Page 119 of Anchor

The brothers narrowed their brows in confusion.

“That’s right—I am not going back. You can’t tell anybody that you saw me. AndIwon’t tell anybody that I saw you, either, because I am not going to return to the IDD.”

Finally, Jam sighed. “You’re a fugitive.” Like the word just now made sense to him.

And Jim nodded. “Yes—a criminal.”

“They’ve got two teams on you. They really want to find you,” said Jam, and when ice-cold shivers ran down my back in a rush, I didn’t let it show on my face.

“They really want to put you away, drain you and lock you up,” said Jim, andmoreshivers washed all over me, and I’d lie if I said that didn’t scare me a little.

Well,a lot.

Because draining was no joke, and I’d been without magic once. I never wanted to feel like that again. Not because of how easy life was with magic. I was already used to living without it.

It was because of how vulnerable I was without it, how I became easy prey against predators that had magic, how hard it was to survive without it. So, I really,reallydidn’t want to be drained again, lose this magic that I had, despite the pain.

In those moments, I didn’t even think about the bracelet and the colorful magic at all.

“They can’t,” I ended up saying. “They can’t find me or drain me or lock me up. But youwilltell me why you lied, boys. I need to know what happened in that woods.”

The twins continued to smoke their fucking cigarettes.

I stepped forward to the middle of their kitchen now and showed them their burnt staff. “Tell me what the fuck happened in that woods!” I was going to scream it at the top of my lungs next if they didn’t start talking soon.

“Okay, okay, okay, fine! Just-just move back!” Jim finally said, raising his hands, and Jam hopped and sat on the countertop, knocking down a few empty beer cans in the process. I only gave the rest of the countertop a quick glance and realized the smell must have been heavier in here than I allowed myself to register because there was an ungodly number of old pizza boxes, and ashtrays full of cigarette butts and plastic containers that had once carried food. That probablystillcontained pieces of food, leftovers that had gone bad a long, long time ago…

“We’ll tell you, but just know that if anybody finds out, we’re both dead,” said Jam. “And we did save your life that time.”

“We’re no fugitives so we’re not gonna try to run away,” Jim said.

I pointed the burnt staff at Jam. “You left me there to die first so saving me that time doesn’t count.” It absolutely did, but I was really desperate to get them to just tell me the truth right now, so I was willing to say anything, no matter what that made me.

“We had no choice—it was Michael. You’d have done the same,” Jim said.

Bitter laughter burst out of me so fast it even took me by surprise. “Iwouldn’thave! Never, not in a billion years! I wouldn’t have stood back and let anyone try to kill you!”

This I said with a hundred percent certainty. I would have never let Michael and Erid kill the twins if the roles were reversed. Or at least I’d have gotten in front of them and fought against them until my dying breath.

The twins knew it, too. That’s why they sighed and closed their eyes and shook their heads, shoulders hunched in regret, so that when they looked at me again, those fucking cigarettes still between their fingers, I felt like shit.

These guys had really saved metwotimes, and here I was, threatening their lives for a secret.

“We’re sorry, okay?” Jam said.

“We had no idea what the hell was happening.” Jim.

“It was our team leader—I swear I thought I was dreaming.” Jam.

“Or that the catfairie had killed me and I was just making shit up on my way to hell.” Jim shrugged.

Fucking hell, now I felt even worse.

Closing my eyes, I released a long breath—what the hell am I doing?I put the staff back down next to the other, put my gun under the waistband of my jeans, and I rested against the edge of the table.

I was a fool to think I could come in here and force these guys to tell me the truth. A fucking fool.

“Erid was our friend,” Jam whispered, and I died a little.

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