Page 211 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Panic spikes through my veins, and I do the only other thing I can think of that might stop him. I flick my gaze toward the ceiling over his control room instead.

The searing power of Zian’s vision slices through stone much more easily than steel. A massive chunk of rock crashes down on a few of the screens, sending sparks flying.

Then another and another, hitting the floor or the consoles in a pounding thunder.

If I can cut through enough, if I can hurl enough boulders at Balthazar, I can kill him that way, I can pulverize him right out of existence…

The other tunnel goes quiet, the rumbling sensation ebbing. An ache spreads through my skull.

I scan the room beyond the locked door as intently as I can, ignoring the strain stabbing through the middle of my brain, and catch a flash of movement deeper inside. A blur of fabric—someone stumbling away?—

And then my sight fades to a hazy gray. The headache jabs deeper, forming spots behind my eyes.

Every particle in my body is shouting at me to race after Balthazar, if that was him. To rip through these passages until his lifeless, bloody body slumps before me.

But I don’t have the strength. I’ve worn myself ragged with what I’ve already done.

And the guys—the guys still need me. I don’t know how much rubble he poured down on them.

Another hitch of fear propels me down the first tunnel. I sway and stagger, shoving myself onward, my clawed fingers scrabbling over the walls.

The faintest flickering glow comes into view up ahead. It trembles through a crack in a heap of massive stones that cuts off the passage.

A groan sounds from somewhere within that pile.

Oh, God, no. I can’t stop a wordless cry from spilling from my lips.

They’re all still there, still right in front of me, hidden by the deluge of stone. Quivers of pain and desperation flicker through our connection, blurring together so I can’t tell what’s from who.

I still haven’t been forced to find out whether I’d still be able to sense my guys’ presence through my marks if one or more of them died. I can’t say for sure whether all of them are still alive.

Blinking back searing tears, I grasp one of the stones and find that I haven’t drained all of my bodily strength even if my sensory talents have frayed. I manage to heave a couple of rocks about as big as my torso farther up the path.

“Zee!” I call out. “I’m giving your sight back, if you can use it. If anyone needs my strength, you can take it. I don’t know how much else I can do from out here.”

I push the stolen vision back toward Zian. If he’s pinned so that he can’t easily lift the boulders, maybe he can crack them open to make them easier to handle.

Grasping hold of a bigger rock, I dig in my claws and drag it, tug after tug, out of the way. Just as I’m reaching for the next one, it lurches toward me as if of its own accord.

I yelp and dodge, and it rolls farther up the passage.

A raw but audible voice reaches me through the gap that’s opened up. “Good to see you, Wildcat.”

“Jacob!” Desperate joy sweeps through me. I drop to my knees by the crevice. “You’re okay?”

Dominic’s voice carries through next. “I had a moment to patch him up, thanks to you. We’ve still got plenty of cuts and bruises to go around, but as long as we can actually get out of this hill back to the outside world, I think we’ll survive.”

“Let’s upgrade that to an ‘I know,’” I mutter, and heft another stone out of the way.

Once I’ve cleared a large enough gap that I can squeeze through to the pocket of space where Jacob and Dom are hunched, they turn their attention to the other end of the tunnel. Zian has, in fact, been slicing and dicing some of the larger rocks.

He punches the reduced chunks farther down the tunnel while Andreas shoves at the bits he can handle despite the blood streaking down from his shoulder. As I squeeze over to reach them, they’ve just opened a gap big enough for my tiny frame to squirm through.

“Don’t go leaving us behind,” Andreas teases hoarsely as I push into the opening.

I freeze. “I never would have?—”

He rests his hand on my calf. “I know. I know, Tink. You did fucking amazing.”

All at once, I’m choked up again. I blink hard and push onward.

Working from the opposite side of the cave-in, I help the guys dig out a wide enough path that Zian can shimmy even his bulky body through. The second the five of them have pushed through, I find myself wrapped in their joint embrace.

I sag into their encircling arms just for a few ragged breaths. Griffin presses a kiss to the back of my head.

“We’ve got you, Moonbeam. We’ve got you—just like you looked after us.”

I swallow hard. “I don’t think I took him out. I tried—Matteo got in the way, and then?—”

Jacob interrupts with a dismissive sound. “It’s okay. We’re getting the hell out of here. That’s what really matters.”

“His whole fucking house is ashes now,” Dominic says darkly. “Any equipment he had in there, any plans he’d made… We’ll deal with the rest later.”

I turned one of Balthazar’s key underlings against him—and slaughtered the other. I destroyed even his hidden control system.

I sent the madman running. Finally, he was the one who had to flee my wrath instead of us quaking in fear of his.

Despite all his money and technology, all the power he wielded over us, we beat him in the end. He couldn’t stop us from making our escape.

If it’s a shame he got to escape too, well, Dom is right. We’ll hit him again.

A grin of victory tugs at my lips with a rush of exhilaration.

Next time it’ll be easier. We’ll hunt him down and finish him for good.

The lingering flames finally sputter out completely. Darkness closes in around us, but it’s not so suffocating now.

We venture on down the sloping tunnel, around another bend, and jolt to a stop at a sudden flare of light right in front of us.

A familiar suave face gleams into view in the conjured glow.

“Oh, excellent,” Rollick says with a warm grin. “You saved me having to climb up the whole damned mountain.”