Page 258 of Shadowblood Souls
I rest my arm across her back, my hand settling loosely to cup the peak of her shoulder. Riva exhales, and her muscles relax against mine.
“Are you sure this is okay?” she asks in a voice as careful as my embrace.
My nerves are jumping around like they’ve been zapped with a live wire, half panicked, half begging for more. But when I hold still in this position, I can tune them out enough to say, “Yeah. It should always be. We’re blood, right?”
“Always,” Riva murmurs happily, and leans in to nestle her head against my chest.
I don’t have words for the joy that clangs through every inch of my body at her acceptance. I just wish it didn’t come with an equal portion of fear.
I have her with me now. What’s going to happen in the fight ahead of us?
For the rest of the flight, I barely dare to move. I know that no unwanted flares of emotion will spark inside me as long as I stay just like this.
As we begin the descent, Riva straightens up so she can buckle her seatbelt. The loss of contact wrenches at me.
But once she’s secured the belt, she holds out her hand. Not touching mine, just giving me the option.
I hesitate, gathering my resolve, and curl my fingers around hers.
The plane touches down with a bump and a light jostling. My stomach sinks with the knowledge that the hardest part of this mission is still ahead and approaching faster by the second.
We tramp out of the private jet into a field of close-cropped grass surrounded by nothing but trees. There are no buildings in sight, but the two helicopters Rollick mentioned are waiting at the far end of the field.
The demon turns to us. “All right, let’s get on with your essence trick. Who’s doing the honors?”
“I will,” Jacob says without missing a beat.
Riva shakes her head. “I think we all should. We all went through something a little different. If we’re all focusing together… we can go by wherever the most essence flows. That should give us the clearest picture.”
Her suggestion makes sense to me. I will my wolfish claws from my fingertips.
Riva gives Jake one last pointed glance. “We shouldn’t need verymuchfrom each of us.”
He offers a crooked grin in response. “I won’t cut too deep this time, Wildcat.”
Jacob extends his spines. Andreas and Dominic retrieve the knives they’ve armed themselves with from their pockets.
Without speaking, we slice thin scratches across our forearms at the same time.
A streak of blood seeps across my skin—and a puff of dark smoke wavers up into the fresh, foresty air. I watch it for a moment and then close my eyes.
Remember the halls and the training rooms. The little bedroom where the guardians shut me away every night.
The blades they sliced into me.
The prod they jolted me with.
All the things, inanimate and living, they made me smash with tests of my strength and will.
Are there other shadowbloods like me trapped in their facilities now? Being tormented in the same ways?
I want to find them. I want to reach out to them so we can pull them out of that nightmare.
So we can all live free together.
Rollick lets out a soft chuckle. “Well, I’d say that’s fairly definitive.”
My eyes snap open. My breath stops at the sight of the smoke trails streaming out in front of us.
