Page 100 of Anchor

“Then we’ll know,” I said. It was a start. “We still have a lot to figure out, but we’ll know.”

I wanted to take my time with everything from here on, and I wanted to quench my thirst for him here in this safe house first, but we needed to find out exactly where we stood eventually.

Taland agreed. He took the bracelet and put it around his wrist. It fit him perfectly. He grabbed my hand in his and raised the other palm between us.

“I’ve wanted to show you this one since Kaid first taught it to me, long before we met,” he said. “Watch.”

The spell was short, barely a dozen words, and he whispered it fast, his eyes on me all the while. I held my breath and waited, and when magic came to life on the palm of his hand, I still didn’t look away from him, and he still didn’t look away from me.

But we both saw with perfect clarity all the colors of the rainbow on the flames that danced on his skin.

Goddess, I was right.

My heart stood still and my smile froze on my face and my mind repeated those same words over and over—I was right.The Drainage had been real. Taland had been turned Mud—or at least whatever the hell I was. And now colorful magic came out of his hand, and the flames faded to leave way for these little sparks that rose in the air and spread all around us like fireflies.

I was laughing before the minute was over, and tears pooled in my eyes.

“I can make them last all day,” Taland said, as we both turned to look at those sparks, tiny and golden and glowing, spreading all around the room like fairy dust and glitter. As ifthatwas what mattered—not the colors of his magic just now. Not the rainbow that sprouted from his hand to make these sparks and give them life.

I laughed and laughed and my heart was heavy but my body featherlight.

“I always imagined waking you up with a room full of sparkles like this. I was sure you’d love it,” Taland said, and my smile became wider.

I dragged myself closer and climbed on his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck. “I do.” I would have loved anything he wanted to show me. Anything at all.

“It was so easy,” he whispered, bringing his hands to my face as our lips almost touched.

“It was?”

“Very. My magic loved it.” And I knew exactly what he was talking about. My magic loved that bracelet, too.

“No pain?”

He shook his head. “None. I’m really Mud.”

“I think I accidentally gave you the power I took from the Rainbow—at least some of it. I think I…activatedyou while you were carrying me.” It was just another guess, but the best I had.

“Yes, that does make the most sense,” Taland said. “And the little girl in the treehouse? I think you shared your magic with her for that spell.”

“Like you shared yours with me in the Iris Roe.” Without which I wouldn’t have been here at all.

“Yes, except she was holding the bracelet when she called the spell, so it gave her magic color.”

I thought about it for a second. “I’m glad I did it.” To remember the look in Taylor’s eyes, her curiosity. Her amazement—definitely worth it, even if I was probably never going to see her again. It sucked, but at least she’d have that memory. For the rest of her life, she’d know exactly what it felt like to do magic.

“Me, too,” Taland said.

Then we kissed—slowly, while the shower of sparks that hung in the air around us turned this tiny, ordinary room into a magical place.

“Why did you want to return this, sweetness? You should keep it. It belongs to you,” said Taland, and in those moments I couldn’t think of a good enough reason why I’d decided to return the bracelet to the Vault.

“It’s…it’s dangerous.” That had been my reasoning—it was a dangerous thing, aforbiddenthing to have, and if someone found it in my possession…

Afraid.I was always so damn afraid.

“Only if you plan to kill people with it. It’s more dangerous in someone else’s hands,” Taland said, and just like that, I believed him.

“Then I won’t try to return it again.”

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