Page 28 of Anchor

“Now, you go back,” Madeline said, and never once did she look at me like she was annoyed or irritated or exhausted by having to interact with me, like usual.

“Go back where?”

“To your life, Rosabel. To the IDD. Do what you will with your money—I don’t care, but if you want to be smart about it, you’ll save it. Invest it. Make a bigger fortune out of it because I’m not planning to die soon.”

I waited a heartbeat, then another.

My goddess, that was a joke.

Madeline Rogan had just made a joke while she was talking to me.

Holy shit, this was stranger than the Iris Roe.

I shook my head because I was having trouble believing my own ears. “But what about Michael and Erid? How can I just go back after that?” She knew that my own team leader had tried to kill me, or at leastI told her so.Whether she’s believed me or not was a different story.

“Michael and Erid are dead,” she said. “Youwillgo back to your job, Rosabel. That is the only option.” She leaned in closer and whispered, “Don’tembarrass me now.”

With that, she turned and walked inside with her chin up.

“Fiona, prepare a bath for me. I’m in the mood for some relaxation tonight,” she said as she went—words I’dneverheard coming out of her mouth before, and I was so sure that she would never say stuff like that to anyone.

The truth was, she’d just never said stuff like that in front of me.

I walked into the mansion with my head shaking still, exhausted. Drained—not just by the magic and the car rides and that little meeting with the Council or our talk.

It occurred to me that it was the longest talk I’d ever had with Madeline.Ever—and wasn’t that just sad? That I had to do the impossible, survive a deadly game, be deemedworthyby some strangers for her to look at me as a person, not an annoying little insect she couldn’t get rid of?

“Rora!”

Poppy was running down the main stairs of the big, round-shaped hallway, a huge smile on her face. And I knew for a fact that she wasn’t going to let me out of her sight tonight.

More than that, I could hardly stand on my feet, so exhausted my muscles were screaming.

How in the hell was I going to get to Taland now?

Rest,I thought. I would take a couple of hours to rest, and then I’d be as good as new, more than capable of driving all the way to Darville. So, when Poppy basically dragged me up the stairs and took me to my bedroom, I let her.

Sleep took me before I even lay down on the pillow properly with all my clothes still on.

I snuck out of the mansion at six in the morning. The plan was to grab my bike and drive all the way to the Blue House, but then I remembered that I’d left my bike in the garage at Headquarters, so one of Madeline’s cars would have to do. She had three that only Poppy ever used—Madeline herself liked to ride in her SUVs with drivers. I had never had permission to use any of them, but I had snuck them out once or twice in the past just to go for a drive on nights I couldn’t sleep. Now, I had the feeling that even if Madeline saw me, she wouldn’t mind me driving it out of the gates.

If Madeline saw me, she’d probably think that I was on my way to Headquarters with it, and that was perfectly fine.

Poppy had been kind enough to offer me one of her—what she called—oldphones that had come out just last year, because mine was probably still in my locker at Headquarters,ifthey hadn’t thrown it away. But thisoldphone that was brand new had a GPS for the app to use and take me all the way to Darville within two and a half hours.

In those two and a half hours, I thought about everything and nothing. I thought about everything there would be to think aboutafterI found Taland, but mostly I thought about Taland.

Seeing him. Hugging him. Touching him to make sure he was okay. Slapping him for daring to walk through the Drainage withme. Then slapping him again for good measure before I kissed all the air out of his lungs. Before I clung to him and didn’t let go for at least a couple of hours straight.

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m going to do,I thought, because he would be okay, and his magic would be perfectly intact and then he’d tell me how he managed to fool the whole fucking world while he was with me in the Iris Roe.

But when I arrived at the Blue House behind The Hill hotel, all my hopes went down the drain the moment I laid eyes on the wooden doors that were wideopen.

Barely a dozen people were inside.

I left the car by the side of the main road, right where that Uber had dropped me off when I came looking for Taland that first time. I don’t know why I’d been so sure that he’d be right there by the doors, waiting for me, or that he’d come running the moment I stepped out of the car.

He didn’t.

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