Page 220 of Shadowblood Souls
“Everything okay, Shrimp?”
He says the old, teasing nickname like he’s testing it out. The sound of it in his gruff voice brings a sudden shock of heat to the back of my eyes.
“You mean, other than the fact that we’re being hunted across the continent by slave-drivers who want to use us as weapons?” I say, matching the vibe he’s offering.
Zian lets out a huff. “Yeah, I guess it’s a silly question. You just looked kind of… sad. In a different way from usual.” He glances down awkwardly and moves as if to walk away. “I didn’t mean to?—”
“No, it’s fine.” I turn my attention back to the city. “I was just thinking that maybe we could get away from the guardians if we just settled down in some distant country. They can’t be all over the world, right?”
“It would be pretty crazy if they were. Drey says all the memories he saw from them, it seemed like they weren’t talking with people far away.”
“Yeah.” I swipe my hand across my mouth. “But then I realized that they’d find us eventually anyway. Given enough time, they could probably track us down anywhere on the planet. Maybe we’d buy ourselves a week or a month, but would that really be worth it if we’d just have to pick up and run again?”
Zian stands in silence for a moment, contemplating the question. “No. Not really.”
“And there’s the other shadowbloods too. I don’t want to just abandon those kids.”
Not to the same horrors we went through. Not if we can spare them some of that torment.
Zian’s muscles bulge as if he’s already imagining an assault on a facility. “We won’t. We’ll get them out. You managed to get us four free, so with all five of us together, we’ve got to be able to pull off a whole lot of prison breaks.”
In spite of the uncertainty lingering between us, the determination in his words makes me smile. “Let’s hope so.”
Maybe because of that momentary sense of understanding, I find myself glancing over at him. “Zee… Is something bothering you—about me?”
His gaze jerks from the scene ahead of us to me, startled. “What?”
My fingers tighten around the railing. “You obviously don’t have to want to dance with me or whatever. But sometimes it seems like you’re still upset with me or concerned about what I might do, orsomething. You apologized for distrusting me—it seemed like you weren’t scared about my power—but if you still have doubts about anything that happened?—”
Zian shakes his head so forcefully I stop speaking. “No. No, Riva, I—” He extends his hand toward me and then catches it before it’s quite reached me.
We both gaze down at that truncated gesture for a moment before he lifts his head again, his mouth tight.
“It’s not you,” he says. “I swear it’s not you. You have been so… incredible. Fuck, I’m grateful you’re even talking to me after… after everything.”
“Then…?”
He swallows audibly. “It’s me. I don’t know whatImight do—I don’t trust myself.”
That doesn’t make any sense. If he doesn’t hold any animosity toward me, then why would he need to worry about doing something that could hurt me?
I drag in a breath, struggling for the words to ask him, and just then the other three guys come hustling out onto the deck.
As Zian and I spin toward them, several shadowkind, including Cinder and Kudzu, emerge as if ushering our friends out. None of the guys look happy, Jacob scowling darkly enough that it’s a wonder the sun hasn’t blinked out.
My pulse stutters. I push toward them, Zian stalking over at my side. “What’s going on?”
Kudzu turns to us with his ropey arms folded over his chest. “It’s time for you to go.”
I blink at him. “What?”
“The five of you mutants. Get the fuck off our ship. Stay the hell away from Miami.”
“But—Rollick said to?—”
Cinder slashes her hand through the air with a crackle of electricity. “Rollick’s got millennia under his belt. Staying alive even longer either doesn’t mean that much to him or he’s too curious to do the right thing. So we’re deciding now. We’re done with you.”
She’s serious. They all are.
