Page 588 of Shadowblood Souls
I glance toward the room where Sorsha and Pearl are recovering. All those shadowkind are waiting for my answer too. Trusting me to lead them.
“I want to save everyone,” I say quietly. “But what… what if we can’t?”
Jacob’s mouth twists. “If anyone could figure out how, it’d be you, Wildcat. But even superheroes can’t win every battle.”
If I even am a superhero by any definition. What would I do if I was?
That answer is shockingly easy. I gird myself before I say the words. “Then we have to do what’s best for the most possible people. What’ll save the most lives.”
Even if I hate it.
Rollick doesn’t ask me to spell out what I mean. He simply cocks his head with a glint of sympathy in his eyes. “Any preferences for how we get started on that?”
I think about the past battles—how the other shadowbloods defied us, struck back at us, escaped from us. The injuries and losses we’ve taken.
What are our best chances at ending this once and for all without another mistake?
I raise my chin. “Sorsha and I can take them out the fastest from a distance. But Sorsha can’t be moving around right now. And we don’t want to leave the rogues any avenues for escape.”
Dominic’s gaze goes distant in contemplation. “Trying to pen them in with just our powers hasn’t worked out all that well. If we could get them into an enclosed space where you and Sorsha could focus on them all at once and they couldn’t attack anyone else in the process…”
The idea comes to me with a queasy lurch of my stomach, but I can’t deny how perfect it is.
A shaky laugh spills out of me. “I think I know just the place.”
Twenty-Six
Riva
The fence with its barbed wire topping doesn’t look as intimidating as I remember. But then, it’s been nearly five years since I was last back here, and I’ve endured a lot in that time.
Andreas picks up a stick from the forest floor behind us and tosses it at the chain-link face. A brief crackle of electricity makes him grimace. “Still electrified.”
The guys around me all look as uncomfortable as I feel. They left this facility not long after I did, under equally traumatic circumstances.
Jacob folds his arms over his chest. “The guardians don’t want anyone stumbling on their secrets even if they’re not using the place anymore.”
Rollick shifts his weight on his feet, his stance all typical smooth confidence but the lines of his own face tauter than usual. None of his shadowkind allies accompanied us this close to the guardians’ territory. The silver and iron protections laiddown around the facility are wearing even on the demon’s immense power.
“We haven’t seen any sign of mortals coming and going or patrolling around the place,” he says. “It appears to be abandoned. But I can’t say for sure that no one’s been working inside without leaving during the short time we’ve been able to monitor it.”
Griffin tilts toward the fence, his gaze sharpening with intentness. “I can’t sense any emotions from inside. But I don’t think we should go through with the plan without making sure.”
Rollick glances over at us. “This is the place where you were held for most of your lives.”
I nod. “There’s a lot more to the building than you can see. It goes at least a few floors underground.”
The demon’s tone turns dry. “Ideal for keeping shadowbloods contained. Even by other shadowbloods.”
“Yeah.” I hug myself, my nerves creeping just looking through the fence.
I can’t completely suppress the memories, as much as I’d like to. The small concrete building stands in the middle of the fenced-off clearing, with the solid steel door Griffin and I burst out through when we made our escape attempt all those years ago. The span of asphalt between the gate and the building holds no cars now, but it did back then.
Back then, when I pulled him into our first kiss under the star-flecked sky. When I watched his body jerk with the impact of a bullet from an unseen sniper.
When I thought I watched him die, bleeding out on the pavement while the guardians swarmed me and dragged me away.
Griffin’s memories will be similar to mine. The other four guys have two. The version I told them about, and the one they saw on a tablet’s screen, doctored by the guardians to make itlook as if I walked away from Griffin’s crumpled body willingly. As if I’d set him up to die in exchange for my freedom.
