Page 573 of Shadowblood Souls
Griffin has perched on the edge of the desk itself. He casts his gentle gaze across all of us. “We’ll get through to them. They’ve got more going on inside them than just anger.”
I drop down on the side of the bed, my head drooping. “But how are we going to do that? We weren’t even strong enough to get them under control with a bunch of the shadowkind there to back us up.”
We couldn’t have known that the hunters would notice the fight and charge in before we’d finished what we started—but where can we catch the rampaging shadowbloods that we won’t risk being interrupted?
It’s not as if I can blame the hunters for trying to protect their communities from the violence we brought down on them.
My gaze veers to the TV screen again, to worried bystanders with panicked eyes being interviewed by a reporter. Terrified of beings like me.
The words that’ve been solidifying in my head over the past several hours—possibly the past several days, if I’m being honest—tumble out. “Maybe Engel was right.”
Jacob’s head jerks toward me as his feet jar to a stop. “What?”
I can’t quite stomach the disbelief I know will be etched on all the guys’ faces, so I stare down at my lap instead. “She thought we were too dangerous. That the guardians should get rid of us rather than trying to keep using us, because we’d end up doing worse things than the monsters they wanted us to fight. Aren’t the other shadowbloods proving her point right now?”
“That’s the rest of them, not us,” Zian says with a wave of his hand toward the screen. “And Balthazar made them like that after Engel was already gone.”
My throat constricts. “Kind of. He used her formulas to make whatever injections and pills let him give the criminals their new powers and enhance the ones the kids already had.”
I pause and force myself to lift my head. If I’m going to say this, I have to be brave enough to face the reactions I’ll get. “Haven’t you ever wondered if we could end up becoming justas unhinged as the others are? What if Balthazar just sped them along on a path we’re heading down too?”
Griffin blinks at me as if he really hadn’t ever considered that possibility. I guess that’s reassuring, considering he has the deepest access to our inner states.
Dominic’s pensive expression suggests that hehasthought along those lines before, though, and he doesn’t like where those thoughts have taken him.
Jacob and Zian just look peeved.
Andreas reaches across the bed to rub my back reassuringly. “I don’t think it does us any good to speculate about things that haven’t even started to happen. We’ve had stronger powers than the kids for our whole lives, and even when we were pushed to our limits, we didn’t lash out like they are now.”
Zian speaks up carefully. “Balthazar must have added to whatever Engel was doing, right? I mean, if she could have turned grown-ups into shadowbloods rather than having to raise us the whole way from when we were babies, it’d have been a lot faster.”
I sigh and let myself lean into Andreas’s touch. “I don’t know.Wecan’t really know for sure. But we can’t let the other shadowbloods keep going like this. And talking to them hasn’t gotten us anywhere so far.”
Griffin tips his head to the side, studying me. “You’re not really thinking that we should kill all of them after all.”
I grimace and shake my head. “I don’t like the idea of killinganyof them, especially after what you said about that one guy and what you felt from him. Is it fair for us to decide that all of the adults Balthazar changed must be evil just because they were criminals? That’s exactly the same way so many people would look atusbecause of our powers! We’ve done criminal things too. No matter how it happened, we’re all blood.”
“We can’t keep trying to reason with them,” Jacob puts in. “They’ll just take off, no matter what we do.”
“I know.”
A sound like a cleared throat carries through the room. As I startle, Rollick appears by the door, the shadowkind version of stepping inside.
From his solemn expression and his opening words, I suspect he didn’t just arrive. He sweeps his gaze across all of us, his hands slung in his pockets but his posture tense. “You definitely need to come up with a solid new plan soon.”
My stomach clenches. “Are the shadowkind complaining again?” Or worse, outright abandoning ship? I don’t know how we’re going to stop the shadowbloods who’ve gone rogue, but I’m sure we can’t do it just the six of us on our own.
The demon sighs. “No more than usual. They understand that last night went wrong due to circumstances beyond your control. But with each additional assault from that pack of shadowbloods, you’re risking an even bigger problem on your hands.”
A chill washes over my skin. “What do you mean?”
The corners of Rollick’s mouth tighten. “I was hoping we didn’t have to worry about this. They’ve been quiet and detached from events in the mortal realm for years since a rather uncomfortable incident they’d prefer everyone forgets.”
“Who’s ‘they’?” Jacob demands.
“I’m getting to that.” Rollick brushes his hands together as if he wishes he could wash himself clean of the issue that easily. “Among the shadowkind, there are a few particularly ancient and powerful beings we call the Highest. No one can remember them coming into existence—they were around before any of us. They never leave the shadow realm, but they do try to control what happens on both sides of the rifts, mostly with an eye to making sure they won’t be disturbed.”
Dominic’s forehead has furrowed. “What does that have to do with us and the other shadowbloods?”
