Page 606 of Shadowblood Souls
I think she’s technically braindead—I couldn’t risk leaving her conscious when all she needs to do to set off her power is think—but she’s alive.
“Dom!” I shout. “You’ve got to heal her. We need Andreas to wipe her mind. We need?—"
Dominic drops down beside me. He sets his hand on my back while his tentacles reach toward Nadia. “I’ve got it. We can do this.Youdid it.”
He raises his head to look toward Zian, who’s come to a stop partway into the room in full wolf-man morph. “Go get Andreas. The others can wait a few minutes.”
As Zian dashes back out through the ruined doorway, Sorsha sways to her feet behind her toppled column. I try to smile at her and only manage a cough.
A shiver passes through my shoulders. Gripping Nadia’s hand, I turn to Dominic. “You need energy. You can take some of mine. I don’t want to lose her.”
“I know. You won’t have to.” Dom presses a brief but emphatic kiss to my temple. “It’s all right now, Riva. It’s over.”
Thirty-One
Riva
The battle isn’t actually over, of course.
First, Zian and I haul the bound, unconscious bodies of the ten shadowbloods we were able to save up the stairwell and out into the yard. As soon as we’re all cleared out, Dominic calls Rollick to let him know to bring the truck around while Sorsha fixes her gaze on the small building above the surface.
“It’s all going to burn,” she assures me, and snaps her fingers.
I can’t see most of the inferno, but the warble of it reaches my ears from below the ground even before the flames shoot up to swallow the upper building. Heat washes over the grass, melting the frost that’d formed there.
Every trace of the facility where we were tormented the longest, where the guardians tore us apart and shattered our early bonds, turns into ashes.
I find I don’t mind the smoky flavor that coats my mouth. It’s confirmation that we’re never coming back.
Then, late that night, we slink into the high-rise office space Andreas pulled from Cutler’s memories—a property that Toni confirmed belonged to Balthazar. The rogue shadowbloods must have found out about it one way or another and commandeered it for their own ends.
They only left three of their companions behind. Easing the door open enough to peek inside, I catch the man and the two teenaged boys in urgent conversation.
“Cutler said to get started if they weren’t back by the morning,” one of the boys is saying. “What the hell are we going to do in the middle of the night anyway?”
The man glowers at him. “We haven’t heardanythingfrom him. Something’s gone wrong.”
The other boy cocks his head. “He might be glad if we brought in more people even if he’s okay.”
I’m not going to give them time to decide to take that route.
For what I hope is the last time I need to in my life, I open my mouth and shriek. I don’t make it loud, just give it enough audible force to make sure it’ll hit them as quickly as possible.
With the impact of the sound, the figures freeze. I punch the vicious energy through their hearts, one by one—quick, but giving the hunger inside me a few brief bursts of pain like a sort of thank you for its service.
I wouldn’t have made it this far without the banshee side of me. I might not have ever made it out of the cage-fighting ring.
I can’t say Ilovethat part of myself, but it doesn’t seem fair to hate it either.
When the last of the rogues crumples to the ground, I make a beckoning gesture. Jacob, Zian, and Dominic follow me into the office. Sorsha brings up the rear, supported between Thorn and Snap in her still-dizzy state.
We find the serum and the pills Cutler mentioned quickly enough. Several dozen vials of clear liquid sit on the shelvesin the office fridge next to bottles full of gel capsules. Sorsha scorches it all into a glob of melted glass, and we toss it into a garbage bag for more thorough disposal.
Zian lets out a shout and holds up a couple of notebooks. “I think these are Balthazar’s. It looks like they’ve got instructions, maybe some formulas.”
My gaze has latched onto a device I never expected to see again. “Here’s Engel’s laptop. They held on to that too.”
Sorsha wiggles her fingers. “I can take care of all of those.”
