Page 346 of Shadowblood Souls
Riva cocks her head, her eyes glinting with sudden inspiration. “Can you tell where Clancy is?”
Griffin takes another moment to focus inwardly. “Nowhere near us. Someplace south. I’d need a map to pinpoint him.”
“Nowhere near sounds good enough to me.” I motion toward the section of overgrown road that heads in approximately the same direction we were already headed. “We might as well walk along this route while it’s taking us where we need to go, right? We’ll move faster with fewer obstacles.”
“I’ll watch and listen for any sign that we’re getting close to the locals,” Zian says, his face settling into a mask of concentration.
I’m not surprised that none of the younger shadowbloods argue. Some of them even get more of a spring in their step as we set off along the easier terrain.
I start to doubt my suggestion when the road takes on an upward slope. But unless we wanted to spend an extra day or two walking all the way around the looming hill ahead of us, I guess we’d be stuck scaling it either way.
The sun has sunk below the level of the canopy when Zee lets out a low shout to alert us and stops in his tracks.
“There’s a building up there,” he says, squinting through the trees. “I can see part of a roof.”
We all gather around him. A couple of the kids shift nervously on their feet.
“Any sign of people?” Riva asks.
Zian shakes his head. “I can’t make out a whole lot from here, though.”
Griffin gazes off in the direction Zee indicated. “I think I’d be able to sense if anyone was over there. I’m not picking up any emotional impressions strong enough to be coming from a building that close.”
Andreas steps to the front of our pack. “I’ll take a quick look around incognito.”
He tips his head jauntily and vanishes from view in a blink.
The lanky, blond-haired guy near me—Booker, I think his name is—sucks in a breath of surprise. A startled murmur passes through the younger shadowbloods.
I forgot that most of them aren’t familiar with our powers. I don’t think I’ll be showing off my spines anytime soon.
Zian moves a little farther ahead to keep scanning the area while we wait. Riva pulls a jug of water out of her pack and passes it around, checking on the kids with Dominic flanking her, ready to treat any injury.
Seeing her dote on them sends another quiver through my chest, not as heated as the impact of her smiles but with a soft glow of warmth I’m not used to.
She’s been so worried about her powers, about being someone destructive. A monster. Does she even realize how easily she’s taken on this nurturing role?
She’s a badass, brilliant superhero of a woman, but I bet she’d be a fantastic mother someday too, if that’s something she wants.
Whether I’d be much of a dad…
That idea leaves me unsteady enough that I yank my mind back to the present.
Andreas reappears in the lengthening shadows with a grin. “It looks like it was some kind of eco hotel. Solar panels on the roof, a cistern that’s set up for catching rainwater. It’s been abandoned for a while, and the jungle’s crept in on it, but there’s still some power going and the plumbing works. And it’s got actual beds.”
My instinct is to balk at the idea of staying anywhere it looks like people would want to stay, but the relief that crosses several of the kids’ faces keeps my mouth shut.
Dominic is already thinking cautiously for all of us anyway. “How noticeable do you think it’d be from above?” he asks.
Andreas motions to us. “You can all come take a look, but there’s tree cover over a lot of the roof now. The building was only a couple of stories tall anyway. I don’t think we’d want to have the lights on once it really gets dark, but otherwise I doubt it’d stand out.”
We tramp on up the road for a few more minutes before the hotel comes clearly into view.
The trees have grown right up against the tan walls, in some places jutting through windows or broken sections of thatched roof. They block what was once probably a pretty view over the hillside. But they also camouflage the place to a degree that satisfies the worst of my worries.
We slip inside onto the dirt-strewn hardwood floor of what was once the lobby. The boards sigh under our feet.
A vine has crept over the reception desk and around a couple of sagging armchairs. A little monkey chitters at us and darts out through a broken window.
