched the people walking and running to and from the cars and vans and all buses that had blocked the road in front of the warehouse completely. The sun had already turned the sky grey, but it was dotted with darker clouds. Angry clouds, like Goddess was angry that this day had come.

Truth be told, at that point, I wasn’t really a believer. If I allowed myself to be, I feared I’d lose my grit and will to fuckingdestroythe Council and everyone who worked for them, not just for what they had done to Cassie, and to me, and to Taland, but for what they’d done to everyone. How they’d twisted the world, what they’d made it into for us, for Taylor and everyone like her.

No, I wasn’t going to have mercy, not today. I couldn’t afford to, and that was fine by me.

“Scared?”

I looked toward the truck behind us where the rest of the soldiers were waiting to be transported, to find Aurelia holding onto the side mirror, one foot on the stair of the truck cabin. She wore navy blue leathers that looked almost black from here, and her hair was done on a thick braid that went down her back, and her halo shone brightly over her head—her protection spell activated. Their father had created special ones just for her and Zach with his blood when they were just children. Just like Taland’s mom had made her sons those charms.

It made me wonder what more I’d missed, not only when I lost my parents, but when I was left with a grandmother the likes of Madeline, too.

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