Page 131 of Shadowblood Souls
I slip into the other room and shut the door with a click. When I turn around, I find Jacob perched on the edge of one of the double beds.
He hasn’t got anywhere to go, but he’s poised like he’s about to charge into battle. Typical.
The muffled sound of sloshing water filters through the bathroom door. Jake notices my glance.
“Zee wanted to take abath,” he mutters with a combination of derision and bafflement that’s almost funny.
My mouth twitches into a smile. “This is the first time he’s really had a chance in ages. Might as well.”
Even when we commandeered the townhouse on the college campus right after our escape, all its tiny bathrooms had were shower stalls. And I have a hazy recollection from the swimming lessons the guardians insisted on when we were kids: Zian stopping to simply float on the surface of the water in the big glass tank they used.
It might feel pretty incredible having that huge body buoyed up. Taking all the weight off.
Of course, I don’t know how much water he can actually fit in the motel tub around all those muscles of his.
I make a mental note, adding to the long, invisible list I’ve been keeping in my head: We’ll find a place with a proper swimming pool.
Eventually. When the guardians are no longer at our heels.
If that day ever comes.
Jacob jerks his head toward the door to my and Dominic’s room. “You’re sure this computer guru is going to come through?”
I shrug. “She only gets the rest of the money if she does. I didn’t get the impression it’d be that hard for her.”
“How long are we going to be waiting while she holds Dom’s hand?”
I resist the urge to grimace at him. He doesn’t really mean to be insulting, even if he sounds like it.
I know from experience and observation that the vast majority of the bitterness that spills out of Jake is actually directed at himself.
“She said it depends on the exact firmware on the laptop. A simple one could take just a few minutes. A more secure setup, she figured two to three hours. Shouldn’t be more than that.”
Jacob lets out a huff. “Engel would have had plenty of fucking security.”
No doubt. But I’m not sure taking a few hours to unwind is a bad thing—for any of us.
My gaze darts to the door at the other end of the space. The one that leads into Riva’s room.
A soft tingle ripples through the spot at the top of my chest where our interlude in the farmhouse marked me. I can sense her on the other side of the door, still there.
She looked so surprised when Jacob pointed out the room that was hers, without messing with the locks or posting a guard outside. So fucking surprised it kills me.
The ache reverberates through my chest alongside the urge I’ve been fighting ever since that night at the farmhouse. Every particle in my body wants to go to her, to wrap her up in my arms, to tell her I’ve got her, I love her, it’ll all be okay.
But it isn’t okay. She thinks I betrayed her.
Because Ididbetray her… just not quite as badly as she believes.
Riva doesn’t want me touching her. She barely wants to talk to me.
And maybe she isn’t entirely wrong, because the other image that flashes through my mind when I think of her is from Engel’s cottage.
Jaw stretched open impossibly wide. Every plane of her face gone taut. Her eyes hazed white.
And the little quivers that passed through her body with each pulse of her scream—eager, almostgiddy. Like twisting and snapping those bodies while they cried out in agony was a thrill.
I swallow, ignoring the twinge of nausea that ripples through my stomach at the memory. She called on that power to save us—and however she felt about it in the moment, there was no mistaking the horror and revulsion in her expression when we prodded her about it after.
