Page 208 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Thirty-One

Dominic

T ucked into an armchair by the sitting room window, I let my gaze drift toward the glass again. And then jerk it back to the pages of my book to make sure I don’t look like I’m watching for something outside.

I’ve never been the type to leap into action quickly. Andreas used to tease me about always needing to think through every angle of a problem before I was confident tackling it.

But I’ve got to say that waiting on someone else to launch a plan you’ve already decided to go ahead with makes my top ten list of things I’d rather not experience again.

I know what I’m going to need to do. I’m the cornerstone in this plan.

I just have no idea when I’m going to need to do it—and I won’t know until minutes if not mere seconds beforehand.

Across the room, Riva stirs in her own chair with what I recognize as suppressed restlessness. I can only imagine how impatient she’s getting when Balthazar might try to rope her further into the family business at any point.

We don’t know how long it’ll take Rollick to find our answering message. Or how much time it’ll take after that for him to rally whatever forces he’s bringing.

The fire he promised could arrive by daylight or in the middle of the night. His warning signal could be anything at all.

From what I’ve seen of the demon, I trust him to mean his offer of help honestly, but I’m also aware that fully “monstrous” minds operate on somewhat different terms from our partly human perspective as shadowbloods.

It’s only been two days. Two days of constant anticipation churning in my stomach and furtive glances between the six of us.

Footsteps in the hall draw my attention to the doorway with a hiccup of my pulse, but it’s just one of the members of the discreet household staff passing by. The woman doesn’t even look our way.

The sight of her reminds me of the other unknown variable in our plans.

Toni indicated that she’d help us with the problem of the manacles. She doesn’t know that there’s any deadline by which we’ll need that done, but then, we couldn’t tell her the exact timing even if we wanted to risk revealing more.

She has to realize that we’d want to leave as soon as possible. Every day, every hour we spend under the villa’s roof puts us in more danger.

Riva’s rejection upset Balthazar. There’s no telling what he’ll do next.

And we all know he has no qualms about spilling our blood.

Should we have made the urgency of our situation even more clear in our message to Rollick? Will the demon understand how important it is that he gets here as soon as possible?

We’re so restricted in this beautiful cage that it was hard to plan out our whole strategy thoroughly.

I realize that I’ve been staring at the same page for a couple of minutes without absorbing any of the words. I turn to the next just to put on a show of actually reading.

I lost track of the plot a few chapters ago. I can’t say I really care.

Movement beyond the window catches my eye with another lurch of my heart. But it’s nothing supernatural.

A couple of men in the blue uniforms Balthazar appears to have given all his staff are tramping across the grounds with a purposeful air. One of them holds what looks like… a very large aquarium net.

They’re walking in the direction of the pool.

I guess they’re going to clean it? But something about their demeanor sends a prickle of alarm through my nerves.

I set my book on the side table, stretch my arms and the tentacles I’ve kept coiled out of the way, and amble over to the door. There’s nothing unusual about one of us taking a stroll through the garden in the early afternoon.

Or more than one of us. Riva follows me, shooting me a quick smile as she catches up. “I could use a walk too, if you don’t mind the company.”

I take her hand in mine and sling one of my tentacles around her waist. “Of course not.”

There’s something amazing about the quiver of energy that unfurls between us now when she’s close—when I’m within a few feet of any of my friends too. The threads of essence connecting us on a level beyond sight.

We’re blood now in a way none of us ever imagined. So attuned to each other that in some ways we might as well be one joint being.

Balthazar can’t be prepared for our newfound unity. The knowledge brings a faint smile of my own to my lips despite my uneasiness.

We meander out the side door into the grayish sunlight beneath a thinly clouded sky. The breeze whips through the strands of my hair that’ve fallen loose from my short ponytail, licking a sharp chill across my skin and making me wish I’d stopped to grab my jacket from my bedroom.

I might have gone back inside to get it if the scene in front of me didn’t freeze my legs under me a moment later, for reasons that have nothing to do with the cold air.

The two workers have gone over to the pool, yes. One of them is dipping the giant net into the water to scoop out stray leaves and twigs that have blown in.

The other has opened a panel in the tiles around the pool’s edge and is twisting something beneath it.

