Chapter 26

Rosabel La Rouge

Only when the magic fell over my shoulders and began to slowly slip under my skin did I realize that I hadn’t really expected him to spell me. In fact, I’d sat there like a damn fool, surrounded by the three Tivouxes I didn’t want to see, had hoped to never have to meet again, waiting for the eldest one to kill me instead.

I’d been fully prepared to fall dead on the floor when he began to chant, and I’d still stayed put. I’d still agreed to submit because there had been the tiniest— tiniest chance that he might be telling the truth.

He was.

Imagine my surprise when the Blackfire magic coming out of his hand and settling around my shoulders, around my neck, didn’t kill me. It just began to make itself known to my mind, began to subdue all my thoughts like I’d taken some kind of a drug.

Within the minute, I felt so drowsy. I actually considered asking them to move to that couch so I could lie down and close my eyes for a minute.

Then the spell was over and Radock spoke.

“Tell me your full name.”

His voice was at the center of my mind, echoing a million times. Every single thought in my head revolved around it like everything I knew, everything I’d ever learned or thought about was rushing to obey him, and I didn’t even consider telling a lie, saying something that wasn’t true.

“Rosabel Amelia La Rouge.”

“Who is your grandmother on your mother’s side? State her full name.” Again, that voice—so powerful.

“Madeline Minerva Rogan.” I didn’t have to even wonder—the information came in the center of my mind and slipped out my lips almost on its own.

Slowly but surely, I was forgetting what lying was. How strange—I was forgetting that I could lie, could choose to say words that aren’t true.

Because right now I couldn’t.

“Is it true that you were born Mud?” I blinked and blinked, but all I was able to see was his face. Radock’s face. Everything else—Seth and Kaid and the entire room had turned so blurry.

“No,” I said.

“Is it true that you were made Mud on purpose?”

On purpose. “No.”

“Tell me how then.”

I don’t want to, I thought, and I blinked and blinked, but Radock was the only one there as far as I was concerned. The only one in the world.

“Michael Perez, my team leader, and Erid Schtein, my teammate and friend, spelled me when they tried to kill me. I was too weak to control my magic and I let it loose without an anchor or spell. Erid’s Whitefire stained me in the process.” That’s what I was ninety-nine percent sure happened—not just because it made the most sense, but because that was the first time I really felt the difference in my magic.

Laughter. Words I couldn’t quite understand—probably Kaid and Seth, but I was too busy being completely focused on Radock, on what he would ask me next. I couldn’t wait to tell him all my truths; anything he wanted was his to know. Anything.

But there was also a small part of me that was perfectly aware of what was happening, as if it wasn’t affected by that spell at all. It scared me, not going to lie. It fucking terrified me because I was aware that there were things I didn’t want to share with these men, with anyone , but I couldn’t even try to fight this magic off yet.

“And why would your team leader want to kill you, Rosabel?” Radock said.

“I don’t know,” I said without hesitation.

“Hmm,” said Radock, standing up slowly, and he began to pace in front of me.

Where is Taland? I thought, but the words didn’t want to leave my mouth just yet.

“Were you really with Taland at the safe house near Dackston? And?—”

“Yes,” I cut him off.

“Let me finish,” he ordered. “And did he give you that charm himself?”

“I…” The need to say yes was strong, simply because I didn’t think through what he asked exactly, but I couldn’t. Strange enough, though, the magic that held me back this time was…less. Less intense. Less powerful. “He left it on the bedside table. I found it when I woke up.”

“Did you sleep in the same bed?”

Goddess… “Yes.” I felt my cheeks heating up even in this situation.

“What did you do before you slept?”

This one came from someone else—another voice. Kaid, maybe Seth? I had no clue. Just a couple of minutes ago, I hadn’t understood them at all, but now I did. Even though I couldn’t see them, I did understand the question, and the magic didn’t persuade me to answer.

No, whoever asked me that wasn’t Radock, and Radock had put that spell on me. So. I kept my eyes on him and my mouth shut.

He smiled because he knew. They all knew exactly what we had been doing. Please, please, please…

“Well? Answer my brother—what did you do before you slept?”

I swallowed but the lump in my throat remained. And I wanted to resist the magic, not to answer this question because fuck you, asshole, you know exactly what! I did resist it for like three seconds, but in the end I had to answer because it started to burn under my skin.

“Showered,” I choked.

