Page 61 of Mud

No, it wasn’t Madeline.

I have no idea where Hill got the information—please, please, just let me go…

“If you speak now, it will hurt less,” Kaid said from where he was standing behind Radock.

But Radock finally let go of my face and straightened up. “Last chance, birdie.Talk.”

Again and again, they asked. The same questions worded differently. One first, then the other.

Ididn’t exist.The casedidn’t exist on paper. The mission I was sent to was never a mission. Taland was never recorded as a suspect.

That’s what they said, and that’s what all my instincts wanted me to believe.

Regardless of it, I bit my tongue and I said nothing because the most important thing still remained—nothing mattered.I was going to die soon, and nothing mattered.

Soon the Tivoux brothers figured out that I wasn’t going to talk, so they proceeded to hurt me.

Kaid went at it with all his strength, holding nothing back. The pain was insane, infiltrating every cell in my body, making me scream so hard my throat bled.

And I couldn’t stop it.

An IDD agent, trained to fight all kinds of monsters, all kinds of men, yet I was perfectly powerless in front of them because I was dirty. I wasfilthyon the inside and my ring was gone and all my training, all the ways my instincts were trying to free me from this chair, from this room, were useless. My magic was stained. Spoiled. Without it, I was nothing.

So, the brothers had their way with me without any interruptions.

I don’t know how long this went on, how long they laughed and inflicted pain on me with their magic, but every once in a while, I’d open my eyes to look at Taland, to both see if he was ready to end me yet and to beg him that he did so sooner.

He didn’t.

Once Kaid was done, it was Seth’s turn to take his raven feather where he kept it over his left ear, put it between his palms, and shoot his magic at me once. It came like a black, semitransparent blade, slicing my body into two right below my shoulders. Straight through my heart.

I screamed with the last of my energy, then passed out.

Taland never once said a single word.

Chapter 15

Rosabel La Rouge

2 years ago

Two weeks ago, I walked up the stairs to a brand-new high school, thinking about how drastically my life had changed in a matter of days. Thinking I was going to finally be free, be able to understand who I even was, andbreathewithout Madeline watching my every move.

I was absolutelyright!

My lungs threatened to explode as I ran with all my strength and speed up the stairs of the first tower to the second floor. Professor Dillan’s class on Magical Diseases had already started, and I prayed with each step that he would be a little late. Just a teeny tiny bit. Three minutes was all I needed, just three minutes, because I’d been back in the third tower making out with Taland like mad until now. Time seemed to fly by when we did that, and I was always late to every class, but how in the world was I supposed to saynowhen he gave me that puppy-eyed lookand whispered,“Please, sweetness, another minute. Don’t leave me just yet”?

Impossible, and so being late to class was my thing now, except Professor Dillanhatedbeing late, so that’s why I was praying so hard that he wouldn’t be there.

He was.

I burst through the doors like a lunatic, breathing so heavily you’d think I ran a marathon, but my heartbeat was constantly elevated and my blood was rushing the whole time Taland kissed me, so maybe that was a good comparison. Professor Dillan, all six foot seven of him, thin, silver hair and long limbs, was at the head of the class in front of the whiteboard with a marker in his hand, and he’d been about to begin his lecture.

“I’m-I’m sorry, Professor. I was in the restroom,” I lied, and I kept my face as expressionless as ever, but nothing could be done about the red on my cheeks and the mess of my hair and the fast rise and fall of my chest—both from Taland and from running.

Lucky for me, I was not the only student who was late. Two boys, both Whitefire, came in behind me, and Professor Dillan said nothing, just gave us his most disapproving look, and turned to the whiteboard again.

I took my seat near Briar from my chambers, and she was grinning ear to ear because she knew exactly where I’d been. The girls had known since Taland left that painting with the location of our date in front of the chambers’ door. Even though I denied being involved with him any time they asked, they all still grinned at my flushed cheeks when I came back to the dorms every night—later than everybody else.

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