Page 113 of Mud

“And you’re certain of that,” Hill said.

“I am.”

“I am inclined to believe you, seeing as you spend more and more time in his dorm room lately, and even stay the night,” he said, and my cheeks burned bright scarlet. I knew Hill was watching me—of course he would be, and he’d let me know that he knew I was dating Taland since the second month I called to update him. But it still made me want to run away from my own skin screaming every time he mentioned it because he thought he knew why I was doing it.

He thought I was doing it for the mission, but even so, David Hill wasnotsomeone I wanted to talk to about these things, not even close.

“So, believe me,” I ended up saying, but he pretended I hadn’t.

“However, you will continue to keep an eye on him, and I do trust your judgment isn’t being impaired by…anything, Rose.” I knew exactly what he meant, of course, but I pretended that I didn’t.

“Of course not,” I simply said. Because no matter how infatuated I was with Taland, I would know if he was up to something—like stealing a magical artifact from our school, as Hill and the IDD believed. I would know all about it by now.

“Good. We have reason to believe that he will make an attempt at your Feast of Hope celebration in two months. If you find any evidence before then, call me at any time. Otherwise, I will be in touch with you before the party.”

“The Feast of Hope? But that’s?—”

Hill hung up.

Cursing under my breath, I threw the phone against the bed, and grabbed my hair in my fists just to try to let out some of the frustration. He was fucking insane—Taland was not a criminal. He worked hard and studied hard. Maybe he paid people to do his homework sometimes, but he had a brilliant mind and could learn a lesson faster than any of the other classmates, including me.

He wasnota damn criminal!

A knock on my door. “Coming?!” Briar called.

“Be right down!” I called back, then grabbed the phone and hid it in the closet. I’d promised the girls to get brunch together today, and I wasn’t going to miss that date because of Hill.

He was wrong about Taland, and I didn’t need to be so stressed out about it because he would know soon. Time would tell. Who cared how long it took—Hill and the entire IDD would know eventually that Taland was not their guy.

And when school was over and we moved in together like we planned, I was going to tell Taland the whole truth about who I was and why I came to this school. He’d beangry,mad—no doubt about it, but eventually he’d understand.

Because he knew me better than anyone, better than I knew myself. He’d believe me, and though I would hurt him, I would also make up for every ounce of pain I’d cause him. I’d spend my whole life making up for it until my dying breath.

We were going to be okay, Taland and I. I believed that with all my heart.

We were going to be just fine.

Chapter 24

Rosabel La Rouge

Present day

Am I dead?

Because it felt very much like living if I was.

My eyes opened—nope, not dead. Still in the woods. Or maybestill on that treewas a better fit. Because by now I was pretty sure this was one giant tree with a million branches that somehow had gravity inside them, and that went on forever on both sides.

It occurred to me howsilentit was here. As I took in the leaves and the ropes and the lightbulb flowers, I realized just how different from a normal tree this was. No birds chirping. No owls hooting. No small animals running—nothing, just wood and people, some screaming and some laughing, and their familiars—some eating them and some showing them the way to the end of this game.

I sat up with my heart in my throat, expecting to find my guts all over the branch. Surely I’d passed out forlong enough that the vulcera had cut me wide open. Surely she was feasting on my flesh right now and I just didn’t feel it.

Except what my eyes were telling me was a very different story.

The vulcera was sitting on her hind legs right by my feet, eyes on me.

A miracle I didn’t scream, even if it was the shock that cut my vocal cords off. I slowly began to drag myself back with my hands instinctively, never once looking away from her face, and?—

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