Page 267 of Shadowblood Souls
I catch a few shouts off in the distance, and the flames are still crackling as part of Rollick’s distraction. But there are no guardians I can see or smell nearby.
A spark of victory lights in my chest. We did it—we saved them.
There’s no one left here who can hurt any of us.
Andreas and then Dominic lope past us back toward the facility, their kids already safely passed on. I wave my two charges on toward the gleaming phosphorescent line.
“We have friends here who are going to make sure we all get out of this place without the guardians catching us again. Stick with them, and the rest of us will join you soon.”
Pearl and a shadowkind man wave to us from just beyond the boundary, the succubus bouncing eagerly on her feet. I shoot Pearl a quick smile and give the kids a gentle nudge toward them.
“These are the last of them.”
Pearl returns my smile brightly. “Are you coming back with us, then?”
My sense of Andreas and Dominic through my marks tugs at me. I think of Jacob still searching below, and shake my head.
“We’re going to give the building one last check and then we’ll be right with you.”
As the shadowkind figures hustle the kids onward through the woods, I wheel around with Zian by my side and dash back into the cave.
That’s it. All six of this facility’s prisoners are in protective hands now.
But maybe we can hurt the whole organization of guardians even more if we just look a little harder. Find out whether they’re holding other young shadowbloods elsewhere.
We could be only just beginning this war.
The upper hall of the hidden facility is empty—I can feel that Andreas and Dominic have headed downstairs. They weren’t there to hear that we’d already gotten all of the kids who were being held here, but we need to get back to Jacob anyway.
I dart into the stairwell, and Zian stalls in his tracks behind me with a confused grunt. “What…?”
I start to glance back at him, but Jacob’s voice carries up from below. “Riva—hurry! We’ve got to deal with this fast.”
I have no idea what he’s found, but my heart lurches with a sudden jolt of panic so sharp it practically shoves me toward him.
“Come on, Zee!” I holler, and take off down the steps.
Jacob has pulled off his black cap. His blond hair gleams in the florescent lights as I dash after him around the twists in the staircase, a couple of levels above him.
He marches past the third-floor landing to the fourth basement level and pushes aside the door there. I run after him, propelled by the still-growing wave of anxiety.
What have the guardians been doing down here?
I barge into the fourth-floor hallway just in time to see Jacob disappearing past a door partway down. His voice carries back to me. “This way! Quick!”
I spring after him and burst past the door. My momentum hurls me forward a few steps before I slow, realizing I’ve come into a narrow, empty room that appears to have no other exits.
Transparent panes shoot from the walls on either side of me. They smack into place, hemming me in.
With a stutter of my pulse, I slam my fist into one to smash it.
It’s definitely not any normal kind of glass. My supernaturally powered blow doesn’t open the slightest crack.
My gaze jerks to Jacob, who’s standing beyond one of the panes, expecting him to be launching himself at it from his own side. But he’s just standing there, watching me.
In the space of a thump of my heart, I notice a few things.
There’s no cut marking his cheek where I deflected the jab of the guardian’s knife.
