Page 153 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

I suppose that’s possible, although I’d imagine the guardians have prodded as much ability out of the younger shadowbloods as they possibly could already. It seems kinder to keep that thought to myself for now.

“You never know.”

Ajax yawns and drifts away. After giving the city one last longing glance, Nadia does the same.

As their footsteps rasp off through the jungle, Jacob rejoins me. He rests his hand on the back of my head, the gesture still tentative after everything we’ve been through until I lean into his touch.

“They’ll be okay,” he says. “We’ll all be okay. Because you’re making sure of it.”

I don’t know how to answer. Do I even think that’s true?

But looking out over the glow of the city we’ve pushed ourselves so hard to find, it’s a little easier to believe it than before.

I wake up on my uneven bed of soil and fallen leaves to a sorrowful meow that carries through the underbrush.

As I push myself upright, Griffin is already shoving through the nearby bushes. “Lua?”

The cat meows again, and a moment later he’s turning with his pet tucked in his arms. Her white fur is mottled with bits of debris, but she nestles against his chest with a purr I can hear from five feet away.

Griffin smiles down at her, his expression so tender with affection that my pulse skips a beat. He really is coming back to us bit by bit, just like Lua found her way back to him.

Our fellow shadowbloods are stirring throughout our hasty camp. Dominic approaches Griffin, his tentacles unfurling from their coils against his back.

“Do you want me to check her over? In case she got any scratches or sprains that aren’t totally obvious?”

Griffin hesitates, whether because he doesn’t want to loosen his hug yet or because he knows what the healing costs Dom, I’m not sure. Maybe some of both.

Then he takes a step toward Dominic. “Yes, that would be a good idea.”

I get to my feet, gathering my meager belongings, and raise my voice to carry through the jungle around me. “Let’s have a quick breakfast and then move out. We’re almost there!”

Energetic murmurs rise up after my reminder. I weave through the trees back onto our narrow path and peer down the opposite hillside again.

The city doesn’t stand out as much amid the jungle greenery by daylight. But it’s still undeniably there, a grayish blotch that feels even more within reach now that I can distinguish actual buildings.

And maybe a highway cutting through the trees running parallel to the hills? If we can reach that, the hike will be even easier.

I turn back toward the camp with a lighter heart—and freeze at a rhythmic whirring that reaches my ears in the same moment.

Farther down the path, Zian has already stiffened. His head swivels as he knits his brow.

“That sounds like?—”

A big military-style helicopter veers into view around one of the higher peaks nearby. From the expanding cacophony of sound, it isn’t alone.

“Shadowbloods,” a voice blares from a loudspeaker. “Stay where you are and prepare to be collected.”

“What the fuck?” Booker says, staring up at the swiftly advancing chopper.

Griffin whirls around, Lua still clutched in his arms. His gaze latches on to… Celine.

His voice comes out cool with certainty but a little shaky. “You. You signaled them somehow. You’re happy that they’re here.”

My stomach lurches. Griffin’s been keeping an eye on Celine, questioning her here and there from the start, hasn’t he?

Was he picking up on something in her emotions that made him suspicious? I guess not enough that he felt confident mentioning it to the rest of us until now.

Celine stares back at him, her hands clenched at her sides, her usual sunny smile vanished with the flattening of her mouth.

“How is this better than what we had before?” she bursts out with a wild gesture toward the jungle around us. She jabs a finger toward me. “She—she wants to take us back to the fucking monsters like she did before. I’ve seen what those things can do.”

More nausea bubbles up inside me. “I wouldn’t—it was just a possibility. We’d have been careful about it.”

Celine narrows her eyes at me. “You can’t be careful with those things. I saw what they did to one of my friends when we tried to help the guardians bring you back in Miami. I saw the pictures of what they did to the shadowbloods you thought you were ‘rescuing’ afterward. They’re psychotic beasts.”

Oh, no. The image flashes through my mind of the girl slumped in a pool of blood at the parking garage where we were attacked with Rollick.

I didn’t want that to happen. When we asked Rollick and his people to help us push back the guardians, I asked them not to hurt any of the kids.

But they did anyway. I can’t even promise her that it was unavoidable or a mistake, because I honestly don’t know.

I don’t even know which of the shadowkind killed her.

Nadia gapes at the other girl. “Are you kidding me, Celine? We came all this way?—”

Celine glares at her. “We’ve been attacked by a tiger, almost ran out of water—we’re sleeping in the dirt—to get to what? Maybe I don’t love the facility, but we’re a hell of a lot safer there.”

She jogs forward toward the crest of our section of hill, raising her arms as if to beckon the helicopters, a second of which has swung into view.

“Celine!” I cry out, not even sure what I want to do, and spring at her.

A boom resonates through the air from the closer chopper. An invisible force smacks into me in mid-leap and hurls me into a tree trunk.