Page 189 of Mud

A Strongroom I hadn’t known even existed.

Taland took us deep into the underground, and the four agents kept following behind me, and I hid whenever he stopped to look around, to make sure he was alone. Only a few lamps were on at the corners of the hallways he passed, so I barely saw his silhouette. But the first plan I’d made without actually realizing it, was to make our presence known. To tell him that I was here, thatsomeonewas watching him.

Screw the IDD and Hill and these agents—it was Taland. I was onhisside, even if I had no idea yet that I’dpickeda side.

So, as Taland continued down a narrower corridor on the other end of the hall he took us to, I let go of my purse.

It was velvet, but the clasp and the holder were made out of shiny metal, and the sound of it echoed in the complete silence so many times, it was impossible that Taland wouldn’t hear it.

Impossible, yet he didn’t.

He never turned. His step didn’t falter. He just continued ahead.

“Pick it up and keep going,” the agent behind me said.

My heart shattered into a million pieces. Of course,they’d put a ward around themselves— aroundme,too. Of course, Taland wouldn’t hear nor see us until it was too late, even if I stopped and screamed out his name at the top of my lungs.

Tears streamed from my eyes, so fast. I kept walking, one bare foot against the marble floor after the other, untilwe were at the end of the corridor, and in a round hall with three doors on its dark brown walls.

Taland was in front of the one in the middle, pressing keys on the panel at its side.

The password that he had no business knowing, but he did.

The spell he had no business knowing how to deactivate, but he put what looked like a compass made of wood on the floor in front of the doors, then stepped aside for a moment to let it work whatever magic it was infused with.

And while he waited, Taland turned to look around once more, eyes wide, breathing heavily.

He turned and he should have seen me—I was standing right there, half of me visible from the corner of the wall.

He didn’t.

Whatever signal he received from that device, he left it there, took in a deep breath that I felt as if my own lungs were being filled, and he pushed the door open.

Something like the sound of locks turning from the inside filled the hall. The door gave.

Taland disappeared into the darkness behind it.

My tears turned everything around me to a blur, but I moved as if I knew exactly what the hell I was doing. I moved and I went through that door that led to another room, this one rectangular, with display tables with lamps and candleholders on them, lots of paintings on the walls, and shelves full of books near them. It had two doors on each end, and Taland was going for the one on the left. He was rushing to it, no longer looking behind him at all.

It was a second’s decision I only realized I’d made when I actually did it—slammed the door shut in the face of the agents and turned the golden lock.

I ran.

Iris help me,I prayed.

Taland finally heard.

Maybe it was because the guards couldn’t see me, so the ward they had with them didn’t extend to me anymore. Maybe it was because I’d gotten farther away from them and closer to Taland—it didn’t matter.

Taland heard and Taland turned.

He saw me, and it was like he was seeing a ghost.

He started shaking his head and raised his hands.

“No, no, no, sweetness—no! What are you doing?”

That’s because he had no idea who I was. He had no idea that I’d followed him. He had no idea anybody knew where he was headed—to that room that was apparently theStrongroom,behind that door where he would meet his death.

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