Chapter 24
Rosabel La Rouge
Present day
Am I dead?
Because it felt very much like living if I was.
My eyes opened—nope, not dead. Still in the woods. Or maybe still on that tree was a better fit. Because by now I was pretty sure this was one giant tree with a million branches that somehow had gravity inside them, and that went on forever on both sides.
It occurred to me how silent it was here. As I took in the leaves and the ropes and the lightbulb flowers, I realized just how different from a normal tree this was. No birds chirping. No owls hooting. No small animals running—nothing, just wood and people, some screaming and some laughing, and their familiars—some eating them and some showing them the way to the end of this game.
I sat up with my heart in my throat, expecting to find my guts all over the branch. Surely I’d passed out for long enough that the vulcera had cut me wide open. Surely she was feasting on my flesh right now and I just didn’t feel it.
Except what my eyes were telling me was a very different story.
The vulcera was sitting on her hind legs right by my feet, eyes on me.
A miracle I didn’t scream, even if it was the shock that cut my vocal cords off. I slowly began to drag myself back with my hands instinctively, never once looking away from her face, and?—
“She’s not going to hurt you, sweetness. Can’t you tell you’re bonded?”
I jumped to my feet so fast I was dizzy.
I’d seen Taland before, had heard his voice—and it was all in my head.
I’d accepted it. I’d been thankful for the little hallucination, too, but there was no way he’d been real.
No. Way.
So why was there a Taland identical to the real one sitting on the same side, same level as me, at the curve of a branch parallel to the one we were on?
I shook my head at myself and slowly moved a couple feet back—until I realized that the vulcera was still sitting there. Too close. Not attacking me, only watching in silence.
Taland stood up, a gorgeous, mischievous smile on his face. He put one hand in his pocket, the other playing with something between his fingers, and he stepped onto my branch with ease.
“ Don’t come closer,” I said through gritted teeth, mad at him, at the game, at the vulcera that hadn’t eaten me already—but most of all mad at myself for being unable to figure out if this was all in my head or not.
“Why not? I wouldn’t dare try anything after seeing what you did back there with her,” Taland said, nodding his head behind me at the vulcera, but he was teasing me. Messing with me.
And it wasn’t real, any of it.
So, I shook my head. “You’re not real.” He couldn’t be. He was a wanted felon— nobody would let him into this game. Nobody.
Except…I was Mud and I was here. Smuggled in right under everyone’s noses.
Shit.
Taland’s smile grew bigger. “I’m not?”
“Just…just stay away from me.” I moved to the side, not wanting to jump off to another branch, but then he kept coming.
“I doubt you’re afraid of good ole me , sweetness. After all, you practically ended my life with such ease. You remember that, don’t you?”
Only every second of every day.
I raised my chin. “So, you are here to kill me.”
Because he really seemed to be here in front of me, no matter that it made such little sense.
There was a magical beast just sitting there , too—and can you blame me for having no clue what to expect next?
“If I wanted to just kill you, I wouldn’t have entered a deadly game to do it. I’d have killed you in the car, while they brought you in. Or before you entered that backdoor. Or even in that tunnel before you joined the other players.”
Sweat on my forehead. My heart beat steadily, but my mind was pretty chaotic.
“How do you know that?” I whispered, though I shouldn’t have bothered because it didn’t matter.
Taland came closer and closer… “I know a lot of things, sweetness,” he told me. “For example, I know you’re Mud an d this is primarily a magical game. I know you’re here for the Rainbow—you want to win your magic back.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. “What do you want from me, Taland?”
He stopped just two feet away, and now I saw his face in detail, saw every line and every curve, every color on him. The depth of his eyes. The smooth skin of his cheeks. The softness of his hair.
I could die looking at him, and I’d never for a second get bored.
