Page 260 of Shadowblood Souls
Riva
Ipull the black cap tight over my hair and tuck the end of my braid under the springy fabric. Then I slip my cat-and-yarn pendant under my shirt collar, both for safe-keeping and to keep it out of view.
We might not be able to merge right into the shadows, but the stealth gear Rollick got for us cloaks us in darkness from head to toe.
As I hop out of the helicopter after Dominic, Jacob right at my heels, the thick fabric of the mock turtleneck and athletic pants presses against my flexing muscles. The Kevlar in it should protect us from knife slashes and the jab of a tranquilizer dart.
If the guardians decide they’d rather kill us than recapture us, the thin but dense padding across the torso and throat should help protect us from regular bullets. There isn’t much that could properly shield our heads, though.
We’re working with a balance of security and flexibility so we can dodge the attacks we can’t absorb.
Pistols of our own rest against our hips in the dual holsters that hang from our belts. We’re prepared in every possible way in case our supernatural abilities aren’t enough to get us through the trials ahead.
The military-grade gear should add to my confidence. But as we hustle through the stretch of forest between our landing site and the facility, draped in the shadows of the early night, my pulse wobbles with uncertainty.
No matter how much reconnaissance Rollick’s people were able to gather, they’ve only observed the outside of this place. We have no idea what’s waiting for usinside, other than it’ll probably look uncomfortably like the prisons we’ve already escaped.
I can’t help feeling like a kid playing dress-up, pretending at being the superhero Jacob once claimed I am when I don’t actually have any clue how to fight a war.
Go in, take down any guardians who get in our way, get the other shadowbloods out. That’s our mission, boiled down to its simplest essence.
Whatever complications arise along the way… we’ll just have to deal with them as they come.
A familiar figure wavers out of the gloom up ahead. Rollick tips his head to us silently and makes a few brisk gestures.
After our urgent phone conversations hashing out the initial plan, I follow his meaning well enough.
His people have disabled the few guardians who were patrolling outside the facility’s protections. They’re waiting to escort the younger shadowbloods to the camouflaged vans parked on the nearest road.
The facility itself is just up ahead.
We nod in acknowledgment, and Rollick vanishes again. My stomach twists tighter.
The shadowkind have a few more tricks up their sleeves, but once we cross the protective barrier that wards them away, we’re on our own.
Then again, that’s how we started. And for all Rollick’s wealth and influence, it’s always come down to the five of us when the shit has hit the fan.
If we can’t pull off this mission, if we can’t even protect the kids who are going through the same things we did, then what was the point of claiming our freedom to begin with?
As the trees start to thin, a glimmering trail catches my eyes through the underbrush up ahead. One of Rollick’s allies—one of the few who wasn’t too terrified of us to join in the operation—laid down a line of phosphorescence to show us where the boundary of anti-shadowkind protections lies.
They can’t cross over that line—at all or without being significantly weakened. Our job is to get the younger shadowbloods past the barrier so the shadowkind can escort them the rest of the way to safety.
All of us know how to slink silently across terrain like this. I don’t hear or see our companions approach, but the tingle of my mark tells me Andreas is getting closer.
Jacob, Dominic, and I pause at the edge of the clearing that holds this facility. I glance in the direction where I can sense Andreas is just arriving, twenty feet away.
We can’t risk any sound passing between us. I have to assume he wouldn’t be here if he and Zian weren’t ready.
Then I turn my attention on the structure ahead of us.
From the photographs and descriptions Rollick’s people passed on, I had some idea what to expect. Still, seeing the place for real, turned ominous by the darkness, makes my gut drop to my feet.
Here, the guardians took a different tactic from what we’re used to. There’s no electrified fence, no secure concrete bunker hiding the labyrinth of levels underneath.
They were counting mainly on disguise this time. The nearest proper road is miles away, so no one’s likely to stumble on it. All their supplies must be coming on foot or by helicopter to the small clearing at the base of the cliff we’re facing.
The cliff that holds the gaping black maw of a cave.