“And before that?” He was flat out grinning, eyes sparkling, and he was enjoying this so much. All of them were. “Answer me—what did you do before showering?”

It was easier to resist that magic now, and the heat didn’t become unbearable until the sixth second. “We had sex.” There. That’s what he wanted to hear.

Tears in my eyes, angry tears, because I was being forced to share something so intimate. It wasn’t right and he knew it.

Then Seth said. “ How? In which position?”

Him I wouldn’t answer, but if Radock insisted, I’d have no choice. The magic was already fading, true, but within seconds it would get the best of me.

Except Radock must have known that he was wasting time here. He must have known exactly how long his spell lasted because he raised a hand to his brothers.

“Enough,” he said, and I could have sighed in relief. Instead, a tear slipped from my eye before I could blink it away. “What exactly do you… feel for Taland?”

This wasn’t hard at all. “I love him.”

Seth and Kaid laughed and booed or did both—I wasn’t sure.

Radock’s smile vanished. “You love him, but you put him in prison. You hit him in the head, knocked him out cold. Why ?”

“Because they were going to kill him if he went into the Strongroom.”

This made him pause. “Explain.”

It wasn’t a question, and his magic didn’t really press onto me hard—maybe because it had faded, or maybe because he needed to ask direct questions for it to work, but I answered anyway.

“The agents who were following him with me got the order to shoot him as soon as he stepped through the Strongroom doors. I knocked him out before he did because there was no time to explain. He didn’t die.” And to this day, and no matter how many times I regretted that night, those six months, this would always make everything worth it. Every ounce of pain, and every tear shed—worth it.

Seth and Kaid weren’t laughing anymore. The look on Radock’s face had turned murderous, and his jaws clenched, and we both knew the question he was going to ask me next—the same one he’d asked me when I was chained to his basement, that I, like a fool, refused to answer because I thought I knew what I was doing. Because Taland was there and Taland had been watching me from the shadows, smiling.

To know now that it was all for show, that he’d been the one to call Madeline, was like owning the entire fucking world. It had hurt me so much—more than anything else.

“Who?” Radock said, his voice low, dry. “Who sent you to that school?”

I’d have told him even if he hadn’t spelled me. “David Hill.”

For a second, he froze.

In the next, he jumped to his feet and slapped the shit out of me.

Goddess, it hurt. My neck snapped and my ear whistled, and the left side of my face burned so much I thought it might be on fire.

Black dots in my vision when I finally raised my head again and blinked my eyes to try to see where he was. In front of me, the glossy black feather out of his pocket, and he held it between his fingers when he whispered again—that same spell.

“No, I—” I’m still under your spell, I wanted to say, but he didn’t let me. He chanted fast, furiously, and his Blackfire magic wrapped all around me, slipped under my skin, twice as intense as the first time.

“Tell me who sent you to that school after Taland,” Radock said after he finished that spell for the second time, and thick glossy strands fell off his feather because the magic he’d used on me had consumed it.

“David Hill.”

This time, I said it with my eyes closed, expecting to be hit again, and when I wasn’t in the very next second, I continued to talk. “Taland told me about Selem and about Hill being one of the Mergenbachs. Taland thought he was a double agent because he was the one who chose me for that mission when I was seventeen years old. He was the one who sent me to the school and left me with a phone to call him with updates every month on the dot. He sent me Taland’s file, and he told me that Taland was going to attempt to steal the veler at the Feast of Hope. That night when Taland left the party, he told me to follow him together with the other agents who were already there. And-and-and when we were following Taland, I tried to warn him, but I was under a ward so he couldn’t hear or see me, and then the agent behind me received the order to shoot him the moment he went through the Strongroom door. And…and I closed the door on them and I knocked him out because there was no time to explain and I wasn’t going to let him d-d-die. I wasn’t.”

Goddess, I was a mess. I was crying and shaking and barely even breathing while I spoke, and now I couldn’t stop. “I am not going to let him die. I am not going to let him die…” I’d rather set the world on fire first.

That sound again—of chairs being dragged that pulled me out of my trance, that made me stop whispering those words.

When I could see again, Radock was already sitting across from me, elbows over his knees as he leaned toward me all the way.

“David Hill personally took you to that school.” Again—not a question, but I chose to answer anyway.

“My grandmother’s driver took me to the school. David Hill chose me and gave me the assignment,” I said, and he knew I was telling the truth because he’d spelled me fucking twice now.

