Page 3 of Mud

That’s what she said—an hour and a minute.

I never believed her until I did.

Regardless. The only thing that would guarantee her cooperation was that—the promise of alove story.Which was why I’d written that letter the way I had, even though it was a lie. I’d deal with the consequences later. She could get her revenge on me any way she pleased when this was over and she realized I’d lied.

Just as soon as thiswasover.

I flashed my ID at the scanner in front of the gates, and they swung open right away.

The IDD Headquarters was a massive building with plenty of space for everything—parking spots for my bike, meeting rooms, infirmary and operating halls, jail cells, private rooms and bathrooms, even a kitchen if I’d ever cared to cook. But most importantly, it had safety. Guards, cameras, wards. The building and the large fence and gates that surrounded it were the only safe place for me now.

Untilhewas behind bars again.

Chills broke down my back when I left my bike in the garage and headed toward the side entrance of the large, cross-shaped building. Guards nodded at me as I passed—I’d been working here for the past…well, one year, one month, and twenty-two days now. Long enough that most guards knew me by name. Nobody stopped me when I made my way inside, toward the staff area and the dressing rooms. Plenty of people in the building, even at this hour—bad guys didn’t really care about the time of day when they committed crimes. On the contrary—they preferred the dark, thinking it was their friend. It wasn’t. Iridian agents were available at the IDD at all hours, but the side of the women’s dressing room where my locker was, was blissfully empty right now.

I closed the metal door slowly, then rested my back against it, closed my eyes and released a long breath.

I was okay. This was the IDD Headquarters, possibly the safest place in world for me to be. The wards that protected every single inch of this place were Greenfire wards, fourth-degree spells, the best of the best.

Slowly, I let go of the fear that had gathered in my chest with every new breath I took.Done.It was done. Everything was going according to plan. I’d received the text, and I’dleft Poppy the letter, and I’d made it into the IDD in one piece.

Now, it was only a matter of waiting for a couple of days—until I either died, or things went back to normal.

Normal—you know, the state in which I was miserable twenty-four hours a day, with no real possibility of ever escaping the life I was born into and the life I was destined to live. Where I took extra shifts and did extra work any time it was available just to avoid going home. Where my grandmother dictated everything about my life, where I went and what my hobbies were. I wasn’t allowed to have my own place or make my own choices—and I shouldn’t be because I’m too much of a coward to stand up to her and at leasttryto take control of my life.

Such a fucking coward…

But if I didn’t die, everything was going to go back tothatnormal very soon—who cares that a couple tears slipped my eyes as I put my things away in my locker, or that I wished from the bottom of my heart for the end of the world to begin just so my life didn’t have to go back to normal?

This, too, shall pass,I reminded myself. It wasn’t going to be like this forever because even Iridians don’t live that long. Madeline Rogan was going to die eventually—and, yes, I realize how pathetic it is to wait for someone’s death rather than take charge of your own life, but I was raised by her since I was six years old. I knew there was no escaping her claws no matter what I did or where I hid.

Iris help me, her death was my last hope.

When the door to the dressing room opened, I startled so bad I thought I might scream. My heart tripped all over itself because, as much as I thought I wouldn’t be so afraid once I made it to the Headquarters, I was.

I was scared shitless.

Even so, I turned and cast a look back at the door with an expression that screamedunbothered. I’d perfected it to such a level that now it came as easily as breathing to me, and it was the reason why I was in this mess in the first place. The ability to play a rock had screwed me over just as much as it had saved me from my grandmother.

“There she is,” Cassie said as she came into the room. Even though I was done hiding my backpack in my locker, I still kept it open and pretended to be busy with something. “I thought I saw you coming in. You don’t have third shift, do you?”

Pushing the locker door closed, I turned to her. “Nope. Just couldn’t sleep.”

“Pfft. Sleep is a luxury for me,” she said, waving me off. “One mistake—just onemistake and they have me stuck in this fucking graveyard for the second month now.Onemistake!”

“That cost three agents their lives,” I said, not to be a bitch, but just to remind her that her complaining was pointless.

“That’son them. I told them I couldn’t see well into that basement—Itoldthem. Not my fault they went in anyway.”

And she was half-right.

There are five colors that the magic of Iridian mages manifests in: Blue, Green, Red, Black and White. And because visually that magic looks like colorful flames when a mage uses it, it is also calledfire—Redfire and Greenfire, and so on.

Cassie was from the Bluefire coven, very powerful, and some of her kind had the gift of foresight. Part of Cassie’s job was to follow agents on the field through cameras and try to determine whether a place was too dangerous toenter or not. With all the kinds of magical creatures that we had to deal with on the daily, the foresight of Bluefires, even if not always accurate or powerful, was very valuable.

Cassiehadwarned the agents that she couldn’t see well enough into the future to be sure it wasn’t dangerous in the basement of a house they’d been tasked with searching, and they’d made the call to go in anyway.

They’d died from an illegal curse trap the owners had set up, and now Cassie would remain onThe Shitlistfor goddess knew how long.

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