Page 159 of Anchor

“Oh, we’re not friends here.”Nobodywas my friend anymore, not until I knew with absolute certainty that I could trust them. The way things had been going lately in my life, my trust had to be earned. I would never again give it freely. “But we still need each other.”

She understood. “How powerful are you exactly?”

“Enough to cause a lot of damage to this place, I think.” And maybe that was taking it a bit too far, but I didn’t know for sure,did I? Taland thought that the bracelet made me stronger,and I never doubted Taland before. I wasn’t going to start now, especially when he and Zachary and Seth were still fighting with Hill.

Unfortunately for us, the man didn’t seem to be breaking a sweat as he dodged the spells with ease, then called up his own.

“Good,” Aurelia said. “All we need is to break that screen. Do you know how a Regah works?”

I could have laughed. “I didn’t know this even existed.” All that time at the IDD and I’d never once heard the fucking name.

Aurelia shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Help me up.” I jumped to my feet and pulled her with me. She seemed to be steady enough, and her wand was still in her hand.

“The screen that he sees us through,” she said, pointing ahead at where the Devil was standing in his jail cell at the Tomb with his hands in his pockets, watching, smiling. The woman who’d been sitting in the recliner was now standing by the barred door, as if she were waiting for something.

“If we can break it, he’ll no longer have control over the Regah. It will let us go back to the real world.”

Back to the real world—it almost sounded funny.

“So, I attack the screen.” It seemed easy enough—I knew plenty of spells to make things goboom.

“The closer you get, the more effective your magic will be. I’ll join in the fight and you get to the other side, okay?”

I nodded—it was just like any other mission I’d been to before, except Taland was here and if my magic wasn’t strong enough, he wouldn’t make it. No better incentive to give it my very best, was there?

So, I did.

“Good luck,” Aurelia said. “Let’s talk on the other side, shall we? We have a lot to discuss.”

I didn’t answer and she didn’t expect me to. My eyes were on the Devil, on that veil of magic that separated him from us, and she was already running to the others who were fighting Hill.

I moved to the other side, behind them, making sure that Taland was okay while I chanted my spell—a long one, fourth-degree, powerful enough to shatter a fourth-degree ward. I figured it was my best bet.

And I thought I was going to make it.

The Devil saw me approaching. There wasn’t much space between the people fighting and the spinning wall at my back. I could touch it if I reached out a hand.

His smile dropped, though, and that gave me a false sense of hope, because I thought,if he’s afraid, then it can be done.It would be easy, over in no time.

Except the ground groaned and shook again, and then I heard Hill’s voice, his shout, and a blast of Whitefire magic flashed from the middle of the room that rendered me completely blind. The energy grabbed me and pulled me up in the air, and I lost complete control of my body.

Impossible to continue chanting.

“Pests,” I thought Hill said, but I could be mistaken because in the same moment I was slammed against the floor so hard I heard my bones crack.

Then there was darkness.

Chapter 32

Rosabel La Rouge

I floated.

Or maybe I was flying? I couldn’t be too sure, but either the water or the air holding me up disappeared all of a sudden and let me go, and it felt like I fell against the ground all over again.

My eyes opened and at first, that white light was still there, robbing me of the view of my surroundings. Pain all over my body, mostly around my waist, and I prayed to the goddess that my ribs weren’t broken.

My ears worked just fine, though, so I heard.

---