Page 163 of Anchor

But I’d been near death plenty of times—and I’m not just talking about the Iris Roe, either. I’d been near death and the important thing was to keep going until you literally couldn’t anymore. That was the most important thing, and so I kept on pushing my jaws to move faster, and they did.

I raised my hand a little higher, and I moved.

Hill was there, almost within reach, groaning as he moved his arms and legs and lips, called the Devil’s name…

The Devil knew now, too, though, just like he did before.

He knew he would be too late.

I was tempted to smile.Suck it, asshole,I thought, because even if Hill reached me now, it was done. Two more words, and the spell was done.

The Devil screamed.

His magic let us go all at once and we hit the ground on our backs.

The last two words left my lips in a whisper just as Hill’s hands closed around my head, as if he meant to fucking tear it off my shoulders.

“No!” he shouted, and I’d forever remember the blue of his eyes—so wide. Filled with horror.

Oh, the fucker knew, too.

Boom,I thought but couldn’t say.

Magic burst out of me, but I had my hand aimed at the Devil, at the veil that separated us from him. Even if Hill killed me now, it wouldn’t matter, so long as he let us go, out of this place. So long as the others made it.

And they would.

I knew it the moment my magic launched itself from my hand. I knew how much of it came out of me—more thaneverbefore, and it felt like I was draining the Rainbow in the Iris Roe all over again. The power that burst out of me was exactly like that, the same intensity, and I screamed again.

It hurt. It fucking hurt to be separated from all that magic, and I suddenly felt naked without it.

Hill squeezed my head as if he was trying to crush my skull.

My magic, aimed at the Devil, slammed against the veil.

Everything changed in an instant.

The floor began to vibrate violently. The walls spun even faster. Some kind of a screeching sound filled my ears, and all I saw of Hill was that he was looking around us, at the brightcolors that had replaced those white walls. A fucking rainbow spun around us now, and he looked at it with his lips parted, standing up slowly.

Maybe it didn’t work,a voice in my head suggested, and I didn’t even have the energy left to panic. To fear. To overthink.

Maybe it really didn’t work because the wall, though colorful, was still spinning, and the floor was still vibrating.

But it didn’t take too long for it to stop. Maybe seconds, maybe minutes—I wasn’t sure as I continued to pray that Taland would be okay. That he’d make it.

The floor stopped groaning abruptly, and the colors disappeared from the walls.

Everything went to shit.

An explosion—or maybe that was just in my head. What mattered was that everything went dark, and the floor was no longer there, and the ceiling had vanished, too.

No screams and no cries and nobody called my name.

Everything disappeared.

Chapter 33

Rosabel La Rouge

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