Page 609 of Shadowblood Souls
My eyebrows rise. “What kind of an idea?”
“I’ll get into that.” He nods to Nadia. “Would you give us a few minutes to ourselves, my shiny friend?”
Nadia lets out a giggle that sounds less strained. “I’ll go grab a snack. I should have anyway—practicing always makes me hungry.”
Rollick motions for the rest of us to walk with him. As we amble toward the trees beyond the lawn and garden, Pearl and Toni keep pace.
Pearl claps her hands together, the energy to her strides revealing her excitement. “Tell them already! It’s going to be great.”
Jacob gives both of the shadowkind a skeptical look. “What’s going to be great?”
Rollick’s lips curl with a hint of a smirk. “I’ve been giving our current situation a lot of thought. Between our latest acquisitions and the kids you rescued before, we have nearly twenty shadowbloods who need training and supervision, at least for a while. And between this adventure and one I got caught up in recently, I’m thinking that some of my fellow shadowkind might benefit from a certain amount of instruction as well.”
I knit my brow. “They already know how to use their talents just fine.”
Pearl bounces on her feet. “Yeah, but a lot of us would like to get better at the mortal side of things. How to mix with humans and enjoy your world without hurting anyone—or getting hurt ourselves.”
Dominic cocks his head. “I guess that’ll be more of a concern now that Balthazar has primed a whole lot of people to be on the lookout for ‘monsters.’”
Rollick inclines his head. “Yes. And I think it would also benefit more of us to develop a healthy respect for the strengths mortals do possess, even if those are different from our own.”
Zian lets out a rough guffaw. “I can agree with that. Well, except for you, of course. You’ve obviously been great to us.”
The demon shoots him an amused glance. “No offense taken. What I’m thinking is that I could found a sort of training center. Have more structured classes and other learning opportunities, a schedule of increasingly intensive forays into regular society as each student is ready for it… Basically, become a lot more orderly about this whole process—and then have a method in place for anyone who needs it later.”
I blink. “Like… a school for shadowbloods? And shadowkind.”
I have trouble picturing what that would look like, but trying to sends a flicker of my own excitement through me. Itwouldbe better for the younger shadowbloods—and the two former inmates in our midst—to have more stability and order in their lives after the confusion we’ve left them with.
“You should bring in a counselor too,” Griffin suggests. “Or someone who has the experience and skills to act as one even if they aren’t officially. There are a lot of emotions to work through, and I’m only good at identifying those—and changing them in the moment if I absolutely have to.”
Toni makes an approving sound. “That sounds like a good idea.”
Pearl nudges her. “You can be our human-shadowkind liaison—on the human side, of course.”
The other woman’s smile turns crooked. “I do have access to a lot of Balthazar’s accounts. He didn’t have any legal next of kin, so no one’s going to come calling for those funds.”
“I don’t think we’ll have any financial worries,” Rollick says wryly. “But part of that comment reminds me…”
He stops and swivels to face us. “You six have taken on an awful lot of responsibility considering how muchyou’vehad to deal with across your entire lives. I don’t expect you to shoulder even more. You’d be welcome at this school of sorts, but just as much as students as teachers. And if you’d rather go off and enjoy your hard-won freedom on your own, I don’t think any of my colleagues have further concerns about you posing a threat to us.”
A strange airy feeling bubbles up in my chest.
Freedom. We really do have that now, don’t we?
As I glance over at my men, the demon lets out a chuckle. “I’ll give the six of you some time to discuss that. Whatever you decide you’d like to do, I’m sure Balthazar’s legacy can pay for it.”
“Absolutely,” Toni agrees.
While the three of them meander back toward the house, I struggle to gather my thoughts. The guys close in around me, Andreas pressing a kiss to the side of my head and Jacob grasping my shoulder.
Dominic catches my gaze. “Now you could have that cabin in the woods you used to dream about.”
I sputter a laugh. “After our experience at Engel’s, it doesn’t really appeal the same way anymore.”
Then I pause, feeling out the whirl of emotions inside me. Thinking about everything Rollick said. “You know, I’m not sure that I really want to be off somewhere apart from the rest of the world after all. The guardians kept us shut away like thatour whole lives. It might be nice to actually get to interact with people like we’re normal for a change.”
Andreas’s eyes glint with amusement. “In a big city would be best for that, I think. We’ll stand a better chance of passing for normal when there’s a wider range of humanity around.”
