Page 154 of Anchor

Finally, a ghost of a smile stretched the corner of his lips just for a little bit. “When we get out…” he whispered.

“Yes—when we get out, you can do whatever you want to me. Right now, just move!”

He did. Finally, Taland made it to his feet, and by then Seth was standing, too, and he held my hand and pulled me up.

Whatever the hell thisBlackrealmwas, the room had changed because the walls that had been solid and unmoving on both sides of the veil of magic were spinning.

They were spinning, and sometimes they disappeared, or became transparent, and behind them was nothing but darkness, and the lights in the room had dimmed a bit as well, if my eyes could be trusted.

But the Devil was standing, and Hakim and the other guard were still struggling to keep their balance, while Bes had yet to make it to his feet. He was on all fours, throwing up, and if I wasn’t so afraid, I’d have probably been nauseous, too, because it sometimes felt like the floor was spinning just as fast as the walls.

“You shouldn’t have, old man,” said Zachary after a moment, breathing heavily, and the halo over his head was gone. Aurelia, who was pushing her braid behind her shoulder, no longer had hers, either, but their wands were still in their hands, and the siblings looked pissed.

“Now, we’ll forever know how to find you,” said Aurelia, and she was smiling, but it was full of malice.

Goddess, she looked pureevilright now.

“Oh, no worries,” said the Devil, playing with the feathers between his fingers. “I’m not planning to let you leave here at all.”

Meanwhile Taland was stepping back, closer to the walls, and they spun so fast I thought they might cut off his hand if he kept reaching it out like that.

I went closer, grabbed his wrist and pulled him back, but…

“It’s fine,” he mouthed, his eyes on the Devil. “I’m only searching.”

“How?” I asked because Seth was a bit farther away, and he was reaching out his hand for the spinning wall, too, and I had to bite my tongue not to call for him to step back.

“Feel the magic,” Taland said. “Feel where it’s weakest.”

“And then?”

“Then, we attack the weak spot,” Taland whispered, a second before Zachary spoke again.

“You can’t keep this up forever, and I’m sorry to tell you that you can’t really kill us, old man.”

The sharp laugh that came from the Devil made me flinch, but I stepped back, too, closer to the wall, and I reached my hand back as far as I could, but the magic was everywhere. So much of it spread in the air that it had become heavy, almost unbreathable.

“Old man,he says,” the Devil muttered, shaking his head. “You younglings don’t know, do you. And I am tired—so tired of watching you and seeing what is right in front of your eyes that you refuse to acknowledge and using it to best you at your own games, your own rules.” He stopped and looked Zachary straight in the eye. “You have no idea what goes on in the world you live in, in your own organization—and you call meold?”

The way both Zachary and Aurelia stopped at the same second, completely frozen in place. For a moment, it seemed everybody in the room held their breaths, and when I turned to look at Taland, I found him with his brows narrowed as he stared at the Devil, too.

He then looked back at the siblings, and they had their eyes on him, too. Him and Seth.

Wait a minute…

My heart all but stopped. My lips parted, my spell ready, the most powerful spell I knew with the least number of words, because the Mergenbachs were looking at Taland and Seth like they were…suspicious. And if they attacked us now, if everybody attacked everybodyin this fucking place, what the hell was going to happen to all of us?!

Except before anybody had a chance to call for their magic, the Devil laughed and said, “Oh, no, don’t look at those boys. They’re perfectly innocent—and powerless. No, I do not mean them, younglings. I mean someone else. Someone far more powerful.”

Again, everyone in the room just stopped. Froze. Held their breaths.

“The thing is that, as much as it sometimes pains me to admit, Iamold. I’m old, and that does not mean that Icannotkeep running the show any longer—I can.” The conviction with which he spoke left no room for doubt. “What it does mean, though, is that I am willing to retire—ifthe circumstances are right, of course. And I had a plan for that, a very good plan, a plan I’ve been seeing through since you two were still teenagers.” The Devil had stopped now, onhisside of the veil, which seemed to not make a difference at all when it came to him reaching us with his magic. I was dying to know exactly how he was able to do that, but right now I just held my breath and continued to try tofeelthe magic that spun those walls all around us.

The problem was the magic was equally powerful everywhere. It wasso much,so thick, like a brick wall that went on and on for days. Impenetrable.

“What are you talking about?” Zachary finally whispered, and Aurelia grabbed him by the hand because he was walkingcloser to the Devil, ignoring Hakim and the other men completely like they weren’t even there.

“Zach,” Aurelia called, and her eyes moved to us for a moment, and I could have sworn she was afraid now. She was terrified.

---