Page 15 of Mud

“That’s the last we saw of him.”

“He just…disappeared?” I asked in half a voice.

Cassie nodded. “Walked into the wall with no sign of any transportation magic, and no sign of the anchors he activated before he left. They’re just…gone.”

My eyes closed again, and I drew in a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart. It was impossible, though, and for once in my life I couldn’t care less about what my face was showing or what these people could see when they looked at me.

To hell with all of them. I had much bigger problems to deal with.

Taland Tivoux wasreallycoming for me. I could feel it in my bones.

That same feeling insisted that he was going to find me even if I hid at the edge of the world, and he was going to make me pay.

“Breathe for me, okay? And drink this. All of it,” said Cassie when we made it out of the Monitoring room. I remembered her guiding me out because my mind was elsewhere, but now I was sitting down and Cassie was shoving a plastic cup in my hand.

Plastic cup—just like the onehewas drinking from in the footage.

I drank the water and my stomach revolted. If I didn’t bite my tongue until the metallic taste of blood distracted me, I’d have thrown up all over Cassie.

“Do we know where he is?” I didn’t bother to keep my voice down, even though we were sitting in the hallway somewhere.

The hallway where anybody could see or hear us. Wheremy grandmother’sspiescould see and hear me, but that was okay. I wasn’t hiding from her here. She wanted me within these walls as much as possible. And Poppy would cover for me, hopefully, if she even noticed I didn’t come home to sleep.

I’m fine,I told myself. Madeline Rogan was the least of my worries right now.

“Nope. His tracker is destroyed, and his magical signature is nonexistent in any of our systems,” Cassie said, which was to be expected. Easy enough to pull out and smash the physical trackers that they put in the inmates’ shoulder, and easier still to keep their magical signature shielded with a simple spell or charm. All of these things were helpful only while the person was inside the Tomb. Outside, anybody could disappear if they knew what they were doing.

Taland definitely looked like he did.

A seventeen-year-old. He attacked and almost killed a seventeen-year-old boy—and thenlaughedabout it.

Fuck.

“Keep breathing. Just keep breathing—and remember that you’re safe here,” Cassie said. “Nothing to worry about. Nobody can cross that fence without us knowing about it.”

I nodded. “I know.” Which was why I’d come here the moment I’d gotten the text.

“So, cheer up. They’ll catch him in no time, you’ll see,” Cassie said, squatting in front of me.

“Who’s on the hunt?” I knew all the teams that worked in the IDD—my colleagues.

“Wayne and his crew,” said Cassie, and I nodded, swallowing hard. Wayne O’Bryan was the best agent here. Whitefire, extremely powerful, very smart. Always hungry for blood, which was why he’d been around for as long as he had. Almost twenty years as an agent, and he didn’t plan to retire anytime soon. Said there was more blood to spill out there, and his soul wouldn’t rest until he’d seen the very last drop that belonged to him.

He and his team were also some of the best trackers inMaryland. They said they could find a round-eared goblin in a sea of humans with a single look or a sniff of the air. The stories about them at the office were very legendary, and I was sure some were made up, but some had to be true.

If anybody was going to find Taland, it would bethem.

The thing was, if they did find Taland, and Taland fought back—which he would—then Wayne and his team would kill him. He wouldn’t hesitate—he’d cut off his head to watch his blood spilling out just like he liked.

Andthatwas a very, very disturbing idea for me, one that made my stomach lurch once more. Violently. I had to bring both hands to my mouth to keep it closed.

“Hey, hey, hey—look at me,” Cassie said, her cold hands on my sweaty cheeks. I was sweating all over, and it wasn’t from the heat. “It’s okay. You’re going to be okay. He can’t get to you, Rosabel. He can’t get to you.”

Unfortunately for me, Taland getting to me wasn’t what made me want to break the world in half.

“I have to finish interrogating the siren,” I said, and I somehow managed to get up from the chair. My legs somehow held me, even though the wide dark hallway swam before my eyes when I tried to focus.

“It’s fine—don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it,” said Cassie, but I shook my head, then regretted it the next second.

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