Page 77 of Anchor

I was walking, shaking my head, trying to make sense of this—and failing.

“But the veler,” I whispered because he hadn’t taken the veler. I could see the veler—it was right there in its box as it should be. But he’d tried to steal the veler at our school that night that cost us both everything.

“I’m not here for the veler,” Taland said. “Come on—hurry up.”

I did.

Taland stopped by the doors, a hand raised toward me, waiting, and I grabbed it without thought. Yes, none of this was making any sense right now, but he was here and that was enough. I didn’t care about sense orhows orwhys—just Taland.

“Let’s go.”

He intertwined our fingers together, winked at me.

He turned around and pushed the door open, and we walked out into the reception room—empty.

He led us to the doors on the other side of the room, and I was mentally preparing to run as soon as we were out in the corridor, but the night was not done surprising me yet.

Because when Taland opened the door, he stopped walking, stopped pulling me behind him. That’s because he saw the three guards with their guns and wands pointed at us, while the one who’d just been in the Vault with us was on the floor, unconscious.

That’s how I knew that we were screwed.

Chapter 15

Rosabel La Rouge

My whole life flashed before my eyes, but it was different than when it did while I was in the Iris Roe. It was different because I’d had no hope then—none. It was different because it was just me who could end up dead, not Taland.

No way in hell.

Out of all the times my life had been threatened, I had never been certain that Iwasn’tgoing to die—except now. There was simply no way I’d allow theseguards to kill me tonight—fuck that. I’d survived Madeline all these years, and betraying Taland, and him being in prison; I survived the Iris Roe, the game and the players, and I survived the Council, too.

These guards did not get to kill me after everything.

“What do we have here?” the one on the right asked, his wide eyes moving from me to Taland slowly.

Then he smiled. The corner of his lips turned up just a bit.

“Agent La Rouge,” said the other in the middle, older, bigger, a guy I’d seen before around the building but had no idea what his name was. “What’s the meaning of this?”

I swallowed hard. “I?—”

“I suppose the IDD does only hire for muscle, not brains,” Taland cut me off. “It’s quite obvious what the agent is doing—she captured me trying to steal from you lot. Too bad for me, right?”

He was grinning ear to ear, but the sound of his voice, the look in his eyes, it didn’t fool me.

Taland was nervous and I could tell that just as clearly as I knew that these guards were seconds away from calling for backup, if they hadn’t already.

My stomach fell.

The guard in the middle said, “Please step aside, agent,” and he took a small step forward, one hand holding a gun, the other wrapped around the bones of his necklace—he was Whitefire, while his friends were both Bluefires.

I turned to Taland, and I could have sworn that everything was moving in slow motion—when he met my eyes, the way he blinked fast, too fast, and that’s how I knew that he was trying to signal me. When my thoughts, chaotic and messy, became silent all at once. When my fear, the reason why my life had flashed by me just now, resurfaced again and took on the shape of my grandmother’s face. The woman who’d raised me, who was supposed to take care of me. The woman I’d done all of this for, in a way—had taken Hill’s offer because I wanted to escape her, had agreed to work for the IDD and had spent most of my time at the training academy and at work just to be away from her, had kept my mouth shut and had won an impossible game because of her.

And my fear whispered in my ear thatshewould find out about this andshewould be furious andshewould take her revenge, would hurt me, would make sure I suffered.

Funny thing, though—I suffered so much more when I chose to act based on my fear of her.

Even funnier was the fact that I’d had to endure putting Taland in the Tomb and waking up every day knowing he was in there, thinking I was never going to see him again. I hadn’t once gone to visit because I’d been afraid of what she’d do when she found out. Even now, my very first instinct wasthat—move away from Taland, pretend I had caught him stealing, just like he said, and Madeline wouldn’t have to be pissed off. She wouldn’t have to punish me or hurt me or kill me—she would be pleased with me instead.

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