Page 114 of Mud

“She’s not going to hurt you, sweetness. Can’t you tell you’re bonded?”

I jumped to my feet so fast I was dizzy.

I’d seen Taland before, had heard his voice—and it was all in my head.

I’d accepted it. I’d been thankful for the little hallucination, too, but there was no way he’d been real.

No. Way.

So why was there a Taland identical to the real one sitting on the same side, same level as me, at the curve of a branch parallel to the one we were on?

I shook my head at myself and slowly moved a couple feet back—until I realized that the vulcera was still sitting there. Too close.Notattacking me, only watching in silence.

Taland stood up, a gorgeous, mischievous smile on his face. He put one hand in his pocket, the other playing with something between his fingers, and he stepped onto my branch with ease.

“Don’tcome closer,” I said through gritted teeth, mad at him, at the game, at the vulcera that hadn’t eaten me already—but most of all mad atmyselffor being unable to figure out if this was all in my head or not.

“Why not? I wouldn’t dare try anything after seeingwhat you did back there with her,” Taland said, nodding his head behind me at the vulcera, but he was teasing me. Messing with me.

And it wasn’t real, any of it.

So, I shook my head. “You’re not real.” He couldn’t be. He was a wanted felon—nobodywould let him into this game. Nobody.

Except…I was Mud and I was here. Smuggled in right under everyone’s noses.

Shit.

Taland’s smile grew bigger. “I’m not?”

“Just…just stay away from me.” I moved to the side, not wanting to jump off to another branch, but then he kept coming.

“I doubt you’re afraid of good oleme, sweetness. After all, you practically ended my life with such ease. You remember that, don’t you?”

Only every second of every day.

I raised my chin. “So, youarehere to kill me.”

Because he really seemed to be here in front of me, no matter that it made such little sense.

There was a magical beastjust sittingthere, too—and can you blame me for having no clue what to expect next?

“If I wanted to just kill you, I wouldn’t have entered a deadly game to do it. I’d have killed you in the car, while they brought you in. Or before you entered that backdoor. Or even in that tunnel before you joined the other players.”

Sweat on my forehead. My heart beat steadily, but my mind was pretty chaotic.

“How do you know that?” I whispered, though I shouldn’t have bothered because it didn’t matter.

Taland came closer and closer… “I know a lot of things, sweetness,” he told me. “For example, I know you’re Mud and this is primarily a magical game. I know you’re here for the Rainbow—you want to win your magic back.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.“What do you want from me, Taland?”

He stopped just two feet away, and now I saw his face in detail, saw every line and every curve, every color on him. The depth of his eyes. The smooth skin of his cheeks. The softness of his hair.

I could die looking at him, and I’d never for a second get bored.

“I wantyou…” His whisper trailed off and he took another step closer, looking down at me while he touched my chin with his fingertips, guiding my head back—and he didn’t even try hard. I moved all on my own, facing him, my eyes starved for the image of him, my senses already overwhelmed. The idea of moving away or jumping to another branch seemed foreign to me now. “…to do exactly as I say if you want to get to the end of this game alive.”

Reality slammed onto me like a brick wall. I blinked my eyes to find them burning—I’d refused to blink in those few seconds he’d held me captive with his silence.

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