Page 603 of Shadowblood Souls
As my pulse jolts with panic, the massive concrete tower careens toward the door. He must be hoping the weight will smash it open.
But Jacob sees it in time. A sudden shove of invisible force heaves the column to the side. It crashes to the floor several feet to the side of the door, shattering a couple of the nearby crates into splinters.
The ground shakes beneath me with the impact. I stare through the smoke as well as I can.
Where’s Sorsha now? I didn’t hear any sound of pain—but she won’t be able to move very far with her dizziness.
My eyes catch on movement by one of the far columns—a man, flitting from one to another.
That must be the thug whose supernatural talent is immense speed. It’s not surprising he fled in time, but we can’t give him the chance to strike back.
I draw a shriek into my throat. The second he dashes to another column, I send my killing scream pealing after him.
My power rams into his slim frame and yanks him to a halt. If he makes any sound, it’s lost to the warbling of the fire.
I clench my hands and will his heart to burst.
Even as that man crumples, Cutler’s voice rings out. “It won’t do you any good. Even if you kill all of us here, you can’t destroy us completely.”
A chill shivers through my gut. What’s he talking about?
There’s a scuffing sound and a thud. Jacob calls out to me and Sorsha: “Got another one!”
Twin streaks of flame lash out from where Sorsha must be poised now, somewhere behind the fallen column. A cry breaks the air, but I can’t tell if she dealt a fatal injury.
Another blaze of light fills the air, and a hiss I think is the phoenix’s reaches my ears.
“Nadia!” I yell as I crouch down to make myself an even smaller target. I don’t think reasoning with the girl who was once my friend is going to work, but I can’t stop myself from trying. “Don’t do this. You don’t want to hurt even more people.”
Cutler lets out a vicious laugh. As I blink furiously, I catch a glimpse of him hurtling toward another column to ram the thick blades that’ve emerged from his shoulders into a crack he’s already opened up there.
I try to focus on him and aim my shriek, but spots are still swimming across my eyes. He charges out of view.
His sneer rebounds off the high ceiling. “You care so much about saving the assholes who do nothing except hurt ‘monsters’ like us. You’re as bad as they are, trying to exterminate us. But we were ready for shit like this.”
“What are you talking about?” Jacob snaps. There’s a thud, and then a resounding crash as yet another column falls. The shudder of the floor throws me off balance.
The flames from the incinerated corpses are dwindling, but smoke clouds the room even more thickly while my vision clears again. I brace my hand against the floor and sputter a cough as the haze prickles into my lungs.
A spurt of fire lances through the wafting clouds, but if it connects with any of our opponents, I don’t see or hear any sign of it. I slink along the wall, my ears pricked and my muscles braced.
I don’t think there can be more than three or four of the rogues left: Cutler, Nadia, and one or two others who haven’t shown themselves in any identifiable way. We’re so close to ending this catastrophe—we have to see it through.
My heart thuds painfully hard against my ribs. I ease past one of the fallen columns—and a boy leaps over it, straight at me.
My shriek bursts from my throat with a startled hitch. The boy’s arm jerks as a bone fractures while he collides with me.
I roll to the side the second I hit the ground, tossing him off me. Before I can make another sound, the boy’s head wrenches backward with a snap of his spine.
My gaze darts up to find Jacob several feet away. His expression is taut and the purple, poisonous spines protrude from his forearms through his shirt.
But for once he looks completely comfortable with his ferocity. He simply nods at me and spins around to search for the next threat.
One of Cutler’s supernatural roars reverberates through the walls. The doorframe shudders in its fused state.
“You might as well give up,” I yell in the direction the bellow emanated from. “You’re not getting out of here, not alive.”
The tattooed man lets out a scoffing sound, somewhere by the smoking remains of the mock weapon now. His voice travels as he prowls through the smoky room.
