Page 29 of Anchor

My palms were sweaty. I wiped them against my jeans and moved forward, the sun falling on my head. Even though it wasn’t too warm, I felt like it was burning me as I made my way to those open doors. To the people who’d noticed me approaching and had stopped what they were doing—setting up a couple of tables with food, probably for breakfast.

Which was strange because last time there had been so many tables and chairs and people. So many lights, and the place had been so lively, had seemed so big to me with those trees and that open space.

Maybe I’d imagined it? Or I’d been worse off than I thought what with having just been turned Mud and having been shot in the leg and walking around with an infected wound. Yes, a lot had been going on that time, but I was pretty sure that I hadn’t imaginedallof it. Pretty sure there had been a lot more people here, and now…

“Can I help you with something?” said a woman who’d come out of one of the houses and had put a basket covered in a dish towel on one of those tables. Now she was coming toward me, and the two girls who were playing hopscotch to the side and the men who were moving to and from the tables to carry their food stopped to look at me.

I went through the gates, feeling strange as hell.

“Hi, my name is Rora,” I said, clearing my throat. “I’m, um…I’m looking for Taland.”

The woman stopped walking at the mention of his name. Her brows rose and her lips parted and she folded her hands in front of her stomach.

“I’m afraid you won’t find him here anymore. He’s gone.”

Stabs at my gut.

I took a step closer. “Gone where?”

The woman shook her head without a word, the look in her eyes hardening.

“It’s you, isn’t it,” said one of the men as he and his three friends stopped right behind the woman. “You’re the girl they came here for. The IDD.”

“The winner of the Iris Roe. Rosabel La Rouge.”

This from the younger boy who had his arms crossed in front of his chest and his teeth gritted as he looked at me like he was just now thinking up ways to murder me.

Fuck, I shouldn’t have come here like this,I thought. I had no weapons. I was on my own. I had nothing to protect mys?—

All my thoughts came to a halt.

Magic.I had no weapons on me, but now I had magic. It was back, and my anchor was around my finger. It would let me use spells—all the combat spells I’d learned at the Academy, fast and effective.

I had magic again, and it was incredible how fast I’d gotten used tonothaving it when I thought I couldn’t live without it,and it was incredible that I decided I’d rather use my own hands to fight these people off than turn to my spells—ifit came to it.

Not the best time for this, but in that moment I understood just how much being Mud for those few days had changed me.

“Yes, that’s her, all right,” said another man—couldn’t even tell you which because I was looking at the woman still.

“You dare show your face here?” said the boy, who seemed to be very angry with me, indeed.

“Is the IDD on their way again? What more do you want to take—you’ve taken everything already.” Another man.

I shook my head. “Is he okay?” I asked the woman.

She sucked in a deep breath as if I’d assaulted her.

“I just want to know if he’s alive,” I insisted—and I wasn’t going anywhere without knowing that, at least. Because I believed them when they said Taland wasn’t there—if he was, he’d have come out by now. I was looking at the houses every few seconds, hoping for a door to open, for him to show his face, but he didn’t.

“He’s alive,” the woman finally said, and even though the relief was instant, it wasn’t absolute. Because I still didn’t know if Taland was okay, his magic intact. I still had no idea what the Drainage had done to him.

“And he’s—”okay,I was going to say, but the two men stepped around her and came closer.

“I think it’s time for you to leave,” the one on the right said, and I could feel the magical energy about him before I noticed the edge of his wand slipping down his sleeve that he held between two fingers. Not yet drawn, but he would the moment I made a move.

“I just need to know if he’s okay,” I tried again, but the men wouldn’t have it. And the woman was rushing to the little girls, telling them to get inside, while another two men came out of the houses to our sides.

“Isn’t it enough that you drove everyone away? You’re not welcome here, Redfire. Get out.”

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