Page 92 of Anchor

“Oh, I never liked that guy. There’s something about him…Ineverliked that guy,” Taland whispered.

“Me, neither. My grandmother is…maybe notafraid,but wary of him. My grandmother is amonster,Taland. She’s not just wary of anyone. Hill must be awful.” And I meant that with my whole heart.

“I don’t understand his game, though. I don’t… I don’t get it. Why? Why put me there? Why putyouthere to stop me?” Taland wondered, and I did, too.

“Makes no sense.” No matter how I looked at it, from whichever angle, it just didn’t add up.

“I have to tell Radock about this,” he said, then flinched.

“What’s wrong?” Because telling his brother did sound like the right thing to do.

“Nothing. Just that Radock will definitely need proof,” he said.

“Then we’ll get him proof.” We could go back. We could still find that file.

“It’s fine,” Taland suddenly said, leaning in to kiss me. “It’s fine—let’s not think about that for now.”

I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him that telling Radock the truth was more important than anything, but… “There’s something else.” Something that was weighing so heavy on my shoulders.

Taland stopped moving. “What?” he whispered. “What happened?”

“I, um…” I shook my head, squeezed his hands tightly just to gather some energy.

“What is it, sweetness? Talk to me,” Taland said in that sweet voice of his that lured the words right out of me like a siren song.

“I went to the Vault with a friend of mine just to keep myself distracted a few nights ago. And I, um…I saw something. And then I went back and I kind of, sort ofstolethat something from the Vault.”

The look on Taland’s face.

Thesmileon Taland’s face.

“My beautiful little criminal,” he whispered, and my toes curled all the way. I fucking adored to be praised by him so much it wasn’t even funny.

“Well, your little criminal stole from the Vault, and last night when I saw you there, I was going back to return it.”

He raised a brow. “Why would you do that?”

I swallowed hard. Now came the…complicatedpart.

“I, um…I didn’t want to keep it because it’s dangerous. A very dangerous thing that somehow gave offno signalto the guards’ radars. They didn’t even catch it when I took it out, couldn’t even read its energy at all. Which struck me as odd, but then again, all kinds of things are locked up in the Vault so I thought maybe it was just an accident or something, but?—”

I hadn’t even realized how fast I was talking and how I wasn’t making any sense to him at all, until Taland brought his lips to mine. “Sweetness, calm down. Breathe for a moment.”

And he was right. I needed to breathe, put my thoughts in order, speak in a way that he’d understand me.

Except I couldn’t because the truth of it was so absurd that it was impossible to explain it properly, even if I tried. It was impossible to tell him what it meant, but…

I could show him.

“Remember when we said it hurts to do magic, Taland?”

“Yes? Sweetness, where are you going?”

He sat up when I jumped off the bed all of a sudden, naked, and went for the jacket over the armchair.

“I did magic just two nights ago, and itdidn’thurt,” I said, and pulled out the bracelet from my pocket. I ran back to the bed and sat with him, put the bracelet between us, on the white cover. Nothing about it had changed, though I don’t even know why I kept expecting it to. It was that same bracelet, big and thick and made out of metal that looked like dried mud.

“What isthat?”Taland whispered, grabbing the bracelet in his hands and inspecting it slowly.

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