“I want you …” His whisper trailed off and he took another step closer, looking down at me while he touched my chin with his fingertips, guiding my head back—and he didn’t even try hard. I moved all on my own, facing him, my eyes starved for the image of him, my senses already overwhelmed. The idea of moving away or jumping to another branch seemed foreign to me now. “…to do exactly as I say if you want to get to the end of this game alive.”
Reality slammed onto me like a brick wall. I blinked my eyes to find them burning—I’d refused to blink in those few seconds he’d held me captive with his silence.
I swallowed hard. “No.”
He wasn’t fazed in the least. “You need me, Rosabel,” he said, and I thought, more than you could possibly fathom.
Luckily, I didn’t say the words out loud.
“I don’t need you,” I said instead, and if he could hear the lie in my voice, he didn’t call me out on it.
He did something worse. He grinned wider until the corners of his eyes crinkled and those delicious dimples showed. For a moment, I was transported back in time, back to school when it was just the two of us, and he smiled and laughed without looking if someone was close to see or hear.
When he was just him, and I was just me .
When the world was beautiful.
But the world was rotten from within, and whatever beauty I’d found with him back then, it was long gone. Only the memories remained.
“But you do,” he simply said, his voice smooth, slow, effortless. So different from the way he used to talk. Now he had an arrogance about him that I didn’t like at all.
He looked… bad. Almost evil.
“You know it, too, sweetness. Without me, you wouldn’t have survived this animal. You need magic to complete the other challenges. I can help with that,” he said, and he’d have surprised me less if he’d slapped me.
Or kissed me.
“You want to help me.” And that was the most absurd thing I could think of, even considering what my life was looking like right now.
“Yes, I do.” His eyes moved away from mine, and he did that thing he used to do, where he analyzed every little inch of me, every feature, as if he was hoping to find the secrets of life written on my skin.
“Why?” I choked because the game was slowly running out of oxygen right now, even if nobody else could tell.
“Because”—he squinted his eyes as he analyzed my lips—“I’m a generous fella?”
He could burn me just by looking, and the way my body was reacting to him was scary as hell. He touched my chin and I suddenly found myself rising on my tiptoes, slowly, closing the distance between our lips, making a complete ass of myself.
Moving away was harder than it should have been.
“Because I need your help, too,” Taland said. “A deal is what I propose. ”
“A deal.” Again, I kept repeating everything he said, hoping he’d realize just how absurd he sounded.
“Yes—a deal,” he continued, leaning in slower than before as if he were hoping I wouldn’t notice.
I did. I still didn’t move away.
His proximity did things to me that I didn’t have the time to even acknowledge. My palms were sweaty, and my stomach was full of those crazy-ass butterflies, and my heart galloped and galloped like she hoped to be running toward her freedom someday.
Not to mention the vulcera was right there still, watching, and I was more afraid of the man in front of me.
“What kind of a deal?” I asked because he kept staring at my lips like that, waiting for them to move, and I was never good at denying this guy the things he wanted.
“Glad you asked,” he said. “I help you make it out of the game alive, and when we’re out there, you help me break in and out of the IDD’s main vault.”
My mouth opened and closed a thousand times, but I couldn’t bring myself to even make a sound.
That’s how utterly ridiculous his words were.
“It should be easy. You have all the access, and when you return from the Iris Roe, you will be celebrated even more than you were for imprisoning me . You’ll have plenty of privileges. You will be able to get me to the vault and out without anybody ever knowing about it.”
He said all of this with an easy smile on his face that could have you thinking he was talking about a trip he took last weekend on a fucking boat. Or something equally relaxing.
“No.” That I even needed to say this was crazy on its own, but still.
I finally convinced myself to take a step back .
“Why not? Some might say you owe me for locking me up for almost two years,” the asshole said.
“ No. ” If he thought he could guilt-trip me into taking him to the most secure room in Headquarters, where an alarming number of magical objects and artifacts was locked for safekeeping so they didn’t fall in the wrong hands—he was out of his fucking mind.
