Page 496 of Shadowblood Souls
I wet my lips. That is the big concern, the reason I wanted us to see what we could do.
Unfortunately, I haven’t come up with a definite answer on my own.
Jacob takes the paper from him and adds a comment.Whatever we do, they’ll try to stop us. We can swap powers in the middle of a fight to take them by surprise.
At Zian’s motion, he passes the paper over. The larger guy scrawls a question.The real problem is how to get Rollick’s people up here to start the fight, right? If we do anything on our own, someone will knock us out before we get very far.
We sit for a moment in grim silence. He’s right, and exchanging our abilities doesn’t get us any closer to discovering the secret route up the mountain or opening it to the shadowkind we want to bring in.
I reach for the page next.We can’t leave the grounds while we have the manacles on. But if Rollick can burn everything up, that could destroy the security systems too. Or at least we’d be able to work on the problem without anyone left to trigger them on purpose.
Griffin nods and makes a follow-up note.We just have to not get burned up too. Maybe combining our talents in a new way could make that easier?
Andreas cocks his head and beckons for the paper. I pass it over.
Do you think your power could shield against the heat of a fire like it has against bullets?he writes, with a pointed look at Jacob.
Jake frowns and lifts his shoulders in an uncertain motion. I don’t know if we want to gamble on a use of his power he’s never attempted before, especially not with a supernatural fire that might be more potent than anything we’ve encountered in the past.
Griffin perks up, his gaze traveling across the grounds before coming back to us. He slips his fingers around my still-damp braid and squeezes a few drops of water from it, pointing it out emphatically to the other guys.
My heart lifts. Yes, if we were in the pool, the water would protect us from the flames. Other than we’d still need to breathe. Our heads could end up scalded by the wafting heat.
Dominic’s expression has gone even more solemn. He takes the paper again, flipping it over for more room.
What if I borrowed Jake’s power? If I drew strength from the plants nearby, I could make an even more effective shield and hold it for a long time. And with my healing energy working in combination, I could keep burns at bay even if too much heat seeps through.If we were mostly protected by the pool, I think I could handle it.
He motions toward the nearby garden. There’s plenty of vegetation he could siphon energy from around the pool.
Jacob’s mouth tightens, but he dips his head in acceptance. It makes more sense for him to pass one of his powers to Dominic than for Dominic to give up both of his.
Andreas takes the paper again.Griffin and I can confuse Balthazar’s people. Maybe Griffin could make him panic, keep him focused on his own life rather than doing anything to us, so he doesn’t have a chance to suspect that the attack is meant to help us?
Griffin smiles, and my own lips curl hesitantly. The fire will provide plenty of chaos, and the two of them can add even more.
I can contribute to keeping everyone’s attention off us too. In the confusion Rollick’s fire causes, I could use my mental scream to take down Balthazar’s people as need be without it being obvious that I caught them rather than the flames. That’d give us an additional layer of protection.
From the outside, it’d look like we ran to the pool to save our lives, a totally natural instinct and not at all mutinous. If anything goes even more wrong than we’re anticipating, we can hope that a swift exchange of powers could tip the odds in our favor.
And when the place is ashes and Balthazar hopefully charbroiled too, there’ll be no one and no equipment left to set off the worst effects of the manacles. We’ll have time to figure out whether the knock-out boundary is still in effect and how to destroy that too.
I don’t think I’ve ever hated anyone as much as I do our current captor, but somehow the thought of him being gone sends a twinge of loss through me too. Balthazar might not be my family in any way that matters, but he is a connection to a part of me I didn’t know.
I don’t want anything to do withhim, but I’d have liked to know more about the woman who’s technically my mother. What I might have gotten from her.
She didn’t look horrifying in the photos I saw of her. The love she had for her son was obvious.
Maybe even Balthazar wasn’t so horrifying until he lost them.
But if I have to pick between understanding my history better and saving myself and the guys I love, it isn’t even a question. The way he’s treated us isforcingme to destroy him, even the bits of his existence I might have wanted him to share.
I fish the stone Rollick left for us out of my pocket, where I’ve been carrying it with me ever since. The guys go still with anticipation, other than Griffin taking the paper.
We’ll need them to give some kind of warning that the fire is coming, so we have time to get to the pool.
And I need to convey our entire message to the stone in my hands without Balthazar realizing what we’re really talking about.
I inhale slowly. I can’t talk to Rollick about the future openly, so all that’s left is the past. The pieces of our history he was a part of.
