Page 157 of Anchor

Hill who had his head down, a hand in his pocket, the other out, fingers tapping furiously against his thigh. He made no sound at all, and his eyes were closed.

“Is it true?” Zachary said. “David—is that true?!”

His voice shook with anger, but his arm was steady, the tip of his wand releasing blue flames as he waited.

“Of course, it’s true,” said the Devil. “Brilliant plan, too—I was rooting for him, hoping he’d win. And hewillwin—I made sure of it. Except, David, I sent your boy back out there to steal from you since you failed to kill him. I thought it would make for a funny little detail when we came together for a glass. A good story to tell. But he failed, too, and I thought I’d have to figure out another way to steal the things you’ve gathered—then the La Rouge girl comes in and brightens my day with that bracelet—did you know, David?”

Suddenly, the Devil pressed his hands against the veil that separated us from him—and I still had no fucking clue how.

“Oh, tell me, tell me—did you know how well it actually works? I’d have never believed it if I hadn’t seen it with these oldeyes—never,I tell you,” the man continued, and the way he was looking at me now made my skin crawl.

My instinct was to hide my hand behind my back so they wouldn’t see it.

Another insisted I should just take off that damn bracelet and throw it at them—here, have at it, fight for it like dogs!

But the third instinct was the strongest, the only one I couldn’t ignore. The one that said the bracelet wasmine,and neither of them could use it except Taland. Neither of them could harm me because I had it. Neither of them could harmus.

A strange kind of calm came over me, one that slowed my heartbeat and forced most of the fear to release its hold over me. We were here and we weren’t going to leave right now, so we had to survive. Wehadto make it—it was as simple as that.

“Hey, sweetness,” Taland whispered from my side, slipping my hand in his. “You won the Iris Roe without magic.”

“But I had you,” I whispered back, though I knew exactly what he was saying.

“You have me now,” Taland said. “You have me always.”

I turned my head just slightly so I could see his face because I wasn’t leaving Hill and the Devil out of my sight for longer than a second.

“We’re getting out of here,” I told him, and I sounded just as sure ashealways did when he spoke.

Taland nodded. “Yes, we are.” He squeezed my hand. “Use it. Don’t hesitate.”

“I will,” I promised him.

I pulled my father’s ring off my finger and slipped it in my pocket, just in case. I didn’t want to lose it, even if I knew it wasn’t my anchor anymore. It hadn’t been since I lost my magic.

Or maybegained more colorswas the better description.

Aurelia was calling Hill names.

Hill remained with his head down right there in the middle of the room.

The Devil laughed and laughed…

“If we make it out of this, you owe me beers for the rest of your life, brother,” said Seth from where he was standing on my right.

I almost laughed.Beers,he said.

“I’ll make sure you drown in them,” Taland said. “Radock? Kaid?”

My stomach fell, even though I didn’t see his face, had no idea if he wassadthat his other brothers hadn’t come here with me. And I did rememberwhy,but right now was not the time to talk, so I bit my tongue and let Seth answer.

“Safe,” Seth said. “They’ll be here when they need to be here.”

Through the corner of my eye, I saw Taland nod.

Hill raised his head just a little bit and his fingers were no longer tapping against his thigh. He’d been thinking, I was sure of it, maybe evenplanning,or simply just trying to figure out how to best navigate the Devil’s accusations, since he made them in front of his own people—but he was done now. Taland and Seth said something else, but I couldn’t hear them. My attention remained on Hill’s face, and I expect him to open his eyes any second now, and my muscles were relaxed, my magic at the ready…

He did.

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