“Pretty please?” Taland said, batting his lashes at me, not even a bit concerned about the fact that he knew me well enough to see that I wasn’t joking. It was a no, no matter how weird this whole exchange or how unusual he was being right now.
Not the man I knew—but then again, what had I even learned about him in the six months we’d been together?
Close to nothing.
“No, Taland. No,” I said. “You are not going into the vault. You are not stealing anything from the IDD.”
You’d think after last time, after ending up in the Tomb for almost two years for this very reason, he’d have learned his lesson.
“It’s the IDD who steals, sweetness. Don’t get it twisted,” he said with a wink.
I shook my head. “No, that’s…just no .”
His smile finally fell, and his dark eyes somehow became even darker. “Do you even have any idea who you’re protecting?” he whispered, lowering his head until our noses almost touched. “Do you, Rosabel? Do you know who those people are?”
“Yes—they look after the world so bad people don’t get away with bad things,” I said, swallowing hard, unable to look away from his lips.
So soft looking. So fucking juicy. I would exchange my life to fall in a kiss with him right now—and I’m not even exaggerating.
Slowly, one corner of them turned up just slightly. “Is that what they were doing when they tried to kill you?”
Even my heart that was galloping like mad until now stood still for a second.
I could have sworn every being on this tree with me held their breath.
How do you know that? I wanted to say because it was easier than answering his question. Easier than thinking about answering his question.
“ They’re the bad guys, sweetness. I think you know this deep in here.” His warm breath blew on my lips and my eyes closed. His hand pressed against my chest, the very center of it. Over the heart that beat for him. “Help me, and I’ll help you.”
The world could have come crashing down on my head and I’d have felt less awful.
I stepped back, shaking, trying but failing to keep those tears from pooling in my eyes. But at least I could keep them from spilling when I looked at him again.
“I’ll take my chances with the game,” I said and moved farther back. I needed to get away from here, from him, asap, before he made an even bigger mess of me.
“You’re a fool,” said Taland, his smile no longer reaching his eyes. “You can’t finish this game on your own.” And he took a step closer.
I took another back. “ Don’t come near me.” Because I lost my train of thought when he did, and I needed to be able to think.
Iris, I needed to just think for a second without the pressure of him, of this game.
Taland then said, “Or what? ”
My mouth opened to speak—I still had guns and knives that could cut right through him, that I could at least threaten him with.
Except I never got the chance to try.
Suddenly, there was a growl coming from my side—the vulcera I’d completely forgotten about.
I thought for sure she was going to bite my head off, that I’d gotten too close to her without realizing it, and now I was going to die for real.
Of course, I was—I was stuck between two deadly predators, one more dangerous than the other, but the vulcera had all those teeth…
Teeth that she had bared at Taland.
I did a double take, and so did he.
The vulcera was standing to my side, half her antennas still without color where I’d ruined them, and she had her head down, eyes on Taland, tail pin-straight and sharp behind her.
For a second, I thought I was hallucinating again.
Then Taland started laughing. “Don’t look so shocked. You bonded.”
I shook my head, sure he was wrong, because… “I don’t have magic.”
“You showed her that you’re worthy, that you’re capable of protecting her without it,” Taland said. “Showed me, too.” And he stepped back. “Looks like I’m not the only one concerned with you keeping your head on your shoulders now.”
I raised my brow at him. “You’re concerned about me?”
It was my way of distracting myself from everything else he said so I had a second to breathe.
“Absolutely.” He flashed me a wide grin that I was starting to kind of like.
I mean, it looked good on him. He was so beautiful it fucking hurt.
“I’m not going to help you, Taland,” I said, and he put his hands in his pockets.
“You know, now that I think about it, I’ve missed the way you say my name.”
“I’m serious. I won’t break you in or out of anywhere,” I insisted.
“But you could do it so easily.” He leaned his head to the side, never even looking at the vulcera, like he truly wasn’t afraid of her in the least.
