Page 37 of Anchor

“Proof?” Somebody must have taken over me and altered my entire personality because right now I couldn’t have cared lessabout all the trouble I would get into with Madeline when she heard about this. I couldn’t care less about the consequences—and that was very, very unlike me.

“How about that bullet that went through my leg—how’s that for proof? People saw it. I was brought here, locked in an interrogation room,not healedbecause I’d turned Mud—but I wasshot.With a bullet.”

Cameron closed her eyes. “An accident.” She pulled the words out of her mouth with so much difficulty I almost felt sorry for her.

And I almost laughed. “An accident, how—catfairies developed hands instead of paws for a moment there, stole a gun, and shot me?” Did she even hear how absurd she sounded? And yes, I was aware to whom I was speaking, but it didn’t matter. I almost got murdered by my team leader, damn it. By my friend! They werenotgoing to just pretend that didn’t happen!

“Magic,” Cameron said, eyes wide open and locked on mine now, not an ounce of her former amusement left anywhere on her. “The illusion magic that the catfairies attacked you with—allof you. You were lost in the darkness—were you not?”

Fuck.“Yes, but?—”

“And all of your colleagues shot their guns to try to kill the catfairies. Don’t you think a bullet could have accidentally hityouinstead?”

“But that’s not what happened,” I spit, shaking my head.

“We all know how powerful catfairie illusions are. Perhaps you even shot yourself by accident or were made to do so by the magic of the illusion—nobody really knows,” Cameron said, and suddenly I wanted to fucking throw up.

This couldn’t possibly be real. These people—they couldn’t fucking be real. Not only had I had to go through all thatbullshit, but now they wanted me to say that none of it had even happened?

“Miss Cameron, Michael and Erid tried to kill me. They both attacked me with their magic, and my own came out to protect me when I lost control of my body—that’show I became Mud. Erid’s magic must have stained mine while she tried to kill me—thatwas an accident, not the bullet. Michael meant to shoot me. Michael meant?—”

“Enough.”

Her voice was charged with magic—so much magic that it leaked from her fingertips just slightly. Black flames danced on her skin for a second, and she looked about ready to kill me where I sat.

“The Agents McMurray were at the scene, too, La Rouge. They’ve already told us everything that happened. The catfairie killed Agent Michael and Agent Erid, and his magic turned you Mud before you killed him. However, that story will remain within these walls, within this office. Out there, you killed the catfairie, but you were never turned to Mud. You entered the Iris Roe with the IDD’s blessing, and you won. That’s all there is to it. Understood?”

I knew that even screaming my guts out at her face right now wasn’t going to make a difference. Not because she wouldn’t care, but because shecouldn’tdo anything about it if she wanted. No, the Council had decided on this story. Just last night they told me that they were going to decide on this, and apparently, they had. When I was in their chambers, I was too disoriented, too afraid, too incredulous to even think about asking these questions or talking to them about any of this, but I doubted that would have made a difference.

The Council had already decided how to fool the world.

They were nevergoing to foolmeagain, though. As much as that was worth…

“Do you understand, Agent La Rouge?” said Cameron, voice low, those black flames on the tips of her fingers again, as if she was getting ready to charge at me, to attack me, to kill me. I had no doubt that she could.

“I do,” I ended up saying because I couldn’t win against her. Against them. Nobody could win against the Council. “I understand, Miss Cameron. Perfectly.”

“Good. At the moment, you will remain in the office until we appoint you to one of the teams. Your schedule will be sent to your email. Stick to it,” she said.

“I will.” That, at least, was good news. It meant I’d be in here all day, and I’d have time to search for Taland without needing to go out on missions.

A fake smile stretched her lips and she leaned back on her chair again, the black flames disappeared from her fingertips.

Even the tone of her voice had changed completely when she said, “Dismissed.”

She then grabbed another folder from her pile, opened it, and began to read.Pretendedto read.

With my own folder against my chest, I stood up and I walked out of the office, my shoulders a million pounds heavier than when I first came here.

And just before I grabbed the handle of the door, she said, “Just a quick reminder that everything we talked about is confidential information not to be shared with anyone, Agent La Rouge.Anyone,”Cameron said in a whisper that I barely heard. “You just got out of the Iris Roewithyour magic. You don’t want to go to prison right away, do you?”

Prison,she said. I could have laughed but I didn’t, because she apparently thought I was stupid enough not to realize that I’d die long before I made it to prison if I didn’t do what the Council wanted me to do.

I’d die, and Madeline wouldn’t even have to get her hands dirty with me.

“No, ma’am, I don’t.”

I walked out of the office before she could say anything else, clutching the leather folder tightly against my chest until my hands hurt.

---