Page 164 of Anchor

It took a while for things to spring back into existence again—for my senses, that is. I was never really knocked out, always conscious through it all—through the reappearance of the room, the half-ruined ceiling, the walls that were white and motionless, the doors that didn’t exist, the table and chairs and piano in pieces, the people covered in dust and broken concrete.

It took a while to realize that a thick piece of it, from the ceiling or the walls, had fallen on my leg, too—the same one Hakim had stabbed—and longer still to wiggle it free a little at a time.

I could move, which was the first surprise.

My bracelet was still around my wrist—the second.

But nothing surprised me more than when I sat up, only barely, and I found a black hole where the Devil’s cell used to be.

No more shimmery veil of magic—orscreenas Aurelia had called it. No more view of the prison cell where that man—Alejandro Amizz—had watched us, had played puppet master with us until he couldn’t anymore.

No more anything—just a hole in the dirt, and it was falling. Big chunks of it were falling all over, and more concrete pieces were falling from the ceiling on this side of the room, too, and I needed to get out of here.

Goddess, I needed to get out of here right now.

The problem was that my leg was a mess, and I didn’t really want to test the other. When I saw a naked arm attached to a bloody shoulder underneath a huge piece of concrete that had fallen from the ceiling, I really didn’t need to do anything other than crawl.

Crawl all the way to him, as fast as I could. Push away the debris and make it to the other side of these huge holes that had simply appeared all over the floor and get to him—as fast as I could.

And when I did, I was crying, but that didn’t mean I stopped. I was crying and I was sitting up and I was pushing that piece of concrete off him with all my strength.

I couldn’t tell you for how long I pushed, but eventually I saw most of Taland’s back where he lay face first on the floor, and I saw that he was breathing. If it took me a year or ten or a single second, I got that piece of concrete off him and I pushed him on his back and I called out his name. Over and over and over, I touched him and kissed him and begged him to open his eyes, until he did.

Screw the Iris Roe—thiswas the most terrified I’d ever been in my life. To see him lying there, powerless, weak, barely breathing. To see him struggling to open his eyes and manage to do so only halfway.

Taland was trying to tell me something, but all I wanted was for him to stand up. Forget the wound on my thigh. Forget that Hill might still be here somewhere or that the Devil might return. Forget everything and just take him out of here, and then I’d be back. By the goddess, I’d be back for everyone else—and tomake sure that the Devil remained where he belonged and that Hill didn’t get to escape this room at all. I would be back.

But not without making sure that Taland was out of here first.

My jaws were almost locked completely while I chanted a healing spell for him just to get him to start moving. The magic that left me, even through the bracelet, was minimal. Weak.

I’d exhausted it—and my body—completely, and so Taland had to wait for someone else to spell him properly when we got out.

“Can you stand?” I managed to ask him.

And he said, “Run, run, run…”

I didn’t waste energy arguing. “Can you stand, Taland?”

He nodded. I grabbed his face and I looked in his eyes. He was struggling to keep his focus on me. I had no idea where he was hurt, if his bones were broken and his skin cut, but it didn’t matter. If I looked now, I’d just panic, and I didn’t want to panic, not while we were here.

So, I said, “I’m going to get you out of here, Taland. Please, stand up and lean on me.”

I said this even before I knew that I could stand. My leg was a mess and my energy minimal, but the thought of Taland dying here gave me all the strength I needed.

I stood up. I pulled him up with me. He was so much heavier than I’d ever realized when I put his arm around my shoulders and dragged him forward.

So heavy.

Sweat on my brow.Goddess help me,I prayed, and I looked around the ruined room, and I saw them—Aurelia and Hakim and Bes—I saw them lying on the floor, covered by debris. I promised them I’d be back and I planned to keep that promise, but that was before I managed to get us all the way to the doorthat wasn’t there anymore, that the siblings had blown off its hinges when they first came here.

I promised them before I realized that there was a chance I wouldn’t even make it out of the building with Taland because the stairs were ruined, and the floors were full of holes and the walls were dented in, like the entire house had been shaken to its foundation, not just that room.

“Please, don’t stop,” I begged myself and I begged Taland as we went.

“I…” he said, and he tried, he really did. He tried to carry his whole weight, but he couldn’t. He simply couldn’t.

Eventually, when we were almost all the way to the top of the ruined stairs, crawling and hopping and holding onto the walls, he said, “I love you, Rosabel.”

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