Page 312 of Shadowblood Souls
Although if the jets they have access to are all the same size as the one that took us on our mission, I’m not sure we could safely fit all of the shadowbloods on it. There are at least a few dozen of us here, and I don’t know if I’ve met all of the facility’s inhabitants yet.
Not only are the training periods staggered and unpredictable, there could be just as many prisoners who aren’t allowed out at all because they haven’t agreed to Clancy’s terms. Or he’s decided they’re even more volatile than the rest of us.
And I have no idea which of the guardians is trained as a pilot, or how we’d threaten them into complying if I can figure that out.
A wave of hopelessness washes over me. I close my eyes against it and then propel myself onward.
I start the scramble back down, relying mostly on my clawed fingers and my feet in their flexible athletic shoes, keeping the safety rope loose. When I figure out a plan, I want to be ready for whatever it’ll require.
Voices carry through the trees during the last short stretch before my feet hit the ground. Celine, Booker, and a few of the other older teen shadowbloods emerge along the path through the jungle to the climbing site.
The five of them keep chattering away as they stretch their arms and legs in a quick warm-up. The smiles flashing between them and relaxed tone to their conversation make my stomach knot.
I’m not sure how easily it’ll even be to convince the other shadowbloods that weshouldescape. They haven’t seen the darker side of this place—and Celine knows firsthand just how ruthlessly the guardians will hunt us down to reclaim their supposed “property.”
Funny that Clancy spoke about the child slavers with so much disdain when he and his colleagues have treated us like slaves since we were old enough to walk.
The guardians here make a show of giving us our space, but I can pick out a couple of figures hanging back among the trees along the fringes of the climbing site. I can’t talk safely here.
But I might be able to get a general sense of how content our younger counterparts actually are.
After I’ve stripped off the climbing harness, I amble over to where the teens are stretching. “It’s a good day for a climb,” I say, just to start the conversation. “Not too sweltering for once.”
One of the girls laughs. “I’m just glad to be getting out in the sunlight every day. It can swelter us all it wants.”
Okay, no sign of mutiny there. I drift a little closer to Celine. “Too bad the guardians didn’t give you more of a break to enjoyyour new life here before sending you off on missions again, huh?”
I try to keep my tone light, as if I’m making a joke out of it rather than criticizing our keepers. Celine lets out a quick giggle with an energetic shake of her head.
“I like getting out there. Knowing I’m being useful. Maybe the next mission, I’ll get to do more than sit in a van!”
She sounds upbeat enough, but a trace of apprehension tickles my nose with its heightened sense of smell. There’s something about the subject she isn’t totally happy about.
I prop myself against the side of the cliff while the first couple of climbers gear up. “You ever think about what you’d want to be doing if we weren’t part of this whole Guardianship thing? Like what job you’d do or where you’d want to live?”
Booker snaps his fingers. “Hell, yes. I don’t know about jobs, but New York City is where it’s at. At least out of the places I’ve been. Could be there’s someplace I’d like more outside of the US.”
As he cocks his head with a contemplative air that clashes with his surfer-dude appearance, Celine shrugs. “I don’t know. With the missions, we could end up seeing all kinds of places anyway.”
“As much of them as you see from the inside of the van,” I say.
She giggles again. “Well, yeah. I’m sure we’ll have more action on other missions. And once we’ve proven ourselves more. Maybe Clancy will even let us take vacations or whatever!”
So she would like a chance to have more freedom, whether she’s fully recognized how stuck we still are or not. That’s a start.
And Booker seems to have dreamed about other things, despite his easy-going attitude.
“I like to think about that stuff sometimes,” he says, his grin going a bit crooked, “but mostly it makes more sense to focus onwhat we’ve got right now. Especially when this is a heck of a lot better than we ever had it before.”
I force a smile in return. “That’s true.” Though I’m not so sure I’d agree about the “a lot.”
Celine wanders away to watch her friends on their climb, but Booker lingers near me, his stance turning unusually hesitant. Has he guessed why I was asking these questions?
He glances at the ground and then back at me, and asks in a lowered voice, “You and Nadia have gotten kind of friendly, yeah?”
Huh. Where’s he going with that?
I dip my head. “Sure, I’d like to think so. Not that we’ve had the chance to get to know each other all that well yet.”
