Page 414 of Shadowblood Souls
I keep my ears pricked in the meantime, listening for other clues. My target gets into a discussion about funding and donations that I don’t really follow.
Then a couple who appear to be together split off from the cluster to drift in another direction. The woman glances over her shoulder and shakes her head at her partner.
“They say he’s got a good chance of making VP next term,” her partner murmurs. “Rising up the ranks fast.”
Isthatwhy Balthazar wants him gone?
There’s too much information, too many scattered pieces I don’t know what to make of. Frustration coils in my gut.
I have to do something. Surely someone out of this mass of wealthy movers and shakers could stand up to the asshole who sent me here?
I eye a pamphlet left on one of the side tables and several crumpled napkins I know will only be dismissed as garbage before Jacob taps my arm.
He presses a thin cardboard edge against my palm. I peek down and see it’s an index card, just a couple of words jotted on one side.
We didn’t discuss the idea I came up with on the flight over here, but he must have noticed me stealing the pen. He can guess what I’m up to.
I pause at a side table as if examining more of the pamphlets and surreptitiously scrawl out my message. Sadly, there isn’t a whole lot I can say to whoever I deliver my plea to, but I do my best.
Investigate Mr. Balthazar, I scrawl on the back of the index card. I don’t even know his full name.There are kids being held captive in his villa.
I fold the card once and look for a reasonable recipient, my stomach starting to churn. I settle on the man who told his wife that my target was rising up the ranks.
If he’s interested in that man’s career, then there’s a decent chance he’s at cross-purposes with Balthazar. I hope.
Gliding past him with as much grace as I can summon, I slip the card into the hip pocket of his tux. Not a single indication can have passed to my captor of what I’ve done, even if he’s listening through my manacles.
The moment the card is out of my hand, the overwhelming urge to get out of the ballroom weighs down on me. I’ve done everything I can to save us.
Let’s get the awful part over with and leave everything else behind.
I move toward the columns as I planned, ducking behind a swath of velvet close enough to my target that I’ll still be able to see him. Jacob and Sully linger on the far side.
Standing at a gap between the fabric and the column, I fix my gaze on the knob-chinned man.
He might deserve this fate. It’s just as likely he doesn’t.
I know for sure that none of my fellow shadowbloods back at the villa deserve the punishment they’ll receive if I don’t gothrough with the job. I grip that certainty tightly, willing down the sear of guilt in my gut as well as I can.
My lips part. The vibration oscillates up my throat.
I was already learning how to pitch my shrieks quietly before Balthazar ever kidnapped us. I butchered an entire pen of sheep across a courtyard without alerting the terrorists I was building the power to slaughter.
My sessions with Matteo have honed my skills even further, faster than I’d have expected. Maybe because I’ve never let myself purposefully stretch the limits of my supernatural abilities before.
I was always too worried about how the guardians would exploit them. And yet here I am.
My hands ball at my sides. I drink in the air and think about Balthazar.
His arrogant smirk as he reminded me of the consequences of disobedience. His blasé tone when he talked about what Dominic was good for.
His stupid fucking face, so totally unperturbed, as Lindsay flailed and died in a pool of her own blood.
I will do this for him, but only because I have to. Only because I have to believe that eventually I can do ittohim.
When I propel the pain-seeking scream from my mouth, it’s the thinnest of whispers. No one would hear it unless they’re standing right by my lips.
And because I’ve also been practicing adjusting how it hits my victims’ bodies, I aim it right at my target’s heart.
