Page 572 of Shadowblood Souls
I can tell he’s not just talking about our current physical position. The corner of my lips curls upward. “Yeah. All six of us are.”
“I mean… You told her something that upset her. But she still wanted to be near you.”
I blink, considering the implicit question. “She knew it wasn’t my fault—I was just passing on information. And being with each other makes us feel better.”
The faun cocks his head, studying Riva’s face again. His mouth forms a smile that looks pained. “I don’t know what that’s like. I have friends, but it isn’t normal with shadowkind—most don’t really get attached like that.”
Curiosity shines in his eyes. The offer comes out of me automatically. “Do you want to see what it feels like?”
Billy stares at me for a second before his lips part in understanding. “You can do that. Your talent. I— If you wouldn’t mind…”
“Of course not.”
I focus on the warm emotion that glows inside me when I’ve got Riva in my arms, the tenderness and the adoration and the sense of shock that I’ve managed to earn a love like this at all. A few of the more passionate impulses, I edit out of the feelings I convey, but the rest I let flow through me into the slim shadowkind man.
He sits very still as if soaking in the impressions I’ve passed on. Then his gaze darts to meet mine again with an almost giddy cast to his features.
“That is… That is something that shouldn’t ever be lost. I’m glad I’ve been helping you, even if there isn’t much I can do. I won’t let anyone ruin what you’ve found with each other.”
The conviction in his words brings an ache into my chest, even after he’s slipped back into the shadows. I tip my headagainst Riva’s and shut my eyes against the tears that prick at the backs of them.
There’s sadness in those tears—for the problems we’re still facing, for the complications we don’t know how to handle yet. But there’s sweetness too.
I might not have a talent that can win a skirmish for us, but my powers can do more than manipulate. I can learn and reveal and teach, make things clearer not just for my friends but everyone else we want on our side too.
That power might not sway any fistfights… but it could get us one step closer to winning this war.
Twenty-One
Riva
Ican’t stop prowling through the hotel room. Every luxurious feature my gaze passes over somehow sets off my annoyance all over again.
When we first got to enjoy Rollick’s opulent tastes, I appreciated the indulgence. It was thrilling to experience that kind of extravagance after a lifetime of tiny prison cells and tasteless food.
Now, the fluffy duvet and elegant furniture of the place where he got us rooms just remind me of how little I fit in here.
Iwasraised in prison cells. I should know how to get through to the other shadowbloods, both the kids and the former inmates.
So why are they still out there, driving around in stolen cars, launching crazed attacks, while I’m roaming around this pretty bedroom?
Andreas looks up from where he’s been scrolling through his phone while propped against the mahogany footboard. “It looks like there are only a few dead. It could have been a lot worse.”
The guys all tramped in here to join me about ten minutes ago after seeing the morning news. It’s playing on the huge TV mounted on the wall now: scenes of smashed signs and shattered glass, crumpled cars and blood-splattered sidewalks.
Our fellow shadowbloods were only more furious after we deflected their attack on the hunter group they meant to slaughter, however badly the confrontation fell apart in the end. They took out their anger on downtown Memphis.
There might be only a few deaths so far, but the text scrolling across the bottom of the TV screen mentions more than twenty hospitalized for their injuries. If it’d been any earlier in the night—more restaurants open, more people on the streets…
As I imagine the carnage, I shudder.
Jacob is pacing too, near the door, with a scowl darkening his face. “It will be worse if those fuckers keep this up. Who are they kidding, saying they’re just destroying the things that are wrong? They’re bashing up whatever the hell they feel like.”
Dominic swipes his hand across his weary face where he’s sitting on the chair by the executive-style desk. “Maybe they think everyone and everything except them is broken. This is the world the guardians came from, after all. Every ‘normal’ person is afraid of monsters.”
Zian looks like he’s considering kicking the foot of the bed in frustration but then thinks better of it, maybe because of how expensive the bedframe looks. He growls under his breath. “They can’t just kill everyone in the whole world.”
Jacob lets out a raw laugh. “They can try.”