A faint gurgle reaches my ears. It fades away a moment later, but a sickly sensation remains in my gut.

The man straightens up and brushes his hands together. “Make sure you get all of it,” he says to his companion. “Boss doesn’t want any crud left in the bottom.”

Left in the bottom… after the water’s gone?

Riva stays silent, but her hand tightens around mine. How the hell are we going to carry out our plan if we haven’t got the pool to shelter in?

I can’t tell yet if the waterline is descending, but it seems unwise to simply stand there and stare. We wander toward the wall along the edge of the grounds.

Worries whirl through my head. We’ll have to readjust our entire plan. We can’t even talk about it if we don’t have the water to cover our voices.

Can I get away with the trick of writing it out again? Even the first time was risky, knowing we could be interrupted and caught.

My distress must be loud enough for Griffin to not only pick up on it but get concerned himself. We’re just circling back toward the villa when the other four guys emerge, Griffin’s expression shadowed with concern and the others looking uncertain.

He won’t have wanted to tell them why he was suggesting they come out here, but they’ll have been able to tell it wasn’t to celebrate a victory.

Andreas cocks his head at me and Riva with one of his wry smiles. “Decided to have a party out here without the rest of us?”

Riva rubs her arm through her hoodie. “Not much of a party. We just got tired of being cooped up in there, you know.”

I’m debating whether I should overtly point out the pool, but Zian has already glanced in that direction. His stance stiffens. “What are they doing over there?”

It’s now obvious to me that the water is sinking. It looks at least a foot lower than it was when we first came out.

Fucking hell.

Jacob’s shoulders tense too, but I don’t hear anything breaking nearby, so maybe he’s gotten his telekinesis a little better under control.

Griffin’s lips purse in a grimace. “It looks like they’re emptying the pool.”

The man who opened the drain has replaced the panel that conceals the controls. The guy with the net appears to have finished his cleanup. They stride away without any sign that they’re aware they may have signed our death sentence.

We let ourselves meander toward the pool. I watch the level of the water dip slowly but surely lower.

“So much for swim time,” Jacob mutters before lapsing into a moody silence.

None of the rest of us knows what to add. We stand there like mourners at a funeral.

That image is a little more accurate than I’d like. It could be our funeral, literally.

Can I shield us against a fire strong enough that Rollick expects it to wipe out all our enemies without the extra help of all that water? The thought of protecting just our wet heads seemed a lot less intimidating than cloaking our entire, totally flammable bodies.

I wasn’t even sure I could do the easier version without having to heal up injuries while I did.

The water keeps sinking. When it’s around knee-level, Riva sighs and turns around.

She halts, going still, and we all jerk around to see what’s caused her reaction.

Toni is walking over to join us, her arms crossed loosely over her chest. She had the sense to wear a jacket—a trim wool one that seems to emphasize her professional air.

She peers past us. “Mr. Balthazar ordered it drained.”

Jacob glowers at her. “We can see that.”

But she isn’t here to rub in the loss. The corner of her mouth turns down as she contemplates the pool. “He said it was time to close it up for the season. It wouldn’t be safe to use anymore.”

She flicks her gaze toward us, and I understand. He realized that we’ve been using the pool to obscure conversations we didn’t want him overhearing.

So he’s taking that option away for us.

He doesn’t even know just how badly he’s screwing us over.

“That’s too bad,” Andreas says carefully. “We were really hoping to get at least one more swim in before it’s too cold outside.”

Toni studies him. Her expression stays apologetic even if her tone is curt. “There’s nothing I can do about it. You’re lucky you had the use of it for as long as you did.”

Well, I guess we can’t argue with her on that point. But how are we going to protect ourselves from the shadowkind’s fire now?

How am I going to protect everyone else?

Somehow I don’t think filling up the few bathtubs and soaking in them is going to do the trick.

Of course, none of that will matter if Toni can deactivate the manacles. Then we can simply get the hell out of here when the warning comes.

But if she’d managed to disable them already, she wouldn’t be so cautious in how she’s talking to us.

Riva’s mouth twitches as if she’s grappling with what to say. She draws herself up a little straighter. “That thing you said is going to happen—soon it isn’t even going to matter.”