Page 111 of Anchor

I was completely, utterly alone.

Chapter 22

Rosabel La Rouge

Like I said before, I had a plan, and it might not have been the best of plans, but at least it gave me direction.

That’s why I found myself in a town called Dackston a little past nine a.m. the next morning.

Sleeping in the car was not ideal, and not just because it was uncomfortable, either. I had to sleep sitting up, forehead to the wheel, because I wanted to be able to start driving right away if I needed to.

I went back to the safe house once more last night, just to make sure Taland hadn’t returned and was looking for me. He hadn’t. The house was still as empty as I’d left it. Then I parked the car right inside the ward that shielded the narrow street from the main road, and I forced myself to sleep for about four hours because I needed the energy. If I was going to remain focused on my search, I would need food and sleep, so I gave myself no other choice.

It had been the right call because when I arrived in Dackston, I was wide awake, my muscles rested, my stomach full with thesnacks Taland had bought for us two days ago. I was ready to fight if it came to it, even though my spell would hold for a few more hours. Still, you never really knew what the IDD had up their sleeve—or even my grandmother. She’d found me in the basement of the Tivoux bothers somehow. Maybe she could find me in this town now in the same way.

I left my car just past the big blue sign that welcomed me to Dackston, and I continued on foot. This town was bigger than the last one, with a lot more people coming and going, and a lot more buildings and shops and houses, too. My eyes were wide open, my ears strained, and I scanned the faces of every single person that passed me by to make sure I didn’t miss Taland.

He said he had a safe in this place, money and keys to a car, so it would make sense that he’d come here. It would make sense that he’d be here if he was trying to run away.

Or…maybe he’d just told me about it—everything, with specific details—because he knew he’d be gone?

Maybe he had planned to disappear all along for whatever reason, and he’d given me the name of the safe and the password and the town, all these details so I could find my way here on my own.

I stopped in the middle of a wide street lined with shops on the right, and small houses on the left. I breathed in deeply, tried to imagine a reason, any reason at all why Taland would want to leave me like that and disappear without a word. Without a note.

I came up empty-handed, and that old voice in my head, my nemesis, was back at it like it had been waiting for this moment for years, to remind me that I did not know Taland at all.

Of course, you can’t think of a reason—you don’t know who he is.

Of course, he ran away without a word or a note—he doesn’t owe you anything.

What did you think, that just because you fucked and you hugged and you kissed, you were reallygoing to be together forever now? He probably ran from you because he knows what’s coming for you…

On and on and on it went, that voice, and it laughed and mocked me, and I almost—almostbelieved everything it said. But then I’d been here so many times before, battling it. I’d fought it with my everything in the endless nights I’d spent in my room without Taland and beingawareof what it was had changed everything for me—a liar.

That voice of doubt was a fucking liar, and it only had power over me when I believed it.

So, I didn’t, or I pretended that I didn’t until I actually rolled my internal eyes at everything that stupid voice said.

Even so, I didn’t feel any better as I continued to walk down the wide street, hoping against hope that I saw Taland sitting somewhere, smiling at me, waving—and I wouldn’t even care. At this point I wouldn’t care that he left without a word, just that I found him.

I didn’t, though.

Instead, I found the shop he told me about, the one I came to this town for—Annie’s Antiques.I doubted they had two antique shops in a single town, so I went straight for it, breath held and hands fisted, hoping. Always hoping.

No Taland in the shop, either.

It was a big space almost half empty, with shelves upon shelves on all sides, and things bundled together on the floor everywhere—rocking chairs and old grandfather clocks and record players and comic books and magazines, so many things my head was spinning ten seconds in when I tried toseeeverything at once.

“Hey, there, stranger. Welcome to Dackston. It’s a small town, but it hasthe biggestheart!”

I turned to the left, to what was probably a reception desk, but it was so full of things that I had missed it. It looked just like all the other piles around the wide space.

The woman who’d spoken was standing behind it, with a bright pink sweater on and light blonde hair pulled up in a bun. Her nails were all painted in different colors, and her blush was so orange that it made her skin look kind of grayish, and I almost asked her,why don’t you put all this stuff on the shelves? There’s plenty of space. You don’t have to keep them on the floor like this.

But then again, what did I know about antique shops?

“Hello,” I said, surprised for a second that I had to speak to another being, like I’d expected this place to be empty. I cleared my throat. “Hello, hi.”

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