Page 157 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

I sprawl on my bed and stew on the problem, running through possibility after possibility for both bringing him to me and ensuring he’s otherwise occupied enough that I can get a good fix on his memories.

Maybe I’m not giving up, but I still have to make sure I consider every angle if I’m going to do this right.

It must be at least a couple of hours before an inspiration strikes that I don’t immediately dismiss. I turn the idea over, poking and prodding at it.

It’s by far the best I’ve thought of, but that doesn’t mean it’s good . Fuck, I wish I could talk to Dominic for his thoughtful insight, or even Jacob with his incisive logic.

Even if I could see them, I wouldn’t be able to talk about this, though. So it comes down to me.

I take a few slow, deep breaths, summoning the image of Riva’s face in my mind. Reminding myself of why it’s so important that I get this done.

Then I wrap my arm around my abdomen and double over on the bed.

A fake groan spills from my mouth. I twist and shudder as if in the grip of a wave of nausea.

The play-acting isn’t enough. I need a blast of reality to really sell the performance.

I’ve told my friends dozens of stories from the minds I’ve dipped into over the years, across our early missions. Always picking the amusing or intriguing.

But there’ve been darker memories I’ve uncovered, that I never wanted to think about myself, let alone inflict on anyone else. Moments of the violence and horror humans are just as capable of as monsters.

They linger on in the back of my head where I’ve buried them as deep as I can. I dredge up one of the worst now and hug my belly tighter.

Gore. Gurgled cries. Slashes of a knife. A spray of blood, and organs jumbling?—

I lurch right over the side of the bed to vomit onto the floor. The acid sears my throat as I gag and sputter.

The guardians have been watching me, because of course they have. I’ve barely had time to let out another groan when the door to my room hisses open.

Two guardians lift me onto a rolling hospital-style cot, murmuring urgently to each other as they do. I keep my eyes closed and jerk one way and another as if in the throes of internal agony.

They hurry me to a room that holds brighter lights and a woman who speaks in puzzled tones as she takes my temperature and a blood sample. I figured they’d have a doctor on staff somewhere in this place.

But shadowbloods don’t generally get sick. Our enhanced bodies come with hyperactive healing skills. I can’t remember ever having more than a brief sniffle growing up.

Clancy will have to come—out of concern for his “resources” if nothing else—won’t he?

I lie there through a couple more spells of gagging and mumbled answers to the doctor’s questions. My heart gradually sinks.

I could have miscalculated. Maybe I haven’t accomplished anything beyond giving myself a stomachache.

Then brisk footsteps rap outside. The leader of the facility strides into the room—and he’s brought a bonus I hadn’t even let myself hope for.

Through my lowered eyelashes, I see Dominic trailing behind Clancy, my friend’s mouth tight with worry.

“See if you can sense any internal injuries,” Clancy orders him.

Dominic comes up beside me and rests his tentacles gently on the bare skin of my wrist and neck. I crack my eyes open just enough to make out Clancy behind him—turned mostly away from me in hushed conference with the doctor.

He’s let down his guard. He doesn’t suspect anything from me. Perfect.

I give Dominic’s hand a light tap, the tiniest of nudges to the left so he’ll completely block the doctor’s view of my face if she happens to glance our way. That’s all it takes.

The connection we each share with Riva might be marked on our skin, but the five of us—no, the six of us—all know each other down to our bones. Deeper than I think Clancy can even conceive of.

Dom’s eyebrows rise just a smidge. He shifts over without a word.

Keeping my eyelids low, I stare at the back of Clancy’s head—and tumble into it.

I hold the image of the man Riva saw at the front of my thoughts and prod the whirl of Clancy’s past impressions with it. One after another, memories float to the surface of him speaking to that older man: in a video chat, in person, on the phone.

In every conversation, tension runs through Clancy’s body. He keeps his voice smooth, but I can feel the urge in his throat to become terser.

He calls the other man Richmond. And Richmond has a lot of ideas about how Clancy should be running things, often referring to “the board” of the Guardianship that it sounds like he speaks for.

I push harder, faster, for a snippet of anything relevant to our current situation. And then I slide into a vision of Clancy’s cave-like office here, Richmond wearing the same clothes Riva saw three days ago.

“Even with all your precautions, thirteen of them made it right off the island,” Richmond is saying in a patronizing tone. “Including the six that are by far the most valuable.”

Clancy stands stiffly behind his desk. “I retrieved all of them before there was any trouble.”

Richmond snorts. “Any trouble other than two deaths and a whole lot of manpower expended. Look, the board has given you the leeway to try your approach, but a misstep like this calls the whole endeavor into question. There’s been talk of superseding your right to direct the Guardianship.

You know you’d never have taken it at all if Balthazar hadn’t vanished on us. ”

Balthazar? My focus momentarily wavers, but then I remember the conversation Riva related to the rest of us, asking Clancy about the three founding families of the Guardianship.

He told her that one of the three founders had pulled back from the guardians. I have to guess that’s who Richmond means.

At the implied threat, Clancy’s spine goes even more rigid. Richmond is purposefully not mentioning his own opinion, but I can taste in his tone that he’s been a vocal participant in the “talking” he mentioned.

“I’ve just landed a major contract,” Clancy says quickly. “Now that I have a better idea of how the shadowbloods operate, I’ll be able to keep them in line—and show just how much I can accomplish with them. You have to give me the chance to prove it.”

Richmond rubs his fleshy chin. “I’ll discuss the matter with the others. You can be sure we’ll be watching closely. If you?—”

A tug of my arm brings me back to the present. Dominic is leaning over me, his gaze intent.

“Thank you,” he says over his shoulder.

Clancy is approaching, carrying a glass of water. Through my cluttered awareness, I piece together what must have happened: Clancy was going to come over earlier, but Dominic diverted him for long enough to snap me out of my power’s daze.

Dom pats my shoulder. “Can you sit up?”

I push myself upright with a sway to sell my performance and sip the water. Clancy inspects me with his penetrating gaze.

“The best we can determine, something you ate must have disagreed with you that’s now out of your system,” he says in a clipped tone. “There’s no sign of illness or internal damage. You can sleep here for the night while we get your room cleaned.”

I nod my thanks and lie back down as he escorts Dominic out of the room. My thoughts keep buzzing, louder than the hum of the overhead lights.

Clancy is in danger of losing his grand dream. He’s got a lot riding on this upcoming mission.

I don’t know what we can do with that yet, but it gives us a foothold. If he’s desperate, then we have leverage.

But who the hell can I tell that to without giving any budding scheme we could form away? I can’t plan a coup and pull it off all by myself.

I roll onto my side on the thin cot mattress, closing my eyes again. The answer comes to me like a ghost rising from the grave.

Griffin. Griffin is at the middle of this mess, tangled between Clancy’s objectives and ours.

He’s just proven his loyalty to the guardians—in Clancy’s eyes, anyway.

I don’t know what the others think, but I’ve looked inside our former friend’s head. I’ve followed the reasoning in his words and the cadence of his voice.

He understands us just as well as we do each other. He’s with us.

And now he’s the only one I can turn to.