Page 118 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Did they train together like I did with my guys? Nadia isn’t acting like they have quite the same level of closeness already.

“Nice,” he says after swallowing the first bite, and lifts his hand to me in greeting. “And nice to meet you, Firstie. I’m Booker.”

“Riva,” I reply. Firstie? Is that what they’re all going to be calling us now?

Celine aims her smile more directly at me. “I’m glad you’re all back with us, safe and sound.”

Tegan, who’s gotten up too, bobs on her feet. “Celine was out with the guardians trying to help you get away from the monsters.”

Oh. My lips part, but my words have dried up.

Should I say thank you when I didn’t really want to be “helped”?

Celine laughs as if it’s no big deal, but her eyelids flicker down for just a second. I think I catch a flash of discomfort, maybe even sadness, before she’s smiling fully again.

What did the guardians put her through during their hunt? It’s no wonder she’d be struggling, even if she’s doing her best to put on a cheerful front.

Before I can figure out how to talk to her, a twinge at my collarbone brings my gaze jerking to the facility entrance. My heart leaps.

Two figures are just walking out onto the ridge in front of the entrance, over the broad stone staircase that winds around to the valley floor. It only takes one glimpse for me to recognize them.

It’s probably horrendously rude of me, but I can’t stop my feet from bounding forward. I sprint across the field and up the steps as the two men who stepped out hurry down to meet me.

“Drey!” I throw my arms around the leaner guy the second he’s within reach, knowing he’ll welcome the hug.

Andreas sucks in a hitch of breath and squeezes me hard. He smells like he always has, warm and a little spicy, like cinnamon.

When I force myself to ease back to scan his face, he looks the same too: dark coiled hair, gorgeous brown face, sparkling dark gray eyes. I don’t see any injuries on him.

Then he’s cupping my jaw and pulling my mouth to his, and there’s no part of me that can resist the kiss.

I loop my arm around his neck and kiss him back hard with a giddy quiver through my veins as if the shadows in me are rejoicing at our reunion.

This is something different too. I never would have dared to show this much physical affection in any of the other facilities.

But I don’t give a fuck what Clancy thinks. These are my guys, my loves, and I’m not going to pretend they’re anything less.

Well, they’re my guys to varying extents. As Andreas releases me, keeping one arm slung around my back, I turn toward Zian with a smile that’s both joyful and a little cautious.

Zee hasn’t generally reacted all that well to even brief touches, let alone a full hug. But he did offer me a very careful embrace right before we set off on our last personal mission.

He’s staring at me with so much emotion blazing in his dark brown eyes that it lights up my skin. His brawn flexes all across his broad shoulders.

He reaches out and brushes his fingers tentatively over my shoulder. “They didn’t hurt you, Shrimp?”

The question comes out gruff, the silly nickname offset by the concern wound through his voice.

“No. I’m okay. Just… not really sure what to make of all this.” My gaze darts between the two of them. “Are you both totally all right? Have you seen Dominic or Jacob?”

Andreas flicks his gaze toward the facility with a trace of the same wariness I feel about our new situation. “We’re… as good as we can be. I got to talk to Dominic at breakfast this morning—he wasn’t happy that we’re being kept apart, but otherwise fine.”

Zian knits his brow. “Neither of us has seen Jacob. You haven’t either?”

“No. You two are the first.” My stomach sinks. “Clancy hasn’t been letting us out until we commit to running his missions. Maybe Jacob isn’t giving in.”

It’s way too easy to imagine the rigidly stubborn guy refusing to even pretend to play along if he’s angry that we were captured at all. And there’s also?—

I pause for a second with a constricting of my throat. “You know—Griffin…”

I don’t have to say anything more than that. Andreas’s face somehow manages to brighten and fall at the same time, and the furrow in Zian’s forehead deepens.

“All this time,” the bigger guy says in a disbelieving tone, and swipes his hand back over his short black hair.

Drey nods. “That’s got to have thrown Jake for a loop. Especially when Griffin is definitely… different, too.”

“Yeah.” My gut knots at the memory of Griffin’s oddly vacant demeanor.

I haven’t seen him since the talk with him and Clancy yesterday. I have no idea how he’s been spending his days.

How closely do the two of them work together?

“At least this place seems better than many of the alternatives,” Andreas says with a hesitantly hopeful note in his voice.

He glances across the valley. “I saw a place like this once in some backpacker’s memories.

He went around scaling mountains, soaking in lagoons, and gorging himself on tropical fruit until he gave himself a stomachache.

Even then, he called it paradise. It never occurred to me I’d get to visit somewhere like that in person. ”

He’s fallen into his storyteller’s lilt. Andreas has always been our memory-keeper—both of our own past and all kinds of lives that were beyond our reach except through his talent.

His attention comes back to me with a knowing expression. “And it’s also a little less restricted. Can’t complain about that.”

“Nope,” I agree. Not when that lack of restriction means more opportunity for escape if we don’t like the other opportunities Clancy offers us.

As if drawn by my thoughts, our grand leader himself steps out onto the ridge above us. He sets his hands on his hips and smiles down over his domain and all of us within it.

“All right, folks,” he calls out. “You’ve had some free training time. How about something a little more structured? Capture the Flag—the whole valley’s your arena. Three Firsts against the rest of you. That should be fair enough.”

An excited murmuring rises up from where the younger shadowbloods—including another two who’ve joined the bunch I talked to—are gathered below. I glance at my guys and swallow hard.

Clancy is working so hard to make our time here feel like recreation rather than torture. He’s given us a home some people would consider paradise.

But he’s still one of them .

Just how dangerous would it be to trust him?