Page 126 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Eleven

Riva

I expected to feel relieved the moment we all clambered back onto the private plane that’s going to take us back to the island. One look at Dominic’s face turns any joy inside me to dust.

He isn’t like Jacob—he doesn’t carry his discontent like a storm cloud wrapped around him. I don’t think anyone who doesn’t know him well would even notice.

But I see the way the corners of his mouth stay tight when he aims his smile of welcome at me. I notice the slight hunching of his shoulders, like he’s reverting back to his old uncertain self.

Back in the old facility, he always withdrew into himself like that right before he had to say something hard.

The memory rises up, as if Andreas is telling it to me, of the complex strategy game the guardians had us play maybe a year before we tried to escape, with the promise that we’d get a full day to train and relax outside if we beat it.

Dom looked like he does right now in the moment before he told us in a rough voice that he’d just realized we’d made a fatal mistake several steps back… one there was no longer any way of recovering from. Any chance of claiming the reward we’d all longed for was gone.

Those were the kind of stakes we usually dealt with back then. These days, it could be so much worse.

My gaze jerks to the other figures on the plane. Did one of the younger shadowbloods get hurt? That could have been awful to see—what if he couldn’t even save them?

That can’t be true, though, because all four of them are tucked into their seats in a cluster, chattering quietly but with an easygoing air.

“Everything went okay on your end?” I call over to them, leaning my arm on the back of a seat.

Celine laughs and brushes her hand over her shoulder with a swish of her black and red-flecked ponytail. “No one even came. We just sat there the whole time.”

One of the boys shoots a grin at me. “You two must have done a good job. Made it easy for the rest of us.”

Celine laughs a little louder, and I find myself thinking of her missions before, hunting us down.

I don’t know whether she was ever close to the actual fighting. Maybe I’m assuming she must be bothered about it underneath when those were easy for her too.

“It’s always good to have backup,” I say, because I don’t want them to think we didn’t appreciate them being there.

If anyone else working with the slavers had shown up while we were inside, they could have thrown the whole operation off. And having the teens monitoring the road for any late arrivals after the fact allowed Jacob and me our break, with all the unexpected enjoyment it brought.

“You shouldn’t have to take all the responsibility on your shoulders,” Clancy told us before, when we were going over the plan. “One of your greatest strengths is how well you rely on each other.”

The private jet’s seats are arranged in clusters of four along one side of the plane, two pairs facing each other with a tiny table in between. Narrow sofas and a refreshments cabinet stand along the opposite wall.

The teens have claimed one cluster for themselves. Jacob drops into a seat next to the window, across from Dominic.

I have the urge to follow him. To hold on to the new closeness we’ve formed between us.

But Dominic’s expression tugs at me more.

I sink down beside him and slip my hand around his. “Everything went okay for you too, then?”

His smile doesn’t reach his hazel eyes. “Pretty boring, but I’d rather that than needing to rush in to heal any of you.”

He hooks his arm right around mine and leans in close, and I instinctively tilt toward him. His lips brush my cheek and then veer toward my ear as if he’s making an intimate gesture.

“Pretend I’m saying nice things to you,” he murmurs, so soft I’m not sure even Zian’s sharp hearing could have picked up the words if he were in the seat across from me. “I don’t know how closely they’re monitoring us on the plane.”

I squeeze his hand in agreement and push my lips into a small smile, willing down the nervous twist of my gut.

Dominic keeps talking, low and steady but quickly as if he’s afraid he might get cut off.

“Clancy didn’t come up with this mission out of the goodness of his heart.

Some other gang paid him to eliminate those guys.

And they’re planning on taking over the business.

They were just looking to off the competition. ”

With every sentence, my muscles tense more. It takes all my willpower not to clench my jaw in a horrified grimace.

So I don’t have to hold the increasingly stiff smile any longer, I turn as if to nuzzle his head in response. My voice comes out in a thin whisper. “Are you sure?”

He nods without hesitation.

I close my eyes. The images from our mission waver behind the lids—bodies crumpling, blood splashing.

They still deserved it. We stopped them from doing horrible things.

But what if someone even worse steps in to fill the void?

