Page 142 of Anchor

I refuse, I refuse, I refuse?—

“Well, if he’ll help us, that’ll change things,” he finally said. “He’s a strong fucker.”

“Exactly,” I whispered. Taland was one of the strongest mages I knew. “He can do a fourth-degree and paralyze them until we run away. We can…we can do that,” I insisted. “We can.”

Seth nodded. “Then we will. The three of us against them—It’s doable if you’ll use that rainbow magic. It’s doable.” And he seemed to believe that, too.

I instantly calmed down.It’s doable.We would do it no matter what. We would walk into that neighborhood, and we would find Taland, and when he saw that we’d come for him, he’d fight, too. The three of us could make it back to this car in no time, and then we’d disappear.

“Seth?” I said when we got out of the car.

“Yeah?” he said, and for once he wasn’t talking at all, just looking ahead at the green buildings that began just off the other side of the wide road, built in a circle as if to separate that entire area from the rest of the city, to clearly say that they were their own place.

“If you cross me, if you try something, I won’t die until I kill you first.” I said the words slowly, separately, so he didn’t miss a single one.

Then he looked at me. “Fuck, woman.”

“Let’s go.”

That’s how I ended up entering the lair of the Devil with Seth Tivoux by my side, having no idea that when I came out of there, I would never be the same.

Chapter 28

Rosabel La Rouge

It was a neighborhood like any other crowded part of towns and cities I’d been to while I worked as an agent. Buildings close together, lots of small shops and plenty of people about the streets, fancy cars parked on the sidewalks and graffiti on every empty surface around, most portraying red horns atop their names.

What was different here was the fact thateverybodywas looking at us walking down the street, and the vibe in the air was something else, too. The smell of magic, or maybe other things as well, was unlike any other place I’d been to.

“I don’t look like me, right?” I asked Seth, just to make sure that the charm was still working.

Seth nodded. “Your hair has lightened up, but the rest of the illusion is still intact. Nobody will recognize you,” he said. That was good enough for me. For now, at least.

I put my phone back in my pocket—Cassie had texted to ask where I was and with whom, and I’d told her. She was most definitely going to be surprised when she saw Seth’s name.

“Then why are they looking at us like that?” I wondered. Everybody—people walking down the street, or driving, or walking in and out of shops and cafes—they turned to us at least once, without exception.

“We’re outsiders,” Seth said, and I realized his voice was strained and he wasn’t smiling in the least. Instead, he kept one hand in his pocket, I imagined to touch his raven feather, and the other was fisted at his side. “They can smell that we’re not from here. The wards here are very sensitive—everyone can feel the shift.”

Well, fuck.

“If they’re all staring at us, how the hell are we supposed to find Taland?”

Seth threw me a look. “Oh, we’re not going to find Taland. The Devil’s watchers will most probably find us, if they care enough to stop us. If they don’t, well…”

“We’ll search the buildings.”

“Allof them?”

“Yes—all of them. What, you have something better to do?”

“I do, actually.” He shrugged. “I can think of at least ten things just off the top of my head.”

“Don’t be a dick.”

“I’m not a dick—I just have one, and I could be pleasing him right this second, but instead I’m doing this.”

I couldn’t fucking believe I was having this conversation withthisguy inthisplace and inthissituation.

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