Page 475 of Shadowblood Souls
I raise my eyebrows. “They can’t be that personal if he’s sending six strangers to handle some of them, can they? If he wants our help, I want to know what we’re actually doing. More than the nothing he’s told us so far, anyway.”
Toni’s lips purse as if my even making the request is distasteful. “He has security concerns. You don’t have a right to that information, so you can forget about getting it.”
My frustration blazes to the surface again with a vengeance. The words seem to scorch my tongue. “I don’t have theright? Where the hell did he get the right to turn me into even more of a monster than I already was?”
My experience with the cat and my apprehension about threatening Balthazar’s people in general hold the most cutting part of my temper in check, but only barely. An ache pulses in the middle of my forehead.
“You don’t understand the purpose of all this,” Toni retorts.
“Which is exactly why I’d like an explanation!”
“Youwouldn’tunderstand. It’s too big—you’ve barely been outside the cages the guardians kept you in.”
“And whose fault is that?” I snap back. “Who’s keeping me caged now, while you defend him?”
Toni’s gaze sharpens to a glare. “Mr. Balthazar has his reasons, and it’ll be better for everyone when he sees them through.”
Before she’s even finished her response, anger flares white-hot behind my eyes. I have to jerk my gaze away, clenching my hands and digging my claws into my palms so the pinpricks of pain keep me stable.
My voice comes out strained. “It’s not better for me. It’s not better for any of us shadowbloods. What he’s forced on me—I almost killed you right now, you know? I could hurt you so badly without even meaning to, if I wasn’t putting everything I have into clamping down on my powers.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No,” I rasp. “It’s just the truth. I wouldn’t want to—I don’t want to hurtanyone. Can you please just stop acting like an asshole and tell him what I said?”
There’s silence. The pressure reverberating inside my skull gradually eases.
I risk glancing over at Toni, my fingers relaxing. Her gaze drops to my hands, taking in the streaks of blood from where my claws dug in and the tiny wisps of smoky essence drifting up.
Her jaw works. Her gaze flicks to my face again, and a strange expression comes over it.
A trace of nervous pheromones reaches my nose, mingled with the faintest tang of what I’d have taken for… longing?
I frown. “What?”
Toni shakes her head as if to clear it. “For a second, you almost looked like— Never mind.”
She jerks around, away from me. “I’ll pass on your message. I can’t say he’s going to be happy about it, let alone agree to your demand.”
“Fine,” I mutter. “As long as you tell him.”
As she walks off, I stand there in the hall, feeling even more out of sorts than I did before. The effort of holding in my fury has left me wiped out, and I have no idea what to make of Toni’s reaction.
My feet drift toward one of the outer doors as if of their own accord. I want to drink in the fresh air, even if it’s cold outside with the impending winter.
I want a glimpse of the world beyond our prison even if I can’t reach it.
I wander across the lawn and between the hedges. My whirling emotions gradually settle.
Then a sound like a distant voice reaches my ears.
I pause and listen hard. Maybe it was just something from inside the house.
No. A faint but insistent call is carrying from somewhere ahead of me. I can’t quite make out the words, but they tingle in my mind on the verge of recognition.
Casually, so no one who happens to be watching would realize something’s odd, I stroll toward the sound. As I approach, it becomes clear enough for me to distinguish the faint summons.
“Shadowbloods. Oh, shadowbloods.”
