Page 315 of Shadowblood Souls
A few shadowbloods are training in the field below, but I don’t recognize any of them. I haven’t gotten many of the younger ones’ names so far.
I’m always a little afraid that if I approach them, they’ll see me as a threatening presence rather than a friendly one.
“This way,” one of the guardians says. They both walk with me down the steps and along one of the jungle paths.
The sound of burbling water reaches my supernaturally keen ears well before I see the source. When we come to the edge of a glade between the trees, I stall in my tracks.
It should be a pretty scene. A waterfall, much thinner than the one that hides the shooting range, tumbles several feet down the cliffside into a clear pond ringed by polished rocks, obviously set up for swimming. Ferns and bushes with vibrant flowers frame most of the pool.
And Riva is sitting on the grassy patch near the bank, her knees drawn up to her chest, alone.
“Clancy thought the two of you should have a chance to talk after what happened yesterday,” the guardian next to me says. “You’ll be given your privacy. As long as you stay in this clearing, you won’t be disturbed. When you’re ready, you can walk back to the facility—or we’ll come to escort you if you get off track.”
Without waiting for my response, she and the other guardian vanish into the thickening shadows of the path. I stay where I halted, looking at Riva.
Clancy wants us totalk? He’s giving us our privacy?
They say that, but Riva’s got the bands around her upper arms like they put on us yesterday. Maybe the guardians never took them off.
They’ve left mine on, a faint weight against my biceps.
The fabric is a little scuffed on mine because I tried to tear them away after I woke up in my room. The metal bits underneath wouldn’t give.
They’re obviously still monitoring us. And I’d bet they want us to do a lot more than talk. This is just a different tactic.
Riva gazes back at me from where she’s sitting. Her mouth forms a tight smile.
She tips her head toward a couple of baskets sitting on the ground next to her. “They left us swimsuits in case we wanted to get in the water and some snacks if we get hungry. I think this is Clancy’s insane idea of a date.”
Her tone is dry. I’d snort in amusement if I didn’t feel so sick.
“Something like that,” I mutter.
Riva studies me for a few moments longer, her pretty face turning so serious it sends a different sort of ache through my gut.
Her voice softens. “Are you okay after yesterday? They came at you so hard when you got upset—I’ve been worried about you the whole time.”
The ache digs deeper at her phrasing, as if what the guardians did to subdue me was more violent than my destruction of the room. There was a point when my entire world dissolved into a frantic fury to smash every piece of Clancy’s plan.
I duck my head. “I was fine after the tranquilizer wore off. Other than feeling pretty awful about the whole thing. I’m sorry if I scared you.”
Riva makes a dismissive sound. “It wasn’t your fault. It was a psychotic plan—of course you were upset.”
She was upset too, but she didn’t fly into an uncontrollable rage. I bite my lip and then force out the words.
“I can’t do it. Even like this, without being so trapped. Even if he keeps pushing it on us over and over. I just—Ican’t.”
When I dare to look at Riva again, her eyes have widened. “Don’t even think about that,” she says firmly. “Even if you could make yourself go through with it,Iwouldn’t want to. Not like this. If anything… If anything’s ever going to happen between us,it’ll be because we both want to for ourselves, not to satisfy some sick tyrant.”
Her gaze flicks toward the jungle around us, her chin lifting at a defiant angle, as if challenging Clancy in case he’s watching.
A bit of the tension that’s twisted up inside me loosens. I finally convince my feet to move again.
As I walk over, Riva pushes one of the baskets forward so that it can sit between us. A little shield, confirming that we aren’t even going to touch.
The sight relaxes me even more. I sink down on the grass next to her and peer at the crystalline water of the pool in the fading sunlight.
“It is a nice spot.”
