Page 254 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

I really can’t see Griffin now, but I know what he’s doing when one of the boxes opens and he retrieves the supplies we stashed inside. He kneels down next to Devon and fixes the bindings into place around his wrists and ankles.

We have to be careful, just in case our test didn’t totally separate out the shadowbloods who can be rehabilitated from the ones too far gone to adjust to normal life even with their memories wiped. If they’re like the boy back at the hotel, we won’t have to leave the restraints on for very long.

Keith’s been doing well over the past day he’s been with us in his memory-wiped state. I found him laughing with Ajax while they dug into leftover takeout this morning before we left.

Bethany… well, we’re not totally sure what to do with her yet. She’s still lashing out any time Lull lets her wake up.

It’s a lot harder to imagine killing a person you’ve already subdued, but eventually she’ll make the decision for us. She hasn’t eaten at all since we brought her in—hasn’t settled down enough to even think about being hungry, let alone try to consume anything.

I shake off the uneasiness of that idea and focus on my observations of Keith’s progress. Every shadowblood in this room could end up like him—maybe confused, but finding new happiness, rebuilding a life that can be about what they want rather than what the guardians inflicted on them.

The other guys switch places, Andreas moving to Omar and Griffin to the man Drey just finished with. Andreas adjusts his mask and then pulls it right off to take a deep gulp of the refreshed air.

“Okay,” he murmurs, and sets his hand against Omar’s temple.

Restless and hopped up on the energy whirling inside me, I walk over to the door, but the guardians built their facilities carefully. No further hint of sound travels through the frame or the walls around me.

Have Riva and Sorsha finished with their attack now? I have no idea how it’s playing out.

They might have taken out all the other shadowbloods already and now they’re waiting for us. Or they could be fighting for their lives.

The floor hitches beneath my feet, suggesting the latter is more likely. But there’s no way of knowing whether they’re facing a few remaining opponents or the whole mass of them.

A lump fills my throat. I turn back toward the room and scan the shadowbloods I’m responsible for.

Andreas’s copper-brown face glints with a thickening sheen of sweat. His mouth tightens as he works, digging deep creases into the corners.

“Hey,” I venture, taking another step toward him. “I can give you a power-up to help you through the process—like I did when Jake shook the whole mountain. I’ve got lots to spare, and?—”

Drey waves me off with his free hand. “It’s fine. You did your part. I should be able to do mine.”

I consider him with a frown. I should have thought to offer him the extra energy I gathered right after the fact. If I need more life to help the rogues recover once they wake up from the drug, we can handle that outside in the forest where I’ve got lots of plants to draw from.

But Andreas knows what’s going on inside himself better than I could. If he says he’s fine…

He pushes away from Omar and reaches for the nearest teen now that he’s handled both of the men. I think I see his balance wobble as he leans forward, but he steadies himself so quickly it’s hard to be sure.

Griffin glances up as he crouches next to Omar. “Drey, I really think?—”

Before he can finish his sentence, Andreas sucks in a sharp breath. He tilts forward—and his body flickers.

Not like when he’s pulling invisibility over himself. Like his physical presence doesn’t know whether it should be in this world or not, patches flashing between translucency and full transparency and back into sight.

I dash forward without needing to think about it. It doesn’t matter how stoic Andreas wants to be—he needs me.

I coil both of my tentacles around his torso, as quickly as I can while staying gentle. Then I let loose the flood of energy contained inside me.

A current of it careens from my nerves into Drey’s. He inhales another ragged breath, and his form gradually stabilizes.

I pour a little more and a little more into him, not wanting to overwhelm him, until my own body is tingling with the transfusion of energy and Andreas looks solid and even lively again.

“Fuck,” he mutters, and swipes at his forehead before looking at me. “I should have taken you up on the offer in the first place. I think… if I’m going to wipe all of them while we’re in here, I might need you to do that again after the next few. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I say automatically. Why is he apologizing?

His gaze slides to my shoulders, where my tentacles emerge from my skin, and understanding hits me with a jolt.

He knows how much I’ve resented my new appendages. He knows how they’ve expanded with every healing session.

Except… this time they didn’t. I haven’t felt them creeping farther from my flesh—not when I dragged the energy from the rogues and not when I offered it up to Andreas just now.

I straighten up and touch the base of one tentacle. It feels perfectly normal… but even that is strange.

It feels like a part of me. Like it’s supposed to be there, the way it is.

And I’m okay with that.

A weird sense of peace wells up inside me that I know has come from myself, not Griffin. They’re done growing now. The tentacles are what they’re meant to be. And they helped me do what I’m meant to be doing.

I don’t know yet if I’m going to see whether Sorsha can remove them, but for the first time, it doesn’t seem to matter all that much whether I keep them or try to give them up.

I don’t have much chance to revel in my newfound contentment. A fresh bolt of anguish bursts behind my collarbone as if shot through my chest from my bond with Riva.

I lurch forward, clapping my hand to my sternum. Andreas flinches.

My head whips toward the door. Something’s gone really wrong—she’s struggling.

She needs help.

Andreas meets my eyes, his wide with panic. “Go. Griffin and I can handle this right now.”

My jaw clenches. I sweep my tentacles forward once more to send the rest of the extra energy I gathered into him in one huge surge, until I’m sure his nerves are buzzing with it and he won’t falter again.

Then I hurtle toward the door to do whatever I can to see Riva through the next few minutes too.