“I won’t. If you want to kill me, do it. I won’t stop you. I won’t fight you.” Words that cost me to say, but I needed to say them anyway. “But do it quickly because she, apparently, is not going to like it.”
“Oh, I’m not going to kill you, sweetness. Not yet,” he said. “But I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”
I stepped back and the vulcera stepped back with me, no longer tense. She was looking at me now, instead, and I could have sworn she wanted my attention.
“I’m sure we won’t,” I said, moving back again, and I saw my gun and my knife on the branch where they must have slipped from my hands when I passed out. Luckily, they were still there, so I slowly lowered down to pick them up—while the vulcera sniffed my ear.
That my soul didn’t leave my body in those moments was a mystery. But maybe it had something to do with the fact that nothing in the world was more dangerous to me than Taland—and not because I could lose my life at his hands.
“Of course, we will. I’ll be there once my familiar finds me. You wait for me, sweet Rose. I’ll be there.” Lightning fast, he stalked toward me, grabbed my chin in his hand, and kissed me on the lips.
The vulcera bared her teeth again and roared, about to bite him on the leg, but he moved away just as fast as he’d come closer.
Smiling. Grinning. Cheeks dimpled and flushed.
Meanwhile I couldn’t breathe.
“Until later, sweetness. I can’t wait to see all that you’ve become.” And he jumped.
He jumped to another branch with ease, then continued to walk below it and farther away—fast, like he was suddenly in a hurry, and he left me to stare after him until I couldn’t even see him anymore.
Only after he was gone did I notice the dark smoke fading away through the corners of my eyes, but when I looked, it would be gone already.
Magic. It had been Blackfire magic I hadn’t even noticed because I’d been too focused, too terrified by both the man and the beast to pay attention to it.
He’d put magic on us to talk to me, to keep prying eyes away—and cameras, too—which meant he was serious. Which meant he was really, really real.
Taland wasn’t playing games with me—he seriously wanted me to help him break into the IDD’s main vault.
Something moved to my side— the vulcera, it’s just the vulcera!
My heart was still about to beat into my throat. I couldn’t fucking believe how fast I forgot she was there. But truth be told, I forgot about everything when it came to Taland.
A purr—an actual purr came from the vulcera as she slowly turned around and started walking right toward the same place where I’d tied her up .
“Am I…am I supposed to follow you?” I asked, feeling like I might grow an extra head all of a sudden because the situation was that strange.
The vulcera turned her head and looked at me for a second, then proceeded to walk ahead, between the upright branches that connected at the top.
I guessed that meant yes.
Taking in a deep breath, I sheathed my weapons and took another look around to make sure Taland hadn’t come back.
He hadn’t.
So, I followed the vulcera with a buzzing mind and an aching soul—but my heart, at least, hadn’t stopped beating yet.
“Where to now? Are you going to stay with me?”
The branches all looked the same. If my sense of time could be trusted, I’d say we’d walked for about ten minutes and nothing had changed.
The vulcera kept on going.
Others were around me—all of them with bonded familiars, none alone. Like this side of the tree, wherever we were, was only for those who’d already completed the challenge. No screams, no laughter. It was just men and women and animals walking together toward an unknown destination.
“I’m sorry about your antennas,” I said to the vulcera. Half the curved antennas on her back were still without light, and my gut twisted. I really was sorry to have ruined such a beautiful thing .
The vulcera turned to give me another look but made no sound.
“So, are we?—”
She cut me off when she suddenly jumped up.
She spun around in the air, jumped up on the branch that was maybe ten inches over my head, and landed upside down on it like it was nothing. Meanwhile I stared after her with my mouth open, too surprised to even make a sound.
The vulcera kept going to the end of the branch, to this hole in the wood I would have never noticed. Her head disappeared inside it for only a second, and when she moved back again, between her jaws was something made of metal. Something that looked a lot like that cylinder I’d found in that puddle of blood.
The key of the challenge.
Every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps when she jumped back, simply twisted in the air and landed a foot away from me so damn gracefully. I leaned down on one knee and, still cautious, offered her my hand.
