Page 280 of Shadowblood Souls
They hesitate at my sudden motion before continuing toward me. The younger-looking one, who I can’t imagine is even in her teens yet, strides forward boldly even as her eyes widen to take me in. A cloth bag swings from one of her hands.
The older one, who I’d guess is in her late teens, comes at more of a stroll, her eyebrows slightly arched beneath the fringe of her dark pixie cut. The wry expression contrasts with her statuesque bearing, tall and solidly built but elegant as well. But what stands out the most is her neon pink T-shirt.
“Did you make it through the whole thing with no glitter at all?” the younger one asks breathlessly, swiping her fawn-brown hair back from her pale face.
I guess they were watching my explorations.
“I think so.” I get up and hold out my arms for them to examine me.
They both circle me. The younger girl leans in to tap something on my black tee that I grabbed from the assortment of workout clothes I found in my room and giggles. “Nope, that was just a bit of lint. You really made it! I always get a little dusted.”
I look her up and down. “I’d imagine I’ve been training a while longer than you have. Also, it helps being tiny.”
Even the preteen has a couple of inches and maybe ten pounds on my five-foot-one frame. Her companion is at least half a foot taller than me.
“And fast,” the older girl says with a smile, and dips her head, the sun shining off her high brown cheeks. “I’m Nadia, and this is Tegan. You’re one of the First Gen shadowbloods, right?”
The capitalization of the words comes across in her tone, like it’s an official rank. A shiver that’s a weird mix of uneasy and proud tickles under my skin.
I shrug. “Yeah. I guess I am. My name’s Riva. Have you been here on the island for a while?”
Nadia shakes her head. “I think it’s been a week? I’m not great at keeping track.”
“Yeah, same.” Tegan peers at me again with those big eyes that I’m starting to think are just permanently wide. “Is it true that you and the other Firsts were going around with themonsters?”
I blink at her. “You know about the shadowkind?”
The guardians never told me and my guys anything about the “monsters” we were supposed to be training to fight. We only found out what our expected purpose was when we confronted Ursula Engel.
Nadia’s eyebrows arch higher. “Shadowkind?”
“That’s what they call themselves,” I say. “The beings the guardians call monsters. They helped us. Well, some of them did.”
My mind darts back to the photos Clancy showed me of the dead kids. The bodies that could have been the two girls in front of me if they’d been held at the facility we broke into.
Tegan claps her hands together. “Of course we know about them! The guardians told us that’s why they’re working us so hard. So we can go out and stop them. Nadia’s even done missions tokillthem.”
The older girl grimaces with a tug at her vibrant tee. “That wasn’t anything wonderful. I don’t even know what the ones I took out had been doing. I shot them with some special bullets from far away… But it was better than what the guardians would have done if I’d argued about it.”
I can imagine—they probably threatened her friends, her fellow shadowbloods, like they did with me and the guys.
Why did the guardians send our younger equivalents out so much sooner than us? What made them change their approach?
The two girls obviously don’t realize there’s anything strange about it. I swallow that question.
Curiosity itches at me about their talents, but if I ask about theirs, they’ll want to know mine… and the thought of trying to explain my brutal scream to sweet Tegan makes my stomach clench up. Instead, I focus on something more immediately important.
“How’s it been since you got here? No one’s treated you badly?”
“It’s great!” Tegan crows. “We get to come outside all the time, and the guardians working with Clancy are way nicer than the ones before. And the food is SO much better.”
Nadia nudges her. “You forgot to get out the snack.”
“Oh, right!” The younger girl grabs the cloth bag she set down and opens it up. “One of the kitchen staff made brownies for a treat. I was going to see if you wanted one. Or two. However many you’d like.”
She smiles at me so shyly but eagerly that I have to smile back. Then my stomach gurgles.
“Sure. Seems like I’ve worked up an appetite.”
