Page 608 of Shadowblood Souls
Ajax doesn’t give any outward sign that he’s talking to me.Not yet. I’m seeing how it goes. And… I feel like the things he did after Balthazar messed with him weren’t reallyhimanyway.
Yeah, that’s fair.
He’s been taking their relationship slowly too—letting Devon know how important they were to each other but making it clear that he doesn’t need to reciprocate. As I watch, Devon scoots a little closer so he’s tucked right against the other boy.
I don’t need Griffin’s empathic ability to read the joy that beams from Ajax’s face.
I pass the kitchen, where Omar and the other criminal shadowblood we rescued are putting away the recently-washed breakfast dishes. Omar has been surprisingly upbeat since waking up from the memory wipe, and his good mood seems to rub off on the other man.
Rollick has been overseeing their recovery, since they have a little trouble accepting my guys and me as authorities the way the teens do. There are always at least a few shadowkind monitoring them from the shadows too.
Just before I reach the corner that leads to the row of bedrooms, Nadia comes striding around the corner. She stops when she sees me with a hesitant smile that makes my heart ache.
I think she can tell that things weren’t so great between us right before she lost her memories. It’s hard for me to never let my regrets over how those last few weeks played out color my expression or my voice.
She has no idea just how much she lost. I don’t know if it’ll ever make sense to tell her about Booker.
But I’m doing my best to be both a friend and a big sister figure to her now—better than I managed it before.
“Are you ready to shine?” I ask her in a lightly teasing tone.
She lets out a nervous giggle and tugs at the hem of her T-shirt—neon green, a hue she gravitated toward automatically without any guidance from me. “As ready as I’m going to be, I guess. It still seems so weird, that I could do anything like that…”
I tap her arm to motion her down the hall toward the front door. “You’ll get used to using your skills. It’s a pretty amazing talent.”
Nadia’s mouth twists with a hint of a grimace. “A little scary too, though. I almost burned you yesterday.”
“Hey, I’m fine.” I hold up my hands to show the perfectly healthy skin. “We all had to learn control before we could feel comfortable with our abilities. By practicing, you’re making sure that if you’re taken by surprise, you won’t do anything you’ll regret.”
She glances over me with a haunted cast to her eyes. “I did before, didn’t I? Do things I’d regret if I could remember?”
I swallow thickly and touch her arm again, this time with a reassuring squeeze. I’m not going to lie to her. “We all did. But no one here blames you. We’re glad you and the others are getting to start over in a better place. It’s scary, sure, but we’re also special. There’s no one else like us in the whole world.” I shoot her a grin. “And you can light up the darkness like no one else at all.”
A soft smile returns to Nadia’s face. “I guess that is pretty cool.”
We step out into the cool air. Over by the garage, Sorsha and her shadowkind men are standing around their RV, the phoenix motioning to what looks like a trombone protruding from the side that I don’t recall being there before.
Her balance is still a little off, but her vertigo has faded a lot more since the battle in the facility. She turns to face us with only a slight sway, not needing any overt support fromher companions. “We’re heading back home for the time being, although I bet we’ll be back to check up on all of you again. We’ll see how the Everymobile handles another jaunt through the shadow realm.”
“It’s always interesting, at least,” Ruse points out with a smirk.
A pang hits me as if Sorsha is already gone. It’s been a relief having someone around who has more experience at the whole hybrid thing than the rest of us—and who takes so many things easily in stride.
“You’ll be missed,” I say awkwardly, not wanting to make too big a deal of it.
The phoenix’s expression softens. “You shadowbloods can always come visit us if you want. There’s more than enough room for a bunch of guests in our big Victorian.”
It’s hard for me to think about what I’ll be doing even a week from now, but I appreciate the invitation. I dip my head. “I’d like that. I guess we’ll see where we end up.”
As they clamber on board the RV, the rustle of footsteps draws my attention in the other direction. My guys are heading across the lawn to join me, the trio of teen shadowbloods they were helping in their midst.
The teens head inside, murmuring to each other with hushed delight about whatever new aspects of their talents they tried out. Andreas jabs his thumb toward the house after them. “Should I go get Devon and Ajax too?”
I hesitate. “I don’t know—they seemed pretty cozy. I hate to interrupt them. Maybe you could see if?—”
At the clearing of a throat, I stop in mid-sentence. Rollick is strolling over from the gardens too, with Pearl and Toni trailing behind him, hand-in-hand, though Toni lets go when she sees us. The flush of her cheeks suggests that she’s still a littleuncertain of whatever relationship she and the succubus have started to form.
The demon surveys our group with an approving air. “All of the Firsts in one place and not otherwise occupied. Perfect. We had an idea we wanted to present to you.”
