Page 146 of Anchor

See if I care,I thought. I’d give the man my own fucking soul in exchange for Taland’s life. Right now, no hesitation.

Then Yuri stopped in front of me. “Bes, what do you think, pup?”

The tall guy whom I thought was her guard, stepped closer to her, and practically towered over me, eyes wide and dark and dull as he looked at mine.

My instinct to raise my hand and start chanting that spell was so strong I almost gave in.

“I think she’s telling the truth, Mistress,” said the guy, and I forced air down my lungs.Steady…

“Very well,” Yuri said. “My pup Bes here is a very loyal guard, and he has a nose for bullshit. I tend to trust his judgment despite his…low capacityfor smart thinking. His instincts make up for it.” Her lips pressed into a tight smile. Her guard Bes didn’t even flinch, though he heard her just fine. “So, I will grant you the right to speak directly to the Devil’s advocate in his Regah chamber. He’ll look forward to seeing you two, I’m sure. Such a sweetheart.”

Yuri giggled. Seth threw me another one of those looks—full of regret, definitely. And fear, too. The guy looked terrified.

At first, I wasn’t—-to hell with whoever thisDevil’s advocatewas. He didn’t scare me. I was raised by Madeline Rogan—nothingscared me anymore.

Except one thing.

They took us through the door on the right, Yuri and Bes. In there were more wooden doors with small, barred openings in the middle and torches on the walls between them. Throughthose openings we saw the people—theprisoners, Yuri had called them.

On the third door left was Taland.

Goddess help me, I was barely standing.

He was chained by the arms, his toes three feet over the floor, his blood pooling over the surface, black and dripping still. His left eye was bruised and swollen completely shut, and his torso was naked. The tattoo of the tallarose on his chest was a bloody mess, like someone had tried to carve every drop of ink off his skin. His pants were torn to reveal the wounds on his legs, and though his head was up and his right eye half open, it was obvious to see that he was barely awake.

Yuri said something, and so did the man who’d been in there with Taland, sitting on a chair, playing a game on his phone.

While Taland’s blood dripped and dripped and dripped…

The ground beneath my feet could have disappeared. The entire world could have stopped existing when Taland saw me and recognized me and tried to move. Swung to the sides, opened his bruised lips and tried to speak but couldn’t.

It was worse than being turned Mud—so much worse than being shot and being beaten and almost being eaten by a giant spider or incinerated by a dragon. Worse than anything I’d ever endured, to see him like that, and my instincts took over.

Couldn’t stop them if I was conscious enough to try. I moved forward, and I wouldn’t stop until I got to him and took him out of there—I wouldn’t fucking stop.

Except strong arms wrapped around my torso and held me down before I’d taken a single step.

The scream was at the tip of my tongue.

“You’ll kill him.”

The scream died just as fast.

My eyes blinked slowly, and those words sunk in.

“If you try anything right now, you kill him first, and then we die, too.”

Seth—it was Seth whispering in my ear. It was Seth holding me back with all his strength. It was Sethbeggingme to stop, to think, to spare our lives. To spare Taland’s.

My ears whistled when I forced myself to take in our surroundings again, to see Yuri right there by our side, watching me with a small smile on her lips, waiting while the golden necklace full of red crystals around her neck sparkled, hummed with magic. Redfire, just like I suspected. And the fact that she was here, in charge or the Devil’s prisoners, meant she would be powerful, too.

I couldn’t care less about her, but there were too many of them. Bes and the guards and all those people—an entire fucking neighborhood of them that I couldn’t fight while carrying Taland out.

Yuri waited,wantingme to make a move so that she could attack. And I wanted to see the light die in her eyes, too, so badly, but this was a battle I couldn’t win.

I stopped straining against Seth’s hold, and he let me go and stepped back.

I stayed put.

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