Page 152 of Anchor

I looked at Taland, but he was focused on the Devil, and instinctively he began to pull me behind him, as if he couldn’t see the state he was in.

In fact, he did look a bit better, and I realized why when Seth, who’d chosen to stay behind him, raised his fingers towardTaland’s back and black flames came out of them, straight into Taland’s bloody and bruised skin.

He was healing him.

“You see, when you came through just now and broke my door, Rosabel was in the process of paying me for the life of the Tivoux boy—the bloody one.” He waved his finger toward us and I wanted to wave my middle ones at him, too. If I were less afraid, I would have. “He failed to deliver on his promise, and I made a new deal with Rosabel because I am a generous man. Youcanleave, mind you, and don’t even mind the door you ruined, butafterI am paid what I am owed.”

The tension in the room was so thick I could feel it coating my throat like honey. They still kept those smiles up, the Devil and the Mergenbachs, but they could all see in one another’s eyes that they were on edge. Just as much as we were.

Taland made an attempt to pull me back again, but I refused—he did look better, and maybe Seth had done a couple of healing spells on him, but I doubted he even had an anchor on him. I doubted these people had allowed him to keep it—he’d been chained to the fucking wall.

So, no, I didn’t step back. I just squeezed his hand tightly and gave him a look, one he would understand perfectly. I was not going anywhere.

“From what I understand, you wanted the script of Perria that is currently being held in the Vault of the IDD Headquarters in Baltimore,” Aurelia said, and shivers ran down my back.

How in the fuck did she know that?

Cassie,I figured. Cassie had finally managed to talk to her cousins.

Aurelia and her brother stepped down from the rubble, wands still in hand—and damn, they didn’t look afraid in the least. They couldn’t have been much older than thirty, if that, but they didn’t bat an eye at the sight of the Devil or his men.And those blue halos were still burning over their heads for some reason, while I had no clue what they even were.

Or whatPerriawas.

“Maybe,” the Devil said.

“And you got Taland here to agree to get it for you in exchange for his freedom,” Zachary said.

The Devil raised his head. “Correct.”

“And you also failed to mention to Taland exactly what the script of Perria was when you made him vow to never tell a soul about it. Because you knew his brothers would know. You knewwewould know,” said Aurelia, and she was sounding more and more pissed off with every word, though you couldn’t tell by just looking at her.

The Devil laughed—the sound of it rough, less…controlledthan before. Like he was no longer trying as hard to pretend to be held together.

“How very clever of you two to put it all together. I bet you think you’re smart,” the Devil said. “But yes—that is exactly what happened. However, the boy didn’t deliver, and now his girlfriend is here with an offering. I will take that offering so you may leave.”

“An offering, huh,” Aurelia said. Her eyes slowly scrolled down my body and stopped on my other hand where the bracelet was still between my fingers.

Fuck.

Slowly, when she took her eyes off me, I put the bracelet back around my wrist as Taland watched, his eye no longer swollen at all. Only the bruises remained.

“The offering beinganotherthing related to the Delaetus Army…am I right?”

Every inch of my body froze when Aurelia spoke again, her unblinking eyes on the Devil, who, for once wasn’t smiling, just looking at her.

And my brain malfunctioned—another thing related to the Delaetus Army?

What the actual fuck?

“Oh, younglings,” said the Devil, shaking his head. “You think you know it all, when in reality…”

“We know plenty,” said Zachary. “And most importantly, we know that youcan’thave that bracelet.”

This made the Blackfire laugh again. A short laugh, and when he stopped, he finally pulled his hands from his pockets, as if to show us the two feathers between his fingers. “I can have pretty much anything I want, I’m afraid,” he said, and my stomach sank, and my instinct reacted all at once, nearly blinding me. “And right now, I want you all to stayright here.”

Taland pulled me back by the hand hard. “Move!”he shouted, and he made to basically throw me toward the door, toward the Mergenbach siblings who were shouting, too, their wands raised, their mouths full of Iridian words, but…

It was too late.

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