Page 412 of Shadowblood Souls
Nadia hugs me back. “I know. It isn’t your fault.”
But it is. Before she met me, the teenage girl I’m trying to console was all wry smiles and flippant remarks, highlighting her presence with neon shirts. After all the trouble I’ve dragged her into, she’s really just a shadow of herself.
My fingers curl toward my palms where they’re braced behind her back, a prick of my claws digging into my palms.
I have to make sure all this agony is worth it.
Six
Riva
The limo grinds to a halt outside the grand façade of a towering hotel, which is lit up against the night. I gaze up at the looming stone face through the vehicle’s back window.
I’ve always been aware that I’m on the petite side, but on this rare occasion, I feel particularly small.
Which might be silly, because my slim body is wrapped in a dress with so many ripples of satin I might as well have expanded by half. The dainty heels I found waiting on my bed alongside it will give me a couple of extra inches in height as well.
An ostentatious necklace dripping with gems encircles my neck. It only makes me miss my cat-and-yarn charm more.
On the seat across from me, Sully gives the hotel an anxious glance of his own and tugs at the bowtie of his tux. He looks like he’s ready to puke.
Jacob reaches over from his spot at my side and folds his firm hand around mine. With his blond hair perfectly slicked back and his muscular frame filling out a tuxedo of his own, he’d set my heart racing for much more enjoyable reasons if I wasn’t focused on the brutal purpose of our visit.
When I look over at him, he catches my gaze and holds it with his usual unshakable intensity. “You’ve got this, Wildcat. We’ll watch for any problems and make sure they’re taken care of before you even have to think about them. And if anyone hassles you, they’ll regret it.”
He flashes a grin that’s tense but determined. I’ve seen what happens to people who try to hurt me in Jake’s presence.
One time it ended with a heap of severed hands poured onto my bed.
I squeeze his fingers in return, mindful of the manacles still hugging our wrists—under the sleeves of the guys’ tuxes, under the satin gloves I’m wearing. But I don’t think I’m going to say anything our captor doesn’t already know, if he’s listening.
My voice comes out in a murmur. “I don’t want to do this.”
Jacob lifts his other hand to my cheek, his gaze searing into mine. “I know. We keep having to pick between a whole lot of shitty options. But I’m with you, no matter what.”
I don’t doubt that—it’s hard to imagine now that there was a time when his declaration of loyalty would have made me snort in disbelief. We’ve picked our way out of a lot of the shit we were already mired in.
It would be nice if for once we could clamber out into something other than an even bigger heap of crap.
A solid partition separates us from the driver, but his voice filters through a speaker. “You should proceed inside now.”
Yes, we wouldn’t want to make Balthazar impatient. I grit my teeth and push open the door.
I don’t know who our captor is in the wider world or how he might be associated with any of the people heading into the hotel around us, but no one questions us as we march up the steps and through the opulent lobby to the ballroom where a gala is being held. He’s arranged for our acceptance here somehow.
Stepping into the vast room under a dozen twinkling chandeliers, I have to pause to catch my breath. There are peopleeverywhere, all of them dressed as fancily as us, most of them at least twenty years our seniors.
It’s a far cry from the elegant party Andreas set up for me back on Rollick’s yacht, partly in apology for distrusting me before. Only five of us and two of Rollick’s shadowkind allies attended that gathering, in a room that seems tiny in my memory compared to this one.
My gaze darts over the faces around us, both taking stock and searching for one in particular.
The one Balthazar has sent me here to murder.
The thought makes my claws prick at my fingertips. I hold them in and drift deeper into the ballroom with Jacob and Sully trailing behind me.
No one pays any attention to us, but I guess that makes sense when they’re so busy paying attention to whoever the most prominent figures in the room are. Most of the attendees have gathered into clusters, several vying to chat with the people who’ve ended up at the center of those knots.
The scents my heightened senses pick up as I circulate through the room carry the tang of both excitement and tension. People have a lot of fraught expectations from this night.
