Page 442 of Shadowblood Souls
My body curls in on itself, my claws still out as I hug my arms across my chest. My voice has barely any more sound than my scream. “I didn’t want it to all be for nothing.”
“It wasn’t. It never would be. Not while we’re here with you.”
I don’t know how much he understands what I was trying to do or why. But as the van sways around a bend, the anger in me simmers on, eating up any ability I have to believe that he’s right.
We won, but we also lost. Again.
How many more times can I do this before there’s nothing left inside me to care at all?
Fifteen
Riva
Ithought we gave a pretty good performance of working our asses off and coming up short. But when we step out of the car onto the villa’s grounds, Toni is waiting for us in the thickening dusk with the expression of a disapproving headmaster from some boarding school story.
“The four of you couldn’t manage to retrieve one briefcase?” she asks tartly.
I study her warily. “They reacted too quickly. I’ve never had to use my powers like that before.”
Jacob comes up to rest his hand on my shoulder as if he thinks I’ll need his protection. But Toni only lets out a brisk huff. “You can give your excuses to Mr. Balthazar. Let’s go.”
She motions for us to follow her into the house. As we tramp through the wide hall toward the drawing room, Zian spares a longing glance at the kitchen. “Can’t we get something to eat? We haven’t?—”
“You’ll talk to Mr. Balthazar first. He’ll decide what to do with you next.”
My own stomach grumbles despite my best attempt at appearing unaffected. We had a hasty lunch of sandwiches on the trip over to the job site, but nothing except bottles of water for our return.
Would we have found a feast waiting for us if we’d pleased our captor rather than disappointing him? I can all too easily picture Balthazar’s people keeping a delicious spread shut away to spoil rather than offering it to us after our failure.
Waste is nothing to him. He’s wasted kids’ lives for the sake of making a point.
My throat tightens, but as we march into the drawing room, my roiling anger overwhelms any fear or grief. I’m tired of letting him hurt me.
The drawing room is empty other than Dominic’s slack form. The screen hasn’t risen from the table.
Andreas sinks into one of the armchairs and sprawls out in an attempt at looking casual. He’s hiding his own uneasy nerves, but he’s apprehensive enough that a flash of the emotion quivers through the mark that binds us.
“We’re here,” he says nonchalantly. “Where’s the boss?”
Toni swivels on her heel. “He’ll speak to you on his own schedule.”
Jacob’s head jerks around as she heads for the doorway. “Where’s my brother?”
“Griffin wasn’t part of the job. He doesn’t need to account for it.”
She leaves without another word. The rapping of her shoes against the tiled floor fades away down the hall.
The guys and I glance around at each other. Zian rests his hand on his stomach, his mouth slanting.
Technically we could stroll back over to the kitchen and make ourselves a meal. There’s no one here to stop us.
Other than whoever’s monitoring us through our bracelets and whatever other surveillance equipment Balthazar has in place.
None of us even moves toward the door. He has us that cowed.
I flex my jaw to keep from clenching it and pitch my voice a little louder than normal to be clear that I’m not talking to anyone in the room. “We’re here. If you want us to tell you what happened out there, let’s get on with it.”
All of us wait in tense stillness. No one arrives, by screen or in person.
