Page 511 of Shadowblood Souls
The woman herself looks absolutely terrified, skin sallow and lips pressed tight. Her black bob has been rumpled by the wind and whatever tussle led to her capture.
But I can easily recognize her all the same.
“That’s Toni,” I burst out. “She helped us escape—she was working with Balthazar, but she took our side in the end.”
Rollick hums to himself. We hustle back out of the RV to meet the arriving shadowkind.
Sorsha calls to the winged men. “You can put her down. It sounds like she’s one of the good guys.”
The man with the feathered wings gives her a sternly skeptical look but loosens his grip as he and the living gargoyletouch down. The gargoyle frowns as he lowers Toni’s legs so she can stand on her own feet.
She wobbles in her low heels, her jacket askew over her blouse and her stance tensed. Her gaze flicks between the shadowkind arrayed around her before settling on us in their midst.
She’s thought of these beings as monsters for at least as long as she’s been working for Balthazar. Getting kidnapped by two of them is not how I’d have wanted her introduction to the reality of shadowkind to go.
“I told you Iwantedto talk to the shadowbloods,” she says, managing to keep her voice typically brisk if slightly shaky. “You could have asked them and they’d have confirmed.”
The stony guy grunts. “Better to be careful. We’re not going to risk getting tricked.”
The maybe-angel appears to be a little more courteous. He lowers his head in a brief bow. “I apologize for the unnecessarily unpleasant trip.”
“I’m sorry,” I say to Toni. “We only just got out—we haven’t had the chance to fill them in on all the details.”
She exhales with a sigh and gathers herself. “It’s been… a chaotic day.”
She tucks one arm under the other, and I notice the sleeve is charred. Did her arm get burned?
Dominic can heal her up if so. We owe her that much.
He steps up beside me, possibly thinking the same thing, but before either of us can suggest it, Toni draws her tall frame up even straighter with an air of determination. “I don’t know what I’m going to do now. It’s not as if I’m equipped to be much of a fighter. But there are things you need to know if you’re going to try to free the others like you.”
Her gaze rests on me for a second, and something in her expression softens. “I assume that’s what you were planning on doing.”
I smile crookedly. “I guess you did pay attention to what matters to me even if it took a while for everything to sink in.”
Toni grimaces. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t say it properly before, but I am. There’s so much?—”
She stops herself with a press of her hand to her forehead. “We can get into that later. What’s important is—he made it out. Balthazar.”
We already assumed as much, but I can’t help grimacing at the confirmation. “How do you know?”
She pats her jacket pocket, which must hold her phone. “He texted me. I haven’t answered yet… Maybe it’s better if he thinks I didn’t survive. But that’s why I knew I had to talk to you.”
Dominic studies her. “About what exactly?”
Toni inhales sharply. “That monster, whatever it is you call them, who you turned to before? Rollick?”
Rollick props himself against the front of the RV with a bemused expression. “That would be me. The preferred term is ‘shadowkind,’ if it matters to you.”
“Right.” Toni’s throat bobs with a swallow. “You had a theft at your hotel after you left Miami.”
The demon’s eyes narrow. “I haven’t heard any reports of that.”
“You wouldn’t have,” she says. “The mons—the shadowkind Balthazar sent, one he can control, wasn’t caught. He didn’t take much. And he waited until Balthazar expected you’d be distracted by Riva’s message.”
My posture goes rigid. “Wait—BalthazarknewI’d contacted—then why did he?—”
Toni hugs herself. “He wanted you to. That’s part of the reason he agreed to your little trip. He figured you’d trysomething like that, and it would give him an opening. He assumed the villa had enough protections against shadowkind that there was no way they’d actually succeed in making an attack.”
