Page 563 of Shadowblood Souls
Even his inner voice sounds exhausted. Bags have formed under his eyes.
As Riva extends her hand to help him ease his slim form through the opening, Andreas peers in over the boy’s head. “They didn’t even leave you any food?”
Ajax shrugs and opens his mouth. I guess it’s been a long time since he spoke the regular way, because his regular voice comes out all creaky. “I don’t think they saw much point. Balthazar never got much use out of me anyway. I ate yesterday.”
“That’s not enough,” Dominic says with a strained note, and beckons Ajax over. “Here, let me give you a quick energy boost—and I’ve got some protein bars. There are a bunch of snacks on the jet once we get there.”
While we tramp back through the dreary halls, the fourteen-year-old chomps through three protein bars and uses his telepathy to give all of us the account he already passed on to Riva.Balthazar only had a couple of staff people here. They found out he died last night. Right away, they took off. They might have forgotten I was even here. Balthazar came to round up the shadowbloods he actually wanted to use the day before.
Jacob scowls, his hands flexing like he’d welcome a fight or two himself. “That’s no excuse. That fucking psychopath. And the other shadowbloods talking like—like?—”
He cuts himself off with a growl of indignation. I can’t tell whether he stopped there because he can’t bear to put the praise we heard from the shadowbloods in the forest into words… or because he’s worriedAjaxwon’t be able to bear it.
But if the kid’s been able to tap into the minds of everyone in the building with him, if he’s noticed his fellow shadowbloods getting unhinged, then I’m pretty sure he’ll have picked up on their shifting attitudes toward their captor too.
We pass a gymnasium obviously used for training and a few other rooms that jolt me back to images from our time in the guardians’ facilities. Balthazar didn’t leave the basics behind when he abandoned the Guardianship.
At one smaller room where a desk is visible, Riva pauses. She waves the rest of us onward. “Get Ajax to the helicopter so he can rest. I want to take a quick look in here.”
Griffin dips his head. “I’ll help him relax.”
Though the whole building has been nothing but empty gloom other than Ajax’s cell, I hang back automatically. I’m not leaving Riva alone, not on our greatest enemy’s turf.
Even if just yesterday I pummeled that enemy’s head into a pulp.
My jaw clenches at the memory. It should come with a rush of triumph, but instead all that floats up is the echoes of horror and fury from when I watched the people—even thekids—we came to save complain at us like the maniac we killed was some kind of hero.
It’s been almost a full day since the ambush in the forest. We haven’t had any contact from the other shadowbloods.
Riva has used Griffin’s seeking talent to check the location of the teens she was friendly with a few times, but all that’s told us is they’ve stayed in Europe. They’re roving around, maybe using whatever vehicles Balthazar left behind like that helicopter.
I don’t like the sense of the other shadowbloods prowling across the continent, stewing in the brutal wildness they showed against the guardians—and against us. Especially the assholes who don’t even know what it really means to call yourself a shadowblood.
Riva paws through the desk drawers and the jumble of items left on the shelves before letting out a rough sigh. “Well, there wasn’t much chance we’d find anything helpful here. Even ifBalthazar left some clue behind, it’d be about his plans, not theirs.”
I don’t need to ask which “they” she’s talking about. “Maybe they’ll simmer down after they get used to him being gone,” I suggest as we hustle to catch up with the others. “Lay low and just live, the way we wanted anyway. We don’t even know if the stuff Balthazar did to give them powers will wear off after a while.”
Riva shoots me a grim smile. “That’s a nice thought, anyway.”
As we reach Rollick’s helicopter, she falls into a tense silence. I don’t think I’ve seen her relax since we set out to face Balthazar yesterday.
It isn’t the same barely restrained rage that was smoldering inside her for days in Balthazar’s villa. As the chopper flies out to the landing strip where the jet waits for the longer trip back to Spain, she manages to speak gently with Ajax about where we’re heading, and she leans into Andreas’s arms when he offers a quick embrace.
I’m not afraid she’s going to explode with anger like I was back then. But every time I look at the tightness of her jaw, the rigid set of her shoulders, my heart aches.
She wanted Balthazar’s death to be the end of our problems. She wanted this long, awful journey to be over so badly—maybe more than any of the rest of us.
And now we have no way of evenknowingwhen the catastrophe is really over.
Rollick is waiting for us on the jet. He watches Riva without saying much, but I think he can pick up on the same vibe I can.
When we’re getting close to our destination, I motion him to the back of the jet to talk to him quietly. “There’s something I could use…”
When I explain, a small smirk creeps across the demon’s lips. He gives me a quick nod. “I can arrange that.”
The flight leads to a short drive from the local landing strip to Rollick’s estate. Ajax drifts into a doze in the back of the SUV, and Riva glances back at him with a sad smile before shifting restlessly in her seat.
“When we get back, I should check the others’ locations again. Maybe Booker will have thought of something that the other kids or the criminal shadowbloods mentioned that’ll point us in the right direction…”