“And he gave the order to shoot Taland?”

“I can’t say that with a hundred percent certainty, but I strongly believe it was him who gave that order.” That earpiece had been near that agent’s ear, not mine. I’d only heard the voice because it had been so silent in that corridor, so I couldn’t be exactly sure it was Hill—but who else?

“Why?” Radock asked, and I was pretty sure he wasn’t asking me or anybody in particular as he looked down at the floor, but I answered anyway.

“I don’t know.”

“It makes no sense,” said Kaid, who was now pacing behind Radock. Meanwhile Seth stayed there at my side playing with his raven feather, running his fingertips up and down the edges of the strands.

“You know I’m telling you the truth. Taland wanted to come talk to you about this when things settled a bit, but then he disappeared,” I said. “I swear it, it’s the truth.”

“What else did Taland tell you?” Radock then said, his unblinking eyes piercing daggers straight into my brain.

A bad feeling—no, a worse feeling settled in my stomach. “Nothing.” That’s all we’d said—that we were going to talk to Radock about this because he had to tell his brother about Hill. Even though I’d hated the idea of being face-to-face with this man again, I’d agreed, because I thought I’d be with Taland. I thought I wouldn’t be alone.

Look at me now.

“Did he tell you that this charm he gave to you with such ease…” Radock said, then raised his hand without ever looking away from me, and Seth immediately put Taland’s charm in his open palm. “Did he tell you that our mother gave this to him?”

Tears in my eyes again. “Yes.”

He was a bit surprised, but he hid it well.

Meanwhile I dug my fingernails in my palms to keep my magic under control because it was so violently expanding in the center of my chest, wanting to come out, to protect me.

I wouldn’t let it no matter what.

“And he still gave it to you. Altered its magic so that it now…belongs to you, pretty much.” It was easy to see how disappointed that made Radock. “Of all things, that strikes me as the most… impossible thing.”

“Where is he, Radock?” I said. “Please, just tell me who took him.”

“You can’t help him now, little birdie,” Radock said, and he stood up, put his raven feather in his pocket, and threw Taland’s charm at Seth’s waiting hands. “Thanks for the talk, Miss La Rouge.”

And I was going to beg him to tell me again, just give me a name, a location, a way in which I could find out—anything at all, but then…

Radock put his hands in his pockets and looked at Kaid who was standing right behind the chair still, and he said, “Kill her.”

Just like that— kill her.

I could hardly believe my ears.

I heard the words clearly and read them on his lips and saw the look in his eyes, knew that he wasn’t joking, yet a part of me still insisted that this wasn’t real. That he was just kidding. That they would never— these were Taland’s brothers, for fuck’s sake!

Except he had, and now Seth was on his feet, and he was no longer smiling as he looked at Radock, and even Kaid looked surprised.

“You sure, brother?” he asked, while Radock stopped by his desk to pick something up, and I could have sworn that something inside me twisted.

“Just kill her,” he said, pissed off now that Kaid had even asked, and I was just as pissed off—but at myself, for ending up in this situation. For thinking that I could just come here and Taland’s brothers would treat me with any amount of decency, would hate me less than they did while they were torturing me, because I was fucking delusional. Because I thought since Taland had seen into my mind, and Taland believed that I had never betrayed him, that everybody else was going to think the same—his brothers included. Such a fucking fool to think I could come and demand they answer my questions, then walk out of here alive.

Silly, silly Rora…

Then Kaid pushed the chair where Radock had been sitting to the side, and it fell against the concrete floor with a loud thud. My magic was there, right under my skin, already locked in with the bracelet, and I didn’t even consider using my anchor this time. The pain would set me back, make me slower, not to mention Taland thought our magic would be more powerful with the bracelet.

Even though I wished I could do this differently—they were still Taland’s brothers, and to me that meant something—I was already prepared to fight.

Because I was not going to die here tonight. Fuck that, I was not going to die anywhere until I found Taland.

So, when Kaid reached his hands for me—and in his eyes I could see the regret flashing by clearly—I was calm. The spell I was planning to use was at the tip of my tongue, and it was going to explode out of me, hopefully with enough strength to knock both Kaid and Seth on their asses. I needed a fast one as well because I needed Radock to still be there. I needed Radock to still tell me where the hell Taland was, so I didn’t hesitate.

