Page 94 of Anchor

“But—”

Suddenly, something came before my eyes—the drawings in that book I’d found in Madeline’s office that night. The same drawings that had made me think stealing that bracelet from the Vault was a good idea.

And what had been the name of that book?

The DelaetusArmy.

“Holy shit, Taland,” I breathed, bringing a hand in front of my open mouth. “The Delaetus Army.” The story I’d read in that book—half of it. The drawings of the hooded figure and the men of his army—he’d called themtrata,his belongings. Like they were things, not people.

That’swhere I’d heard that name before—that book!

“How do you know that?”

I blinked to find Taland had stopped smiling and was looking at me like I’d just grown an extra head.

“I read it,” I whispered. “I read it in a book.”

“What book?” Goddess, I’d never seen him so confused before. So impatient.

“A book in my grandmother’s private library. Why, Taland?”

He shook his head. “Did you read all of it?”

“No, just about half. There were drawings in there, of a guy with a hood and this army—and they, too, had bracelets that looked likethisaround their hands. That’s why I went back and stole this—I saw the damn drawings in that book.” The book that hadn’t had an author or illustrator name. Just the title.

“The anchor,” Taland whispered, looking down at the bracelet with a new light now. “You found the actual anchor.”

“No, no—I don’t know if that’s right. It was just a guess, that’s all. Just what if feels like,” I said in a rush, afraid to put ideas I wasn’t sure of in his head.

“It was definitely therightguess if you saw pictures oftheArmy with these on.” He grabbed the bracelet in his hand, analyzed it again, slowly.

“But the guy also had bones in his hands—he was Whitefire. He had bones in his hands as well.” I remembered those drawings vividly. “Drawings,Taland. Not pictures. Just drawings. I thought it was a storybook! A-a-a work of fiction!” Because how in the hell could it possibly be real?

“It’s not,” Taland said, dropping the bracelet between us again. “It’s not fiction—it’s real. The War of Mages happened some seven hundred years ago, and it was erased from all history books since.”

Nowhesounded like he was talking about a fantasy, too. “TheWar of Mages? Are you serious?”

“Very,” said Taland, back to his amused self, grinning widely as his eyes sparkled. Not the best time to notice how the sunlightgave warmth to the color of his hair and life to his eyes, but I did. I always noticed. “Once upon a time, over seven centuries ago, there was a man, a Laetus, and his primary color was White. He was a very powerful man to begin with, and he was good at first, always taking care of the people, the Iridians he shared a city with somewhere in Canada. Nobody knows exactly where he came from.

“But then the more power he acquired, the more of his humanity he lost to it, until he mastered a curse so perfectly that with it, he could make any man do anything, and a lot of men do whatever he wanted without hesitation.”

“Without regard for their own lives,” I whispered because that’s what the book had said.

Taland nodded, excited. “He traveled the world for years, picked the most powerful Laetus he could find to serve in his army, under the influence of his curse, of course. With them, he set out to conquer the world, to rule it by himself, to be god to both humans and mages, and every other creation that lived on earth.”

“That sounds…made up.” Who could possibly have such ambitions? Even the Council, the most powerful Iridians in the world, created the IDD to serve the people. Even they didn’t dream ofconqueringthe entire world themselves—they created a system that worked.

Or at least I thought it did before my team leader tried to kill me.

“It does,” said Taland with a laugh, then grabbed my face and kissed me—like he was happy about this. So happy he could barely contain his excitement. “I’ve wanted to tell you about this so many times. Every night we spent in my dorm room, baby, I wanted to tell you everything.”

My heart broke a little bit. I touched his cheek with my fingertips. We’d never really been this…rawwith one another,Taland and I. This vulnerable. And I didn’t just mean that we were naked and lying on a bed for one and talking about what happened centuries ago. I meant in the way he had no limits to what he could share with me anymore. Both of us were open to one another—completely open for the first time.

“Why didn’t you?” I asked because he had been right before—if he’d have told me, I’d have told him about Hill, too. About me being at that school to spy on him. And maybe we’d have figured all of this out then. Maybe we wouldn’t have had to go through all the shit we went through to get here this morning.

“Because I didn’t want to burden you with it then. I thought you deserved to at least finish school in peace, because this isn’t a small thing. I wasn’t going to make you choose to be with me, knowing where I came from, what I did. Knowing what being part of Selem meant.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “I’m sorry, sweetness. You deserved a better boyfriend than me.”

Boyfriend,he said, and I swear every inch of my skin flushed. I loved that word.

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