Page 153 of Anchor

There I was in the midst of the chaos, with screams in my ears and magic in my nostrils, in my lungs, and I had no fucking clue what was going on here—none. But I knew beyond a doubt that it was too late for everything. We were already screwed, all of us, whether it be from the Devil or the siblings—it didn’t matter.

We were fucking screwed.

Blackfire magic slammed against Bluefire right before my eyes. Taland had tried to push me, but neither he nor I nor Seth had a chance. The explosion picked us up like we weighed nothing and threw us against the floor. I wanted to remain conscious, wanted to understand what the hell was going on, why the Mergenbachs had been so panicked, why the Devil had laughed that way—I really wanted to see that Taland was near me, that he was okay. But the darkness claimed me before thepain of that fall registered, and I didn’t see or hear anything at all.

White nose in my head, but sometimes it felt like a voice was coming from far, far away.

Sometimes it was coming in slowly, and sometimes incredibly fast. Sometimes I felt like I was wide awake, and sometimes like I’d been unconscious for years.

All of it must have happened within a minute or two, though. All those thoughts and those feelings because, when those voices became more persistent and my eyes opened, I saw movement in front of me—the Mergenbach siblings making it to their feet, and Taland pushing himself to sit up, reaching a hand for me.

Taland.

As soon as the memory of him bleeding and bruised and chained came back to me, I was wide awake and I realized, all those voices weren’t coming from far away—it was my ears that hadn’t been clear until now. The room we were in had changed since the last time I was conscious, and that laughter, those words in Spanish that I couldn’t understand, had a hold over me even when Taland pulled me up. Seth was there, too, to help me keep my balance.

“What the hell, what the hell, what the hell,” he was saying, and I had no clue how to answer because I was asking that same thing myself in my head.

But Taland’s hand was on my face and he was looking down at my body to see if I was okay, as if I was the one half naked and covered in dirt and dry blood and bruises.

“I’m fine,” I thought I said and tried to blink fast, but I couldn’t bring myself to focus.

“What the hell did you promise him?” Seth was hissing. “Did you know? Did you fucking know?! Don’t lie to me, Taland!”

“I didn’t,” Taland said, barely glancing at him. “I didn’t know. He said it was for a spell—I didn’t know it had anything to do with Perria.”

“Whatthe fuckis Perria?!” I said because my head was going to explode any second and I didn’t understand anything and I needed to be able to think clearly.

“The valley where the Delaetus Army was supposedly buried under a mountain,” Taland said. “I didn’t know that script he had me steal had something to do with it.”

I shook my head, even more confused. “But what does the Devil have to do with the Delaetus Army?” Because he was a criminal, a very powerful mage who ran the prisoners at Tomb Penitentiary, who could help people escape and who could somehow rule an entire neighborhood from his prison cell—butthat’s it. That’s all the Devil was…wasn’t he?

The way the brothers looked at one another, then at me, I knew I wasn’t going to get an answer.

“No fucking clue,” said Seth.

“I don’t know, but he has us in the Blackrealm, and we need to find a way out,” Taland said.

“Wait, wait, wait, hold on a minute.” How had I not passed out again yet? “Wheredoes he have us? And you better have an explanation for that word, Taland.” He couldn’t just sayBlackrealmand expect me to understand what the hell that meant. Didn’t he realize how verynewall of this was to me?

“How do you not know what the Blackrealm is?” Seth hissed at me. “I thought you were an IDD agent.”

And I had been, only it was starting to look like someone haddeliberatelygone to great lengths to keep me ignorant on most things—what other explanation made sense?

“It’s a sort of limbo, a dark space between dimensions that Blackfire can access. A very small number of them,” Taland said before I could answer. “We are basically stuck in a timeless place and we can’t leave unless he lets us go.”

I shook my head again and again, but what could I even say? What words could I choose that would make any of this better?

“He’s not as powerful as he used to be,” Seth whispered. “He can’t keep us here for long. Radock said he stays away from it now whenever he can—he’s not as powerful as he used to be.” He was talking to himself more than us, but I prayed he was right with my whole being.

“Regardless,” Taland said. “We need to figure out weak spots—if we do, we can break out while they’re still dealing with one another.” Then he grabbed Seth by the jacket and brought him closer. “You let her come here, you fool, and you will be paying for that, but right now you have to understand that she comes first. She gets out of here first—safely.”

“Taland,” I said because there simply was no time to smack him in the head right now, but Seth didn’t even let me speak.

“In case you didn’t notice, she’s very stubborn.” Seth pushed Taland’s hand off. “And I’m afraid I’m in no position to stop her when she’s more powerful than all of us. My own damn fault that I came with, though.”

“For fuck’s sake, are you two serious?” I spit, and maybe the IDD had taught us thattalkingbefore the mission was over was a fatal, unacceptable mistake, but they had to know, too, how true that was. They had to know how much time we were wasting. “Stop talking and start searching for weak spots!” Because if I said all that was on my mind right now, we’d be here a while.

Taland opened his mouth to speak, but I said, “Don’t. Just show me how to search for weak spots.Move.” If he thought hislife was something to gamble with the way he’d done when he came here by himself, he was in for the surprise of his life.

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