As soon as Kaid grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to my feet, I brought my knee up and hit him right in the groin, whispering my spell all the while. When he doubled over, I moved back and grabbed the chair I’d been sitting on, and slammed it against Seth’s side when he made to grab me, too.

It felt so good to be underestimated right now. So, so good…

Especially when my spell was already finished, and Radock was still two steps away from the door.

A fucking rainbow burst out of my hand while Seth, quickly recovered, launched at me again, and Kaid was still cursing under his breath and holding his dick with both hands.

Yes—a rainbow with all the shades of all the colors that existed in the world illuminated every inch of this underground room. It was so powerful, it pushed my hand back when it separated itself from me, and I screamed; so powerful that not only did it knock Kaid and Seth to the floor, but it pushed Radock against the wall near the door, too. It pushed the chairs away, and even moved the couches a little before it disappeared, and the lights in the room seemed so dim now in comparison.

I was standing, breathing heavily, and Radock was pushing himself to stand straight, holding onto the wall. Kaid and Seth were both bleeding from the mouth and nose, barely keeping their heads up to look at me.

Seth was closest to me so I went to him, and I couldn’t believe I was doing this at all, but I did it anyway. I fell on one knee next to him, and I grabbed him by the hair, and brought my other hand under his chin. Kaid tried to reach us, but he couldn’t even sit up yet, so I had more than enough time to look Radock in the eye, stick two fingers inside of Seth’s mouth while he moaned in complaint, and say,

“Tell me where he is, or I will kill him.”

Radock blinked his eyes slowly, able to stand without holding onto the wall now, and he shook his head.

“You spelled me to speak only the truth,” I said through gritted teeth. “I will kill Seth if you don’t tell me where Taland is, Radock. I will do it.”

Lies—his spell had long faded away from my body and I could choose to say whatever I wanted, but I was hoping that he’d believe me because I needed him to so desperately.

He did.

“How did you do that?” Radock asked me.

I wanted to shout at him to focus on Taland, but then I was supposed to still be under the influence of his spell, so I rested Seth’s head on my knee, raised my hand, and pulled my sleeve up to show him the bracelet around my wrist.

“I found this in the Vault at Headquarters. Taland and I think it’s an anchor of the Laetus.”

If I’d have cut his head off this moment, Radock wouldn’t even bleed. And Seth wasn’t moving anymore, either. And Kaid—he’d sat up and was looking at my bracelet with his mouth wide open.

“I promise you,” I told Radock. “It works just as well as you saw. And I will kill Seth and then Kaid and then you if you don’t tell me where Taland is.” Please, please believe me… “I’ll kill you all.”

Radock came closer, eyes wide open, lips parted, hands to his sides slightly shaking.

“You’re still Mud.”

“And so is Taland. He can use this, too,” I said, and my words brought him back to life.

“By the goddess,” he whispered.

“He’ll show you himself if you tell me where he is right now. I’ll go get him and he’ll show you himself.” Tears in my eyes because I was that desperate for him to believe me.

“Let me see,” he said, eyes on the bracelet.

“ No, ” I said without hesitation. “Don’t take another step closer, Radock. You can’t get to me in time.” I made a point of sticking my fingers even deeper in Seth’s mouth, but I couldn’t even feel it if I touched his tongue or his teeth or if my skin was wet with his saliva—I didn’t fucking care.

Radock stopped. He raised his hands as if in surrender. “Calm down, Rosabel.”

Laughter burst out of me suddenly, the bitter kind. “You want me to calm down now?!” Was he serious? “Tell me where the hell Taland is, damn it! Tell me—I won’t ask again!” This I screamed at the top of my lungs and fuck, it felt so good. My magic raged and I could have sworn that colorful smoke was coming out of my fingers, only slightly, only for show.

“You are…not who I thought you were,” Radock said, and I knew he was stalling, trying to win time, because he hoped that Kaid, who was sitting on the floor to my side, would jump me when I was distracted.

So, I looked Kaid in the eyes for a moment, and said, “I will kill you first.”

He flinched because he, at least, believed me.

“I’m an IDD agent, Radock. I know how to fucking fight, and this bracelet is going to guarantee that I win. Don’t test me—I am all out of patience. Tell me where Taland is, and I will leave. Don’t, and I will kill you, then leave. I’ll find Taland myself eventually.”

He shook his head and he smiled, Radock, like he was happy to hear those words coming out of my lips.

“My, my,” he finally said. “You hear that, boys?”

