Page 204 of Shadowblood Souls
Iknow before they even knock that Andreas and Dominic have come up to my bedroom door together. Their arrival sends two tiny pulses of awareness through the marks along my clavicle.
A strange mix of joy and apprehension tangles inside me as I reach for the door handle. I’m about to see one guy who makes my spirits lift and one who sets off painful pangs of memory.
And I’m tied to them both. Forever, probably.
I ease the door open and peer outside. A faint vibration runs through the floor under my feet—the yacht is cruising again after stopping at a harbor for a couple of hours this morning.
Both of the guys look at me with matching expressions of hopeful anticipation. Andreas is holding a large bundle wrapped in white tissue paper.
Dominic beams at me. “We’ve set something up for you. Really, Drey did, but we’re all helping. We thought we might as well enjoy everything we’ve got on the ship while we’re here.”
“And we haven’t really taken a moment to celebrate our freedom properly,” Andreas adds, more hesitantly. “It’s because of you we had the chance to escape the facility when we did. I don’t know that we’d ever have made it all the way without your help. We definitely wouldn’t have made it out of Engel’s house alive. So, you’re the guest of honor.”
I open my mouth and close it again, my words startled out of me. Before I can figure out what to say, Andreas holds the bundle out to me.
“I wasn’t sure what you’d like best, so I picked out a few options. I hope you’ll change into one of them, but it’s totally up to you. Dom will bring you to the party. You can ignore the rest of us the whole time if you’d prefer that, but I hope you’ll come.”
I accept the bundle, finding it soft and yielding like cloth. My nerves jitter with a mix of uncertainty and curiosity. “What exactly did you set up?”
A smile touches Andreas’s lips for the first time with a hint of mischief that makes my heart ache. I’ve missed his playful side—missed being able to take it at face value.
“You’ll see,” he says mysteriously, and slips away down the hall.
Dominic holds my gaze, reaching out to give my forearm a gentle squeeze. “I think you should come. And I wouldn’t say that unless I was sure.”
My mouth twists. “I don’t think a party is going to make up for everything.”
“I know. That’s not how Andreas sees it.” Dom pauses. “He did speak up for you before that night, you know. In the train, while you were napping. He tried to convince Jacob and the rest of us that you were on our side and we should stop treating you like an enemy. None of us totally listened. That’s on us. On me.Icould have agreed with him and argued for you too, and maybe?—”
So much anguish has crept into his voice that I can’t bear to let him keep going. I step closer, leaning into him, and his arm rises to encircle me automatically.
“Youdidn’t lie to me or manipulate me,” I murmur against his chest. “I’m not happy about how things were back then, but you never pretended to feel anything you didn’t. It’s different.”
Dominic swallows audibly and brushes a kiss to the top of my head. “I know. I’m just saying, when you and he—when you were with him that night—I don’t think he was lying at all by that point either.”
I’m sure Dom wants to believe that. Andreas is his friend—the four of them had only each other for the years after Griffin died and I was gone.
But the sharp words that greeted me when I followed him after we slept together ring through my memory, still painfully vivid.The whole reason I started getting cozy with her was so she’d open up…
He was saying that even after. Talking about the deal he had with Jacob.
It didn’t sound like it was totally over.
“Just come,” Dominic says gently. “I think it’ll make things a little more right. It isn’t about forgiving him—he’s not going to make any demands, I promise.”
I let out a soft huff and straighten up. “All right. But only becauseyouasked me to.”
Dom’s smile soothes my uneasiness. “Thank you. Now I’ve got to go get changed too.”
As he vanishes into his own room, I carry the bundle over to the bed, more puzzled than ever. I tear open the tissue paper and paw apart the three clumps of folded fabric inside.
They’re dresses. Fancy evening gowns, leagues beyond anything I’ve ever worn before.
I hold them up one by one, staring at them. Then I drape them against myself as I consider my reflection in the wardrobe’s full-length mirror.
Sleek black silk, so glossy I can almost see my reflection init, tumbles down my frame from spaghetti straps.
Dark green lace flows into a princess skirt like an explosion of forest leaves.
