Page 337 of Shadowblood Souls
We got rid of them by yanking the molars out of our jaws—or having Zian do it, for those who didn’t have the same brutal strength. The thought of asking all these kids to do the same makes me queasy.
But if we don’t take care of them quickly, the guardians will be able to figure out exactly where we’ve gone even without Griffin’s help.
Celine has gone rigid too. “What?”
Andreas comes up beside me, resting his hand on my back. “We all had tracking devices in our teeth. We dealt with ours before, but you probably still have them. We’ll need to do something about that.”
“Something like what?” Booker asks in a wary tone, adjusting his grip on Nadia’s hand.
Dominic answers in a gentle tone. “Zian pulled the tooth out for each of us. It isn’t fun, but I can heal you all up as soon as it’s done.”
Celine shivers, and the boy Ajax is embracing cringes in his arms. Ajax looks down at his friend—boyfriend?—and then his gaze jerks up to meet mine.
“Devon might be able to do it another way. The devices are made out of metal, right? He can create heat… Not a lot if it’s a big space, but if he concentrated it on something really small, he should be able to melt circuits.”
He glances down at the other guy with a fond but concerned expression that clearly indicatesboyfriend. “Don’t you think so? If you want to try.”
Devon lets out a halting sigh and offers a crooked smile. “I guess it’d be better than having my teeth yanked out. How do we know which tooth it is?”
Zian’s shoulders come down at hearing there’s an alternative to him disfiguring all these teens and preteens we’re trying to save. He moves over to the young couple. “I can find it. Let’s start with the two of you to see how it goes.”
For the next fifteen minutes or so, Zian’s eyes flash as he uses his X-ray vision to locate each tracker and then confirm that it’s sufficiently melted by Devon’s power. The knots in my stomach gradually unravel.
Maybe we’re actually going to be okay. Maybe the worst part is over.
It doesn’t matter that the radio crackles with questions about where the pilot is going. Jacob silences the device with a bash of his power.
It doesn’t matter that I’m not totally sure about what we’re going to do once we’ve landed. We’ll figure it out once we’re there.
This time, the guardians don’t have Griffin as an ace up their sleeve. They tracked us down once without his help, but only after we’d stayed in the same place for a whole week.
Then Zian steps away from Celine, who submitted herself to the heat treatment last, and she points a finger at Griffin. “What about him? He’s got a tracker too, doesn’t he? He never ran away before.”
We all glance over at the twins. Jacob shoots his brother a grim look.
“She’s right. Let’s destroy whatever you’re carrying too.”
As Zian and Devon move to flank Griffin, who raises no protest, Booker raises his eyebrows. “Are we sure we should have this guy along at all? He was helping Clancy.”
“If we left him behind, then he’d have been able to help track us down,” I say in my roughened voice.
Griffin turns toward Booker. “I’d rather be here with all of you. Clancy misled me about his plans too. I apologize for anything I’ve been a part of that’s harmed you.”
“You don’tsoundsorry,” one of the other kids mutters.
“I—I’m working on that.”
Griffin opens his mouth wide for Zian and Devon to do their work. Watching them, Booker abruptly pushes to his feet.
I don’t know if he isn’t satisfied with Griffin’s answer—I don’t thinkIam.
Whatever his intentions, the movement must distract Griffin. Because just as Devon turns away, the pilot yanks on the controls.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Jacob demands, his gaze snapping around.
The kid who muttered about Griffin being sorry jumps up. “He pretended to be on our side, and now he’s letting the guardians catch us again!”
The pilot whips a phone I didn’t know he had to his ear. “Yes,” he gasps out in the frantic tone of a man who knows his time is limited, “They’ve got me?—”
