Page 221 of Mud

“I want you to come and get Rosabel out.Tonight.” And that’s where my focus was. Not on the fact that I was the traitor now.

Iwas the traitor.

“She isof no use to me anymore—she’s Mud!” This was a scream. I had to move my phone farther away from my ear. “What good is she to anyone without her color? What good is she?!”

Calm. Easy. Patience, Taland. Patience.

But an ocean of it wouldn’t suffice.

“The Iris Roe,” I said, as the absurd idea that had taken place in my mind when Radock first told us she’d become Mud. Such an absurd, ridiculous idea, and the only one I had.

“What?!” Her voice sounded like screeching tires.

“Put her in the Iris Roe. The Rainbow has enough power to restore her color.”

That silence. So fucking suffocating.

“She’ll die in the Iris Roe.”

Never.

“Or…she’ll win.”

My eyes closed once more. The darkness of my mind exploded into colors.

Traitor,was the word around which revolved everything now.

Traitor—and her. Rosabel La Rouge. My blessing and curse and my fucking undoing—but the worst part?

Through all that guilt and that shame and that fear, I couldn’t find a single ounce of regret for this anywhere in me. No part of me had second thoughts. No part of me wanted me to stop and think and just be reasonable for a moment. No part.

Madeline Rogan cleared the throat. “I’m listening…”

So I spoke.

By the end of the conversation, it was decided: she would send for her granddaughter after all.

By the end of the conversation, not only had I betrayed my brothers, but I was going to be a player in the Iris Roe and make sure Rosabel won.

—THE END

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