Page 277 of Shadowblood Souls
They left her on her own to fight for her life at some crime boss’s whims. How much worse will they do this time?
“Fuck!” I shout, flinging an invisible force at the wall, which of course doesn’t budge.
I’m just coming up on the door again when a panel I didn’t notice slides open on the ceiling and a screen whirs down from it.
All I register is a middle-aged man’s face on the screen, hard angles topped by short orange hair, and his mouth moving to form words. “Hi there, Jacob. This seems like the safest way to?—”
My power whips out of me at the first viable target it’s gotten since I woke up on the uncomfortable floor.
The screen shatters. Bits of glass rain down on the floor. Sparks sputter from the electronic frame that held it.
It occurs to me a moment too late that I should have been a little more careful. I should have cracked the glass so I’d have a larger piece to work with as a weapon.
Fuck it. I’ve got a dozen spines that’ll spring from my arms, as sharp as any glass and poisoned on top of that.
I stomp through the glass-littered part of the room for good measure, taking a tiny pleasure in the crunch of the shards under my feet. The panel starts to hum shut again, but I snatch at it too.
With a heave, I bring the camouflaged covering and the metal frame crashing down too.
That’s what I think of their attempt at conversation. They want to say something to me, they can come look me in the eyes.
“Where’s Riva?” I yell in the vague direction of where the screen once hung. “Where are my friends? Let me out of here, you assho?—!”
A current of electricity jolts through my body from the floor and cuts off my last word with a rattling of my jaw. My body spasms.
My legs give, and I fall to my hands and knees. The brief zap has dissipated, but every nerve in my body continues to vibrate with the discharged energy.
I’ve bitten my tongue. The tang of blood trickles over it.
I grimace and shove myself, wobbling, back onto my feet. I’m going to tear those pricks apart and dance on their fucking?—
The roar of anger reverberating through me simmers down like a pot taken off the stove. A strange rush of cool, soothing calm muddies it.
I should be raging. Why the hell am I?—
This tantrum is silly. Everything is okay. The others must be okay too.
No,that’sridiculous. The guardian bastards grabbed us and?—
Another cool wave rolls over me, numbing the searing flames. I suck in a shaky breath.
What is going on in my head?
I’m bewildered and chilled out enough that when the lock in the door clicks, my power doesn’t immediately jerk to the ready. I just stand there, staring, somehow sure that I need to wait and get the answer I need when it swings open.
There’s a soft hiss of escaping compressed air. The door slides partway into the side of the stone frame rather than swinging inward.
For an instant, I think it’s opened to reveal a mirror. That’s a reflection of me, gazing back at me with the same pale blue eyes.
But reflections don’t walk on their own like this one steps into the room, the door thudding shut behind him. A reflection wouldn’t be wearing a green shirt when mine is black.
A reflection wouldn’t aim an awkward-looking smile at me while my jaw hangs slack.
“Jake,” the other man says in a mild voice that seems to sweep over me on a third swell of calm. “You need to stopfighting. Let’s try talking. You can talk to me if you don’t want to listen to anyone else yet.”
I think I’ve swallowed my tongue. I can’t seem to find it, and a choking sensation constricts my throat.
I cough and sputter and find my voice again as my heart thumps on with an erratic beat.
