Page 222 of Shadowblood Souls
The guys follow suit, their expressions grim.
“All right, get on with it,” Cinder says. “And that five minutes is one each. We’re not giving you a chance to conspire together.”
She motions to Zian, the closest to her. He glances at me as if for guidance.
At my sharp nod, he takes off into the ship.
Apparently he’s worried about the shadowkind changing their mind partway through, because he hurries back onto the deck carrying not one but five backpacks—all of ours. He tosses them to each of us, shooting the shadowkind a challenging glower.
“We’re going to tell Rollick what you did,” Pearl declares, her face flushed with anger.
Cinder narrows her eyes at the shorter woman. “The two of you will keep your stupid mouths shut, or we’ll smash you right out of existence. Maybe you’ve forgotten, but you can die in this realm.”
“It’s all right,” I say quickly. “We’re going.”
I catch the guys’ gazes and set off toward the boarding ramp. With obvious trepidation, they follow me one by one.
My heart feels heavier with each step over the frothing waters toward the pier. What ifthisgamble is the wrong one?
But the price of forcing the issue feels way too large for me to want to place my bets there.
I grip the straps of my backpack as we tramp through the harbor. At the city-side end, we merge into a bustle of other bodies, but apprehension keeps prickling through my nerves.
Most of the faces around us are tan or darker, framed by hair in shades of brown and black. Dominic and Andreas blend in just fine, and Zian might not draw attention from anyone who doesn’t look closely at the shape of his features, but Jacob’s pale coloring stands out starkly in the crowd.
And me—my moonbeam braid must shine like a beacon of abnormality.
My fingers itch to pull one of my hoodies from my pack, but sweat is beading on my skin even in just my tank top. I’ll be a liability if I get heatstroke too.
We might draw a few odd looks, but the locals will simply assume we’re tourists, right? They must be pretty used to those.
Voices flow around us, but the ones I make out are all speaking Spanish, which I know maybe three words of. I weave through the crowded streets beyond the harbor and finally find a narrow side-street to duck into that’s little more than an alley between two tall stone buildings.
It’s dim and quiet, which is what mattered the most to me.
The moment we’ve all gathered in the side-street, Jacob turns to me. “What are we doing?”
The question is brusque enough that my hackles rise. “Making sure we don’t get murdered by bigger monsters than us.”
His mouth twitches with a wince. “I wasn’t criticizing. I just wondered what your plan is now.”
Oh. I’m still not used to this new accommodating attitude he’s taken toward me, and the memories stirred up last night have brought the early days of our reunion back into uncomfortable clarity.
I exhale roughly and peer at the busier street beyond us where men and women are ambling by, caught up in animated conversation. “That shouldn’t be only up to me. But I figured we’d get our bearings and stake out the harbor someplace where we’ll spot Rollick when he gets back.”
Andreas’s downcast expression brightens a little. “We can intercept him and tell him exactly what happened.”
“Right.” I might not want to put us or Pearl and Billy in the other shadowkinds’ crosshairs, but the demon can look after himself.
Dominic’s expression has stayed pensive. “We might not see him at all. He could go to the ship through the shadows.”
“We should at least be able to tell when they’re preparing to disembark,” I point out. “They’ll have to bring in the ramp. If that happens, we can rush over and make a fuss.”
Jacob nods slowly. “Sounds like our best bet. We just have to pick a good vantage point so we can watch the yacht without those pricks noticing we’re hanging around.”
Zian cracks his knuckles, his lips drawing back from his teeth. “I wanted to pummel them into the deck. We might have been able to take them.”
A queasy chill wraps around my gut. “We don’t know that. And they’d havewantedthe excuse to kill us. You heard what Rollick told us about how the shadowkind see hybrids.”
