Page 230 of Shadowblood Souls
But I sure as hell can make sure that anyone who’s tried to hurt Riva never gets a second chance.
This kind of rage, the slow-burning kind like a forge smoldering inside my soul, wafts a cuttingly frigid sort of fire. My thoughts harden with cold efficiency.
Every movement, every consideration narrows down to the goal in front of me. Every thud of my pulse propels me forward.
I slide off the bed, pick my pack off the floor where I dropped it, and stalk out of the bedroom without a sound.
As I tug the door shut behind me with a soft click, a form stirs on one of the bunks beneath the cabin stairs. Andreas gets up and squints through the dimness at me.
Yes, that’s perfect. He’s the one I need.
“Zian’s standing watch,” he whispers, tipping his head toward the deck above. “He just took over from me.”
“Where’s Dom?”
Drey motions to the other bedroom. “Out like a light. I think he needs all the sleep he can get after patching the rest of us up.”
I nod. “Can you stay awake a little longer?”
My friend studies me with a trace of hesitation that makes my gut twist. Though we’ve been there for each other through so much, his pause brings back all the ways I lethimdown too.
But all he says is, “What did you have in mind?”
I motion in the direction I think is toward land. “Those fake soldiers are out there. Probably still looking for us after I bashed up their city. I think we should find them first.”
“And then?”
A tight smile grips my mouth. “And then we make sure they never get anywhere near Riva again.”
Andreas swipes his hand back over his coiled hair. He doesn’t give me an immediate agreement, but the clench of his jaw tells me he’s on board.
“We shouldn’t leave her by her?—”
“Not all of us,” I say. “Just you and me. Zian can smack down anyone who comes at him, and Dom’ll be here if the worse comes to worst.”
Drey’s gaze slides over me again. “Are you sureyou’reup to another fight?”
I adjust my weight, flexing my muscles to test them. A faint throbbing lingers inside my skull from how far I strained my powers this afternoon, and a twinge runs through my side where the bullet hit me.
It’s all distant compared to the vengeful chill warbling from that forge inside me.
“I’ve got most of my strength back. And what we’re going to do shouldn’t take too much of my power.”
One corner of Andreas’s mouth curls upward, and then I know I have him for sure.
“I distract them, and you knock ‘em down?”
A matching smirk crosses my face. “That’s the plan.”
He turns toward the stairs. “First we have to find them.”
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”
I pause to yank my sparse belongings out of my pack and stuff in a clear plastic trash bag the boat’s owner left crumpled in a corner. Then I climb the stairs after Andreas.
Zian glances over at me from where he’s staked out in front of the cabin, but I can tell from the acceptance in his face that Drey has already told him the gist of what we’re up to. He dips his head to me.
We leap out onto the rickety dock we tied the small yacht to and scramble up the rocky shoreline to this much more derelict section of the city. Down a dingy street, I spot a car that’s rusty and dented enough for me to be sure it has no alarm system.