It was all I could do not to blast them another time, just to get that smug smile off his face.

Seth made to raise his hand, casually, probably to grab mine. So, I pushed my nails into the inside of his cheek until he hissed. “ Stay .”

“The Devil has him,” Radock said, and for a second I paused. For a second, I was confused— what the hell is the Devil?!

But then I remembered that I knew that name. I’d heard that name before—plenty of times. The Devil was the Iridian inmate who basically ran the Tomb Penitentiary. He was the guy in charge of every prisoner, could do whatever he pleased inside those walls—and most importantly, he was the guy who’d helped Taland escape from prison.

Fuck, I’d completely forgotten about him.

“Where?” I asked because my panic and paranoia and fear had to wait—I still had to make it out of here alive.

“In his lair in Silver Spring.” Radock took a step closer.

“Why?” Even though I thought I knew the answer already…

“Because Taland didn’t deliver what he promised to the Devil in exchange for breaking him out of prison.”

Every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps. I couldn’t even breathe for a moment, and the feelings got the best of me whether I liked it or not. So, I let Seth go and I stood up and I moved back while he cursed and wiped his mouth and stood up together with Kaid, their eyes never leaving me.

Shit, shit, shit.

“The Vault,” I whispered, and everything came back to me like I had suddenly slammed onto a brick fucking wall.

That script he’d been stealing in the Vault. The piece of white marble that had fallen off him during our fight with the guards.

“He was supposed to deliver something to the Devil’s men three days ago. He didn’t. So now they’re…dealing with it.”

“Fuck.” The word slipped from my lips.

“Yes, precisely,” he said. “They might spare him, though, because he did turn himself in—but who knows?”

My eyes closed for a second, and Radock’s voice echoed in my head. Goddess, I wanted to fucking slap myself for not staying up all night, making sure Taland stayed right there on that bed in the safe house. Because now everything was falling into place and I almost saw him when he spoke on the broken phone he left in my car, when he decided to leave me his charm, to turn himself in because he was afraid— for me.

He was afraid the Devil’s people would find him while we were together.

Fuck, Taland, fucking hell!

“You have to help him,” I said. “You…you know the Devil.” He had to—how else would Taland have been in contact with him at all while in prison?

“I do,” Radock said. “But my brother made his choices. He turned against me, against his own family when he chose you. I will not help a traitor.”

If he’d have set me on fire right now, it would have hurt less.

But it didn’t matter now, did it? Taland was gone, whether he turned himself in or not. And I was still here, still alive, still perfectly able to go find him, kill anybody in my way— and I mean anybody — and take him away. Take us away—to another safe house, another city, another country. It didn’t even matter.

“I’m going to leave now,” I said, slowly backing away toward the wall from where I could see all three of them until I made it to the door. “Don’t come after me.”

“With that bracelet?” said Radock, a brow arched. “You think you’ll survive out there once everybody knows that you have it?”

“I will until I find Taland,” I said, and I didn’t care about the fucking bracelet at all. When Taland was with me again, they could have it. I didn’t fucking care.

That surprised Radock even more. “You’ll die if you go after Taland.”

“I won’t.” This I said with as much conviction as Taland had in his words whenever he spoke.

Radock grinned—but I was barely five feet away from the door now, so I didn’t mind. I just wanted him to keep talking until I was out of here for good.

“Assuming that you don’t, and that you somehow get Taland out alive. What then?” He raised his hands. “How are you going to run forever?”

“I won’t,” I repeated, and the door was right there, my hand on the handle. “I’ll just give this bracelet to anybody who asks nicely.”

His smile vanished.

I pushed the door open and ran out while he called, “Rosabel!”

My body moved at full speed, and my heart beat loudly in my ears, but my head was perfectly clear as I ran, faster than I ever had before. I ran up the stairs and down the narrow corridor, and outside that door that merged in with the wall of the strip club. The music didn’t slow me down. It was so loud that the beat shook the ground every few seconds, but I didn’t slow down and I didn’t look back until I was outside in one piece, still breathing.

Still breathing—and more determined than ever.

The bouncers watched me curiously as I stumbled down the stairs, pushing away the people who were waiting in line to get in still. The sky was dark and the moon half and nobody was coming after me that I could see. I went and hid behind cars, stopping to catch my breath with every new road I crossed until I made it to Taland’s SUV.

Then I sat behind it, rested my back against the wheel, and I cried.