How could Clancy be making decisions about what wrongs to set right based on getting paid ?

When I look up again, Jacob is watching the two of us, but without a trace of jealousy. From the furrow on his brow, he’s picked up on the fact that our PDA is a cover for a more serious conversation.

I could tell him the same way that Dominic just told me—but I’m not sure Jake could hide his reaction well enough. I’m having enough trouble myself.

If the snack packets start bouncing off the ceiling, the guardians who’ve come along to escort us home will know something’s up.

We can’t keep quiet about this for long. I’m not going on another mission without understanding what the new leader of the guardians is really up to.

But I’d rather not hash it out with his underlings while we’re thousands of feet in the air.

It’ll be better if we can confront him without him knowing that we’re on to him. Observe his unguarded response before he recovers from the surprise.

We can fill Jacob in at the same time.

I give Dom’s cheek an actual kiss and whisper, “We’ll see what Clancy has to say about it when we get back.”

He nods again and slings his arm right around me to give me a brief but emphatic hug. The love we share seems to pulse through the mark on my collarbone.

After several minutes, I switch seats to cuddle up with Jacob, but all I tell him is, “There’s something Clancy hasn’t been telling us. We’ll bring it up with him when we see him.”

Jake manages to restrain a full frown, but his muscles tense even at that vague news. He glances at Dominic, who offers a small, crooked grin, and sighs.

Then he loops his arm around my shoulders as if he’s determined to be some kind of armor for me even here. Even without knowing what he might be protecting me against.

I run through the possible scenarios dozens of times in my head during the flight until I fall into a doze. At the jolt of the wheels hitting the mountain-top runway, I wake up with a jerk.

As we straighten up in our seats, everyone looking a bit groggy, the door swings open.

Another guardian appears in the glow of the jet’s interior lights. “Clancy wants a briefing from each of you, in your own teams. Jacob and Riva first.”

My pulse stutters. I assumed we’d all go together—that I’d have the backup of five other shadowbloods when we confronted him.

That Dominic would be able to say exactly what he found out.

There isn’t time to hash out an alternate plan. The guardian is motioning to us impatiently.

I peel myself out of my seat and hurry over with Jacob right behind me.

It’ll be okay. The two of us can handle the conversation ahead.

It’s better for us to address it than to leave Dominic to take Clancy to task on his own.

Outside the plane, a warm breeze washes over us, carrying the hum of nighttime insect life. Dawn is just starting to tint the horizon.

We head down the path carved into the mountainside from the plateau that serves as a landing strip, our shoes rasping against the rough stone. Our escort leads us straight to Clancy’s office.

In spite of the early hour, the head of the Guardianship looks perfectly alert standing behind his desk to greet us. Did he sleep while we flew, or has he been up all night?

As he motions us into the room, my gaze catches on the other figure waiting with him, and my heart hitches in my chest.

Griffin is sitting in a chair in the far corner, watching us with his unnervingly blank expression.

What’s he doing here? The only explanation I can think of is that Clancy wants him to read our emotions, to make sure we’re telling the truth.

I guess it’s a good thing I decided I was going to call out our captor now, because I’m sure Griffin would have picked up on the fact that I was hiding something major if I held off.

We come to a stop in front of the desk, but Jacob’s attention has fixed on his brother. His jaw works.

Griffin simply tips his head in greeting as if this is a totally normal situation. Jake wrenches his gaze back to Clancy without acknowledging the gesture.

Even with all the other concerns gnawing at me, grief ripples through my gut. Have the guardians managed to destroy their brotherly connection forever?

I make myself focus on the man behind the desk.

Clancy is studying us with an intensity that feels more penetrating than I remember from our past conversations. As if he already knows there’s something we’ll have to say beyond the basics of the mission.

My skin creeps in uneasy anticipation.

“It seems the assignment went well,” Clancy says with typical briskness. “But I’d like to hear the full account from your own mouths. It appeared that you had a bit of a hiccup toward the end of your time in the house.”

My mouth twists. He must have been able to tell something went wrong from our physiological signals broadcast from our ankle bands.

“We didn’t have any trouble with most of the mission,” I start. “We took down the first several people we found in the house before they even realized what was happening.”