Page 52 of Anchor

Most importantly, the ones who’d gone totake a strollaround the mansion with my grandmother—representatives of the organizers of the Iris Roe themselves.

They’d come to give me the other half of my prize in person, and of course there would be other cameras to witness it, not just those of the crew of the Iris Roe who’d already set everything up—two cameras on tripods and a smaller one in the hands of a young girl who just wouldn’t stop taking my picture from every possible angle for the past fifteen minutes since their arrival.

I looked at the phone in my hands again, debating whether I could try to search for different keywords, or maybe in another search engine altogether before Madeline spotted me.

“Put that thing away,” Poppy said under her breath, and gently grabbed my forearm while her perfect smile remained on her face. Of course, she was looking her best with a cute red dress on, her hair flawless, her makeup to die for. She’d gottenmeready as well, had brushed my hair and tied it back, had put some blush on my cheeks because I resembled adehydrated ghost,and had made me wear a decent pair of black pants with a red shirt. The red was under Madeline’s orders, so nothing could have been done to avoid it, though I could hardly look at the color now after the Iris Roe. It reminded me both of blood—so much blood—and the color of my new magic that didn’t feel likemymagic at all.

All in all, I looked normal, ordinary, not at all like someone you’d expect to win the Iris Roe—and that’s not even counting the fact that I’d been Mud while I did it. With Taland’s help, of course, but I’d been Mud, no matter that these people refused to let me admit it. No matter that the Council had decided I needed to lie about it because they didn’t want other Mud to think that they could enter the game and actually win the Rainbow—and the money. And they would have made an example out of me had I not been Madeline’s granddaughter. They’d said so themselves,and I had no doubt in my mind that they’d have killed me, then labeled me a traitor, picked a completely different lie for the masses, just to keep everybody’s mouths shut—and the Mud far away from any future Iris Roe.

To think thatthesepeople were at the head of…well, basically the whole world.

“Just smile a bit, can you do that? She’s coming,” Poppy said, stepping to the side, her smile unwavering, and I appreciated it more than she knew. But her help and her persistence didn’t change the fact that I was about to stand side by side with Madeline and receive a check from the two representatives the Council had sent here, and I had to saythank youto them for the cameras, too. I had to smile and pose for the pictures.

Ihadto.

And I did.

“Don’t embarrass me, Rosabel,” Madeline whispered when she came to stand beside me, so low I barely heard it. Had I not known who she was I’d have thought I imagined it, but those were her favorite words to say to me so there were no doubts.

I smiled. I shook the hands of the people whose faces I didn’t even remember three seconds later. I received a thick piece of paper with a bunch of letters and numbers and colors on it, and then I held said piece of paper to the cameras and I smiled as a million flashes went off at the same time, taking away what little I already saw thanks to the panic.

That part, at least, I was thankful for.

My hands shook and my shirt stuck to my back and I had no idea what the hell I was even doing, but when Poppy whispered behind me,now!,I looked in the general direction of the representatives, and said,thank you.

That’s it. That’s all I was able to say.

They said something back, and they smiled and hugged me and shook my hand again, andanother one, shall we?so I had toturn to the cameras again and if those flashes didn’t render me blind today, nothing ever would.

Eventually, it was over.

The representatives went inside the mansion with Madeline. Their team of cameramen and photographers were already packing up to leave. And one of the reporters escaped the guard who was trying to get her to hop in her van and leave, then called:

“...magic! We just want one shot of her doing magic. The people have the right toseethat she has it, don’t they?!”

In my head I screamed at her to back the fuck off, get in her van and get the hell out of here, but…

“Well, go on, then, Rosabel. Show them.”

Madeline had heard. She and the representatives had stopped in the middle of the hallway, had turned, and they were waiting for me to do just that.

“Good idea, actually,” one or the other said.

Now I was sweating again.

I have no clue how I managed to raise my hand, to call for a spell—that same spell I’d used in front of the Council. Here nobody was standing in front of me with a sword at the ready. Only people with cameras, and that was almost worse. Maybe because I knew that the whole world would be able to witness this moment forever as many times as they pleased when the video went live. Everybody could see me—everybody,including Taland, wherever he was. If he thought I was trying toshow offafter what he did to take me out of the game alive, I was going to fucking set something on fire—but I had no choice. Madeline was there, waiting. The spell was already leaving my lips almost involuntarily, and my magic was responding, more violently than ever.Viciousas it slipped down my arm and searched for the heated gold of the ring around my middle finger. It used it almost reluctantly, like it would rathernotuse a ring at all, mymagic, just burst out of me everywhere at once. I had no idea how I could even tell, but that’s how it felt to me.

Then red flames sprung to existence over the open palm of my hand, and a ball of light shone as brightly as the sun in the sky. So bright, in fact, that people gasped and stepped farther away.

I’d thought because it was daylight they wouldn’t be able to see the magic very clearly, but I was wrong. Madeline had been right—this waspowerful. So much more powerful than my real magic because the flames were so red you’d be tempted to think they were solid.

When they faded away a second later, the ball of light was twice as powerful as any I’d ever made before.

Stabs at my gut.

A few reporters started to actually applaud.

Behind me, Madeline smiled, and the representatives brought their hands together, too. So did Poppy.

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