She dropped the metal in my palm and sat back on her hind legs.
“I-I-I…thank you,” I said, inspecting the cylinder. It was the same identical metal as the one I found in the blood puddle, only this one had these tiny stones painted green all around it, together with the same rune engraved on the side: Anra Bera Veris. In Honor of Green.
I put it in my jacket pocket together with the first key, then secured the zipper. Two down, three more to go.
“Now what?” I asked the vulcera, not really expecting an answer, but she sort of gave me one anyway.
She rose on all fours and came closer to me, sniffing the air. My instinct was to move way, but then there was something else, something that assured me that she was not about to attack me. I felt it, knew it in my bones that she was just curious about my smell.
So, I stood still and closed my eyes, expecting fear to take over me when I felt her body so close, but it didn’t. I was calm, my heartbeat steady.
And the vulcera licked my face, the side of my neck, and then my hands, around my fingernails where I still had dried blood from the Redfire game. Her tongue was soft, wet, and it had little spikes all over it that didn’t feel all bad.
“It’s just blood from the puddle,” I muttered. “I need water. I need a shower so desperately.”
And it might have been the silliest thought possible considering the circumstances, but the idea that Taland had seen me like this, sweaty and dirty and bloody…
Ugh.
The vulcera purred again, then moved around me toward the same direction we were headed earlier.
“Is the finish line that way?” I wondered as I followed her. She didn’t give me an answer, but within just a couple of minutes, we reached the end of the thick branch we were walking on.
“ Whoa, ” I breathed, looking out at the darkness ahead of us, at the other branches surrounding us, up and down and to the sides.
Fuck, the Tree of Abundance really was just a tree, a huge tree with so many branches and so many leaves and lights, and we were so high up that I was dizzy even when I had enough space underneath my feet to move freely.
But from here, I could see the night sky over us. From here, I could almost see the tips of the walls that surrounded the playground of the Iris Roe, though not quite .
And from here, I could see the twinkling lights somewhere below, off the edges of the branches that curved up for a few inches, and at the tip held a lightbulb flower that burned a green the same hue as the vulcera’s eyes.
“What now?” I asked, and I got my answer from the other players.
They jumped.
At first, I noticed the woman with some kind of a bird on her shoulder—must have been her familiar. She was about four branches above me, and she was standing at the very tip, too, right where the vulcera insisted I follow her.
Then the woman just spread her arms to the sides and jumped straight into the darkness.
She disappeared so fast from my view that I barely breathed as I watched—and then another jumped, too. He was just a level below me at the tip of a branch that extended farther out than mine, and a dog-like creature was in front of him with wings on his back. It could have been a sinnin—puppies with wings they couldn’t use to actually fly and who shed them as they grew up; or maybe a Japanese hainu—I couldn’t be too sure. But the winged dog jumped first, and he didn’t spread his wings. The player wearing blue leathers from head to toe jumped right after him into the abyss.
No, I wanted to say. There’s no way in any hell that I would jump off that branch willingly—but then I looked at the vulcera.
I looked at her, saw the deep green of her eyes, and I understood. She wanted me to jump with her, and she promised me that I would be safe, that there was nothing to worry about here. I could trust her.
No idea what the hell had gotten into me, but I understood that the fall would be part of the game, just like searching those blood puddles had been. I needed to fall in order to complete the level—and this time, the vulcera was going to come with me.
I smiled for whatever reason. I smiled and went closer to her, toward the tip of that branch that would barely fit both my feet, to that flower that burned so brightly atop the curved tip, the lights below, so distant, that made me think of a city at night.
“Let’s do it,” I said, and I sounded more confident than I thought I would.
She didn’t need to be told twice. The vulcera jumped without waiting to see if I’d follow—she wasn’t worried in the least.
I closed my eyes, held my breath, spread my arms just like that woman had done, and I jumped with her without an ounce of fear inside me.