Page 128 of Anchor

I did. Right now, I needed their cooperation, and if giving them that charm was what it took to convince them I wasn’t here to attack or something, so be it.

Seth stepped back and grinned.

“Oh, what a lucky night,” said Kaid as he slowly came closer, hands still in his pockets.

“And where, pray tell, dearest Rosabel, did you get that?”

This from Radock who had also stood up and was coming around his desk, watching me with a gleaming in his eyes now that he could see myrealface.

“Taland gave it to me.”

A pause. They held their breath for a split second, then Radock raised his brow. “Talandgaveit to you,” he repeated, emphasizing that second word as if he wanted to make sure that he’d heard right.

Sweat on the palms of my hands. “Yes, Taland gave it to me.”

Radock slowly moved toward the TV, then turned back again, a hand in the pocket of his pants, the other around his chin. Goddess, he looked so much like Taland—the way he moved, the way hespun aroundeven, as strange as it sounds.

“So that implies Taland was with you,” he said.

“He was. We’ve been together since Tuesday, and he disappeared Thursday morning. He left me the charm and he disappeared.” I forced myself to look him in the eye no matter how scared I was. “I’m here to look for him.”

But a bad feeling had already settled in my gut because obviously Talandwasn’there. He wasn’t with his brothers; if he had been, he’d have come out by now. He’d be in the shadows, atleast, and I kept looking, but the shadows of this room were all empty.

Taland wasn’t here.

“As an IDD agent?” Kaid said, grinning like he knew the secrets of the whole universe.

“I’m not an agent anymore—you know this.” He laughed, throwing his head back, and his brothers joined him, but I added, “Cassie already told you.”

Their laughter stopped abruptly.

“Ooh,the little birdie has claws,” Seth then said, raising his hooked fingers to tease me. I ignored him as best as I could.

“The little birdie thinks she’s tough,” said Kaid, and I wanted to say,why don’t you try me,but I clamped my mouth shut. Not only because there were three of them and only one of me, but because I really was hoping for their cooperation. Stranger thingshadhappened. I was still alive—that was as strange asstrangegets.

“We might have heard news,” Radock said, and he wasn’t smiling. “Of course, we cannot be certain—you could be on a mission right now.”

“I’m not.” He fucking knew this. “I’m not on a mission—I’m a fugitive.”

“Oh, but we had no idea you were on a mission in that school, either—and you were merely a child then,” Radock said. “I believe the Council capable of all kinds of things if they can use their own children when it suits their needs.”

“What—likeyouused Taland?”

Fuck, Rora…

I bit my tongue, but it was too late. The way Radock’s smile dropped made it perfectly clear that he was going to kill me—or try. He most definitely would.

“Look, I just want to talk to Taland. We were in the safe house near Dackston, and he just disappeared. I need to know where he is.”

Too late, too late, too late…

“You know, I always knew Taland was weak. I just didn’t know how deeply rooted his weakness was,” Radock said, and he slowly came closer to us, while Seth and Kaid stepped back to give him space.

Then he was right in front of me.

I knew I should have kept my mouth shut—since the beginning, but especially now. But there was just something that went on inside me when he talked about Taland like that. Some instinct I didn’t even know I had that reared its ugly head and filled me with rage until I saw red.

“Taland isnotweak,” I said. “He’s stronger than all of you combined.”

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