Page 7 of Anchor

And now she’d brought her healers in for me—really, so funny. Now I’d been healed and washed, and they’d even given me everything I’d lost in the Iris Roe straight into my veins, which was probably why I could even move in the first place.

Poppy talked and talked. Fiona cried.

I cried, too, in silence, and Poppy thought they were tears of joy, and so she wiped them and hugged me again and again.

But they weren’t, though. They weren’t tears of joy—they were tears of fear. Of guilt. Raw panic.

Because I remembered exactly what had happened the last time I was awake. I remembered being in Taland’s arms, and the sound of him stepping on those bones, the white of his skin, theway he’d swung to the sides, seconds away from collapsing yet he’d never once let go of me.

Close your eyes for me, will you? It will be over in no time.

Fuck, I didn’t want to believe it.Goddess, please let it be a dream,I prayed, though I knew it wasn’t. Because even my nightmares wouldn’t dare to be as terrifying as this. Only reality.

“Drink,” said Poppy, and suddenly the rim of a glass was pressed to my lips and my mouth was full and I was drinking. Goddess, I’d been so thirsty, and I only realized it when the thick liquid went down my throat.

Alive.I was alive. I’d survived the Iris Roe, no matter how absurd the thought seemed to me now.

I’dwonthe Iris Roe, and it was all thanks to Taland. The same guy I’d lied to, had betrayed, had put in prison.

He’d saved me, given me his magic, carried me through the Drainage to save me from the other players.

He’d saved me.

“What is it? What do you need? Talk to me, Ro,” Poppy was saying, the glass now half full in her hands, her big amber eyes wide and hopeful.

“Water,” I managed only barely, because the juice had been great, but I needed water, too. Just plain water to put off these wild flames burning inside me, scorching my soul—or maybe that was the guilt?

Fiona slipped out the door without word.

Poppy put the glass on my nightstand and dragged herself closer to me. “How are you feeling? Does anything hurt? Do you need healers again?”

“No, I’m-I’m fine.” I was fine—and I actually meant that.

Holy fuck, nothing on my body hurt for real. Not my leg, not my arms or shoulders or head, and I was pretty sure I’d hit those repeatedly in one challenge or the other, yet no pain from any of it remained on me. No pain.

I was fully healed.

“Are you sure?” Poppy insisted.

But what I was sure of was that there was magic inside me, bright and vivid and…not fully red.

Goose bumps on my forearms. “I’m fine,” I repeated. “Just tell me what happened, Poppy. Tell me?—”

“Youwonthe Iris Roe, baby—that’s what happened!”

She cheered. She clapped. She smiled so big it had to be painful.

“When?” I choked because she was right—I won the Iris Roe but the cost of it had been so much bigger than just my life. It had been Taland’s life, too—or at least his magic.

Please, please don’t let it be real,I prayed again, as if suddenly I was a believer that prayers could actually make a difference for anything.

They didn’t.

“The game ended yesterday,” Poppy said.

“When, yesterday? What time?”

Her smile faltered. “About six p.m.—I don’t know. They brought you home at about eight. Please calm down, Ro.”

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